Interview with Stefan Fjeldmark

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Comedix
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Interview with Stefan Fjeldmark

Beitrag: # 10516Beitrag Comedix »

Interview with Stefan Fjeldmark, the director of "Asterix and the vikings" by E-Mail with Marco Muetz:

1. How did the work with the gaulish turn out? They are considered as disputatious and nonmusical, was there a need to get the magic potion, in order to get over the turning work?
I am not sure if I get the question right, but working with the Frensh went well. The culture is very different, but there was a equal urge to make the film the best possible. No need for magic potion, just good old persitency.
(Comedix: No, he didn't the question right ;-) )

2. To which charakter from the asterix-universe are you close particularly?
I have a particularly liking to imperfect character, and Justforkix from this story is no exeption.

3. Who had the idea to the movie?
Natalie Altmann the French producer at M6 initiated all this, she made the first contacts to the rights holders, and got us onboard. Regarding the choice of story, I was quick to root for Asterix and the Vikings.

4. Wherein does the task of a director and a film script author lie with a animated movie?
No film is better than its script, and this goes for animation too. The hardest job in the world is to make a good script. Personally I always want to participate in this process as it is here I can impose my view on the story. But its not enough to have a good script, the intentions needs to be carried through all the meticulous and tedious processes before the film is finished. Without good guidance, there will be no unity to a film, so even a good script can be messed up by a bad director.

5. Where are the vantages and disadvantages by comparison of a animated movie to a real movie?
What is better apples or oranges? Its hard to say. With today’s advanced computer technology, any story can be done in either medium. To me its all a matter of taste.

6. The technical progress made large steps since 1994 (thus since "Asterix in America"). Was the chief work for the movie thus still with the draughtsmen or already with the computer specialists?  There are scenes, which developed exclusively at the computer - for example the sail of the ship of the vikings looks like bits and bytes.
Hand drawn or computer, its all just tools. In this film most of it is hand drawn and only dead objects like ships and carts were done in the computer. Any time new techniques makes it easy to tell a good story, I am all for it.

7. What would you say was the hardest part of the movie to make?
Each professional will focus on his or her part. For me the greatest challenge is to make a good story. Since Asterix and Obelix have superpowers it can be hard to make the audience understand there hardships. In this film we managed to make them vulnerable through there love of the kid Justforkix.

8. The original "Asterix and the Normans" developed 1967, how important were the adjustments for the modern audience?
The Asterix albums have always commented on the present time. It was fun to bring this story up to date and to introduce ideas like Justforkix dove SMS.

9. Why were new characters inserted as Abba for example? Are you the opinion that in a modern Asterix movie compellingly female identification figures occur to become a movie successful?
We are in the business of entertaining, and we sure wont miss out half of the audience. I think its great to have a modern woman in an Asterix story. Albert, Jesper and I all have strong-minded daughters, so why not put something in the movie for them?

10. Abba looks already very cute, the first fan clubs is surely based soon. For what was she then equipped with a tooth spacing?
I am not attracted to perfect people (and I never met one) so why put them in a movie.

11. The character of Ozeanix is not represented in the book. Was the insertion important for the movie or did you want to create something new?
All the different characters, have different names, in the different countries. I don’t know who Oceanix is. If it’s the same as Doublehelix, then he was introduced to maximise the pressure on the village and Asterix and Obelix to rescue the boy.

12. I am surprised by emerging a figure in a dance scene in the gaulish village, which reminds me to "Asterix and Caesar's gift". Is that coincidence that Zechine (the german name of the girl) was an the set?
I am not sure. Maybe Jesper knows.

13. Except "Asterix and the Normans", were there some other Asterix Albums, you consider to make in to a movie?
The Olympics could have been good, but this is being made as a liveaction film now. A Gladiator story is quite tempting to.

14. A long journey of the gaulish can be accommodated heavily on 48 Comic sides.  On the other hand a history from a book must be stretched, so that the length of a movie can become from it. Wouldn't be better to create a movie without a book? Which journey could be contemplable for a movie?
It would be possible to make a brand new stoy not based on a book, but I dont have a story up my sleeve. For me a key is that it contains an emotional plot as well as an action story.

15. How did the co-operation with Albert Uderzo and Anne Goscinny works?  Which role played Udezo during the conversion?
Being one of the creators of the universe, Albert obviously had a lot of good input. He also had to aprove all key elemts of the film, but this proved not to be a mayor issue. We love his creations, and he likes our work, so thats all swell and dandy.

16. What is the meaning of Uderzo's words, that the characters act like real humans this time?
Thus this is a 2D film, we have not spared any expense to make “our” characters as 3 dimensional in an emotional sense. When you cut to the core, good films are about feelings and relations between people. I hope we succeeded with this.

17. In a scene a viking has a tatoo with the letters "FBBF" on his neck, thereby a drawer of the film perpetuated himself?
It is rune letters and mean; ABBA. He is obviously in love with the girl (like most of the other men I presume)

18. The high-quality background music and songs of several scenes impressed me by its depth and spirit.  Which value does the music have generally and especially in the movie for you?
Music is there to evoke emotions, but it can only strengthen what is already there. If you put sad music on a scene witch is not truly sad, because of pure story or pure character description, it will only appear pathetic. Alex did a great job with the music, and he respected the fact that we took pertain liberties in the cutting room.

19. How largely is the outside obligation by the Asterix series to use certain elements, for example the fish battle in the gaulish village or the pirates?
There are no obligations, but as we love the albums, we want to use the best parts for our film.

20. Which allusions in combination with Scandinavia (e.g. Vikea) wouldn't have you still gladly accommodated and why were possible that?
The idea of referring to Scandinavian brands was already in the first treatment. We vent with our first intuition and did not stray from that. One small change was that Vikea was called Ikea in the beginning.

21. Did you copy some ideas from the qualitatively high-standing animated films of the last years (e.g. Disney, in addition others for example Ice Age) for your movie? Did you act on a suggestion from this great movies?
If we have copied anything from any other movie it is unintentionally. There are though classical references like using “Eye of the Tiger” in the sequence were Justforkix is trained to be a man.

23. Are you involved in the selection of the speakers of the german synchronization?  Who makes sure that the voices fit also the figures finally?
We are not involved in this process, but I am sure that there is a communication bettwen M6 and the German distribution. Natalie has a good ear for these things.

24. Don't you have a concern that the caricatures of the vikings could lead to demonstrations in Scandinavian countries? ;-)
In my book nothing is to holy to caricature (I refer to vikings here). I don’t hope that these caricatures will course any flag burnings around the world.
Deutsches Asterix Archiv: https://www.comedix.de
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Sukisuix

Beitrag: # 10518Beitrag Sukisuix »

That was a very good interview, very enjoyable to read. Just to want to say a big thank you to both Stefan Fjeldmark and Marco Muetz, for taking the time to do this interview :-D Now the long wait to see the film :???:
Bernard

Beitrag: # 10529Beitrag Bernard »

I wonder if history would have changed had the Viking longships been built by Ikea? ;-)
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Comedix
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Re: Interview with Stefan Fjeldmark

Beitrag: # 10553Beitrag Comedix »

12. I am surprised by emerging a figure in a dance scene in the gaulish village, which reminds me to "Asterix and Caesar's gift". Is that coincidence that Zechine (the german name of the girl) was an the set?
I am not sure. Maybe Jesper knows.

And here is the answer of Jesper Moller:

It was a choice of different circumstanses. We needed a dancepartner for a closeup scene with Justforkix and was considering different options. Zechine is actually not a permanent resident of the gaulvillage, but she was the right type for the occasion and we thought it would be a nice gesture and in the spirit of the albums to have a little subtle "guest-appearence" by her. Let's just say that she dropped by by coincidence to visit old friends and as a surprise and bonus got to dance with a big city dude.
Deutsches Asterix Archiv: https://www.comedix.de
TwiX: @Asterix-Archiv, Mastodon: @Asterix_Archiv, Bluesky: @comedix.de
SingingGandalf

Beitrag: # 10555Beitrag SingingGandalf »

Bernard hat geschrieben:I wonder if history would have changed had the Viking longships been built by Ikea? ;-)
LOL! The founder of Ikea was a fascist, he probably liked the idea of war boats!
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