KAPITEIN WINOKIO
I can look back on a long and warm collaboration with Kapitein Winokio, which started almost 10 years ago and led to dozens of videos and animations and two DVD's ('Levende Liedjes' and 'Dag Kapitein Winokio') which are enjoyed by thousands of children. Next to the DVD's, here are some personal highlights.
The album BlijBangBoosBedoefd (HappyScaredAngrySad) is about emotions. When I was asked to select a song to create an animation for, I totally fell for this short and simple track on the album. The simplicity of it, the small noises that added to much to the atmosphere, I couldn't stop laughing.
After creating just one song about vegetables, Kapitein Winokio released a full album on the subject called 'De Groentjes van Kapitein Winokio' ('The vegetables of Captain Winokio'). I was asked to pick a song and create a funny video around it. The play on words around beans immediatly lit my creative spark.
Building a drum set out of trash cans, what's not to love? This song -taken from the book 'De lente van Kapitein Winokio'- had a great beach boys vibe to it. So during the brainstorm, we immediately focussed on old tv performances by sixties and seventies bands. And since the song is about spring cleaning, and everybody first guitar is always a broom, the concept was set in minutes.
Education and entertainment should always be combined when it comes to children's projects. This song is about vegetables. A great fast-paced song that deserved and equally fun to watch music video. We designed fun compositions with the vegetables of the song text and added them seperately below. This way we also created a visual karaoke.
Special thanks to Mathias Verleyen, who worked together with me on this project.
Next to Levende Liedjes I also directed 'Dag Kapitein Winokio - Doe mee TV'. This ten episode educational dvd was created in close collaboration with the city of Antwerp and was given to all kindergartens in the district.
Each episode is built around an educational theme and teaches preschoolers not only day-to-day actions, but also sounds, shapes and the characteristics of various musical instruments. Next to the dvd, there is a map filled with games that were comprised of the episodes.
The visuals were drawn by Alexander Beun, and special thanks goes out to director Jan Dierckx (Peking Express) who coached this project.
You can order the dvd here.
I love working on children's projects. So feel free tosend me an emailè
One of the best things about creating videos for young children, is the fact that you can revisit classic themes in new and exciting ways.
The theme of this song immediatly reminded me of the classic story about the Turtle and the Hare. But instead of a race, I wanted to think of a storyline where both characters would work towards a result. This way the original moral of the story (the hare gets overconfident and takes a nap) shifted towards 'impancience never leads to anything'.
The album 'ABC zing maar me' ('ABC, sing along') is an album entirely devoted to the alphabet. Every letter has its own song. To promote the album, I was asked to create something around the letter A. The concept of the song is that the A is in everything. So I came up with an entire world where everything from continents to its inhabitants are A-shaped.
One of the rules we layed out when creating most Kapitein Winokio videos, is not to over-cut it. Young children are exposed to the same fast-going stream of impulses as adults every day. Although they are, especially at an early age, much less equipped to process the or to even be selective. So when I crete something for a younger audience, the last thing I want to do is adding to this overload.This video, as well as the entire Levende Liedjes DVD, holds up to this principle. Letting shots play out, keeping it simple, and simply beautiful.
This music video laid the foundation of what would become a full DVD of 28 childrens' music videos called 'Kapitein Winokio's Levende Liedjes' ('Kapitein Winokio's Living Songs).
In my work I always love combining realistic and fake elements. Mixing and matching them and finding that small line that suspends disbelief. For this video drawings, matte paintings and live footage were combined, creating a whole new world which would later on expand to the seas, in the air, on tropical islands and even under water.
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