The idea started as a play on the idea of the fairytale. Stories of heroism, defeat, victory and struggles, once upon a times and happily ever afters. For ages I've wanted to do something with Vladimir Propp's ideas about the basic components that make up any fairytale. A series of moving illustrations of the different functions or scenes using a cast of common props, characters and motifs to create something that has the feeling of a story, even without a decided narrative.
The visuals developed to become much simpler, images of athletes in Russian settings. Modern figures in mythical style poses, the athlete as hero, warrior etc.
The visual styling was a reference to Soviet children's books from the 1920's and 30's, and some of the classic communist posters. The text and wipes were taken from El Lissitsky's children's book About 2 Squares, although I didn't actually read the story until the end of the project.
The whole package included stings, wipes, captions, stings. And a Russian Bear.
