NACHTHEXEN

Animated Short Film

Released January 2017

Nachthexen has screened at more than 20 festivals and won 3 awards;

  • The Super 8000 Rethink Award. (Denmark).

  • Monstra’s Youth Jury Award. (Portugal).

  • The One-Reeler Short Film Competition Special Merit Award. (Los Angeles).

Director: Julie Baltzer. Art Director & Development of Visual Style: Nadia Ørneborg. Graduation film created by a core team of 7 people.

In ”Nachthexen” the 2 main characters gradually discover the dissonance between the propaganda they grew up with and the gruesome reality of war.

In the film we follow a squadron of soviet night bombing pilots training and operating at the German front during WW2. Nicknamed “Nachthexen” (Night Witches) by German soldiers because of the sound made by the canvas wings on their old planes, the women would turn off their engines mid flight to glide unseen towards their targets.

The film is based off of real women pilots and their very real methods.

INTENTIONS & THOUGHTS BEHIND THE STYLE OF NACHTHEXEN

I always aim to make the visual expression support the story in the projects I work on.

For this project I chose to take inspiration from Precisionism and WW2 propaganda posters.

I did this to give the viewer a feeling of the time period we are in as well as the main theme of the film; the stark contrast between idealised propaganda and the reality of war.

Even though Precisionism is an American art movement, it has many similarities to the Constructivist architecture of the Soviet Union pre WW2 and I found it incredibly suitable to visually express the world the characters would have grown up in. At the same time, it would allow me to play with a sharp and square shape language to portray the rigid, military confinements they’re in.

Choosing Precisionism - a quite stylised art movement - for this film was also purposely done as an active comment and small defiance towards the Stalin regime and its strict censorship of artists in the country, deeming anything but Social Realism culturally acceptable.

Colours, character designs, shape language, compositions, camera language and animation style. All was developed with the story and its unfolding in mind. Together it gives a depth to the finished piece that might not be seen at first glance but is most definitely felt. 

To create contrast between the characters’ emotional states on the ground vs. in the air I worked with the concepts of heaviness and lightness.

The animation style was purposely created to make the characters movements feel heavy when on the ground. Compositions and camera language as well, using flat angels and high horizon lines during training and low or no horizon lines during moments of flying or high anticipation.

Lines in the backgrounds were used to “box in” and create “obstacles” in movement and express increasing or decreasing chaos.

EARLY CONCEPT PAINTINGS

A digital illustration of a woman in vintage military uniform saluting next to a green biplane on an airfield with an industrial cityscape in the background.
A vintage biplane flying through cloudy skies.
A digital painting of a city scene with fire and smoke and a dark silhouettes of a biplane in the middle of the frame, in reds, oranges and black.
A stylized digital painting of military personnel at an airfield. A female soldier appears to be in a confrontation with an officer, with other soldiers observing. The scene is painted with bold brushstrokes and a muted color palette.
Black and white illustration of a city streets exploding in smoke and debris, and silhouetted people running away towards the foreground.
Black and white illustration of a city streets exploding in smoke and debris, and silhouetted people running away towards the foreground.

COLOUR DESIGN

The colours are an important part of any storytelling. We used red to symbolise the propaganda & ideals of the characters.

Making the main character have red hair is a part of this symbolism. She is the model soldier, the one her co-pilot looks up to and a protector. The moment she dies in the film is the moment her co-pilots ideals die too. At the same time the mood shifts and the viewer is faced with a grueling realisation.

On the opposite side of propaganda & ideals we find the actual reality of what being in war looks like. This is why I chose to use green - red’s complimentary colour - to symbolise this.

A storyboard for an animated project titled 'Nachthexen', featuring scenes numbered 010 to 140, including scenes of witches, a kettle, leaving home, training, making tea, first flight, bombing, a scene of chilling out, tea spilling, combat, aftermath

BACKGROUNDS & FINISHED SHOTS

Silhouette of a small biplane airplane flying against a dark, cloudy sky with shadows cast over buildings and rooftops below.
A scene from "Nachthexen" showing an aerial top view of a red steam train, going left to right og train tracks.
A scene from "Nachthexen" showing an aerial top view of a red steam train, going left to right og train tracks.
Animated woman with red hair sitting in a wood paneled train cart . She´s holding 3 books wrapped with a leather strap. There´s Soviet propaganda posters on the wall.
Digital illustration of an army base in green, surrounded by other buildings, with a cloudy sky in the background.
A close up of an army base building entrance with a brown door, two windows, and a staircase, surrounded by sandbags and debris.
Animated scene with a woman helping another soldier kneeling on the ground, as a third woman soldier is running past during training. Barbed wire obstacle course and houses in the background.
Abstract landscape with stylized trees, rocks, and grass in muted earthy tones.
Abstract landscape with stylized trees, rocks in winter. Colours are white and blue and muted green. Distant trees in the background.
A black and white sketch of a landscape with trees.
Drawing of a landscape with trees, and hills in the background, sketched with simple lines.
Interior scene of a wooden porch outside a building with posters on the wall, steps leading to the door, and a yard with grass and small flowers visible in the background.
Animated scene with four characters in combat attire, two of whom are sitting and smoking while talking and smiling, and two others standing in the background near a wall with posters.
An animated scene of a German soldier smoking in the dark as he tends two light projectors. His face is lit up when he turns on a cigarette with a lighter.
A sketch of a German soldier smoking in the dark as he tends two light projectors. His face is lit up when he turns on a cigarette with a lighter.
Dark, stylized digital landscape with ominous clouds, barren trees, and barbed wire fencing.
Line drawing of a stylized digital landscape with ominous clouds, barren trees, and barbed wire fencing.
A close up black-and-white line drawing of a radio on a shelf decorated with multiple picture frames. There are multiple pictures hanging on the wall behind.

Work & Exhibitions

Illustration of a bombed and sunken WW2 warship at the port in the French city Brest, Brittany. Bomb craters, destruction, sea water and debris, with ships and birds in the scene.
Stylised painting of a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains and forests in autumn colours. The sun is setting and we are minutes from dusk. A fog is creeping in, about to engulf the unsuspecting campers and their tents.
A section of the abstract painting "Courage" from Nadia Ørneborgs first solo exhibition "Beginning Again". The painting has intersecting colourful lines and shapes in pink, purple, blue, green, peach, and orange hues.