Interview: The Blackheart Gang - MR. JANNES

In the second of the Blackheart Gang interviews, we have Jannes Hendrikz whose responsibility is in essence to make Ree Treweek's drawings dance to Markus Wormstorm's music. He is the compositor, 2d-animator, cinematographer, and creative director of the team. Jannes recently left Blackginger (who created the 3d elements and provided the hardware required for The Tale of How) to freelance.

As well as providing generous answers to my queries, he has also kindly provided some exclusive stills and moving images from early in the production of The Tale of How.

The Tale of How is free to download HERE and more information is available in previous posts HERE, HERE and HERE. See the first installment of the Blackheart Gang interviews with Ree Treweek HERE.

From the perspective of artistic direction, is the look from the Tale of How something you want preserved or do you see the project evolving over time?
I am very much into spontaneous, interactive expression of our art forms. I see The Household project as a growing interactive medium. It goes wherever it needs to go and I follow. It’s about being attentive to its needs and letting it grow.

How important was Ringo as a foundation for the work you did in The Tale of How? What did you learn while working on it? And is Ringo set in The Household?

Yes, Ringo also forms part of The Household. Before we started Ringo none of us knew eachother that well; most of us had just met at the time. We wanted to do something, make something. I don't know. A type of creative chemistry just developed among us. At the time, none of us had any real experience; we just threw ourselves into it. Ringo started as a weekend project but we ended up working on it for another nine months. We didn't plan. Things just developed. I think that this is the basis of our working dynamic--the magic. We learned as we went along with it.

"We did have a few creative hiccups and we had to move on--we had to compromise, we had to collaborate."

Being a labour of love, you kind of need to offer everyone working on the project the freedom to express themselves so it gets really difficult to do what you want without overlapping with someone else's ideas. We did have a few creative hiccups and we had to move on--we had to compromise, we had to collaborate. This was the biggest lesson Ringo taught us and this secret lies at the base of our collective. Learning to collaborate opens up creative doors and solutions, and helps you to develop into a more mature artist. It helps you define yourself and your role. And this was the next lesson.

Ringo(2004)

We knew that if we were to work on the next project we would have to define our roles. So before working on Tale of How we had loads of discussions about who wants to do what and what we'd like to achieve and how we can support each other in doing so. I had to be very sensitive to the needs of the people I asked to join. I really wanted to create an environment for everyone to grow. Ringo was an essential part of my growth.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW BY CLICKING HERE