The Legend of Kawa the Blacksmith will be the first full-length animated film from Splash Animations, produced in conjunction with the Goodwin Development Trust. It will be completed in late 2008.

The aim of this exciting and ambitious project is to produce a fully animated computer generated adaptation of this traditional Kurdish folk tale, with versions in both Kurdish and English. Splash Animations and the Goodwin Development Trust are keen to involve the local community and nurture local talent as much as possible, so all of the actors and musicians have been drawn from the local community, whether they be professionals in their field or keen and talented amateurs.

When the film is completed, it will be released on DVD across the United Kingdom - and hopefully beyond.

There is considerable interest and excitement in the project in both Kurdistan and Europe, and Stuart and Havi, the people behind Splash Animations, continue to receive a great deal of help and encouragement from the people there, just as they do from the people of Hull.

The film-making process is composed of many parts that come together to create the completed film.
To read an article about a particular aspect of the production, please click one of the icons below.

 SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT

IDEAS

Before we decided to make a film about Kawa the Blacksmith, we considered many other traditional Kurdish stories. However, it soon became clear that the story of Kawa would be a fantastic project to work on, both because of the strength of the story and because of the significance of the story in Kurdish culture.

The story of Kawa the Blacksmith is quite a simple tale, and we knew we would have to expand on the basic story to make it a satisfying film that lasted for fifty minutes or more.

Pages of the original script

RESEARCH

We began by gathering together as many versions of the story as we could from as many different sources. There were many variations in these stories, from the number of children that Kawa had, to the way in which he defeated Zohak. You can read about many of these variations on our The Real Legend of Kawa page. We compiled our basic story into an outline, which was then sent to Bilind Mehemed Omer, editor of Nubun Magazine, in Kurdistan who checked it for accuracy. Some changes were made as a result of this additional input to bring it more in line with the traditional Kurdish version of the story.

THE FIRST DRAFT

Having decided on the basic story and refined it, we then wrote a first draft of the script. This was not dissimilar to the completed version and contained much of the same dialogue, but was much shorter and did not develop the characters as much as the later version. The roles of several characters were much reduced and many of the humorous moments were missing.

We left this script for a few weeks so we could approach it with a fresh eye. It also allowed new ideas to emerge.

THE SECOND DRAFT

After a few weeks, we went to a coffee shop and spent an afternoon adding new material, expanding and rewording some scenes, developing and renaming some of the minor characters, such as Kawa’s children, and dropping some sequences which we did not feel worked as well as we had hoped. Several sections of dialogue were moved and some humour introduced into the script to contrast with the darker and more dramatic elements. This version was almost the completed version that we used to make the film. However, there were still some alterations to be made.

THE FINAL DRAFT

As we started the animation process we realised that some small sequences needed to be changed, either because the script did not translate well visually to the screen, or because new ideas came to us that we decided were better than the previous ones. These minor rewrites made up the final draft of the script, and did on one occasion mean getting back two of the actors (one Kurdish, one British) to record some more lines of dialogue. However, we felt this was worthwhile as it made the finished production much better.

With the script finalised, we were then able to continue the filmmaking process.

With the script completed, the next stage of the production is the creation of a full soundtrack. The soundtrack is everything you hear in the film, from music (which is covered in its own section below) to actors speaking their lines, to background sounds such as wind or rain, to spot effects, such as soldiers running, horses’ hooves on the town street, doors closing and snakes hissing. All of these have to be specially created so that they are just right for the production.

We start by recording the actors acting their parts. For The Legend of Kawa the Blacksmith, this was complicated by having both an English and a Kurdish cast, so every part had to be recorded twice. All of the actors were recorded in isolation, so their job was made much more difficult by not having any other actors in the room to act with. For the Kurdish cast, their job was made even more difficult because, although they all understood the type of Kurdish being used in the project, it was often difficult for them to speak it. Almost every part required lots of takes to get exactly what we needed for each scene.

Every single line of dialogue recorded then had to be cleaned up, to remove background noise and give us the best possible recording, before being acoustically treated so that, for example, all the dialogue spoken in Zohak’s castle sounded like they were in the same large, stone chamber and had the same echo on them.

At this point we were able to start piecing the scenes together from the invidual lines of dialogue. Suddenly, actors who had never met sounded like they were in the same place acting with each other. In a couple of cases, this meant rerecording some of the lines, just to get the interaction perfect, but for the most part this went very smoothly, and we were delighted with the way the scenes suddenly came to life.

The scenes, however, still sounded empty and lacking in realism. At this stage we added background sounds. For example, if it was a scene in the village, then we would add the sound of the wind, the sound of a crowd and perhaps some animal sounds to make us feel like we really were in a village. If it was a scene in Zohak’s castle, then we might add the distant sound of wind outside the windows, and the sound of burning torches, and probably the constant hiss of Zohak’s snakes.

The sound is built up in layers in our audio software

At this stage the music was added to the soundtrack. This made a huge difference and added a whole new dimension to the soundtrack, heightening the performances and increasing the sense of drama. However, there was still one layer of sound to be added, but this could not be fully completed until we had animated the scenes. At this stage, then, we created a rough copy of the soundtrack with the dialogue, music and background sound all in place so that we could begin animating, carefully timing the animations against the script and what we could hear.

When a scene was completed, we could then go through it and see if any spot sounds were needed. For example, if Zohak puts his drinking cup down, we need to hear the metal cup coming into contact with the heavy wooden table, or if Kawa has a fight with one of Zohak’s guards, then we need the sound of punches being thrown and bodies hitting the ground. These effects are always fun to create, and many household items were used in unusual ways to create exactly the sounds that we needed. Sometimes these were speeded up or slowed down to make them sound lighter or heavier, sometimes the pitch of the sound was changed to make it higher or lower, and always they were treated acoustically to make them fit perfectly into the soundtrack.

With all of the sound effects in place we were then able to properly mix the soundtrack in stereo so that music, dialogue and sound effects worked together exactly as intended to tell the story.

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Rashed works on the music

RASHED

Rashed says, “To write music for a film like this, I found it really difficult to achieve exactly what was required by the directors of the film. Our music was refused a couple of times by them, so I wanted to challenge myself to do this job better and to satisfy them. At last we managed to do this.

I finally let them listen to the music and they were very happy with it. I think we managed to get what they wanted.

I would like to thank some people who were involved with working with me, especially on my Nawroz song, such as the band, and the person who wrote the lyrics for the song. I would like to list their names below.

Newzad Lezgin - Lyricist, backing singer

Dilzar Shenge - Backing singer

Sozan Shenge - Backing singer

Deshti - Backing singer

Special thanks to Serwat Kuyi for helping and getting involved with the music.

My thanks to all of them.”

DILZAR SHENGE

Dilzar Shenge is Kurdish and comes from Hawler. He always loved music, and started to practice at the age of twelve. He has just released a new album called I Do Love You.

Dilzar and Dilzar’s new album I Do Love You

Dilzar says: “The first time that I saw the flyer for this project, I wanted to get involved because it is something to do with my own culture, so I rang Splash Animations and offered my assistance. This is going to be our first work for an animated project. We had never done anything like it before but we enjoyed the challenge. I think it is very important to make a Kurdish project like this, especially when it involves two people from two completely different backgrounds, like Kurdish and English, working together.

I offer my apologies if there is anything wrong with the music, but this is our first project like this.

I am keen to work with Havi and Stuart again because they are great guys who are doing their very best to create something unique and wonderful.”

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With an animation created, it then has to be rendered. This is a time-consuming process where the computer calculates the textures, shadows, reflections and movements that will make up each frame of the film. There are 25 frames for every second of film, and it can take several minutes for each frame to render. Some longer sequences can take days or even weeks to complete.

Click below to watch a short film showing how a shot develops into the finished animation.

When all the animations that go to make up a scene have been rendered, they are then assembled, together with the soundtrack, using video editing software. Here special effects such as lightning, magic glows and smoke can be added, together with text for the title sequence.

When every animation required for the film has been assembled in the video editing software, the film can then be burned off to DVD and checked for errors or parts that need improving. This fine-tuning helps to add polish to the finished production.

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