NEWS
KIDS IN In-Between-World Erik Stoneheart is a children’s adventure film directed by Ilmar Raag. The film has today reached the post-production phase, despite the setbacks of the pandemic. By EFI Photos by Priit Grepp and Ann Vaida
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rik Stoneheart is a complex international coproduction project that is being com pleted in collaboration be tween Estonia, Luxembourg, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. The main producer of the film is Amrion Productions from Estonia, and the exec utive producer of the project is Riina Sil dos. The script has been written by Esto nian scriptwriters Livia Ulman and Andris Feldmanis. According to Sildos, the postpro duction process of the film is divided be tween four countries – mainly in Luxem bourg, but the sound design is created in Lithuania, and VFX production is made in Ukraine, Luxembourg, and Estonia. “The editing track is completed by now; and currently we are in the process of creating sound design and special ef fects. Due to the COVID19related re strictions, the whole process has been
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Ilmar Raag
ESTONIAN FILM
certainly more than complicated since all information has to be forwarded via internet, and it is difficult to make artis tic decisions via small computer screens. All this is considerably extending the postproduction process. Hopefully we can soon travel again in order to com plete the film,” commented Riina Sildos. Despite the fact that filming of Erik Stoneheart took place during the com plicated conditions of the COVID19 pandemic, the filmmakers and the crew succeeded without anyone falling ill. “We could complete our first filming pe riod in Luxembourg in November 2019, when nobody could forecast what would happen next. However, the next shoot ing period, initially planned to take place in April 2020, was constantly postponed. Besides, we had to frequently rearrange both schedules and filming locations – the last version of the shooting schedule was number 41 in a row,” she says. At first, the shooting was planned also in Ukraine and Lithuania, but finally this took place only in Estonia and Luxem bourg. “The whole period trained us to be creative and tolerant, even if at some point all this madness culminated in di rector Ilmar Raag’s concern for the pro