SUNO United Creators and Lobo joined forces to once again bring the magic of stop motion animation to the Eisenbahn Brewery universe.
Faithful to the artisanal spirit of the brand, the film titled “Beauty of the Process” was directed by Gabriel Nóbrega and produced entirely by hand, combining live action, practical effects and frame-by-frame animation. It follows the journey of a miniature steam engine, the symbol of the brand, through a whimsical version of the brewery, carrying the hops, wheat and barley that will become a tasty Eisenbahn Pilsner in the end.
The train alternates sequences where its movement was captured in real time and others in which it was animated in stop motion – some of which took up to 12 hours to be recorded. The locomotive headlights needed to stay on for hours on end without varying brightness, which required extensive testing with several models of LEDs and batteries and the maximum use of the internal space of the model, which measures 15 cm in length by 7.5 cm in height.
During the journey the railway becomes a genuine roller coaster, with breathtaking climbs and falls, even passing through a tunnel amid a swirl of beer. This whole scenario was meticulously built in our studio, as a massive 1:55 scale model. Each detail was carefully assembled and placed by hand, including the wheat branches: 18,000 units were used in 4 different sizes. Each branch was manually fixed to the stage, covering approximately 5.8 square meters.
In the construction of the roller coaster, 150 meters of metal bars and 200 meters of wooden rods were used. The rails were made of laser-cut MDF, with about 800 dark wood ties, 250 of which contained built-in neodymium magnets for controlling the movement of the train on the downward sections.
In order to shoot the scene where the train goes through a water pipe, a huge apparatus was built, approximately 5 meters long, which required 4 people operating. The camera went up a track 45 degrees from the ground while rotating on an axis, as water pumps pushed hundreds of liters into the device.
Due to the pandemic, a series of measures were taken to reduce the chances of contagion among the production team. The pre-production period was extended so that each team could complete its assignment before the next team started coming into the studio. These groups were composed of people from the same family, in order to avoid their contact with third parties. And at the end of every day the studio and objects were thoroughly cleaned for the next morning.
