Nogard

A lonely wanderer finally finds his long-awaited destination in the snow-covered mountains of a distant land and undergoes a final transformation.

This short film is an experiment for atmospheric storytelling and visual effects without a budget.

  • Lukas Bieri
    Director
  • Lukas Bieri
    Writer
  • Alex Luzi
    Writer
  • Alex Luzi
    Key Cast
    "The Wanderer"
  • Jan Glauser
    Score and Sound Design
  • Lukas Bieri
    Visual Effects & Editing
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Other
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 37 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 24, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    0 CHF
  • Country of Origin:
    Switzerland
  • Country of Filming:
    Switzerland
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.66:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Lukas Bieri

In the summer of 2016 I completed my training as a multimedia designer. Through this education and my personal projects I gained some technical and creative knowledge about film making. In the process I became more and more involved with animation and visual effects. From this interest grew the desire to create a short film without a budget as a showcase and test of my skills in cinematography and VFX.

This first short film project "Nogard" motivated me and my friends to participate in several 72-hour short film competitions over the next years. With the short film "Himmugrau" our team reached the "Jury Top 10" award at ZFF72 of the Zurich Film Festival.

In summer 2018 I started studying animation film at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The idea for the short film "Nogard" was born in 2016 with the aim to create a film that would show my (up until then) self-taught skills in the field of visual effects and animation.

Making the film did not cost us any money. The film was shot entirely on low-level equipment that I already owned. For filming I used a Canon 70D with the MagicLantern hack which allowed me to shoot RAW Video. Lighting was done using a single LED Panel with DIY color filters and a cheap 3-in-1 reflector kit. Aerial footage was filmed with my DJI Phantom 3 and camera movement was either filmed handheld and stabilized in post or entirely created trough compositing because of the lack of a camera slider.

Almost every scene in the film was edited with visual effects. I also tried to make the whole film as cinematic and atmospheric as possible with specific lighting, camera work, composition and color grading.

The film was shot in winter 2016 at Lake Oeschinen in Switzerland. The material had to be brought on site on a sledge through the deep snow.

The post-processing of the material with visual effects and animations took place over a period of two years.