There are millions of machines in the world envisioned by
Julio del Rio Hernandez - machines born to work. Machines
born, in fact, to die working. When one of these machines
refuses to die, a story is born.
Hernandez' robots are an interesting design, part turtles,
part insect, part junkyard disassembler. They are banged up
and rusted, smooth and round, and at the same threatening,
mindless in their destructive task. These Executioners and
Guardians of the Status Quo make an interesting statement
against the tiny, vulnerable Individual.
CLICK TO GO TO JULIO DEL RIO HERNANDEZ' WEBSITE
"The
'Brothers' idea was born in 1998. The project underwent
multiple revisions as production evolved, but for me it
was essential to maintain the idea and original structure
of the story: The rebellion of a slave against his condition.
The project was made and produced independently. Besides
working on this film, I periodically worked as a character
animator in production studios and I devoted my free time
to the 'Brothers' project.
The original idea was to show an imaginary world in which
millions of robot-slaves work day and night in a vast space
covered with huge domes inspired by those of gothic cathedrals.
From a formal point of view the project was very ambitious,
and required a well-thoughtout production plan in order
to de able to give shape to this infinite world in a finite
production time. I designed the environment as small pieces
that could be duplicated and pasted after being rotated
and mirrored, like in a huge puzzle.
For the robot-workers I started with a basic model that
I varied using different texture maps. Those robots were
supposed to be anonymous workers, part of a mindless production
chain, so I designed them as very functional machines, being
made only to work, without anything that they didn't need,
such as a face.
Since the lead character of 'Brothers' rebels against exploitation,
the challenge was to make an expressive character out of
a machine that has no face, no hands, nor the ability to
talk. The final product was a character that was only capable
of expressing itself with his body.
Sound is basic in a film without dialogue. Musician Chris
Badge composed and performed the amazing music score for
the film. Sound design was also carefully planned to project
the proper ambience and mood.
'Brothers' was finished on the 26th of July 2004 and it
was screened in several animation festivals across Europe."
