Channel Frederator Blog

Belgian production company Volstok Telefunken (Wouter Sel and Thijs De Cloedt) is home to “De Monsters”, dozens and dozens of shorts featuring animated monsters interacting with real people. Here, Wouter and Thijs tell us how they go to be so stinkin’ rich and famous.

Can you tell us a little bit about Volstok Telefunken?

Thijs and Wouter teamed up a few years after they graduated in animation from KASK, Gent in Belgium. Wherever that is. A failed career of pouring beers and changing tires forced them to pursue professional silliness in character animation and motion graphics.

What gave you the idea for De Monsters?

We were looking to create something of our own, because it was the time of the great job scarce. Animators were dying of dehydration and we weren’t ready for full-on prostitution, so we came up with this illustration of a monster having a beer in a very common setting. This started a flood of ideas and we introduced our ideas to Woestijnvis, that’s a famous Belgian tv-producer. We walked out covered in jewelry and fur coats, smoking the biggest cigars this side of the equator.

What is your process for creating these shorts? Do you take live footage and let that inspire you or do you create the concept for the monster scenario and have actors play it out?

We did have some raw storylines or situations when we went shooting, but you can never predict what is going to happen on location. So we mostly improvised on the spot, directing our actor to get genuine reactions from genuine people and we only selected the best live footage. And that’s where we created a new story on top of the existing one. “What if we put Ronny here? Or DIY guy?” “No, No! A huge banana-eating bananamonster!” and so on.

Which episode is your favorite?

Thijs his favorite episode is “The Tourists”. The idea is so simple and clear and it charms the pants of of every pants wearing creature.

Same goes for Wouter’s favorite: Wieners and Pineapples. Ronny is such an endearing monster and the lady that helps him with his difficult choices in life is so cool. But don’t be lazy! Go to www.demonsters.be and pick your own favorite. There’s a 115 of them, so chop-chop!

Are you working on anything new you can tell us about?

We are currently animating a comic created by a good friend of ours, Jonas Geirnaert. It’s 30 episodes around 1 min 30 sec about a nihilistic anarchist Leprichaun with a bad temper and who is prejudiced against goats and hedgehogs. I am not BS-ing you. That’s really what we do for a living and we love it. You can find the first episodes on YouTube when you search for “Kabouter Wesley” but they’re in Dutch, so good luck.

If you could be any monster, what you would you be and what would you do?

Braaaghkdejom hgybraghk bhrààl!

Well said. Thanks for the interview, guys!

You can check out “De Monsters” right here on Channel Frederator!

-Bailee DesRocher