In the filming of Yle’s new Christmas calendar, the pillow often acted as a supporting actor for practical reasons

Lancashire Cattle Dog Maggie, 10, is not the first time in front of the camera. Ylen new Christmas calendar: Winter yard Christmas is, however, Maggie’s biggest role to date.

According to her owner in Espoo, it’s not just a role – Maggie is really like the energetic Pepita dog in the Christmas calendar. The owner saw the compatibility already when reading the script.

Although Maggie, who also made a career as an advertising model, seems like a natural performer, she can’t speak. Voice actress Jenny Pitkänen gives her voice to a dog in the Christmas calendar.

The main parts of the new Christmas calendar feature real animals. In addition to Pepita the dog played by Maggie, the Christmas adventure also includes another dog, a donkey, a pig, a duck and two kiligs.

There are human stars Topi Heather, Isadora Brown and Heikki Silvennoinen.

As a voice actor, it was a fun change from Pitkäse that it was originally a “mute character”.

– I usually have to ape other voices. For this, we hoped for a cheerful little and rambunctious dog, Pitkänen describes.

– In animations, everything is so big gestures, here, on the other hand, we had to be a little more moderate. Here you have to try to liven up and match the speech to the sign language of the animals, that’s its own challenge. The plus is that there is no lip sync, Pitkänen laughs.

Demanding auditions

Topi Kanerva plays the main role in the Christmas calendar: she is 18-year-old Onni.

Onni and the animals try to save a traditional, but on the verge of bankruptcy, a home zoo from bankruptcy just before Christmas.

The auditions for Kanerva were multi-stage, and one stage in particular has remained strongly in her mind.

– The last test shoots were in Koiramäki (the shooting location of the Christmas calendar). I was put in the middle of 20 goats and told “Please, improvise something dumb”.

– 20 goats jumped at me and I had to introduce them. I wanted this role so much. I wouldn’t have even dared to dream of something like this before, says Kanerva.

He tells that The elf Toljanteri -Christmas calendars have been an important part of his childhood. Kanerva still has a DVD box with all the productions from Tonttu Toljanter. Kanerva looks up to the late Toljanter actor Kunto Ojansivu and describes his legacy to children’s culture as great.

Compromises

Kanerva says that there were many animal caretakers and trainers present during the filming.

– Sometimes compromises also had to be made. For example, in one scene, the pig should have been sleeping, but it didn’t want to go to bed. I was changing clothes for the next scene, when I received an instruction on the radio phone that “Now it’s such a thing that we can’t get the pig to lie down. The scriptwriter has put new text in the next scene. Learn it, change your clothes and immediately come to the set”, says Kanerva with amusement.

According to Kanerva, the duck in the Christmas calendar is so shy in real life that the set was emptied every time it was time for the duck to enter the pictures.

– In some scenes I am alone with the duck, but during the winter filming I didn’t even really meet the duck. The pillow was my co-star. It was challenging. The duck was only in his own pictures, says Kanerva.

Horny and angry pig

Isadora Brown, who plays Ilona in the Christmas calendar, is happy that the animal whisperer was involved in the production Tuire Kaimio.

– He was an invaluable help. He understands the sign language of animals and can act as an interpreter between the actor and the animal, says Brown.

Brown won’t forget working with furry colleagues in an instant either.

– The piglet was in heat in the fall. It was really angry all the time. Every time a pig came into the set, everyone had to go as far to the edge as possible. I had one scene where I was feeding a pig. At the same time, I was afraid that the pig would hawk me and at the same time I had to pretend that the pig liked me like a pig, Brown laughs.

Ideas that were abandoned

Supervisor Johanna Smith says that controlling the animals was challenging and fun. The best thing about him was when the animals did something unexpected – which further supported the story.

Smith says that some overly ambitious stunts already had to be cut during the scripting stage.

– There was, for example, that the pig’s eyes pop open and the jaw drops – and that some animal is on its back with its legs in the air. They were kind of animation type things. They were left out, says Smith.

Producer and screenwriter Juuso Räsänen says that he had the idea of ​​bringing the Juuso bear from Kuusamo to play Santa Claus.

– It was cut from the script quite early on, he points out.

– This whole production is completely endless. That’s why nothing like this has been seen, because no one else is crazy enough to do something like this like me and maybe Johanna, Räsänen says.

This is Räsänen’s Fifth Christmas Calendar. He says that he has spent the last 10 years in Korvatunturi in his head – so much so that the elves have been hooting there even during midsummer. It made Räsänen think about what a Christmas calendar would be like without elves. A Charles Dickens-like story about a zoo that gets into trouble, but with a good Christmas message, was born.

– The end result looks like what we wanted Christmas to look and feel like, says Räsänen.

Christmas calendar: Talvipiha Christmas starts in Yle Areena and on Yle TV2 channel on December 1. See Telku for more detailed information.