Hales Cakes

Content

To make the atmosphere appear as authentically English as possible, a lighting specialist from the United Kingdom was flown in for the production of this film. This resulted in an image with much softer lighting than is usual in Geesink films. The reason there is an old woman behind the counter is that there is a portrait of an old woman (grandmother) on the packaging. This was intended to evoke the feel of a traditional bakery. The bakery’s logo is incorporated into the design of the little shop.

Trivia (1)

To make the atmosphere feel as authentically English as possible, a cinematographer from the United Kingdom was flown in for the production of this film. The result was an image with much softer lighting than is usual in Geesink films.

Trivia (2)

The Dollywood studio had ceased to exist years ago. The number of staff had been reduced to a handful of creative types. Veteran Henk Kabos had stayed on. At his request, retired puppet maker Harry Tolsma returned to take charge of the facial expressions for the two characters. The client had high standards and Harry Tolsma was a perfectionist in his field. The team – Henk Kabos as art director, Harry Tolsma for the talking puppets and Cor Icke as animator – was a tried-and-tested winning combination that had worked together for years. In this case, the production team had become so small that Cor Icke was responsible not only for the animation but also for the camera movements.

Set photo from *Hales Cakes* (1979) – photo by Arie den Draak