Princess Dina Bo Bina

Ella: I love Dina because of her furious sensitivity. I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to smooth out the parts of me that feel unsteady, the emotions I fear I’m expressing with embarrassing excitement or too many tears. I have missed out on too many potentially wonderful, precious moments with people I love because of a tangle of worry and insecurity that clouds my vision and keeps me small. With this story, I wanted to explore what it’s like to fall headfirst into that anxiety. To follow a line of thinking until it can’t be followed anymore. Then, the strange, quiet peace in observing what’s left when you’ve picked yourself completely apart. 

Since the story is about a Princess who feels out of place, awkward and uncomfortable most of the time, stop motion and all its inherent imperfections felt like the perfect medium, especially in an increasingly automated world. We felt a handcrafted, wonky, illustrative style would translate beautifully from drawings into a 3D space. I feel so lucky to be working with Ashley and am in constant disbelief at her ability to create incredibly intricate, beautiful, expertly crafted worlds. We truly love stop motion and all the bizarre challenges that arise at every turn, and I hope it shows in this film.

Ashley: The story of Princess Dina Bo Bina became a joint experience of both Ella and I in the feelings of self worth and finding a sense of belonging in the world. I could only ever imagine this story to be told through the medium of stop motion animation because of the way it grounds character eccentricities in a way that feels tangible and imperfect. At its core, Princess Dina Bo Bina is built upon these wonky qualities as it deals with themes of place, belonging, and the material body in a way that is lighthearted and offbeat. I especially resonated with the environmental storytelling in the film between the design of the castle and the swamp; translating unspoken relationships and feelings through rigidity and asymmetries through stop motion was one of my favourite parts. 

Ever since I met Ella in our second year at Emily Carr University, I was enamored with her illustrative style and storytelling capabilities. We were both excited about the possibility of working together, as we soon discovered that we complemented each other’s skillsets and values which resulted in an amazing co-directing experience between the two of us. It feels like this world of Dina Bo Bina is just the beginning, and I can’t wait to explore Dina’s next adventure with Ella.

Directed, Written, and Produced By

Ashley Johnsgaard and Ella Hiebert

Composer

Francis Reyes

Cast

Ekin Tepe, Ineke Lievens

Art Directors

Ella Hiebert, Ashley Johnsgaard

Stop Motion Animators

Ashley Johnsgaard, Ella Hiebert, Lee Holoubek

Lead Puppet Fabricator

Ashley Johnsgaard

Additional Puppet Fabricator

Ella Hiebert

3D Modellers

Ashley Johnsgaard, Dilveen Abi

3D Printing / Rapid Prototyping Department

Prop/Set Fabrication

Adrian Kok, Ashley Johnsgaard

Costume Fabrication

Salma Rafi, Leonor Martinez, Ella Hiebert, Ashley Johnsgaard

2D Animation

Kayla Bergeron

Supervised By

Amanda Strong, Éléonore Goldberg

Equipment Provided By

Spotted Fawn Productions Inc.

Special Thanks

Sarah del Valle, Emilia J Tolnai, Sao Khue, Lyana Azneil, Galadriel Brolly, C Fears, Robyn Strickler

Ashley Johnsgaard is a stop motion artist who was born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and completed her bachelor’s degree in Media Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver. Riddled with many creative hobbies from a young age, she learned to embrace interdisciplinary craft through stop motion fabrication and animation at Emily Carr. Ever since, Ashley has been captivated by fabricating tactile worlds and fostering the stop motion community at ECU. In particular, she loves the nitty-gritty aspects of puppet fabrication—blending mechanical function with design vision to suit the needs of character performance. In the future, she aims to work collaboratively on stop motion films through fabrication and animation.

Ella Hiebert grew up in Summerland, BC, and completed a Bachelor’s degree in Media Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, BC, where she currently resides. Homeschooling for the first years of her education and being read picture books every night dug her a deep well of love for storytelling and creating artwork for children. At Emily Carr, she studied 2D + Experimental Animation where she fell in love with the hands -on, all encompassing medium of stop motion animation. She finds immense joy in translating wild illustrations into a tactile space, enjoying the meticulous practice of building a stop motion world, from painting facial features on face replacements to creating a closet teeming with frilly dresses. She aims to work in character design and set fabrication for stop motion films, as well as publish a children’s book one day.