January 2008. First week of filming , and everything went wrong. One of the cameras we had purchased purchased broke down and had to be sent in for repair. This delayed us a few days . Whilst sitting at the lunch table we could smell burning. We rushed into the film studio that had been constructed in our guest apartment in the back of our our house. Some paper had been left on the stove and by mistake somebody had bumped the switch. There was a fire that had started Thanks to God we manage to catch it in time and nothing was destroyed, but our motivation had gotten a little knock. We finally managed to start the filming a few days later. The first scene we filmed was a scene in program nineteen. It took us almost two days and we thought how are we ever going to manage this project on our own when we have twelve hours to film and we have taken two days to film two minutes. October 2020, twelve years later the first twelve Lutti and Tutti were ready to air on hope channel. What a journey !

The whole idea of Lutti and Tutti started after we had produced three DvDs with eurokids with our two daughters Celina and Alena. These were Christian music videos that were filmed in the area where we live in Switzerland. Being musicians we wanted to use our and the girls talents to spread the word of God. Slowly the idea came to make a children’s TV series. Kari is a teacher and we the help of her sister Tone, they started writing the stories about a mouse living in a second hand shop with his adopted daughter. The ball started to roll. Brendan flew to Romania in 2006 to meet with Brad Thorp who at that time was the president of the hope channel and got the okay to start the programs. Twenty four half an hour programs for children age 3-8. Whilst we were expecting our third daughter we carried on with the building of the set and the preparations. Brendan was able to build exactly what Kari wished for within the shop and with the help of her mum and sister they decorated everything to perfection. The scrapbook and many other fine details of the show were put together by Kari’s and Tone and her dear mum Berit, who both flew down from Norway to help with the project. The Bible stories were written by Kari and Brendan’s sister Janice who lived in Australia and read in by Simon, her husband. Brendan also programmed the butterfly animation for the different introductions

The total time of filming everything took us about one and a half years. During that time we also had to make a living but God had given us enough work by playing music in wedding and hotels. He also gave us the URL www.hochzeitsmusik.ch (which means wedding music ) this put us first place on Google and this meant that we had many requests for wedding music for about thirteen years. As time past slowly the weddings started to be less and we had to look for another source of income. Kari started to teach more music and Brendan repaired computers. We also decided we needed more eurokids videos in the program so the fourth Eurokids was made with Alisa and her friends. Lutti and Tutti were put on hold but not forgotten. As Alisa turned 5 we had discovered that she was talented in acting as well as singing, so she became the voice of Tutti. The dubbing of twenty four episodes is a big task for a five year old so we had bought her twenty four small presents that she could open after finishing each program. Mummy would say the sentence and she would repeat and each program took approx 1 ½ hours to complete. Twenty four days and twenty four presents later, she had finished her task and Tutti had a perfect five year old character.

The technical side was turned over to Brendan. Second-hand high quality TV cameras were purchased and a complete video editing system was installed on computers in Brendan’s office. Over twenty songs were composed and recorded by the family. Brendan’s mum who was an accomplished songwriter took on the challenge at at the age of seventy five and also composed a number of songs for the project. However how would we be able to film everything on our own in a short period of time? The girls were growing fast and we had to do all the filming with them within six months so they wouldn’t look too different in throughout the twenty four episodes. After discussing the matter and talking with the headmaster of the local public school about the whole project, and with the help of the Lord we were able to take them out for a year and home-school. Another challenge ! With a baby of six months, we started our year of challenges in August 2007 ! With the grace of God we finished the last filming with the two oldest girls by the time they went back to school in August 2008.

Soon another challenge appeared, Brendan needed to learn how to prepare the programs for digital TV. His nephew Stephen was getting married at the Victoria Island in Canada ( on the west coast ) in September 2019 and Brendan went with his 86 year old dad to assist him on the journey. A thought came to our mind that maybe Brendan could fly to the visit the hope channel in Maryland during his stay in Canada. ( on the east coast ) it would be a long way to travel, expensive but a good motivation for Brendan. He could also talk to the Hope broadcasting technicians on how to finish and upload the project for distribution by TV. We contacted the Hope Channel and amazingly, the whole Hope Channel crew happened to be in Palm spring California on the west coast that weekend for the Celebration of Hope. Brendan could easily fly back and forth for the weekend. What perfect timing from the Lord ! He was able to meet with all the fantastic people that work with the Hope channel and got knowledge he needed to be able to finish the Lutti and Tutti project . The last dubbing was done, songs recorded, sound effects added on,quality check, balancing of tracks, preparation for TV, text written out for translators and web site made. September 2020 after corona confinement with time to focus solidly on Lutti and Tutti, The first 12 program were ready to air. What a journey , but how we saw God’s hand during this project! What an absolute privilege it is to give our time and talents to the spreading of the word of God ! We hope to have the next twelve episodes finished by Spring 2021. Our prayer is that our little ones will really understand the love of God and realize how important Jesus’ sacrifice was for us humans.

The Filming and making of Lutti and Tutti

As part of the home-schooling curriculum, drawings had to be drawn for the bible stories. Alena, who was eight at that time, had to draw all the people in the stories and Celina, ten years old, with mummy, did the animals and the backgrounds. They also had to learn how to scan everything into Photoshop, colour in all the pictures and put them altogether. The arts and crafts for the programs also had to be prepared and finished products had to be made and tested. The biggest challenge of the project was to film the wedding. We planned to film it outside on our terrace with around twenty five people all who had to take time off work or other activities and come especially to help us for free.

The day of the filming the wedding arrived. All the cakes were baked and everything was set up outside. People started arriving, but so did the rain. We had to try and cover everything with umbrellas. What a mess ! Kari was frustrated. We prayed and prayed and soon the clouds lifted and we hurried to do the filming before the rain came back. It was a wonderful success. That evening our hearts were filled with gratitude. We had managed ! Thank you Lord.

As part of finding new ways of making an income, we were able to buy and old restaurant and Bed and Breakfast 200 meters from our house and Lutti and Tutti was again put on hold for a while. For the next six years we renovated the Bed and breakfast and ran the restaurant for four years, performed and taught music, fixed computers and all other things that comes with life and still tried to finish Lutti and Tutti.

Brendan’s nephew Stephen and his girl friend Roxanne came to stay with us for six months and they helped with colour corrections and dubbing and Lutti and Tutti slowly moved on. There was still a tremendous amount of editing but not enough time to complete it. In march 2019 we decided to close the restaurant as the work load just got to much, and Kari started to work more as a music teacher in the local schools. As soon as the restaurant was closed by us someone was interested in renting it. Both Kari and Brendan praised the Father. The Bed and breakfast soon had its rooms relatively full and this restaurant rent gave Brendan the time and freedom to work on finalizing the Lutti and Tutti project.

The McCarthy’s which is a restaurant, a bed and breakfast and has a hall where there are church meetings and services every week. A God given place to reach people. Click here for the story behind the story of the purchase and amazing miracles around the building.

Alisa receiving her final present after speaking in twenty four episodes

The Scrap book

Lilli the animated butterfly

Brendan resting during filming and parents helping

Susi and Lutti in the rain

The guests for the wedding

Some of the many cakes and treats Kari’s mother made for the wedding of Susi and Lutti

Brendan getting the cameras ready

Filming a puppet scene

During that year we had included family members, friends, and neighbours from all over Switzerland who were willing to work on a project for God in their spare time. Many neighbours might have found it strange seeing a big mouse walking around in our garden not knowing what the McCarthy’s were up to now. We did home-schooling in the morning and prepared to film in the afternoons. The minute Alisa would fall asleep for her afternoon nap, we hurried to get the filming done. As soon as she woke up, we had to stop filming as a one year old loves to touch everything she sees and the film studio was very exciting for her to run around in. Luckily Kari’s Mum was able to come from Norway several times that year to help with baby sitting, making food and help wherever we needed her. We got all our parents to act in the films too. Thank you Lord for wonderful parents with which we would not have been able to do this project.