ABOUT

Concept:
The brief was to come up with a stop-motion short film, 3min maximum. It could be anything, but it had to use stop-motion as a medium. I originally wrote this script to showcase my skills when I did a 3DSMAX course, but hijacked it for this stop-motion animation course offered by UNIMA and AnimationSA in September 2009.
Execution:
Oddly, the year-old storyboard exactly matched my living space and so there was not much to adjust. I used my little point and shoot camera to shoot each image. For the initial shot approaching the lighted window, I positioned a hosepipe outside, snaking it in arcs across the lawn, to take a photo with each step along the path I'd provided. It all looks very wobbly but fortunately we're portraying a moth's flight here... The point of view of the moth is always in black and white, and the view of the moth is in colour. The animation itself took two months, which is average for two minutes' worth of stop-motion. The last minute is taken up with the epilogue and credits.
Results:
The video can also be viewed on Vimeo, and can be accessed from my website under 'walkie-talkies.'

Here's the synopsis: 'Tallulah died too early and now lives in limbo, a small, defiant ghost who visits and revisits the scene of the tragedy on moonless nights. She is caught up in her sadness and the beauty of her sacrifice. She would do it all again. And does!'