I am wrapping up production on my degree project film at the Rhode Island School of Design. The film, which is titled "Heavy as a Hill", is about the relationship between an imaginative daughter and her depressed mother.
I am responsible for all set and puppet fabrication, as well as the animation, lighting, direction, and story.
Stills From the Film
Process Pictures
The lamp shades are made out of onion skin.
I had a lot of fun making working lamps for practicals in my lighting setups, but only one lamp wound up in one shot.
The slouching shapes of most of the furniture is meant to represent the weight of the clay. Like the whole house feels too heavy to hold itself up properly.
A kitchen setup I made. Used in several shots.
This was meant to be the furniture for the little girl's bedroom, but it never made it into the film.
I made a mold of the little girl's neutral expression and then pressed sulpey into that shape, then sculpted expression changes.
The eyes were made out of magnetized ball bearings that I painted with nail polish, which rested on brass 'eye stalks' that had magnets embeded inside. Then I had to carefully dremmel each face to make it fit onto the eyes and faceplate. The faces attached to the faceplate with magnets. A crude system that worked pretty well.
I made two bodies and one head for the little girl. Apart from wanting a costume change, I wanted to avoid her wire amature breaking mid-production. I made the hair out of coffee beans that I glued on her head and carved, and her braids are spit coffee beans apoxied together with a wire running through them.
The mom's hair is made out of pine needles. I painted the 'roots' black so that the natural needle color looked like bleached hair.
Most of the furniture is made out of chipboard that I warped, glued, sanded, and painted. It was cheaper than foam or wood and had the advantage of being hollow, so that I could easily conceal lamp wires.
