The Idea

From the get go we wanted to try an unusual approach to working with the camera. We liked the idea of revealing the parasocial relationship with the character the audience develops during the movie. The viewers should have the feeling of intruding into a woman’s home and destroying her life as a meaning of entertainment.

The Production

We landed on stopmotion as a medium for having this link to real life, while still being able to create abstract forms. So we designed a puppet consisting of wire, a 3D-printed skeleton, clay, glas, wool, cloth and a lot of hot glue. The 1m² (11 sq ft) sized set is mostly made out of wood and styrofoam.

There were usually about 3 people on set, 2 animators and someone who helped with touching up the set and the puppet after each scene. Everything was shot on a single Canon EOS7D and captured in Dragonframe.

The Post Production

The most challenging part was getting rid of our massive puppet rig. All 4 of us were working simultaneously on the cleanup and the color grading in After Effects & Premiere.

For sound we tried to record most of the foley on our own – from footsteps to heartbeat. While mastering I was going for a very intimate and pressing feeling. The goal was to create tension throughout the short with mostly „silence“. This silence consisted mostly of what I would call „dark city ambience“, that was cut in highs to simulate the sound of thin walls. I wanted to create an almost claustrophobic feeling – best heard in the night scenes – that really brings us closer to the character.