Building Henry

Here are some shots of Henry being made. Jess has done as phenomenal job sculpting and casting him. It's a blast to see the characters we've been working on for so long coming into the 3rd dimension! It's also been plenty of fun experimenting with different methods of constructing the body so far. Looks like we're going with expandable foam and liquid latex, stay tuned for some shots of that.


































Next the body was sculpted. Jess decided to give him a slightly larger package than I had put in the designs.....she's a pervert.













In case you're wondering he doesn't have any arms it's because he's built to have replaceable arms rather than the usual replaceable hands. This is so Henry can have his sleeves rolled up without the joint being visible. Jess told me it couldn't be done, it's impossible she said, but I'm a visionary.

Character Designs

Here are a few images we did along the way of Henry and Teddy. Henry hasn't changed much since the start, even his costume has remained similar to these early sketches. Teddy on the other hand didn't come as easily but we're very pleased with how the both of them developed.

Henry:



Teddy:

Mackinnon and Saunders!!!

Way back in January we were put in touch with a lady called Sara Mullock who works for the model making company Mackinnon and Saunders. Have a look at the huge amount they've done at - http://www.mackinnonandsaunders.com/

Sarah invited Jess and myself to Altricham to visit the studios so in March we made the trip. Sara showed us around the workshops and introduced us to all the lovely folk who work there. After the tour, Sara, along with Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders very kindly took time out to to discuss with us what we needed from the puppets and offered their help in making them. We couldn't believe it, sat in a room surrounded by puppets from the Corpse Bride, Mars Attacks and the upcoming Fantastic Mr Fox!! We nearly bit their hands off when they offered their help!

It was amazing to see the puppets in person, the level of craftsmenship is unbelievable and we even got to see some top secret u and coming projects....shhhh



We refined the designs and Jess went back for a few days to build the armature...

Here is the rough layout for the armature, as done by Jess's Dad, John. Cheers John!

The pictures below show Jess working at Mackinnon and Saunders and the armature coming together.











































We returned the next week for a day with our friend Alison Cross who's helping create all the wonderful little things for the set. Ally and I even got to help by putting the fingers on the hands!

Jess really did an amazing job as you can see from the pictures and got loads of help from the guys there. A MASSIVE thanks to them for taking the time to help us out.

Black Tuesday

The third draft of the script came back and it was clear from the feedback that changes needed to be made. Rather than send another script we opted to tell the story visually through a story reel. On Tuesday the 14th April our producers came round to discuss the story and dicuss it is what we did....for FIVE hours straight!

By the time we were finished the entire story had been juggled around. It was a lot to get our heads around and what's more it had to be storyboarded again in two days....no problem. So two days and three-hundred and ten storyboard panels later we had something to work with.

We scanned the images and put them into editing software before spending three long nights at our producer Peter's house with a wonderful and incredibly understanding editor! It was all worth it however as we are all really chuffed with the results. Many thanks to everyone who gave their time and their talents helping us. It gives us a lot of confidence and energy seeing how much you are willing to give to this film. Right now it's a pretty nerve racking time as we wait to hear back how the new story reel was receieved!

Ketchup

Hi everyone, it's been an intense few weeks working on the story. We don't want to give too much away about the story at this point but let me tell you it's been tough!

I'll try and catch you up to date with some of the stuff we've been doing over recent months and some of what's going on at the minute....

Our Producers

I wrote in the first post that we had lots of people helping us make this film. Nobody does more than these two guys! Our producers David Bunting (left) and Peter Kershaw (right) from Duchy Parade Films. They help keep us on track and take care of all the gruesome paperwork so we can focus on the fun stuff.

Here's me and Peter with an old Peruvian lady...

We'll be telling you more as time progresses but you can learn all about them by following the links in the top right of the page. Check them out now!

A little bit about the film...

The Astronomer's Sun is a short film about love, devotion and loss. The story follows a young astronomer called Henry and his faithful assistant; a little clockwork Teddy bear.

Living in a burned out observatory in the middle of nowhere, Henry and the Teddy follow the progress of a comet as it blazes a trail through the night's sky. Henry and the comet are bound to one another across the distance of space and as the comet passes over the earth it begins a horrifying reaction within him; causing him to burn from the inside.

The film will be animated using traditional stop motion techniques to create the shadowy and grim world of the observatory. The style will be greatly influenced by Steampunk and Victoriana genre's of science fiction.

Below is some of the early concept art for the film which Jess and I worked up for our submission to the 4mations entry. Things have come a long way since then as you will soon see.....

Welcome to Jess and Si's new blog!

Hello and welcome to our new blog!!! On this page we will record the making of our short film 'The Astronomer's Sun'.

Back in December my friend Jess and myself were given funding as part of the 4Mations Digital Shorts scheme to produce a short animated film. Since then it's been a non-stop roller coaster ride to develop the story, characters, sets, music and every little thing that will go into making the film.

On this page you can read all about that and the boring and tedious process of making the film. But you can ALSO follow the dramatic soap opera of the people making it!! There will be ups and downs, bumps in the road and lots of late nights.....but by the end we aim to have made a really wonderful film for you all to watch and enjoy.

Our little idea has grown so big. So many people are involved in the making of it now and here is also where we can give them the credit they deserve for helping us out so much along the way.

So please try and come back as often as you can to follow our progress and bear witness to the making of 'The Astronomer's Sun'.........