Zoe Huddleston
Stop Motion Fabricator
STATIC
STATIC-Trailer
Intro
My friend and producer Paige Herd and I got together a quarter before the production class for this film and tried to brainstorm. All we knew was that we wanted to animate a set that could spin and rotate. It seems that the only good thing that comes from migraines is inspiration because after I had a particularly terrible one I came to her with the idea of a man fighting with his environment and suddenly Static was born. Much like my own battles with mental illness, this short is meant to represent that struggle between facets of one's mind. Like many others across the world, I struggle with internal "selfs" pushing me around. My team and I have tried to represent that struggle visually.
Synopsis
As an unassuming man battles the multiple facets of his own personality internally, the struggle turns outward and he engages with his surroundings. With each blow, the fight blurs the lines between which version of him is dominant. Like many battling with mental illness (therefore with themselves) this film aims to manifest that struggle.
The Puppets
Mechanical Drawing & Mold
All three puppets came from the same mold so I really had to make sure it was clean and sturdy.
Head Sculpt
COLOR COLOR COLOR
One aspect that was incredibly important in Static was the colors in the film. The dominant, aggressive personality of the main character was shown through the use of the color purple while the submissive, insecure personality was represented be the color yellow. The neutral state was gray. Because of this, we decided to build the entire set in grayscale and change the colors practically through lighting. Overall, the psychology of color and the role it plays in the film is just as important as the character himself.
T.V.
To create a working T.V. I first made a shape out of MDF and then created an open-faced silicone mold of it. I then slush-cast a hollow urethane plastic cast of the form, which I then dressed with proxy knobs and antennae and painted. To create the curved replacement screens I made a second shape that fit into the screen hole and pulled multiple polystyrene vacuum-forms of it. After the polystyrene was formed I painted it black with acrylic paint and scratched out each replacement "static" pattern. There ended up being 8 screens in all. Because of the nature of the vacuum-form, the screens popped in and out of the hollow T.V. form and I was able to shine an LED light through the back.
