We have made a lot of progress with our characters/ puppets as well as our set for our adapted stop motion film.

We had some trouble with the first armature, which was that the bodies (made out of styrofoam) were too small and we hadn’t glued the limbs (which were made out of wires and the plastic casing of biro pens) properly as they broke off easily and were unstable. Therefore we remodelled the bodies and limbs using a much stronger glue and proper proportions that will grant us more stability as well as mobility. We’ve also We have began to add “fur” to the characters as well, doing this by gently brushing out wool and painting it to the characters designs. We have also added the eyes to the puppets, using beads and painting them black. For our character expressions, we will be using the characters ears as well as having decided to use felt as eyebrows as they are easy to move around and animate. Furthermore, following our plans for the end of our film, we are creating 2 more separate heads for the fox character. As this will allow us to be more flexible with our film. the first head is normal with an hinged jaw, the second head will be slightly bigger however we will be using more flexible materials; such as felt and latex to create the fox snarl for the end scenes. We have decided to use felt as it would be easier to scrunch up the felt on the face to reveal the teeth and gums for the snarl. We will also be using jell for the saliva, and have used toothpicks for the sharp teeth. The third head will be a mould of the most extreme version of the fox snarl, therefore it does not need to have that much mobility as the other two.

In addition, we have also begun sculpting the feet of both characters using styrofoam and wires to maintain their animalistic appearance and movement, because even though they act and dress as humans, we still want them to look as authentically animalistic as possible.

Furthermore, we have made great progress working on the set of the film as well. we have completed the base of our set which is the floor boards. This was made using lollypop sticks, we had cut the rounded ends off in order to fit them together perfectly. We’ve begun to sand them down a little bit to smooth out any rough surfaces and we plan then varnish it using watered down brown paint, in order to go along with our films rustic victorian aesthetics.

As well as set and armature, we’ve begun making the props to our film. Props such as the bed, which is made out of coffee stick stirrers and sponges glued together with white cloth covering it to make it look like a proper mattress. Also, the bedside tables, which have been made out of foam boards and have yet to be painted. We aim to have the arm chairs, coffee table and fireplace done by the end of the week. The arm chairs will be made using the foam boards as a base and sponges to create a more rounded and comfier look. After it has all been assembled we will be covering it with a green coloured velvet material inspired by some victorian furniture.

We also aim to have the walls built by the end of the week, using slots so that they are removable in order to have better access to a variety of camera angles. We will be covering the walls with simple wall paper as to not create such a busy background. The fireplace will be slightly raised out of the wall and will also be made out of foam boards. We will be using coloured acetate (red, orange and yellow) to create the illusion of fire within the fireplace and use wooden sticks as fire wood. We plan to have a hole cut out in the wall where we will place an LED lightbulb behind the fireplace to reflect the acetate and also produce another source of lighting within the set.

This is what our set looks like so far, with the props put together for comparison and size. We have a fair amount of space for the characters to move around, which is good as it wont be too crowded and difficult to make great gestures.