These are some test shots of the underwater close up scene, capturing the moment that the turtle notices something in the corner of his eye – an oil spill slowly taking over the ocean and soon makes its way to consume the turtle.

I had experimented with using various materials to use for the “oil spill”; I had originally thought to use a black bin bag however opted for using a plain black scarf. The scarf seemed to work better as it fit in well with the fabric and soft aesthetics of the film. However, in the end I had decided to just digitally in TV Paint create the oil spill there using the textured brushes.

These are some experiments I have conducted with the first scene and figuring out how the pulled cotton wool looks as that foam of the wave. In my opinion, I don’t think it works well and will be doing this scene without them. However it was still very interesting trying this out.

Fixing a slight problem with shooting a particular scene – Where i want the crab claw to emerge out of the sand slowly. I have fixed this issue with using a hole in a separate piece of cardboard with a cloth placed on top for the sand to be stable enough and placing a tripod underneath to wound up eventually creating a small sand dune from where the crab can emerge from.

• Turtles
  • Baby turtle/ smaller scale turtle
    • Made this for the sole use for those longer and wide shots to really emphasise the how big the beach is in comparison and to show the audience how small the character really is and to gain more sympathy from the audience as they see how tiny and small the character is compared to its obstacles and predators that it already has to face.
    • I made the smaller turtle using needle felt. It is still animatable to work with even though it will be seen from a distance.
  • I had also created an eye library and a mouth library to create the expressions for the turtle.

• Crab claw

• Vulture (bird) legs

• Setting/ landscape
  • Sand
    • I managed to get some kinetic sand – as this is not as fluid and quite stiff therefore holds its place quite well without all the fuss of keeping it all in one place, yet still fluid enough to animate with.

• Water – ocean
  • • For the ocean I had decided against using any liquids, such as gels, as I didn’t want to get the sand wet or to ruin the puppets and to mainly stick with the aesthetics of a fabric based setting and film.
    • I had decided to go with blue pieces of fabric – a light blue cotton fabric underneath with a dark blue mesh material on top, which reflects light off of it – this helps to mimc the way light often reflects of the water in the ocean.
      • For the beach scenes I used a light blue sheet under the mesh material and for the underwater scenes I used a dark blue tie dyed fabric underneath the blue mesh instead.
      • Also for the oil spill I had experimented with using a black bin bag, however opted for a black cloth instead.

• Greenery/ backdrop
  • • Realising I needed a backdrop to show the back of the beach which is usually some greenery/ bushes/ long grass.
    • Painted some long grass on a wide piece of card board.

• Sky
  • Using a white sheet hung up and taped on the wall and also using different coloured light gels to create a sunset sort of sky and atmosphere – this has also helped to determine the time of day this film occurs during – which is just after or during sunrise, as it will add a very warm and cozy tone to the film.