Flux is a five-minute stop-frame animation that I made in 2004 in my workshop in Homerton, East London. It took me four years to complete, working during breaks between projects on the Harry Potter films and Batman Begins.
I shot the film on 16mm using a Bolex camera fitted with an electric motor. The drive shaft was controlled by an electronic panel built in the 1970s for stop-frame filming in scientific laboratories. The entire film was shot in a blackened tank filled with 5 centimeters of water, with movement created frame by frame using black pipes positioned beneath the surface.
The characters were cast in silicone over modified Action Man figures, constructed with expanded foam and flexible aluminium wire armatures commonly used in animation. Their faces are made from hundreds of colour photocopies of my wife and myself. The eel, also made of silicone, was inspired by a moray eel. To study its movement, I kept two live eels for several weeks in a large tank that I built specifically for the purpose, with a viewing window on one side. The eels were named Benny & Beverley!!!
My setup was quite amateur. I mounted a CCTV camera onto the Bolex to provide a live feed to a television—one of those large, tube-based sets, as flat screens were only just appearing at the time. The PAL signal was routed through a mixing desk, allowing me to freeze the previous frame and superimpose the next. I captured each frame manually, much like a photographer. The difference was that completing a full ten-minute reel took months. If the film jammed, I would lose hundreds of hours of painstaking work—which, unfortunately, did happen once.
The soundtrack was recorded in the workshop. I projected the film while a jazz quintet improvised and performed under the direction of Andy Diagram creator of the Spaceheads. I later edited the various takes to match the action and added sound effects to complete the mix. Interestingly, working with these incredible musicians and shaping the sound turned out to be my favourite part of the filmmaking process.
Anyway… here it is: FLUX
Silly faces
Some photos of the workshop when making the short
Some stills
Soooo much fun !!!!!!!