A Tale In The Sting: Assembling of Set

Already having devised how I am going to create my set and which materials I am going to use, I started crafting the set in order to begin my animation. Following my set plans, I went through town (Skopje) and gathered all sorts of green plants, ranging from birch and vine leaves to grass and bush leaves, all different and versatile plants. I wished to make a set a bit organic in juxtaposition with the inorganic plastic that are the Lego minifigures and the faceplate. Although in Waiting for Godot the environment is desolate with only one tree, it is not quite as dark and ambiguous as mine is - thus why I chose to add the plants to the stage. Another reason is to complete the mise-en-scene, for without such elements the background seems incomplete and aesthetically empty. Furthermore, I positioned the plants so that there is a barrier in between where Pozzo and Lucky will be assembled by the creatures and where Vladimir and Estragon will be assembled. The finalization of the greens in the set came with the vines I placed on the edges, which give the creatures a tool with which they can climb on the island. Although I dislike straying away from original concrete ideas in animatics, I found out that the clay figures cannot naturally stick to the material of the stool, and thus had to implement the vines. Just goes to show, in the future I need to have a bigger consideration for such situations, thinking through the outcome thoroughly. In a really spontaneous attempt, I found a miniature replica lighthouse in my house which I thought would perfectly serve as the unifying object of the island, something that marks and emphasizes the construction of the set, as well as hinting that the space is devoid of surroundings (as lighthouses are placed on coasts where no people reside - something that has became a conventionally associated image with the word "lighthouse"). As for the lighting, considering that the surrounding environment has to be extremely dark to signify desolation, I only used one lamp, differentiating from my 2-lamp preference, solely because of two things: the shadows that are gonna be formed add to the atmosphere, and that one lamp can place an overhead focal point on the set and nothing more. Having said this, I had to make the surrounding as black as possible which would level down my post-stop-motion 2D work where I darken all the elements of my room (yellow walls, guitar, bed, etc).

Lighting of the set