Hands Up If You're Lost
Polymath Director Tom Walsh and myself as Polymaths Art Director both love the Jim Henson films Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. We have been determined for a long time to create a contemporary film inspired by the wonderful characters, beautiful design and ingenious puppet effects found in these classics and experiment ourselves with how to capture, highly effective live action puppetry. When Andy from WSUOR came to us with the last single of his current album seeking a music video, we instantly knew this song was the one! With such an ambitious project in mind and a very limited budget we teamed up with The Nottingham Trent University Theatre Design course to collaborate on this shoot. We provided an exciting, highly creative professional project for the students to work on and the University provided valuable resources including access to the workshop, studio theatre, lighting and of course some very talented staff and students to work with.
Four third year students took a leading role in the project developing the designs, constructing the set, puppets and backdrop, working as the art team on set and all puppeteering during the shoot. It was a massive job but they all worked exceptionally hard to realise the piece to a high professional standard and gained so many vital skills for working in a TV/Film setting. As production designer I worked particularly closely with the students to carefully develop and refine all elements of design, construction and performance. Here are some photos and notes detailing the journey from concept to realisation.