“Brain Space is a film I’ve been gestating for a long time,” director Laura Tofarides told us. “I wanted to tell a story about abuses of power, the legacy of trauma and the power of healing. I had no idea how to tell this story but I knew I had to tell it. I also wanted to make a film about dogs but sadly they didn’t make the cut – more on that later.”
The Wallace & Gromit animator was working with a tiny budget for this passion project, and knew she’d have to be selective about what the team built in order to tell the story. “Our focus was on the animated character performances, so we made sure our armatures and puppets were top notch to be able to deliver those performances. The puppets were smaller than usual for stop motion in order to limit the size of any sets we would have to build.
“We made our sets as simple as possible to save on build cost and shipping,” she said, “because by the time we started shooting we had moved to New Zealand where I was working on the TV show, Kiri & Lou. Many of the scenes were just shot against a black drape for this reason. When we did build sets, we used simple shapes like strings or boxes to block out the space and lit them dynamically to tell the story in that scene.
“Daniel Morgan did a fantastic job of lighting the ‘real world’ sets, using his deep knowledge as a DOP to paint with light and create a beautiful, nuanced setting. Most of our camera moves were manual, relying on Ikea paper tape and hot glued pins to gauge our increments. Later on we were lucky enough to use an Animoco motion control rig for one of the opening shots which Adam Cook programmed for us.”
The end result is peppered with solid examples of how much restriction can bring about great work. “The magician character is another example of where limitations pushed us to create something new and unique”, Tofarides went on. “In earlier designs he was a full bodied character but this was eventually stripped back to just a floating set of gloved hands and theatrical masks inspired by quick change Sichuan opera performances. It really sped up the animation process and made the look of the character more unusual and unique.”
This character takes on many forms in the film so the team mixed up the materials used to make him, sometimes polymer clay, sometimes cloth, sometimes boiling plasticine (when the surface of the puppet is moved every frame). “We chose American plasticine as it is more vivid and greasy, having the material echo the nature of his character.
“The magician is a mercurial figure. He is entertaining but creepy, never letting his true intentions be known and flipping his emotions on a dime. He uses his unknowable nature to manipulate those around him to get what he wants. His masks were a series of stop motion replacements of extreme expressions to show his sociopathic nature. We wanted the expressions to be strong and distinctive, speaking to his unknowable and changing nature without any in-betweens or softening.
“His floating hands and head gave us flexibility to animate dramatic movements with flair. The slow-reveal later on in the story that he does have a body coincides with the unraveling of his character. The only way to win against him is to reveal him for who he truly is–the man beneath the mask.”
The creative gifts of the small production didn’t stop there. “Zuhair Mehrali was our editor and VFX artist and he was fantastic at all the rig removal for these shots but also coming up with creative solutions to enhance the narrative. The flickering blue hands are a very important part of our story and Zuhair found a plugin which enabled the flickering hands that we animated to be tracked onto the puppet and deform when she moves.
“The work he did on the flying scene was fantastic–it was something I was really worried about when shooting as it was two just puppets rotating against a green screen but by compositing the elements we animated he made that scene feel euphoric, especially when we saw it with Tom Berge’s amazing score.”
“Our main character, Rhi, has a set of hand-sculpted replacement faces with no 3D printing involved. (Art Director) Josh (Flynn) started using this technique at Uni and recorded his process on his Sculpt Double blog which continues to be a resource for people wanting to learn this method. He further refined the process while working on Isle of Dogs, hand sculpting each of Atari & Tracy’s expressions and phonetics.
“Early on we decided to have no talking in the film as it would have significantly increased the amount of faces for Josh to make, plus I always prefer ‘show, don’t tell’ in filmmaking. Rhi meets her younger self in the film so Josh had to make an even smaller puppet and another whole set of face replacements for her too. Her hair is mostly solid resin for easy positioning but we also glued in tiny strips of painted Cinefoil to add some secondary movement so that she feels dynamic and alive.
“Her eyeballs are resin half spheres with a steel ball bearing on the back which is attracted to a magnet in the head. This system meant we didn’t need drill holes in the eyes and the perfect tension the magnet gave meant we could simply move her eyes around with a cocktail stick. We made her tears using tiny dabs of UV resin, sticking them to her face using Vaseline and when we animated them falling this left a pleasing snail trail, mimicking a real tear streak.
“Her space helmet is made from one of those make your own bauble’s, basically a plastic sphere which comes apart in half to allow access to the puppet and it had magnets in the collar to register it back together after each frame.
“Roos Mattaar built the two bedroom sets as well as many of the pieces of furniture inside, making hand turned brass knobs for the doors and using realistic construction methods for the knife which she made from steel with the tang going into a wooden handle.
“Emma-Rose Dade perfected 3D printing translucent ‘glass’ for the wine bottle while Stephanie Howell did the same for the wine glasses. Bronny Salter helped us out making the bed clothes our of real textiles for both bedrooms, and Claire Campbell and Janette Goodey made the fabric costumes for Rhi & her younger self.
“The music & sound team did amazing work–the visuals are only ever half the film and so they had a lot of responsibility to convey the mood and tone, especially as the film has no dialogue. Our composer, Tom Berge, was fantastic at taking my direction and working iteratively to deliver an OST that still sends shivers down my spine every time I watch it (and I have watched it many hundreds of times).
“Elza Parisa’s vocals are so hauntingly gorgeous and they elevate the viewing experience to completely immerse you in the story. It works perfectly alongside Annaliese Broughton’s fantastic voice work for Rhi and Phil Brookes’ excellent sound design & VO. Jack Stanton was wonderful at pulling all of this work together, mixing it to perfection & giving us a finished soundtrack to be proud of. I cannot thank them enough.”
In the time the filmmaker worked on this film, she also worked on two features, one half hour special and three series, lived in three countries and moved the shoot to four different studios. “It wasn’t a fancy co-production,” she told us, “it was just Josh and I moving across the world for work and taking the film with us!” What began as a modest six-month plan evolved into a much longer journey, with producer Nia Alavezos playing a key role in managing the project’s many unexpected complexities.
Their original animatic was over 9 minutes long and included 20 background dogs to add a bit more light to balance out the dark. “At some point we had to admit there was no way we would be able to shoot that much so butchered it down to 4.5 mins and cut all of the dogs from the film, I’m still sad about it! I think my next film will be a live action comedy about dogs!”
Over the course of shooting and giving each shot a bit more breathing room, the final piece expanded to 8:20. “We had our world premiere at PFCAT in Portland, it was phenomenal to play to a packed house of stop motion fans on an IMAX screen! We are so excited that our UK Premiere will be at Encounters festival in Bristol and we have a lot more international festivals coming up soon so I’m excited for people to see it. I’m working on my next film (apart from the dog comedy) and hope it won’t take 5 years!”
For more on the production, take a look at the behind the scenes images below:
