These are a few shots of another sculpt I did today. Made in exactly the same material and way as the last, just a weird tapir man. These sculpts were made with a cocktail stick which I personally find is one of the best implements to use. I probably should firstly buy and then start using sculpting tools but at the moment I will stick with the cocktail stick.

These are a few shots of a small-scale sculpt that I made yesterday. I had realised I hadn't made a detailed sculpt for a while and decided it was perhaps time that I should. I hope to make another soon. The 50 pence piece is simply there to give a sense of scale. This sculpt is made in hard Plastiline so will not dry and altogether took about 3 and a bit hours to make.

Below is the trailer for my film. I apologise for the lack of title at the end. There was one but for some reason it didn't render so is no more. Just imagine for now.

Lodz Trailer from George Watson on Vimeo.

This is a model of the Nazi's car that I made for close-ups. It is only half the car because I was under the impression that I didn't need the whole car. This was true, however I wish I had made the whole thing because it would have given me more freedom shot wise. This car, like the cellos was sculpted in Milliput. In hindsight, I think I would have sculpted it in plasticine and then moulded it and cast it in resin.

Props now! This was one of my favourite parts of the production process. These are two cellos I made in different scales.

Shot looking down the staircase. This is a lighting experiment.

This is a test to see what an above shot would look like. In the end I had to try and make the buildings appear less curved.

This is a 1:42nd scale set I made of the larger street set. This set was used to shoot the scene looking down from the top of the buildings onto the road below. It was made at this scale because the model car I used in this scene was 1:42nd scale.

Ah! I nearly forgot about all the other sets I made. Damn. Never mind, right, back to sets. These are a few shots of the interior set of the Jewish Cellist's room. The walls are simply painted MDF and the floors are balsa wood and the corrugated iron is simply cardboard.

Finished 1:7th scale puppet can be seen in the first production still.

Finished silicone head for the 1:7th scale Jewish puppet. I added a different colour silicone layer in the eye sockets to add a new dimension of light and shade.

Now the 1.7th scale Jewish Puppet. This as I said before is the puppet that had to appear to play the cello and as such, it was the only one of my puppets to have a ball and socket armature. This I bought from John Wright Armatures. A ball and socket armature allowed me a much more realistic performance and more control over the animation. The armature as you can see from the photos was then covered with a skin of memory foam and latex.

Finished Nazi puppets complete with clothes.

Finished silicone cast of Nazi head complete with hat.

Now onto the Nazis. I chose to make the two Nazis in my film almost identical. This was because I wanted to capture their single mindedness and lack of individuality. I also chose not to give the characters apparent eyes. This, I feel makes them less human. Picture shows myself sculpting the head of the Nazi puppet.

These are the hands which were made for the 1.7th scale Jewish puppet. This particular puppet was the one which had to appear to play the cello and as such, the hands had to be quite detailed due to the fact I would be doing a lot of close-ups.

This is a photo of the almost complete 1.9th scale puppet complete with clothes. All that needs to be applied is the hands and facial and head hair.

Armature made from aluminium wire, Milliput and K and S being positioned in the mould ready for casting.

This photo shows the mould made for the 1.9th scale Jewish puppet. I then made an armature (metal skeleton) to fit into the mould that I could then flesh out with an expanding foam material called Flex Foam-It!

Ok! Now let's move on to character production. This image shows my first cast of my small scale Jewish character. This was a test in silicone to see if the mould had worked properly. This then allowed me to make a version using coloured silicone. The beard and hair (made using Milliput) I would then apply later. This head is for the 1.9th scale puppet which was used for distant shots.

Just a few more close-up shots of both buildings.

Surface detail on the plaster building front.

Close-up of some surface detail in the foamboard.

This shows the finished foamboard building which took hardly any time at all when compared to the plaster version.

This is the finished building that I made in plaster and although I feel it looks good, The foamboard was definitely the right way to go.

Let's therefore start from the beginning which was when I made the two 1:9 scale buildings for my street set. This particular building detail was made in foamboard. This was the second of the buildings I made. The first is made from cast sheets of plaster which meant that the process was long and difficult and also meant the final result was very heavy. Using foamboard drastically reduced the build time and meant that the finished result was just as heavy as the MDF board underneath.

Wow! It has been a really long time since I set this blog up and still I have put nothing on it. I thought I would therefore rectify the problem by putting some pre-production photos up from my film, 'Lodz'. Hope you enjoy.