Fire and Shadow
It's a photo come to life to tell tall tales about an elderly man near death, and the spirits with whom he interacts every evening as he sits and sips a brandy in front of a fire. The curious thing is that he does not believe in spirits, and yet he has become friends with these two creatures. Each night he builds a fire, which comes to life, along with a nebulous shadow that drifts around the room. Despite his disbelief, he has become quite close with these two.... things that should not exist.
Eight episodes have been completed. I'm not certain if there will be more. It's not that I lack ideas; it's just that my time is divided between this and three other programs. No matter; were I to stop work on it, the series would still work just as it stands now.
How did this come about? I just pictured myself as the man, huddled in front of a fire with a drink, reminiscing about life and recalling past journeys. Rather than just have him narrate over his virtually lifeless body, I gave him two spirits with which to interact, which I think is much more engaging than simple narration. Plus it adds the elements of a paradox: he does not believe in spirits, yet here he is friends with two. The Man, incidentally, represents me along with my real-life health issues,, which gives me a means to talk about it in creative ways. "It's animation, Jim, but not as we know it."
How did I create this? The fire, man and room are all license-free stock images that I've modified. Fire speaks courtesy of a simple overlay that I modulate manually in sync with his speech, and his eyes are made with simple "cookie cutter" effects built into the video assembly software (Sony Movie Studio Platinum). Lastly, Shadow is made with black silhouette shapes (separate head, body, arms) superimposed over the set with green screen. As for the Man, all I do is wiggle his head about in time with his dialog. All quite simple. I didn't need to get all fancy just to tell a simple story.