The Beast I Am (2012)

RUNNING TIME: 10mins

The Beast I am is a stop-motion animated film about a young boy’s journey through the labyrinths of puberty and on towards manhood.

It is my animated graduation film from the Royal College of Art set in the British Museum.

The original idea was inspired by a piece of music by R. Murray Schafer called ‘Theseus’. It occurred to me there weren’t that many films that dealt with this moment in a boy’s life when he is fast approaching puberty. The image of the Minotaur took on greater meaning as a symbol of manhood and masculinity. What would the boy do? Try and kill it, or see if it has anything to teach him.

It was shot on a Canon 1000d, using Dragonframe for capturing and After Effects to collate the stills and do a small amount of other post production, mostly adding blinks. It was filmed on a big metal table using the magnet tie-down system.

SCREENINGS:
Angers Premiers Plans film festival 2013.
SICAF in South Korea.
Encounters in Bristol, UK.
As part of the London Short Film Festival as part of The Gothic and the Grotesque at the BFI, on Tues 14th Jan, 8.30pm.

sicaf entry for the beast i am stop-motion animation LSFF entry for the beast i am stop-motion animation EN13 entry for the beast i am stop-motion animation

A feature about the film at Dragonframe. The film on the British Council Film website.