Featuring Kelly Copper and Ancho. Filmed in an apartment in New York City by Pavol Liska.
This video is part of a series of stop motion animations that were made in 2011 and 2012 by Nature Theater of Oklahoma as a preparation and exploration for a projected animated film that would eventually become Life and Times - Episode 4.5. The films were composed from individual still photographs shot with a Cannon Mark ii camera in various locations while the company was on tour with Life and Times - Episodes 1 and 2. No one in the company had ever done animated film before, and we were learning as we experimented. Breaking down time into individual still moments was a challenge both for the directors and the actors involved. The individual photographs -- done often over the course of an entire day -- were later assembled in Final Cut at a rate of 10 frames per second to create the motion.
This animation was a particular fantasy of Kelly's. She wanted to create a Busby Berkely style dance number using frozen vegetables. Though cats are not usually interested in frozen vegetables, Ancho decided whatever food this was was great enough that we would spend hours and hours playing with it, and he desperately wanted to eat it. It became impossible to take a picture without him getting in the frame, and we were throwing peas and carrots onto the floor to distract him from the animated dish. Finally in the end, we gave him a plate of his own and there's a little footage of him finally eating his fill. The levitation of the plate was achieved using stacked dishes and Tupperware under the original plate to raise it bit by bit.
To see other animations in the series, go to: vimeopro.com/oktheater/stop-motion-animations