A Star Fell is a short film, inviting you to descend into a mythical world where the visual aesthetics mirror the darkness and textures in the shifting landscape of the world around us today. Our identities often fall apart as we get older. As the environments around us bleed into our lives and breed anxieties, contempt and cruelty, individuals lose themselves to the monotony and traumas they are surrounded by.

In this work, I tell the story of a child, innocent and naïve, who fell into a new world. Guided by a protective faceless figure, the child must overcome the trials of this world and escape those who try to take their ‘star’, a gift they were given as they fell. Through detailed imagery and animations, the film follows the child whilst exploring themes of pessimism and corruption, asking you to reflect on the ways in which we become embodiments of our environment; for better or for worse.

This film is a stop-motion animation, constructed entirely by hand. The filming process was completed on a make-shift multiplane camera, using panes of glass and paper cups, recreating the techniques of large animation studios. The visuals throughout the film were created using only paper, pencil, pen, watercolour, charcoal and oil pastel. Within the film there is a total of 1,593 hand-drawn illustrations. I was drawn to tell this story with paper; its use enhances the storytelling, paper is malleable and fragile, as is our protagonist. The achromatic nature of the film reduces the world into a deprived and dangerous place, allowing the few moments of colour to breathe joy and hope into it.

The score and musical motifs are original works by composer Col Laughland (music.cl@pm.me). The foley sound was created in collaboration with pupils of Castleton Primary School.