INTO THE COSMOS – Architeq/Chopsy from Chopsy on Vimeo.

Shot with run-n-gun enthusiasm, Into The Cosmos reminds us to just go out and shoot it!

From Chopsy’s Vimeo page:

Originally it was conceived as a short film by Chopsy (director Darren Robbie), with a simple premise: “what happens to all the old vinyl people used to play? From out of attics, rubbish bins and forgotten shelving, the records are summoned to an old warehouse by a mysterious ‘collector’.”

Using a combination of stop-frame, pixellation, live-action and time lapse animation, it was shot in a variety of locations around Bristol and was created by shooting entirely in camera whenever possible (at other times multiple passes were combined). By shooting each frame within a specific timescale for the external shots, we see vinyl records interacting with the ever changing natural light and weather (dry or wet, sunny or cloudy) – if you look closely you can even see puddles drying out in a couple of shots.

The short film was created on and off over a period of 7 months by a bunch of friends between paid work, a real labour of love (it had no budget to speak of). It was shot in late winter earlier this year with the spring and summer being used to do all the post (mainly rig removal). All the records you see were cut before shooting, with new centre labels stuck onto them to create the desired visual effect of them spinning and bouncing through the ground, they were then animated on location using weighted rigs.

Architeq added the music and sound effects after filming finished and the first edit was completed. Rigs were removed, different passes combined and shadows cleaned up in AfterEffects. Motion capture on location was achieved by using Dragon Stop Motion software on a laptop, which was in turn powered by a portable caravan battery.