Good show, old chap. This is a fun piece from Chris Butcher, recalling classic British war movies to near plastic perfection. Read on to hear more about the production and explosively improvisational battlefield tactics.

From Chris Butcher:

I used a Canon EOS 450d and Dragon Stop Motion 2.
There was a lot of improvised equipment, such as a pane of glass and magnets either side of it to make it look like the cherries were descending.

‘3Angry men‘ came to me with the concept for the film from a company called Irresistible films. I sat down with the guys and we threw some ideas around and began to storyboard it from Georgia Oakley’s script. She had little intricacies that she wanted top see in the piece, that I was brought in to bring to life- such as the flower explosions.

The main challenges was that I had quite a short deadline and it’s the longest animation I’ve made. So I had to create a set, ensure I sprayed the dirt with water every time I shot anything because the lights would dry it out and try to make the toy soldiers stand up because if they fell the dirt in front of them would be disrupted and I’d have to start again.

I think the challenge I had the most fun with was the tracking shot at the beginning. The Colonel has assembled his troops and walks back and forth in front of them. I’d thought it would be really interesting to walk the camera with him so I built a rig from a plank of wood that I glued some toy train track to then took a couple carriages and glued them to a smaller bit of board which i attached to the camera. Its the first real tracking shot I’ve made and I’m incredibly happy with the result.

The most challenging shot was the pink paratroopers falling down, I spent a day and a half of wasted animation on the shot and only got the finished shot when i laid the background on the floor and animated it from above to make it look like they were falling. A little frustrating but glad to conquer it.

Making of video: