LENNY
LENNY was my junior year Fall film. This was my first time spending more than just a couple weeks on a film. It is about a soft, fleshy creature who lives his whole life in a soft, fleshy room. Holes rip through his plushy walls often, letting in the harsh blue cold light. Whenever a hole appears, a delivery of blue radishes come. The protagonist uses these radishes as his source of food, as well as a material to patch up his home. One day, he picks up his radishes and breaks one open to find a hard, roly poly inside. He is terrified, but curious of this strange new creature. He begins to emotionally connect with the roly poly, only to crush it while playing. He then uses the radishes to fix the roly poly, and stick it on his body.
I consider this film a personal failure. Though I love the actual story, I don’t think it’s something I would make now (at least, not such a straightforward narrative). Because this was my first long term project as well as stop motion, I planned out every little detail. I spent over a month perfecting the animatic while building the puppets and set. When I was finally ready to animate, it felt so dead. There was not a lot of room for discovery or creation. It all just felt like work and I think that boredom came through in the final film. I think I work better when I come up with a basic, unfleshed out premise/themes and build off of it as I work through the film, constantly going back and re contextualizing what I already have.
The main character and his home are made from soft, peachy fabrics. The radishes are made from dipping painted dowels in wax. The peels/patches are used dryer sheets dipped in that same wax. The roly poly is made from wax and painted wire.
