Created in 2014 by Estonian animator Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, On the Other Side of the Woods is a beatfully realized stop-motion fairy tale about a small clay girl lost in a creaky painter’s studio. The film was shot mostly with natural light streaming in from nearby windows causing a gentle flicker that helps subtly denote the passage of time. Tuttelberg tells us that it was her intent to express as much about each character as possible through the materials she used.
The materials for puppets were chosen to express their characteristics. The girl for example is made of moist clay to express her dynamic and free personality. She is always flowing along with any event that she comes across in life. I used real clay for making her, and asked the animator to move the surface of her body in every frame so that it is visible that she is made of soft wet clay. The technique was quite time consuming as the clay deforms easily while animating and I had to make a new puppet for each shot.
On the Other Side of the Woods won numerous festival awards over the last year and was made available online for the first time this morning. Watch the film above and you can see some behind-the-scenes shots here.
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/02/on-the-other-side-of-the-woods/