She Climbs Higher - A stop motion film

Aim

Creating a stop-motion animation about a girl's love of circus skills and numbers

She Climbs Higher

In this animated short, we follow a girl named Caroline. Caroline has two passions in her life: numbers and circus. Not the circus with clowns and jugglers. Aerial circus, with people performing amazing feats on silks, hoops, ropes and trapeze. We see how Caroline combines these two passions in her mind as she does her homework, imagining the problems as someone flying through the air on a trapeze or hanging from a silk in a seemingly physics-defying shape.

About Me

I’m Gordon Craig, a stop motion animator and filmmaker with an MA in animation. This is my first time crowdfunding a project but I can assure you that I am coming to this with passion and drive. If you want to see the sort of things that I do, here's a wee video that I've put together:

Background

I have many friends who are aerialists. Someone noticed that a surprisingly large proportion of them came from STEM backgrounds: science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine.

I have decided that I want to make a film based around this correlation. I want to break the myth that everyone who works in a ‘nerdy’ subject is unfit and inactive.

For the live action sections and for source footage, I will need to bring in an expert. I am collaborating with an amazing aerial artist called Lauren Jamieson.

Not only will Lauren be choreographing all of the aerial sequences as well as performing them on camera, she will also be the visual basis for the character of Caroline.

What I need

I need to pay Lauren for her work. I also need to rent out the space for her to perform in. Thankfully there are a few places around that have aerial equipment erected including one that has a full-sized flying trapeze rig.

I will need to buy the materials to make all of the puppets and set. There will probably be 3 puppets, one of Caroline as a girl, one as a teenager and one as a woman.

I will need ball and socket armatures, silicone, wood, paint, hair & fabrics plus a range of other materials.

Any additional money I make through fundraising will essentially make the project happen sooner. The more money that I make, the fewer hours I will have to work my other jobs and the more time I can dedicate to this project.

What you get

The main thing I can offer is the completed project for people to enjoy and be inspired by. I am however very grateful to everyone who can make a significant donation and I am happy to offer those people some perks such as:

• Access to a behind-the-scenes / making-of video
• Signed stills from the film
• A prop used in the film
• An animated puppet of themselves

In summary

If you want to support circus arts in Scotland, if you want to see artists get a fair pay, if you want to see some beautiful aerial performances, if you want to help promote STEM subjects, particularly to girls, or if you just want to see more stop-motion in your life, please consider donating to my crowdfunder.

Thank you for your help.

This project successfully funded on 31st October 2019