I found this Google Talk while searching for behind the scenes of various animations on Youtube, and after watching the first five minutes I thought it would be very beneficial for both Tom and I to watch it. The directors of The Boxtrolls, Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable, discuss various aspects from the making of the film as part of Laika Animation Studios. 

Firstly they show one of the trailers for The Boxtrolls which features a lot of behind the scenes, such as the puppet and landscape modelling and designing. This can be quickly seen below :

Originally when the directors saw this trailer for the first time they suggested that they couldn't show a trailer that displays such behind the scenes before the film even comes out, joking about showing the characters with no faces. However they admit that they were "totally wrong" as it turned out that it was what audiences were most interested in due to how they were "hand-made" and really existing in the real world alongside us.  I find this element really interesting as personally it's what appeals about stopmotion to me quite a bit. I like being able to see and feel these characters and how much substance they have to them. I feel like they have a deeper connection to our world, yet they can still have that cartoony - animated, magical vibe / style to them. I could picture myself being very excited at that google talk, and not just to hear what the directors were talking about, but also to see the characters in person and how intricately detailed they are. It's funny seeing the film with these animated characters and sets and then suddenly seeing them in real life, so still but being able to use your senses to explore them. 

They talked about how the key was to find one sequence,  referred to as a "tent-pole sequence," which really works and makes you know that this is the movie. Once you find this, then you can expand outward to the rest of the film. Finding the core of the story is very important for building up the film. 

The advice they gave in the talk from Joe Ranft (who used to work for Disney / Pixar) was to trust the process and even if it feels like you're not progressing and hitting dead ends, just trust that you actually are progressing and will find the story eventually. This meant a lot to me as there have been plenty of times over the past 3 years of making pieces where I've felt the project isn't good enough or questioning will it actually be made *cough Elysian cough* but after working very hard it's always came through (to some extent).  So maybe be more relaxed and confident in trusting in my abilities and that things will hopefully be okay, even in darker, seemingly unproductive times. 

It was very interesting learning how everything has to be made that's in front of the camera. They can't just take pieces from other Laika films, such as Coraline or Paranorman, because each film has a different style and therefore the props have to be made in co-ordinance with with the style of the film. 

I think the main goal for our film is to keep it simple. Find clever ways, such as framing or story-writing that means we can achieve our goal without over-doing anything and making it too complicated.