We took a few days out from the film last week to finish off our dissertations which were handed-in on Thursday. My title was The Performativity of Dolls: Puppets in Animation and Theatre. In between intense bursts of writing, Emma-Rose and I took time to visit a wetlands wildlife sanctuary to have a think. Strangely, it was next to a power station.

Me standing in the wetlands centre having a think

I then popped over to Bristol for a meeting with Fairground Theatre about a project this summer and came back to Newport where we held a cake sale to raise money for our graduation show. There were some pretty impressive cakes and a great effort from the animation class. This is what it looks like when artists make cakes!

There were so many cakes people had a lot of trouble choosing

Now we're cracking on with model making and props. The two biggest and most complex sets are almost done and there's mainly the miniature establishing shots left to work on. Oh, and Ivor still needs his head. We start shooting around Easter so more photos of all the elements under camera to follow.

Emma-Rose working on the villa kitchen

The taking of shape

As we edge closer to the shoot, the physical world of the film takes shape. Fields of paper flowers, cardboard hallways and painted skies. Our dissertations are in next week so time has to be assigned for finishing touches and preparation for the hand-in. In the mean time, here are some photos of the film's developments.

Colour schemes for the city sequence

Model maker Sinead Oram making floorboards and

Emma-Rose Dade drilling a hole for the hallway set

The hallway set and a smaller scale building halfway through construction