"Winter's Blight"
Claire Campbell, a former Otago Polytechnic student, wrote the script for this stop motion short film, and was also the model-maker and animator. Jon Wilson, a Lecturer in design, was producer and cinematographer. Funding was provided by Short Film Otago, Dunedin City Council and Otago Polytechnic, and the music contributed by Hanan Townsend, a talented and experienced composer.
In a small city like Dunedin, film-makers work on a wide variety of projects. Jon enjoys using all his skills on each project, which call for practicality and determination as well as creativity. It is very satisfying to Jon to have something solid and real at the end of the production process. As a cinematographer he finds stop motion gives him flexibility, for example he can move the sun, but it's slow work. Although it's a short film the studio work for "Winter's Blight" took two years.
"Winter's Blight" is a story about isolation. In a clearing amongst a forest of pines lives a lonely old man who struggles to keep himself warm, though help comes from an unexpected friend. Short films are a particular genre that are shown mostly in film festivals. For a limited budget film "Winter's Blight" has been very successful, being shown around the world and touching many people's lives.