Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the ninja-forms domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /nas/content/live/albertstaging/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114
Hope is Lost: How one curious filmmaker took a sustainable approach to a Stop Motion short - albert

Climate Content

A creative guide to putting the planet into programme climate content.

Climate Content

Production

A practical guide for everyone working in TV and film production

Production

Posted on 3rd December 2024

Hope is Lost: How one curious filmmaker took a sustainable approach to a Stop Motion short

Articles, BFI Sustainable Screen, Case Study, Sustainable Production

When you think of the materials used in a stop-motion short that explores a young woman’s first 10 days living in the UK after fleeing her home country, popsicle sticks and tin foil might not come to mind. However, Eno Enefiok has managed to beautifully capture a story that follows the trajectory of her life change using those exact things.  

Currently in post-production, Hope is Lost is inspired by Eno’s experience as a child arriving in the UK. Believing she was here on holiday, Eno, her mother and her siblings were instead fleeing her home country of Nigeria. Overtime Eno came to better understand the realities that her mother faced in this attempt to build a safer life and felt compelled to find a way to share this story with others. 

The role of recycled materials

When it came to creating the film, several factors drove the use of recycled materials. It made financial sense on little budget. When Eno began researching how to make puppets, reality came sharply into view. With one armature rig costing two or three hundred pounds, she had to ask how she could scale back to a simpler approach and use things that were already around her.  

“Growing up in Nigeria, we have a culture where we don’t throw trash away. I don’t think I saw Tupperware until I’d left home because we just reused ice cream tubs until they wore worn out. As a kid, if I ate a Popsicle, I’d keep the wooden sticks to make something from. As an adult, I still do it. So, I started taking these discarded things to use in the film. I’m vegan and would get falafel takeaway as a treat, then keep the tinfoil. It’s strong quality and they give you loads – so that was used for the puppet heads!” 

The approach also helped Eno refine the story into the film she’s now made. It was so time consuming to create a puppet in this way, that she reduced three child characters to two, reiterating a good lesson for filmmakers to ‘kill your darlings’ before you get too far. 

Once the puppets were made, Eno’s attention turned to building the story world. Carboard was her only viable option. New wood can be expensive and used wood needs tools and space, and sometimes other people, to get it into shape. Undeterred by people questioning her choice – cardboard isn’t a sturdy option and can easily warp – Eno embraced the DIY appearance into the look of film.  

“It actually works as it’s a period film set twenty plus years ago. It has a flickery quality to it, not the smoothness of stop motion animation you see today. I didn’t want it to look so clean that it could be CGI! I took a gamble, but I think it works.” 

Driving a cultural shift towards sustainable filmmaking

Knowing where to compromise is a common challenge for filmmakers in trying to be sustainable. Eno weighed up many decisions on the build, especially the exterior sets. For example, the film is set in the city, in wintertime snow. She didn’t have time to make lots of puppets to populate the streets and needed to make natural elements, like the wind, come alive. She made one tree, but it was slow – every branch needed a moving wire, and it was very awkward to reinforce and make it bottom-heavy for stability. After lots of attempts to get it properly fixed in, Eno realised that buying alternative material from a craft shop, along with glue and fake snow, was inevitable. But those details were key to set the right scene and so dictated the points of compromise.  

The biggest lesson that Eno has taken from this film – and her experience as a 1st AD on larger live action productions – is to have a crew who are all conscious of sustainability.  

“

If you have a team of people who are keen on being sustainable then you bring in just one person who's not, it spoils the whole effort. For example, if everyone is recycling carefully and one person isn't, it contaminates the bins then everyone's effort is undone. So, I think it's a matter of setting examples and seeking out crew who are of the same mind. In the way that we're now more aware of making crews diverse, we need to take the same approach to sustainability. Then it filters out more widely too. For example, when you get press for the film, you can talk about sustainability, and it encourages more people to think. People copy each other, they follow the herd. And we need to make the herd care.

”
— Eno Enefiok

Find out more about Hope is Lost here. 

This case study was undertaken with the support of the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery, as part of the Sustainable Screen Fund to support all BFI National Lottery awardees in building environmental understanding and action on positive environmental change. Find out more about our partnership with the BFI here.