Kickstarting a stop-motion black-light movie inspired by dark rides

Screen Novelties' Witch Doctor kickstarter is looking to raise $60,000 to finish a gorgeous-looking, tiki-themed stop-motion black-light movie inspired by classic dark rides.

The studio's made a bunch of award-winning shorts before, suggesting that they're likely to see this through if they make their fundraising. $15 gets you a download of the finished movie.

They've got some incredible rewards, too, including custom tiki mugs, viewmaster reels, and, best of all, a Shrunken Head kit with a plaster mold, hair, paints and eyeballs. This kind of kit was literally my favorite kind of craft when I was a kid, and they've done a great job of recreating it.

TECHNIQUE
Stop-motion animation, water puppetry, special effects… it's all going into the film. We've assembled a close-knit group of artists to help us make The Witchdoctor. They bring all sorts of talents to the table top… painting, sculpting, sewing, digital effects, and even old school filmmaking. That's right, we're shooting portions of this story on super 8mm—creating a cinematic brew of old and new.

DARK RIDES
Our film is inspired by theme park DARK-RIDE attractions. There's something haunting and elemental about those glow-in-the-dark environments that stokes the imagination. We are filming The Witchdoctor with a special black-light process so we can push the colors and highlights to the max. We've been experimenting with this technique for a while and can't wait to show you how it looks :)

The WitchDoctor [Screen Novelties/Kickstarter]


(Thanks, Chris!)