Stanley’s life runs like clockwork until a mysterious girl turns his world upside down

A refreshing animated short that will entwine you into the mysterious life of Stanley Pickle. An exploration into a fantastic art direction with an abundant burst of color and texture that compliment an already brimming story.

The film catches you by surprise right from the start using an unusual filmmaking technique. Pixilation is the art of animating people using stop-motion instead of puppets or clay, a very challenging thing to create, but if perfected can give you a surreal sense that is impossible to find in regular film. Vicky Mather created the film with a still photo camera on two sets and two locations at the NFTS (National Film & Television School in the UK).

The approach to Stanley Pickle was to make a film which was technically challenging, with strong art direction, and most importantly a clear and heartfelt narrative.

The story line is rather unusual and imaginative, even a little creepy we could say, but it raises heartfelt issues that are brilliantly exposed through pixilation. The same narrative would probably not be as wistful if it was filmed regularly, and not as credible if it was a claymation or cartoon animation. Her use of markedly dark comedy lightens the mood in the rigid but colorful clockwork characters.

The film just finished a rather impressive festival run since it premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2010, where it picked up the McLaren Award for New British Animation, and since then won dozens of awards all around the world including an Oscar qualification at the US premiere LA Shorts where the film won Best Experimental.

After a whirlwind journey through 2011/12 greeting diverse festival audiences worldwide, humbled by winning many more awards, screening on Virgin Atlantic Flights, broadcast in France, Spain and the US, being part of BAFTA Brits to Watch and distributed on iTunes, it’s great to be able to say the film is finally available to view online.