Stop Motion

Lowell filmmaker James Higgins talks about the technology behind his innovative short films, screening this month as the trilogy Shadow Worlds, and explains why his next project, at 30 minutes, is epic.

By Mike Sullivan

From Ephemera, one of three parts of Shadow Worlds.  [Click to enlarge]

Two phrases lingered with me after my meeting with Lowell filmmaker James Higgins. The first was “you have to have an obsession with images” and the second was “it’s tricky to shoot a film with a still camera.”  Indeed, the former and the latter collide in four short films that Higgins has produced since 2006.  In a distinctive technique Higgins calls “stop motion,” these shorts combine ethereal movement, light, and sound, with themes and stories about gangs, abuse, addiction and alienation. 

A still photographer by trade and training, Higgins has nurtured a love of film and filmmaking all his life.  Higgins was one of the few remaining people still using Super-8 stock for his shorts until he saw the work being produced by Canadian photographer Mark Hemmings in late 2005.  Hemmings was experimenting with using a digital SLR still camera to record moving imagery at extremely slow frame rates.  Liking the look, Higgins decided to try his hand at the technique.  Through much experimentation, trial and error, he developed his own personal style for his films.   

Higgins shoots with a motor-driven Canon D-40 camera at seven frames-per-second (fps).  He then converts the stills to a QuickTime movie, generally running at 15 fps.  Besides the singular look he gets by shooting films this way, Higgins has other reasons to use the technique.  He can keep his budgets small (in the $5,000 – $6,000 range for a six- to seven-minute short) and thus has full creative control of the product.  Also, since the raw footage exists as digital stills, Higgins can create Photoshop Actions to enhance the images and create different lighting and special effects that he cannot do on set.  However, by shooting at such a slow frame rate, Higgins needs his actors to move in extremely slow motion to achieve the look he desires.  It is an unusual skill to do well, but Higgins has access to performers who are trained to move their bodies in specific ways – such as the Angkor Dance Troupe. 

Kali, a character in Ephemera.  [Click to enlarge]

Also based in Lowell, the Angkor Dance Troupe is a talented group of young people, all first generation Cambodian Americans, who have performed for audiences all over the country.  The troupe was created as a way to keep kids off the street as well as instruct them in their cultural heritage.  "They all speak Khmer along with English and know the horrors of the Khmer Rouge genocide as it has been passed on to them from their parents," says Higgins.

Trained to tell traditional Cambodian tales through dance, these skilled artists can do all the different types of movements that Higgins requires for his films.  Due to the slow frame rates, Higgins doesn’t shoot any sync-sound, but by using the performers from Angkor he has actors who can convey emotion and story to the audience without speaking a word.   

Higgins is very active in his community, and it is from his community work that he gets his story ideas.  The subject matter of his films is somewhat heavy (addiction and abuse, for example), but he chooses to address such serious themes from an artistic perspective.   “We try to do things in an abstract manner,” Higgins says. “We’re not about doing documentaries.”  It is important to him that kids see that “there are art forms and other expressions you can use to get your feelings out there [other than violence].”   

Once he has his story ideas, Higgins breaks them down into visual motifs, imagery and characters that symbolize those ideas.  He has used the same core group of actors and crew for all his films thus far.  He gives them each a binder with his storyboards, a story outline and his ideas for the film and they rehearse for a few weeks before he starts shooting.  Each of his shorts was shot at the same abandoned church in Lowell, overnight, about two or three nights a week, over the course of several months. 

Higgins produces his films under the banner Flying Orb Productions.  In 2006 his first short, Ephemera, took the top prize at the Very Short Film Festival in Hollywood.  He added two additional shorts, The Soul Collector and The Other Lover to make the trilogy Shadow Worlds, which has been accepted to many film festivals across the country including last month’s Boston International Film Festival.  Shadow Worlds can be seen August 3^rd as part of the Roxbury Film Festival.  

Though not originally conceived as a trilogy, Higgins explains, "We found that the three films had similar styles and worked well as three chapters to a dark cautionary tale."

There were valuable lessons learned on each project.  Joan Ross, Higgins’ partner in life as well as business, calls the previous shorts “sketches” which led up to their latest project -- Nether World: A Modern Fairy Tale. 

Shooting Nether World at night.  [Click to enlarge]

There are other filmmakers out there using this technique to make films, but most of them are shorter -- about five minutes in length.  While Higgins’ previous work was also in the five- to seven-minute range, Nether World will be an 'epic.'  At 30 minutes long, it will quite possibly be the longest film ever shot with a still camera.  Higgins shot more than 230,000 still frames to tell this story.   

Nether World is about a young girl who flees an abusive household and finds herself in a strange world of dreams and magic where the people she meets are not who they appear to be.  [Writer’s aside:  I was able to view a rough cut of Nether World and I thought it was very intriguing.  The composition, the lighting, and the unique style of movement were visually captivating.  The way the characters move in their world and the way the world exists around them gives the entire piece a stop-motion animation look that I have never really seen before.  But, what impressed me more than the style in and of itself was the fact that the style is another component of the story. It is not there simply because Higgins is able to do it, the style belongs.  The style reinforces the idea that we are in a dream-like realm and the things we are seeing may or may not be real.]  

I had a good time hanging out with Jim Higgins and Joan Ross, talking about movies and filmmaking and art.  It is always refreshing to see an artist with talent who uses that talent to create a different way of storytelling, but still does it in an entertaining and engaging way.  It may be tricky to shoot a film with a still camera, but I’m glad someone is doing it.   

For a complete schedule of the Roxbury Film Festival, visit www.roxburyfilmfestival.org/.  To keep an eye out for Nether World, check out www.flyingorb.com.

Mike Sullivan graduated from Emerson College in 1994. He is currently a senior editor/DS artist for Boston Productions, Inc.

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