Pick of the Month – January: The Lighthouse by Simon Scheiber

The Lighthouse by Simon Scheiber

A lighthouse keeper’s surprising discovery pulls him out of his monotonous, daily routine and takes him onto a journey into uncharted territory. Made up of over 14,000 photographs, The Lighthouse is a black and white stop motion short crafted by filmmaker Simon Scheiber over the course of 7 years.

Directors Notes

I set out to tell a timeless and poetic story in an entertaining and accessible way — well, as easily accessible as a black & white, stop motion short without dialogue can be.

For quite some time, well into my teenage years, I was certain that the world map would continue on the back side. Although I never quite imagined how it would look like, it was there until the day I actually found out for the better. The ease with which we expand our worlds as kids inspired me to make The Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse is a classic stop frame animation crafted with traditional techniques and modern technology (like rapid prototyping, and digital motor & light automation). Stop motion always had a special place for me ever since I saw Wallace & Gromit for the first time. Although I was working in the field of digital animation and design for a couple of years, I had no practical stopframe experience whatsoever when I started on The Lighthouse. Because of that I had to teach myself the fundamentals of all kind of professions that are essential on a stopframe production. Additionally, I self financed the whole project which didn’t help speeding up the process either, so it eventually took me a little over 7 years from script to post.