Making The Maker

Zealous Creative is a team of passionate artists and writers who use live-action video, animation and books to tell stories and make emotional connections with audiences and readers. The entertainment and publishing house has earned 37 international film festival awards and been nominated for both an Australian AFI and an Academy Award.

What’s really appealing about Zealous’ productions and publications is the way different contributors work together in a shared vision to keep giving audiences more. Stories and characters introduced in films and videos are often further explored in subsequent books and graphic novels.

We’ve previously shared a look at Zealous stop-motions Allure and Zero in our much earlier days on The Planet. While the fantastic, inspiring, touching and funny Zero has been used in schools to teach social justice issues and inspired multiple books as well as memorabilia such as t-shirts, stickers and posters, The Maker has subsequently established a place of its own in stop motion storytelling lore through screenings at over 60 festivals and by raking in 22 awards of its own.

Uploaded to YouTube by Zealous Creative.

Director Christopher Kezelos and composer Paul Halley produced a magnificent, haunting film with beautiful animation, design, sound and music that also inspired a fantastic book. They’ve also posted videos that provide a look behind the scenes, show how they manufactured a key prop and reveal how various camera dollies were rigged.

Below, the Making Of video covers six months of production from concept illustrations through principal photography. Hourglass is the story of a desperate production team tired of waiting for an eBay order to be fulfilled turning to glass blower Mark Eliott to get the last prop on set. In Camera Dollies, director Kezelos interviews animator Mark Lagana about his industrious designs and use of recycled material.

Making Of
Uploaded to YouTube by Zealous Creative.

Hourglass
Uploaded to YouTube by Zealous Creative.

Camera Dollies
Uploaded to YouTube by Zealous Creative.