Richard’s Bunk

It’s around one hundred years since Captain Scott led the ill-fated expedition to reach the South Pole.

After many years of exploration, planning and exhaustion the Terra Nova Expedition to be the first to reach the south pole was preceded by the Norwegians by just thirty days. Scott and his party died on the return journey and before the other members of the expedition returned home, a wooden cross was constructed by the ships carpenter and inscribed witha line from Tennyson’s poem Ulysses: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”

I found some images of ‘Discovery Hut’ and ‘Scott’s Hut’ a few years ago and remember being deeply inspired by them. The hut’s are pretty much preserved exactly as they were left in the early 20th Century including slowly rotting seal blubber and a myriad of classic British branded goods such as Bird’s Custard and Fry’s Cocoa. So anyway… I collected hundreds of images of the handful of huts from this heroic era of exploration and discovery. Mainly from Seth White’s online journal.

Parts of these huts have found there way into the design of the environment where Horstmann resides so I thought it would be good to share the inspiration. One key element is Richard’s (Richard ‘Dick’ Richards) Bunk from the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which followed on from Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition. The bunk is on the far left of the image below.

A terrifying inscription on the bed reads: “RW Richards August 14, 1916 Losses to date: Haywood Mack Smyth Shak(?)”

It’s not important to the story at all, that the bunk has this background. In fact I don’t really want it to look like a bed. One shot will have the top of the mattress and the pillow in full view but I’ll possibly lose them in shadows or take them out for that particular shot if it’s too obviously a bed. I don’t really want it to feel to habitable as an environment. As much as inspired by the look and form of these images I feel the overall idea of this being Horstmann’s uncomfortable reality should be maintained beyond being faithful to these visual influence. I guess it’s just an interesting story. Well… Here’s the beginnings of Richard’s Bunk anyway.

Watch The Fool Looks At The Finger That Points To The Sky

The Fool is a short film/music promo I wrote, animated and directed in 2006. It was made with no budget or deadline so it took quite a while to make but I was a failing freelancer at the time with a lot of time to spare.

It was such a fun film to make and has been screened at many film festivals as well as featured in some great publications including Specialten and 3DWorld.

Synopsis:
As snow falls on a sleeping world, one window remains glowing through the darkness, where a clumsy wooden puppet sits alone as a story unfolds before his eyes. Lured in by the beautifully crafted pieces of an enchanted theatre he is taken on a whirlwind ride over which he has no control.

Set to the music of The Little Explorer, this short brings to mind old zoetrope animation, experiments captured on cine film, and worlds where forgotten toys have souls.