MAKING THE FILM
Making the film
SAND ANIMATION
The Bent Tree was made with colored sand on glass with a light under it. I had three elements to work with: the white of the glass, the black of the opaque thick sand, and the color of the translucent sparse sand. I manipulated the sand with paintbrushes.
The camera (16mm Bolex) was at a fixed position above the image. Each time I moved the sand, I exposed 2 frames. I made a cue sheet of the recording of the song so I knew how many frames were in each word and pause. I had an idea of what image I wanted for a phrase and where I wanted the image to end up at the end of the phrase, and I knew how many frames I had in which to do it. I created the characters in sand, and since they changed shape as the shooting progressed, I made cutout copies of them so I could recreate them later on. If I wanted a close up, I made the image larger.
I shot about 4 seconds of film a day. There was very little editing, mostly just deciding on how long to pause at the end of stanzas.