The Great Hat Heist - Lewimations

This is about a video that I found by Lewimations that was completed over a year ago now. I remember when the film was still in production and getting hyped to see the final product after watching a short trailer. Since then, I lost track of the film, the website that was once up also seemed to stop being hosted, and the film only became a distant memory. Something jogged my memory today, however, and I went and decided to search for the site again to see if it was up. Instead of finding the site, which is still gone, I found the completed video on YouTube. What's neat about the video is that it's really well done and also that it's all done by a 15 year old. Although the animation isn't the most advanced(it's still very good) in the video, Lewi conquered the most important parts of a film. He created a great story, gave it style, mood, and atmosphere, and completed it. Those were the things that mattered. He succeeded in where many have failed, and best yet, he's got it all figured out at a young age. Aardman has realized this as well as different film festivals. When Lewi sent in some of his work to Aardman without actually giving them his name, they were interested in hiring him, at the time he was only 14. He's also won a variety of awards for different shorts he's completed, but I don't know if they are available to the public anywhere.

Well, here's the video. I encourage you to enjoy it the first time around, and then watch it again and study it. Try to find out what makes it good. Then look at the flaws and imperfections. Look at the lighting, animation, set, special effects, camera angles, ect. Hopefully this will make you realize that stop-motion animation doesn't have to be perfect, and that you very possibly have the ability to make something great as well. It takes work and time, but it's possible.



Here are some of the articles I found about him:
Teenager Turns Down Animation Job
Success at Film Festival

If anybody finds out or knows of a website or anything new that Lewi is working on, please post it in a comment or email it to me. I'd like to keep updated with his stuff.