They Bloom and Fade (2022)

Dir. Zharia Spaulding

While mourning the death of her family, a hedge witch accidentally creates a magical invasive plant that produces both fond memories and destruction, forcing her to choose between keeping a piece of her family alive or saving herself.

Lookbook and Breakdown

This film was set in early 1700's America, so my prep involved a lot of research which included internet searches, library visits, watching period films, and visits to historic Old Salem located in Winston-Salem, NC, where the short was filmed.

page from lookbook

This film required a full interior set build, three plant animatronics, a sinking floor rig, two extendable vine limbs, a large scale miniature, practical burns, and several 360 shots, all while trying to be as period accurate as possible in a limited budget.

preliminary budget breakdown

sound stage site plan with grid

built set on stage

Plans and Previs

sketchup model overhead and elevations

Screen Shot 2023-04-24 at 1.49_edited.jp

director's plan

rough lumion storyboard to final shot

Animatronic Plants

The script required a plant to bloom, die, and resurrect. To achieve this, SFX Supervisor Lucas Saunders and his team made the mechanics for three animatronic plants, which were later skinned with latex petals and airbrushed by Lucy Schwien in the art department.

Screen Shot 2023-05-25 at 5.44_edited.jp

lookbook page for the plants

plant concept design drawn by me

process photo of v1

shot of version 1*

BTS of Lucas and I with animatronics

*images lightened for clarity

shot of lead actress interacting with version 2*

Ext. House Miniature

We built a 1/3' - 1' - 0" scale miniature for the exterior shots of the house and rigged it to simulate a burn with fog and falling shingles. The effect was resettable for multiple takes.

lookbook page for house build

initial drafts for miniature

construction progress photos

me working on details inside the house