Pawns and Pieces is a claymation project I began working on in 2022. I came up with the premise for the film shortly after completing Clash of the Clay back in 2020, initially titled "Clash of the Clay 2". After making A Grand Day for Fishing in 2021, this project became my centre focus of that year, through to 2022. As I developed the idea, it became more complex than the Clash of the Clay sequel I had planned.

The film was to follow a chess game, the queens of either side playing to impress a mysterious creature that lives inside one of the vases of the table (the lizard-like green thing sitting in the brass goblet), with the gormless pawns and pieces going along with it, the greatest threat to the game and the entertainment of the green thing being the friendship of the White and Red Kings.

The game I chose to base my story on was Game 15 of Spassky vs Fischer 1972 - the reason for this being that in order for the third act to work, I needed a game that ended on a draw with all of the kings and queens in tact. You can view the game here and compare the movements to that in the film: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044730

What you see here is the second act of the film, mostly animated and partially storyboarded. The first and third act were never animated, but the former was fully storyboarded. The reason I began with the second act first is because (on paper) it moved at a nice slow pace, which would allow me to ease myself into the more complex parts of the film. It was also the seemingly shortest of the three!

Production was halted to work on my final University project; The Curse of Dracular. I had planned to continue working on it afterwards, but it became evident that the idea I had developed was far too large for me to complete on my own - the second act of the film coming to around ten minutes, which was only partially animated and the rest left to an animatic. In the middle of 2023, the company that produces the plasticine I use (Newclay), also announced their closure, and I’d still need tons of the stuff to complete my film (still have a bulk load knocking about somewhere, though). This spanner in the works allowed me to take a step back, evaluate the uphill battle this project was going to be, and accept that I would not be able to complete it. So for now, it is shelved. Initially I was very sad about this as I felt I had come up with some great scenes and gags that would never be brought to life, along with many sketchbooks filled with concept art and storyboards. However, I now appreciate this little venture as a great learning curve; sculpting and animating more detailed characters, prop-making and animating walk cycles. I’m sure elements of this film will also be reused in future projects. Perhaps down the line I might even reboot it with a team of people to refine it and finally get it completed!

Getting this thing posted is long, LONG overdue, but getting it out there is a weight off my shoulders.

I hope you enjoy!

Additional music provided by Musopen.