I’m very pleased to be able to share a fantastic new animation created by Jamie Johnson of EyeStalk Studios ( and also a year 11 student at More House !). It is based in the Doctor Who universe and expertly uses stop-motion animated Lego characters to tell a creative and original short story.

I was lucky enough to be able to talk through the making of this fantastic short film with Jamie, and he very kindly took part in the following Q & A – which I hope aspiring film makers will read, and be inspired to film their own fantastic creations!

Visual Art: Jamie, You are clearly a big Doctor Who fan, what were your main reasons for making an animated story? Why did you pick the Weeping Angels as the monsters, and did you think about including any other famous Doctor Who characters?

Jamie: There were a few reasons I created my animated story, but here are a few:

I have made animations in the past, but none of them had much of a story. I would always look at my animations before I made “Seven Days Of Stone” and think that I had made the stop motion THE story, and not made a story USING stop motion.

Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary was on the horizon and I wanted to contribute to it in some way.

Finally, I wanted to get a feel of what it was like to write a story and bring it to life using visuals.

I chose the Weeping Angels as the villain for this animation because I once made a vote on what Doctor Who monster should be next before I started making “Seven Days Of Stone”. The 5 options were Weeping Angels. Classic Cybermen, Old Cybermen, Vashta Nerada and the Daleks. Weeping Angels won the vote so I started making Seven Days Of Stone almost immediately and it took about five months to finish it! 

I have finished the script for the next animation called “Conversion Protocol” which will include classic Cybermen and their genesis.

Visual Art: What do you enjoy the most about animating using’ Stop-motion’ animation?

Jamie : I just enjoy watching the characters I have created moving about seamlessly on a screen when the reality was that they weren’t moving that fast at all, they were just being slightly adjusted for every frame or two.

Visual Art: Have you been influenced by any other animations, cartoons or animated works out there? If so, what would you recommend to others?

Jamie: There were a lot of things that inspired me:

Aardman inspired my animation technique, clever placement and photography so you get the impression of a huge environment but in fact it’s just a model but massively zoomed into and with a sharp image. 

For the story, I was heavily inspired by the official Doctor Who game “The Lonely Assassins” which is a fantastic mobile detective game and slightly scary. The whole idea of a Weeping Angel in our phone controlling and corrupting everything is simply horrifying, especially when our modern society relies on phones so much. 

The style of the story was based of the style of the amazing Antony Horowitz who likes to create a slow and steady build up to the massive climax at the end with a unique kind of twist at the end.

If I had to recommend an animation, it has got to be “Chicken Run”; an amazing animation with a range of different interior and exterior sizes and character personalities. I also recommend a documentary on Netflix which shows how much work went into making “Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget”, it gives you an idea how much time it takes to make stop motion and how incredible the results are.

Visual Art: Have you got any tips for any other More House boys that might like to become animators?

Jamie: My advice for other people at my school or people I know, who want to become animators, is to know your animation style, because if that is the animation style you are most comfortable with, use it, and you will love what you make; your identity shall shine through it. Decide whether you want to make animations for the sake of animations, or if you want to use animation to tell a story of your own.