Don met with animator, Adam Elliot, who won an Academy Award for his claymation film, Harvie Krumpet. Claymation involves making plasticine figures and moving them slightly for each frame, with each second of film involving around 24 movements.

Adam studied animation at the Victorian College of the Arts. This is where he made his first claymation film, Uncle. After graduating in 1997 Adam went on to complete the remaining two parts of his trilogy, Cousin and Brother.

Harvie Krumpet is the first short film Adam has made with full sound. It is the biography of an ordinary man seemingly cursed with bad luck, whose troubles are never ending. Harvie Krumpet contains 280 shots in 23 minutes. It took 14 months to shoot, with only 3-5 seconds footage produced on a typical day. Adam said that during the shoot he almost went crazy, often talking to his models!

Adam asked Don what he should do about his sick maidenhair fern (Adiantum aethiopicum). Don thought that the plant had been allowed to dry out. He also spotted some crusty deposits at the bottom of the pot and concluded that the plant had been over-fertilised. He suggested repotting the fern in new potting mix, and changing to a mild, liquid fertiliser such as Nitrosol (around $10 for 250ml). Finally the maidenhair should be moved to a brighter position, perhaps in filtered light near a window.

Copyright CTC Productions 2004