Mara Frampton

At the moment, I’m sitting in a feeling of anticipation to start shooting this film. ‘Crude Poetry’ will be a hybrid live puppetry, performance and stop motion film. The short scene played out on screen brings inspiration from a wider myth and story from the bible, The Tower of Babel, also the short story ‘The Library of a Babel’ by Jorge Luis Borges. This little building is one of many which will make up my City of Babel. If you don’t already know the story, I’ve included my version below… *** In the ancient city of Babel, its inhabitants, the Babylonians were the speakers and keepers of a certain ‘universal language’, in which they were rumoured to be so fluent they had no barriers of communication with one another. This led them to achieve great things, conquering the unknown limits of artistry, alchemy and craftsmanship. It was in the library of Babel that a book describing the language was kept, however the god of those days was a jealous god. He decided to smite the library and its inhabitants for all their achievements. After the monumental destruction of Babel, its peoples were spread far and wide. Never again being able to grasp the universal language. They fell out of favour with one another and became hostile towards those that they could not understand. My film centres on two characters from foreign lands. They meet in the ruins of Babel and attempt to construct meaning together in its memory past. What might these two characters say to each other when they cannot speak the same language? How might they challenge each other’s philosophy and way of being? To be continued… #shortfilm #stopmotion #modelmaking #puppetry #indiefilm #miniature #animation #experimentalfilm #artfilm #independentartist

‘The Paragon senses an impending arrival’. Swipe for a loosely followed reference! #stopmotion #shortfilm #claymation #indiefilm #crudepoetry #stopmotionanimation #puppetry #stopmotionpuppet

Babel architecture #3 I don’t have too much to say today, other than I think I would like to live here. #shortfilm #stopmotion #animation #modelmaking #crudepoetry #miniature #indiefilm #babel

Introducing… our composer and maker of surreal soundscapes for Crude Poetry!! 🐚 Valter Lima is a Portuguese bassist, composer, and educator based in Porto-Portugal. Active across Portugal and the UK, he’s performed in jazz, pop, and world music projects, and composed music for short films and visual media. In order to compose music for Crude Poetry, he was inspired by the beautiful environment in which it is set, wide landscapes, the wind and the camel walk, which gave name to the track “Camel Walks”. As I didn’t want to give the characters human voices, accompanying the music, Valter and I developed a ‘language of sounds’ together. I recorded the first voice with a kalimba and Valter created the response via a synthesizer. It was so rewarding to work with Valter and think imaginatively together on this project 🌀💙🔷 #composer #shortfilm #indiefilm #foley #stopmotion

Here is another microcosm of puppet interaction! This time Misha Kind enacts Hiero’s retrieving a psychedelic onion from their bag. I had to make Hiero’s bag in life size and miniature to complete this scene. ‘In the ruins of Babel there is rumoured to exist a Universal Language. But until we grasp it, we can use these to untangle our words. One each to clarify, to evade the pitfalls of language.’ #indiefilm #stopmotion #puppetry #crudepoetry #shortfilm

During the filming of Crude Poetry, I invited some friends into the studio with the idea that they would become ‘hand artists’. These shots offer a close-up of the puppets’ interactions with the world, yet they are represented with real-life human hands, painted to look like the puppet’s. I came think of these shots as microcosms.🐞 I got the idea from Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds. Watching Thunderbirds as a child, I always found this element to be quite jarring and surreal. Here is Sammy Hemmett as ‘the Paragon’, scratching one of his cryptic poems into the sand. The microcosms are contained within illustrative frames throughout the film, offering a window into the minutiae of an interaction, the tactility which becomes essential when words fail. #indiefilm #shortfilm #crudepoetry #puppetry #mixedmedia

Hello internet friends 👾 I’m so very excited to announce that my little film, Crude Poetry has been selected to be part of the @londonshortfilmfest ! The film will be screened as part of the programme LO BUDGET MAYHEM at Rio Cinema, 26/01/2026 at 18:30. This is the first festival selection for crude so I am feeling very happy and grateful to be sharing the space with other filmmakers 🩵❤️ I’ll probably share a link in my bio for tickets soon… #indiefilm #stopmotion #puppetry #crudepoetry #shortfilm

So excited to release a teaser trailer for 𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘥𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 today!! This little film has been my obsession and passion for the last few years, occupying my thoughts and dreams. Soon I’ll start to submit to film festivals and share it properly! Crude Poetry is a film about language. It is about a deep wish to be understood. Set in the ruins of Babel, a long-lost city which housed speakers of a so called ‘universal language’, two characters come together to make meaning, in this stop motion, live puppetry hybrid. Director @moonfruity Composer @manaiaspace Animators @aimlessostrich @ollierg_animations Thank you to my wonderful hand models! @mishamishamisha_k and Sammy Hemmett #shortfilm #stopmotionanimation #puppet #indiefilm #crudepoetry #stopmotion #movingimage #mixedmedia #miniature #babel #myth #animation #modelmaking #experimentalfilm

🥄 Meet the Spoons 🥄 Mara Frampton is a director, working with stop motion animation, live puppetry, and performance to create films of a collagic nature. Her work is currently looking to explore our relationship between language and meaning making; how language habitually fails to hold us, giving way to direct experience and perhaps… silence. Mara’s new film Crude Poetry touches on this theme (with the help of animators Ollie and Lina!) and the short is a kernel produced from a much wider obsession with The Tower of Babel biblical myth. Mara started her journey in animation by training in Model Making for Animation at NFTS in 2020 and has since made a living working in the industry as a maker, carving out time on the side to work on independent film. #stopmotion #indiefilm #filmmaker #director #stopframe #puppetry #freelancefilmmaker #modelmaker

Lina’s NFTS grad film Other Half (2021) is an odyssey about dating and self-love with aliens and fantastical landscapes. A mix of multiplane and stop-motion, semi-flat plasticine puppets painted with oil paints and lots of practical effects. This was Lina and Mara’s first collaboration, with Mara being the lead model maker for the film. Swipe for some stills and behind the scenes! Available to watch on Vimeo! Credits Director/Animator: Lina Kalcheva @aimlessostrich Producer: Michelle Brondum @michellebrondum Writer: Laura Jayne Tunbridge @lauratunbridge DOP: Ebba Hult @ebbahult Production Designer: Eva Calland-Waller @evacwdesign Model Maker: Mara Frampton @moonfruity Editor: Alejandro Liechty @alejandroliechty Sound Designer: Zoltán Kadnár @zoltan.kadnar Composer: Oliver Wegmüller @oliverwegmuller @other_half_film @ntfsfilmtv @nftsanimation

You can’t believe your eyeballs!! Middle Spoon is a newly formed stop motion animation studio of Lina Kalcheva, Ollie Griffiths and Mara Frampton. We’re looking forward to sharing more with you soon! #stopmotion #claymation #filmmaker #indiestudio #miniature #puppets #animation

If you’re stuck for something to do on Saturday 28th…come say hello! Along with the other amazing artists in my building in Brixton, I’ll be opening up the doors to the small studio where I have been filming my animated short, Crude Poetry. Drop by and meet the puppets, see the set and I’ll also be handing out a Zine dedicated to the film. Hope to see yer there 😉