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A picture of Matt Willis

Matt Willis

Creative director, yelldesign

in designer, mac, video

Who are you, and what do you do?

Matt Willis - I run yelldesign, a short-form content studio (internet videos) that was created as result of various experiments with stop motion on Vine around 7 years ago. Yelldesign has 5 employees and we do mostly quirky, bright, colourful and clean stop motion films. We use lots of paper because we have this laser cutter and paperme looks nice on camera. We also love food and do lots of food videos - it also looks nice and has obvious universal appeal.

What hardware do you use?

Pre-production:

  • Trotec Speedy 100 laser cutter.
  • A battery operated sharpener which is intensely satisfying to use.
  • Swann-Morton retractable scalpels with 10A blades.
  • Mundial 10cm embroidery scissors. They are extremely good quality and the perfect size for papercraft.
  • Bosistos Eucalyptus spray to clean everything – particularly scalpels, scissors and cutting mats. Nothing beats the smell of eucalyptus in the morning.
  • A MOUNTAIN of Blu-Tack.
  • And endless rolls of double-sided tape. We couldn't do our work without it.

Production:

  • 2017 iMac with loads RAM.
  • iPad Pro 12.9" (first gen) - although I still can't find enough uses for it in my current workflow.
  • Canon 5D III with a Canon 60D back-up camera.
  • Canon 50mm prime lens 😍 clearest, cheapest and amazingest lens for stills.
  • Canon 24-70mm L Series zoom lens. A workhorse, a beautiful allrounder for stopmotion.
  • Manfrotto Table attached tripods – when I was made aware of these I nearly fell over – so sturdy.
  • Rhinogear motorised stepped slider with arc head.

And what software?

Creative:

Dragonframe for capture and image sorting/exporting.

Then mostly an Adobe CC workflow:

Business:

  • Slack to keep everyone on same page.
  • Xero for accounts.
  • Bear for notes.
  • SONOS for music.

What would be your dream setup?