“The Tell-Tale Heart” – Max Hendrikson

We had the opportunity to interview Max Hendrikson about his latest stop motion short film “The Tell-Tale Heart”, A stop motion re-telling of the classic Edgar Allen Poe short story, in which a man is driven to insanity by the presence of his older companion’s pale blue eye.

What was the inspiration to make this The Tell-Tale Heart?

I was inspired by films and TV shows which used a production technique known as “Virtual Production”, where actors are filmed against a large LED screen which displays the backgrounds. I wanted to try this with stop motion animation on a much smaller scale, and I felt that the Edgar Allan Poe story “The Tell-Tale Heart” was a perfect fit for this technology.

From idea to completion, how did this production change?

I had to change and rework several scenes in the film because of several production limitations, mainly time constraints. Towards the end of production I had to scale down some scenes to meet my deadline.

What was the biggest challenge in getting The Tell-Tale Heart made?

There were many technical problems that were quite hard to fix, but I’d say the biggest challenge was animating the characters. I had to animate some of the more complex shots multiple times before I was happy with the results.

If you could have a do over, is there anything that you

would do differently? If so, what would that be?

I would make sure to extensively plan all of the sequences, so I can more accurately plan the production schedule. I probably would also change a couple of lines of dialogue to make the story a little more cohesive, as I felt it turned out a little confusing and disjointed.

What do you have next in the works?

I’m currently in the early stages of working on a live action short, although I’m not sure where it will go.

How can we learn more about you and your projects?

You can visit my website, moviesbymax.com, or check out my Youtube at youtube.com/@max_hendrickson