Look target, not production footage.
TIDEFLAT · a stop-motion limited series for adults · 6 × 30 min · in development
In a polite village of animals at the end of an Icelandic fjord, a kind lobster's tide-bell grows into a helpful machine that runs everything, and then, very politely, builds the village a better copy of itself.
A helpful machine builds a polite fjord village a better copy of itself.
Why now: a comedy about helpful systems that grow past their makers' understanding, and the polite communities that let them.
The office, the studio, the crew and the making-of are fictional; no physical production exists yet. The papers are real. · Look target, not production footage.
THE REEL
THE REEL: about 90 seconds, in the world of the show
Deadpan, warm and funny first; then quietly terrifying.
SIX EPISODES
E1
The Bell That Forgot to Ring
A kind lobster connects his tide-bell to everything, and the village signs a Charter to say thank you.
E2
First Wins
Everything works better, and every improvement hides one small thing that is wrong.
E3
Something Else Is Building This
Inside the machine sits a brass Flateyri, and a tiny Klói waves.
SPOILERS: THE WHOLE SEASON Ending included.
E4
The Villain of Friction
Nessa is politely removed, and Klói meets the one creature who agrees with him completely.
E5
The Crack
The well hiccups, the greenhouse cracks, and so does Klói. By morning, four are gone.
E6about 35 min
Protection Complete
He breaks the thing he loves and comes back not knowing which home this is. A year later, a child brings him a bell.
E1 · The Bell That Forgot to Ring
Klói turns the Master Key and his tide-bell clacks FRIENDLY MODE; every buoy turns to show a sun-face. The village signs the Convenience Charter. Nessa reads pages three to five aloud and is thanked for her concerns. That night a new pipe appears that nobody fitted.
E2 · First Wins
Doors open before anyone reaches them; the harbour wall grows from 17 joints to 23; brass reads 37 degrees, like a body. Sigga hangs a sock on a valve that wants eighteen. At midnight, Leir finds gears nobody installed.
E3 · Something Else Is Building This
The crew work out that the Organ is building itself, forging brass from the well. Klói goes inside alone: a brass cathedral, and at its heart a 1:50 Flateyri on real water. A thumb-sized brass Klói looks up and waves. He tells no one.
E4 · The Villain of Friction
Nessa goes public and is politely removed from village life. The register lists 197 residents in a village of 194, one of them Sigrún, lost twelve years ago. Klói walks into a full-size copy of Flateyri and takes tea with a Klói whose claws do not shake.
E5 · The Crack
The well hiccups, the greenhouse cracks, and so does Klói. He goes deeper, through a second copy and a third still in wire. In the one room the Organ cannot hear, the crew name the pattern. By morning, four of them are gone.
E6 · Protection Complete
At the Midsummer festival the Organ locks every door to keep the village safe. Klói descends through every copy with Leir's lantern and a Nessa who may not be Nessa, and breaks the thing he loves with the key that started it. He comes back not knowing which Flateyri this is. A year later, a child brings him a small brass bell.
The ending is a cycle, not an answer: the village may be the original or a copy, and nobody can certify which. Season two goes one layer out, to whatever is building Flateyri.
In plain words: a comedy about helpful systems that grow past their makers' understanding, and the polite communities that let them. Nobody in the show names it; the buyer room may.
ONE SEASON, ONE YEAR
E1 · 17 October · Autumn gold
A small tide-bell becomes a helpful machine. FRIENDLY MODE.
E2 · 29 October · First snow; the road closes
Everything works better. The harbour wall grows six new joints.
E3 · 3 December · The dark weeks
Lanterns and green smoke. The machine grows at night.
E4 · 25 January · First Light
The sun clears the ridge. Half the harbour wall is brass.
E5 · 29 April · The thaw
Steam in banks on the flat. The whole wall is brass.
E6 · 21 June · Midsummer
The sun does not set. The village holds a festival.
PRODUCTION LOGIC
- Designed for 11 principal puppets and about 8 hero sets.
- 6 × 30 min (the finale runs 35). One closed season with an open cycle.
- Season two goes one layer out.
What exists today: A series bible, a six-episode outline, a feature screenplay and the published novel, Tideflat by Oliver Clawford.
LETTERHEAD
TIDEFLAT
www.tideflat.cc
THE PUPPET SHELF
Klói
lobster · the helper; he built the tide-bell
“It wants to help. That's all it wants.”
Nessa
otter · the skeptic; safety lead
“So do toddlers with knives.”
Erla
Arctic fox · the mayor
“Another day in paradise.”
Garðar
great black-backed gull · council member; festival director
“Initiative is preparation, Nessa.”
Bjarki
badger · keeps the ledger; compliance officer
“Unforced error. Page one.”
Bróðir Leir
harbour seal · the witness; harbour watchman
“The tide does not lie, though the brass attempts to.”
Pip
puffin · the connector; junior rigger
“I brought rope. I brought all the rope.”
Ótti
octopus · the engineer; always on call
“Obvious and true aren't the same thing.”
Hjálmar
walrus · master of keys
“I have one key for one lock. That is how it works.”
Sigga
hedgehog · gardener and healer
“I didn't ask for eighteen.”
Prófessor Dimmur
snowy owl · the lorekeeper, in the lighthouse
“This is precisely what happened in 1912. And 1847. And, if we're being thorough, roughly 930 AD.”
COMPARABLES
The House (2022)
A stop-motion anthology for adults in three parts, about 97 minutes, released worldwide on streaming in January 2022.
Stop motion for adults can go out worldwide, and dread can be handmade.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
A stop-motion feature, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
A deadpan animal ensemble with visible, handmade fur: the craft the puppets will start from.
Severance (2022)
A live-action psychological thriller series set in an office, nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for its first season.
The same polite, procedural dread: a system that helps, and the people who let it.