An atmospheric stop-motion short in which a faded actor faces up to his last performance.

Aging actor Mr Patterson is a puppet in more ways than one. Within the story of this animated short he was clearly once a renowned figure of the stage, but in his twilight years he has been reduced to performing a role at the beck and call of others. Even his arrogance is a mask to cover his inner emptiness.

Using replacement faces with different expressions for a puppet's head is a common technique in stop-motion animation, though the effect is usually hidden from the audience. Here David Lea brings the method to the surface and makes it an intrinsic part of the story. The film was made as a graduation project at the University of Wales College, Newport and helped set Lea on a career as a writer, director and VFX artist.

The film follows ageing actor, Mr Patterson. Having fallen from fame and the limelight of the stage, he now resides in a pokey west end theatre. This is where we join Mr Patterson, and with only four minutes until curtain up, he has to battle with his confidence as well as a dark secret, in a last chance to save his dignity.