Weeks passed by and summer was making way for autumn. This is a very hard time for 4^th. Year (primary) students so the main actress, Mariah needed more time to study then acting and filming. So Anthony decided to prepare the sets and the clay (plasticine) characters for the stop motion sequences.

Trying the first stopmo shots was hard as the only programe he had was the Matrox RTx10 which was very limited and had no preview while shooting stop motion.

 Going around the WWW Anthony came across a programe which was the right tool for this kind of work: Stop motion Pro 4. So without any hesitation he purchased this programe too. Now the budget was reaching the full list leaving Anthony with little or nothing left, and yet the actual filming has not even started. Apart from all this some green fabric had to be purchased as the old blue screen which Anthony had been using with Premier 6.5 has resulted in a mess with the hired costume  for Erika, which had blue and velvet tint. So some 120 Euros where spent for nothing. Even so the green material was very hard to find, but at last a local retailer had some new staff and some 20 meters where purchased. Now overlapping the actual budget with another 200 Euros. Never the less everything needed was at Anthony’s disposal. Christmas Holidays 2003 soon arrived and at last the shooting began. Anthony and daughter Mariah had some 18 days at their disposal and indeed they managed to utilize them well.

Days before Christmas all live filming was done. Now the crucial work was being addressed too, the stop motion shooting. This took Anthony weeks of long hours, moving the characters one frame at a time. But al long last all filming was done and now the hard task of editing and adding special effects was commenced.

 At this stage 3d models and backdrops where needed and for this the great help of friend and advisor in 3DStudio Max, Mr. Paul Camilleri was much appreciated. Paul is one of Malta’s leading 3D masters, he can create models and meshes from a simple pencil drawing or even over a phone call. Some sound had to be found which couldn’t be done without the full help of members and staff of Fxhome.com.

Sequences had to be cut to music so as to add more impact and dramatic effect so a suitable long track had to be found and purchased. Again the WWW is indispensable for these things so hours of surfing around Anthony’s choice fell on music composed by a German maestro who produces incidental music for movie makers. Her Anthony contacted Mr. Robin Hoffman http://www.robin-hoffmann.de/ who was more than helpful, offering his music to be used in Anthony’s movie. It was a 13.48 minute piece namely “Journey of Emotion” which suited the script perfectly.

Editing and adding special effects took Anthony the full11 months of the year 2004 and by the beginning of 2005 the movie “Saving Baby Alien” was completed and copied on DVD.

Now the movie could be screened to family members and friends, all of which had good critics on this film. By June the local Video Club organized the National Film Festival. Anthony participated in this festival and achieved the Jury Special award for Technical Achievement.

The year 2005 passed by and 2006 was well in its second month when Anthony received an entry form from the FIVA ( Festival Internacioal de Video do Algarve) in Portugal  http://www.racal-clube.pt/Pages/Video_Admitidos.html  Without hesitation he sent his fresh movie to Portugal, waiting for the Judging day which was due on the 28^th. April 2006. Days passed by and on the 24^th. of May a letter was received from FIVA with the good news: Saving Baby Alien won first prize in this International Video Festival, winning the Faro Local Government trophy and the PSA (Photographic Society of America) Gold Medal.