Stage Fright is a short claymation film produced by Steve Box. The story follows a music hall performer known as Tiny and a co-worker known as Daphne as they acclimatise to the new age of film. Directed by Steve Box, the short runs at 11 minutes in length, and won Box a BAFTA in 1998.
The film begin with the main character, Tiny, climbing out of a wicker basket in the middle of a derelict theatre. He is followed by several dogs wearing tattered ruffs. After throwing a half destroyed straw boater onto the floor between them, he shouts 'Hat' and the dogs attack it. Amid his wild cackling, a tall man in a yellow suit appears, causing Tiny to trip over a bucket and into the orchestra pit of the theatre, held up after his jacket catches on a broken plank of wood. The man picks up that hat, looks at tiny and shouts 'You Bugger!'. Tiny howls as the main titles begin.
The film resumes some time previously with Tiny back stage in the fully functional theatre. This is when the viewers meet Daphne, a co-worker of Tiny shown standing next to her dressing table and a packed suitcase. She sees Tiny looking longingly at an empty ruff. When she tries to usher Tiny on stage, he expresses his fear that the audience dislike his act, but Daphne convinces Tiny to go on stage anyway. Amid boos from the crowd, Tiny attempts to perform his dog juggling act, whilst Daphne's voice narrates. She comments on how Tiny's act has fallen into disrepute, and all the audience wish to see is the latest silent film. A screen comes down in front of Tiny and covers him from flying projectiles. Tiny returns to his basket and breaks down in tears. Meanwhile, out on stage, a organist rises from the orchestra pit and begins to play a typical musical number to a rolling silent film. The film title is 'Lonesome Arnold', and upon it's start, the audience shift from boos to cheers and the title card is shown. The black and white film is about a depressed character called Arnold, who, whilst attempting suicide and failing to hang himself on a tree, due to his noose rope being to long (a spectacle that brings laughter from the crowd in the theatre), sees a small dog. Arnold follows it to a lady who is caught on a tree over a cliff. The lady in the film is played by Daphne, who looks on at the film showing from the wings of the stage. Arnold saves the lady by using his noose as a harness and the film ends happily. The scene cuts to shot of the films stage, with film crew dismantling the scenery after the end of shooting. Both Daphne and Arnold are there, the camera having just stopped rolling. Through Daphne's dialogue, we learn that the man in the film is called Mr Hugh, and he is a successful film-maker and actor. As the dialogue progresses, we learn that the dog in the short has been taken from Tiny, and the Mr Hugh wishes to meet Tiny, sensing that he has a chance to make money out of this. When Daphne expresses her concern that Mr Hugh will mistreat Tiny, Mr Hugh issues a threat to Daphne, declaring that if she keeps quiet about the arrangement between Mr Hugh and Tiny, she can continue to act in his films. The scene cuts back to Daphne in the wings of the theatre, with the organ playing the final bars of the music before the film ends. Daphne continue to narrate her intentions of leaving music hall to become a film actress. As she leaves with her suitcase and banjo, we see Tiny hiding in his basket.
Daphne continues to narrate, explaining that Arnold Hugh's films continue to be a success, and that Hugh takes all the credit for the dogs training, without mentioning Tiny's input to training the animals. This deception continues until the unsuccessful filming of a musical talkie, in which a Dog known as Bonzo, the same dog that Tiny has been training, attacks Hugh during filming by biting his nose. As Hugh flies into a rage at the dog and at Tiny, Daphne remarks that Mr. Hugh is nothing but a bully, showing that she knows that Mr. Hugh has been abusing Tiny all this time. She narrates that despite the damage to her film career, she was going to stop Hugh from abusing Tiny.
We then return to the scenario laid out in the beginning, with Tiny dangling over the seemingly bottomless organ pit. During an argument with Hugh, Tiny remarks that Hugh drove Tiny to teach the dog to bite him. Hugh argues that he has looked after Tiny, and Daphne appears to hit Hugh with a sand bag. Knocked back, Hugh reels whilst Daphne apologises to Tiny that she had been in league with Hugh on using one of Tiny's trained dog. Hugh then begins to strangle Daphne, knocking the damaged straw boater onto Tiny's head. Tiny has an idea, and commands the dogs to attack Hugh. Backing away from the snarling pack of dogs, Hugh hurls verbal abuse that them before pulling the key that keeps the film screen raised above the stage, and, wielding the key above his head like a weapon, Hugh advances on the dogs and Daphne, only to be struck on the head by the falling screen, knocking him over. The screen comes to rest on Hugh's legs, obscuring the rest of his body from view. Daphne and the dogs look on in shock. The silence broken by Daphne remembering that Tiny is stuck. She turns around to see the empty organ pit, presuming that Tiny has fallen. She breaks down into tears, only to see Tiny rising from the pit on the organ, now vibrant blue, played by a ghostly musician. The ghost of the organ player beckons to Hugh's body, and Tiny and Daphne look on in shock as Hugh's ghost rises from his corpse with the sound of a film projector rolling. The ghost of Hugh straightens his glasses, rises up and walks over to the organ, standing on it and facing Tiny and Daphne. The organ player speaks the words 'Going down' in a deep booming voice, playing a fast tempo tune has he, Hugh and the organ fly down into the dark abyss of the pit. The theatre begins to shake and rumble, with patches of the roof dropping down as the building collapses. Daphne, Tiny and his dogs all make for the exit, but as Daphne reaches for the handle of the door, Tiny stops her. He expresses that he fears that the world will still hate him and his act, but with Daphne's encouragement and promises to stick by him, he agrees to leave. The couple hold hands as both they and the dogs step out into the bright light of the outside world.