My original plan was to create a 1950s B-movie style science fiction trailer, and feature 4 speaking characters, a newsreader describing a UFO landing, a general delivering a message of alert from the president, a scientist describing how we are all doomed and finally a 50s sci-fi style film trailer narrator. However multiple idea changes, difficulty in recording the vocals, running out of time and the realization that 3 minutes of lip-syncing would require a huge amount of work, I changed my plans and made a similar story but without any speaking characters.
(I personally find lip-syncing requires a huge amount of preparation and knowing exactly what to animate, and then filming in stop-motion is a slow process, without room for improvisation or altering the pace. After some test footage, that I wasn't very pleased with I didn't feel like making 3 minutes of nearly constant talking and re-worked my idea... I do still have the original storyboards and all 3 minutes of recorded voices, maybe one day I'll make that version)
So this is the film in ended up with, not quiet the feel 50s sci-fi movie trailer I had hoped for, more a mini story without an ending. I filmed it mostly in order, you can tell when I was running out of time; the scenes with toy cars and tanks, which were much quicker than scenes with plasticine monsters.
Completed over about 3 or 4 months in total (from beginning idea stage, all my rethinking, filming and editing, plus I also had a few other projects), with music mixed and arranged by myself from various sources (which together with sound effects are credited at the end of the film).