Puppet Animation Part 2
Puppet Construction • There are various types of puppet construction • Wooden: Carved out of wood • Mixed media: fabrics, furs and metals • Found Objects: Made from everyday items • Latex Puppets: more elaborate, may contain gear mechanisms to control fine details such as facial motions • Armatures: Inner skeleton to hold puppet together, commonly made from wire, metal ball and socket system, wood
Puppet Animators • Ladislaw Starewicz: mixed media • George Pal: wooden • JiriTrnka: wooden • Ray Harryhausen: latex, mixed media • Brothers Quay: found objects • Jan Svankmajer: found objects • Tim Burton: latex • Henry Selik: latex, mixed media
Jiritrnka • Wooden puppets • Czechoslovakian master puppet animator • Started as children’s book illustrator, set designer for live theater • Includes nearly all the techniques of hand-crafted animation • Uses the movement of the figures body to define the characters mood instead of relying on facial expressions • Screenings • JiriTrnka Documentary • The Hand, 1965 • Considered Trnka’s masterpiece
Jan Svankmajer • The most famous Czech surrealist puppet animator today • Member of the Prague Surrealist Group • Wildly imaginative, utilizing combinations of puppets, humans, stop-motion, live-action • Inspired Brothers Quay, Tim Burton • Creates very interesting types of “puppet” inspired by artwork of GuiseppeArcimboldo • Creates scenarios that are surreal or gory: uses entrails and blood • Interested in a tactile experience • Wants to connect to viewer in strong, disconcerting way • Screenings: • Dimensions of Dialog, Jan Svankmajer, 1982 • Meat, 1988 (1 minute) • Flora, 1989 (20 seconds)
Brothers Quay • - Timothy and Stephen Quay (identical twins from Philadelphia) • Live in London • - Dark, moody passages with poetic approach to story • Screenings: • BBC Commercial, rejected • Street of Crocodiles, Brothers Quay, 1986 • Terry Gilliam lists on 10 best animated films of all time • Based on Bruno Schulz short story of same name
Tim Burton • Disney studio animator • Disney didn’t know what to do with him, let his contract run out (same as Lasseter) • Directed Pee Wee Big’s Adventure, BeetleJuice • Stop motion features: • The Nightmare Before Christmas(1993), • Broke mold of Disney style animation • Unexpected popularity and success • Industry produced, fully stop motion feature had not been done • Special armature joint for Jack Skellington designed and patented
Tim Burton cont. • Corpse Bride (2005) • Based on Russian Folk tale • Puppets made from Silicone over metal armatures • First feature length, stop motion film edited using Apple Final Cut Pro • First Feature film shot using a commercial digital SLR camera ( Canon EOS-1D Mark2 SLRR), 24 cameras used for film • First movie to choose digital camera over traditional film cameras • Took 1.5 -2 years to build puppets because of highest standards and every copy had to look identical in every detail • Used special gearing systems in the head for better articulation of expressions • Screenings: • Behind the scenes feature from Corpse Bride: Mackinnon and Saunders puppet makers • Vincent, written and directed by Tim Burton, 1982
Henry selick • - Cal Arts alumni (Tim Burton, Lasseter) • - Also directed Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, James and Giant Peach, Monkeybone, • - Underwater effects for Life Aquatic • Recent film: Coraline (2009) • Screenings: • Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions, Henry Selick, 1990
notable mention • Balance, ChristophLauenstein, 1989 • Oscar winner • Madam PutliTutli, Chris Lavis and MaciekSzczerbowski, 2007, Youtube link, website • Multiple award winner • Mr. Fantastic Fox, Wes Anderson, 2009, based on book by Roald Dahl, Youtube link
