Shaping Ideas - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 107

With the one puppet I decided to go the whole way, and have Shakespeare perform the ' Complete
Works ' on an empty stage, a notion in keeping with Elizabethan theatre. Now that seemed to be an
exciting challenge, to which I rose. A whole summer was spent reading the plays, i nding common
images and props that could be reused, making the i lm l ow, while allowing for changes in pace
and unpredictable dynamics. Nothing is deadlier than a i lm or a performance or a movement that
happens at the same constant speed throughout.
With every frame counting, I made sure I segued from one play to another as smoothly as
possible. I had drawn my favourite main images from a play, and images that Shakespeare
could represent with dif erent parts of his body. I laid these out, moving them around endlessly
trying to i nd links, such as horses, crowns and murders. I tinkered with structuring the plays
chronologically, but that wouldn't necessarily have l owed dramatically, and I needed to start
small and end with a big i nish. The i nal scenes of Cymbeline see a god arriving, dressed as a
gold eagle amid thunder and lightning, allowing a memorable i nal image. (Incidentally, this
scene contains a moment that could only have happened in stop motion. One of the wings
got caught on the starburst, bending then springing back with a ping! I saw it happening
and, rather than restart the thirty-second shot, I used it as a nice spontaneous moment.) So
out went a chronological structure. I watched the i lm develop, moving away from my i rst
intentions to somewhere shaped both by Shakespeare and by me. Scripts develop and evolve,
and you have to let them. You aren't going to get the script right i rst time. Another fact is that
once you have i lmed something, only then do you begin to know what it was all about. Too
late, of course, but it is always good to make a mental note to 'explore it more i rst!' Echoing the
plots of many i lms, making a i lm (and writing a topic) is a journey and your perspective on the
subject is wildly dif erent by the end. Let the script develop, but keep asking yourself whether
this is the most interesting way to tell this story.
When making Next , MTV was in full swing with its quick-i re editing. This led me to want longer
sustained shots, with Shakespeare himself controlling the rhythm of the i lm, and not the
editing. I tried to run at least four or i ve plays together in one shot. I get a seli sh rush from
long shots, and hopefully the audience is aware of a dif erent discipline from that of a short
snappy shot, with greater l uidity; and you get to see the performance.
Hands and body language
Much of the inspiration for Next came from a stage piece by the great mime artist, Nola Rae. In
an evening of Shakespeare-related pieces was Handlet: Hamlet told through her hands alone.
A breathtakingly simple idea, executed with such imagination. Within the creative coni nes of
a small Punch and Judy-type frame, Nola represented each of the characters with a dif erent
glove. Hamlet was a mean, tightly clenched black leather glove banging himself against the side
of the frame; Gertrude was pink and l uf y; the players were as rainbow-coloured knitted gloves
with bells; and so on. Just to confuse the issue, once you had accepted that Nola had only two
hands, there would be three characters all apparently performing at the same time,
although this was clever timing. The sublime moment was the gravedigger tossing
spadefuls of earth into the audience while Laertes jumped into the grave and lifted
up the wet, empty, white lace glove of Ophelia and wrung her dry. Drip, drip, drip.
A hysterical gag, but a gag born out of the recognisable truth of the situation;
saying something about the characters and playing on the convention of the gloves
themselves. An absurd moment that was also embarrassingly touching.