Shaping Ideas - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 122

The Achilles puppets had cracks added into their skins and green weathering, reinforcing the
idea that these are statues, not humans; although still people ask whether they are actors in
make-up. One wide shot in particular, with Achilles on his back drinking, confuses people. I put
this down not to great acting but to a credible pose. This i lm would have worked dif erently
with actors, the nudity becoming an awkward distraction (nudity immediately separates
the actor from the acting), but it might make an interesting dance piece - I wanted as much
choreographed movement as possible.
Naked, but they kept their shoes on - Achilles and Patroclus.
The sculpted sandals are there as a constant reminder, not only of the story's 'sword and sandal'
nature, but also that a simple piece of clothing often has the ef ect of eroticising a naked
body. We often found on The Wind in the Willows that the act of putting a scarf on a hedgehog
suddenly made it undressed, especially next to the dressed main characters. A tricky area.
I had intended that every piece of clothing or prop would be an extension of the statue and
would be painted and sculpted with just a hint of a colour long since worn away. Somewhere
along the way I lost that, and the amazingly detailed clothes do not quite i t
my original convention. Both Achilles and Patroclus' faces have a sculpted band
around their heads. I had meant to brush this with gold, but in the whirl of
preproduction I lost that detail as well.
The sculpting and texturing of the red i gure vase painting characters manage to
be both a three-dimensional i gure and a rel ection of their more graphic source.