Shaping Ideas - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 125

How could they refuse that of er? So, begrudgingly, they kept churning out their comic
masterpieces, and they are indeed masterpieces, especially The Mikado , whether you enjoy
them or not. Both Gilbert and Sullivan continued to work separately, hoping to be remembered
for their more artistic high-l own endeavours. Sadly, those works have faded, and the pair
is remembered for their highly commercial pieces. Art versus commerce is one of the most
common struggles for anyone in the arts today. I have faced that struggle and lost, but I've
been pretty happy with the compromises most of the time. I was lucky to be spoilt in the
1990s by Channel 4 who, under the primary guidance of Paul Madden and Clare Kitson, were
passionate about pushing the creative boundaries of animation. By the time I came to make
Gilbert and Sullivan for them, things had changed drastically, and even a i lm about Gilbert and
Sullivan, one of the most popular and visible icons of British culture, was seen as rather élitist,
apparently even more so than Shakespeare.
Next had done well for me and had done something vaguely dif erent. I was keen to make
some sort of follow-up, and correct the faults I felt the Shakespeare i lm had. I was getting
excited about the possibility of two puppets to work with, and the range of staging and acting
potential that brought. My Shakespeare always looked rather lonely on stage, especially with
a lifeless dummy for company (although, hang on, aren't they both technically lifeless?), and I
wanted puppets to do some serious and intimate interacting with each other. I had envisaged
a string of i lms looking behind various cultural icons. Gilbert and Sullivan seemed an obvious
choice for a sequel, Next Two in fact. That seemed a totally appropriate pun of a title.
This was intended as a thirty-minute spectacular, with just the two of them, and structured
after a typical opera, much in the way that Anna Russell (the singer behind the stunning vocal
performance of the Witch in the 1950s' stop motion i lm Hansel and Gretel ) sang her brilliant
parody, How to write your own Gilbert and Sullivan opera . It was written as a lively and inventive
piece, but I'm glad it didn't get made then, as the i lm was about the operas themselves
rather than about the relationship between the two men, and their struggle with artistic
compromise that the i lm eventually became. Cultural references in themselves are usually
too self-indulgent, but when used to shed light or as a counterpoint to something else, they
become much more dramatically interesting. Revisiting the idea nine years later, I was clearly
having that artistic struggle myself, and had a much more experienced perspective about
creativity and earning a living. I had also had more experience working brilliantly with people
who perhaps I didn't necessarily socialise with, but with whom the working relationship was
fantastic, and vice versa. This all boded well for a tuneful i lm about the frustration of working
in the arts and relationships with other artists.
Channel 4 was quite keen on the idea, but rather than a big half-hour slot, they of ered i ve
three-minute slots on consecutive nights. I wasn't going to be precious about that, and
snapped up the chance. Secretly, I worried about making what were in ef ect i ve separate
short i lms, knowing that the audience may not see every i lm. This was going to have a huge
impact on structure, but being rather obsessive about this I managed to turn it to
my advantage. I like restrictions and I i nd they stimulate and inspire me.
I agreed to the series of short i lms, but asked that they could sometime show all
i ve as one piece, talking myself into twice as many problems by trying to structure
a series of three-minute i lms that were not only self-contained with their own
theme, a suitable climax and a resolution, but could also play smoothly when