Shaping Ideas - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 129

Messrs Gilbert, Carte and Sullivan from Gilbert and Sullivan - The Very Models .
immensely tall, and imperiously looking down on the immensely short Sullivan, with Carte
stuck in the middle. It was a cheap visual trick to highlight their obvious dif erences, as well
as acknowledging something of how they were in real life. We did a lot of research looking at
contemporary illustrations, especially the engravings. With these i gures in Carte's imagination,
the black-and-white engravings seemed the right way to go. Finding the equivalent of this
graphic nature in a texture in the sculpting was challenging for the puppet-makers, but the
puppets are some of the most beautiful I have worked with. Because of the pronounced
scale dif erences Gilbert ended up at about i fteen inches, which is taller than normal and
meant chunkier joints, but he was a joy to work with. The costumes also had to have a graphic
illustrative feel to them and we tried to give them a dark side and a light side, hoping that this
would ultimately correspond with the subsequent practical lighting. It didn't, but we tried.
Having the main costumes and characters as black and white meant that we had to be careful
with the lighting so that they did not burn out. The other big problem with monochrome
costumes and skin was keeping them clean, as we only had one set of puppets
and costumes, and there was seldom a shot that they were not in. They got
dirtier as the i lm progressed. I'm not comfortable with wearing gloves; not
many animators are. I need to connect physically with the puppet, which sounds
horribly pretentious, but true. The heights and proportions of the puppet naturally
suggested various gags. It is enormously satisfying when design and storytelling
become one.