Different Techniques - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 140

of the buildings to the half-glimpsed alleys between them. At the table the stark, fl ickery warmth of
the candle contrasted strongly with the old man's shaky movements as he prepared a quill and drew a
blanket around his shoulders.
Part of the magic of these scenes lay in not quite being able to fi gure out how they were achieved.
With a conventional cartoon you know it comes primarily from drawings, with stop motion from the
manipulation of puppets. But with Norstein there is a quality that is intangible, a combination of several
intricate methods that unite in an extraordinarily lifelike way.
We were lucky enough to be given a practical demonstration through the use of an overhead projector.
Norstein laid textured shapes of paper down, an abstract collage of unconnected pieces. He pushed them
around until suddenly, almost miraculously, the head and shoulders of the old man appeared. We were
shown a photograph of his studio where every surface was covered with these tiny elements, thousands
of them. By meticulous lighting and camera work these fragments become characters, buildings, fi relight
and the weather. One of the last questions from the audience was whether he had a system to categorise
them, by writing reference numbers on their backs or something similar. He replied, a little indignantly,
'No, of course I don't. Do you think I am mad?'
My favourite scene - Jessica Koppe
I love Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed , the fi rst animated feature fi lm from 1926. It's a
silhouette fi lm without sound effects or dialogue. The music was played by an orchestra originally.
The music gives the rhythm to the storyline and the action takes a subordinate role to the rhythm. It
doesn't need perfect, fl uid movement, but it always needs rhythm. Animation is always some kind of
dancing.
And these scissor-cut puppets dance! They move in a totally theatrical way, every gesture is clear and
leaves no space for speculation. Props and backgrounds fi t perfectly to the puppets and the Tales of
Arabian Nights .
The most impressive scenes are when Achmed comes to the country of Wak Wak, the demon's land.
There he meets their queen Pari Banu at the Magic Lake and falls in love with her. The refl ections on the
water surface are completely made of animated black cardboard because Reiniger's team had less special
effects.
In animation everything is possible. I could tell every story I want to. There is only one requirement to be
fulfi lled: the viewer has to believe that my story could be real. And that's why it needs a good animator
who has to become the characters he's animating.
In my opinion, telling stories is one of our most important cultural skills. People have always told stories
and they always will. I can tell a story with words, with pictures, with music or any kind of art. But the
sum of all I'll fi nd in animation fi lms, it is tradition and innovation at the same time.