Different Techniques - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 148

I decided it was time to study again, so I visited all the universities in Melbourne. The choices offered
were soon narrowed down and the only courses I'd a remote chance of getting into were in the fi ne arts.
I thought I might become a purist and devote my life to portrait painting, marble sculpture or abstract
Japanese printmaking. I visited the Victorian College of the Arts Film School and stumbled across
their animation department and realised here was a course especially designed for me. My pet rock
making skills and Murray tee-shirts must surely impress the entrance assessors; how hard could it be? I
enthusiastically applied and patiently sat by the phone for weeks waiting to receive my acceptance call.
Sadly, my naivety was strong and I was totally ignorant of the fact that the VCA fi lm school was one of
the most competitive and prestigious schools in the country. They only accepted eight students a year
and I sadly was not one of them. I looked for another course and discovered a picture frame-making
class at the council for adult education. This was a much easier course to get into! You just paid $150
and for two nights a week over two months learnt how to frame your own pictures. I'm a keen amateur
photographer and thought I would buy a little picture frame-making shop! They accepted me eagerly and
the evening I got ready to head off to my fi rst class, the phone rang. It was the fi lm school administrator
telling me it was my lucky day and that one of the eight successful students had decided to drop out of
the course. They had a waiting list and even though I didn't have the required skills, they thought I had
potential ! Did I still want to become an animator, she asked? I was gobsmacked and shaking. I told her I
was excited but was not sure I would get my $50 deposit back from the picture frame-making course. She
persuaded me and the rest is history.
I look back concurring how a pivotal moment can change a person's life. What if I had have done the
picture frame course? What if that anonymous person did not drop out of the top eight? What if I'd
stayed down the market selling Murrays? I know for one thing; I would not have an Academy Award
sitting on my shelf. I am happy and content nowadays as an animator and have thoroughly enjoyed
the thousands of hours I've been locked in my studio moving blobs of Plasticine in almost microscopic
increments. I've been lucky that all my fi lms have been warmly received and cared for. They are my
children and I'm always humbled at how much the public enjoys and embraces them. I hope to make
many more claymated fi lms, but if there comes a time when they no longer work and audiences shun
them and my career as an animator is over, I can always think about becoming a vet again. Either that or
go back to selling mutant pet rocks.
Personal approaches
The Brothers Quay
No technique is written as a hard and fast rule, and animators such as the Brothers Quay
manage to bridge a huge variety of techniques, often combining rough puppets with organic
and found materials. I'm in awe of these brothers, Timothy and Stephen, and especially of their
career. They have managed to escape being pigeonholed as merely animators,
bringing their unique sensibilities to operas, i lm, ballets and the theatre. I applaud
the producers that have the vision to see that the brothers' skill can be applied to
any medium. Their work is highly visual, and every frame resonates with echoes
and allusions to all manner of less mainstream cultural sources. I admire their utter
bravery in going against what is seen as commercial and traditional, and they have
pushed what is capable with stop motion. More often than not, narrative plays