Different Techniques - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 151

Images from Svankmajer's fi lms
(Paul Flannery).
Christine Edzard/Sands Films
In the 1980s the wonderful designer Christine Edzard made a few i lms that contained
elements of stop frame. What was refreshing about these i lms was not so much the rather
rudimentary animation, but the sheer beauty of the design. What a i lm for Channel 4 based
on the Emperor's Nightingale lacked in narrative i nesse and animation, it made up for in
breathtaking sets and costumes. At the centre of this i lm is a i nely detailed pagoda, and
puppets and costumes that look as if they were made out of lead. Even more beautiful was
Tales from a Flying Trunk , loosely based on several Hans Andersen stories. One featured
animated kitchen utensils, but the climax featured the vegetables of Covent Garden staging
a ballet to prevent the Opera House from closing … ah, the gloriously strange world
of animation. There were numerous scenes of real vegetables doing ballet classes and
rehearsals, but you could see the vegetables visibly wilting between frames. This was
amusingly ef ective as three long sticks of celery wilted while doing exercises at the barre, but
for the most part the wilting was, not unsurprisingly, uncontrolled and juddery. Come the day
of the performance, and as the vegetables leapt on stage, they were replaced by Royal Ballet
dancers in some of the most sumptuous, ravishing and witty costumes I have ever seen.
The dancers, in their vegetable costumes, caught the essence of caulil owers, peas and
tomatoes far more than the real, clumsy vegetables. Three willowy dancers with beautifully
dyed l oaty fabric and leafy hats perfectly captured the tallness and uprightness of the celery
sticks, and moved in a way that real celery couldn't, but suggested a way that
celery might move if it could. Against the elegant movement of the Royal Ballet
dancers, the animation looked considerably ropey.
New combinations and techniques are being developed for puppets each day, so
it's essential that you work out what is the most appropriate technique, for the i lm
and for the budget. Don't assume that the only way to tell a story is with hugely