Preparation - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 160

puppets and props standing on the table, and keeps pulling back to see this image as part of
a storyboard. My live hand shuts the storyboard, and the i lm ends with the i lm itself running
through the gate. Various showy elements made it a tricky one-take shot. Computers would
make the shot easy to do now, but would have lost the showmanship.
The tricky fi nal shot of Screen Play .
Another favourite transition is in Terry Gilliam's Baron Munchausen , where an audience in a
bombed-out theatre watches a l orid production of Munchausen's adventures. As the actor
emotes the camera moves onto the stage and gently glides into the real world of his tales.
There's no cut, but the ef ect is subtle and thrills me. A similar moment is in Poltergeist , where
the camera follows an actress away from an empty table and as she walks back all the chairs
have been stacked on to the table. This is a big jump for the audience, and would not have
worked with a cut or a CG ef ect. The awareness of real time and of 'before your very eyes'
makes the shot work. Long takes remove the safety net, and knowing there's no cheating,
any ef ects work better. Some scenes just have to be told in a continuous shot. Imagine if
Fred Astaire's famous sequence of dancing over all the walls and ceiling had been done with
cuts. There would have been no magic or thrill. With this in mind I try to do long takes in stop
motion as the challenge produces adrenaline, for me, and maybe for the audience. I'd rather
the puppet's performance created the energy than rely on quick cuts.
Today, CG trickery, blue screens, digital cameras no bigger than a few inches and second passes
have made things simpler but possibly not as fun. I love working out all the trickery. With stop
motion you have the luxury of time in between the camera exposures to play with
all manner of ef ects. The concept behind the sets in my i lm Screen Play was to
look as though this could happen on stage, but then to take it further. We were
building, painting and destroying the sets frame by frame as the i lm progressed.
As screens slid across, I popped down props or characters behind them that were
subsequently revealed. On stage, such characters could rise up through traps as
the screen slid by, as with many stage illusions (detailed beautifully in The Prestige ),