Preparation - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 183

Thanks to Nigel Cornford's costume, Shakespeare could not fail to look elegant.
incorporated into the costume. Don't believe the director who says that the back of the puppet
will never be seen. It will. It is best to disguise the rigging points through some design feature,
or accept the fact that the inevitable hole left by the rig will be painted out in postproduction.
The holes for Allen keys, necessary for turning head mechanics, can be more easily disguised as
they are much smaller, but rigs can be quite substantial. I don't like rigs, as I try to keep a shot
as pure as possible, minimising the postproduction. I'm much happier suspending puppets on
practically invisible i shing line. Film, and good lighting, is helpful here, but I fear the that new
high-dei nition formats will make that harder for us.
In keeping with the period costume, we gave Shakespeare small white cuf s and a white ruf to
ensure that his head and hands stood out clearly from the background. A larger ruf seemed
too indulgent. Subtle but rich backlighting also gave his black costume a discreet halo, easily
separating him from the black behind.
I have done a reasonable amount of Renaissance and Elizabethan dance, often dancing
in costume. I thought this to be an agreeable af ectation, but feeling what restrictions the
costumes imposed suggested how the dance might have been performed. A heavy ruf
ef ectively limits some head movement, so any glancing and l irting has to be done by turning
the whole body … what a magnii cent statement to the assembly this becomes.
I tried to incorporate elements of this into Shakespeare's performance, as well as
recognised etiquette and the received knowledge of how Shakespeare's plays were
performed.
I get sidetracked and excited with all this research, and I love it, as it helps to
feel how the character might behave, stand or move. This probably sounds like