Getting Moving - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 209

brief moment, and sustaining that illusion through the scene and story. I probably fi nd more emotional
connection and satisfaction if I am animating and working on a fi lm that I have written and designed. I
do speak to them and make sure they are wrapped correctly and repaired when they need it. I'm very
protective over them!
RC - There is a sensual satisfaction, in the meaning of sensory as opposed to sensual in a sexual
meaning, from actually manoeuvring the puppet so it can act. It's the whole 'bringing it to life' experience.
DC - I worked mainly with the Vicar in Curse of the Were-Rabbit and got quite emotionally involved. I
knew him and why he was doing what he did and I had to understand how he felt so I could portray
that in his/my acting. The better the puppet the more emotional it can be and consequently the more
emotionally you get involved. I knew all the people in the church by name and knew how they would
behave in different circumstances. One shot had fi fty-four characters in it and I knew what everyone was
doing and why. Some puppets were limited background characters and so their emotional involvement in
the scene was similarly limited!! Some fell apart but somehow I didn't!
AW - In Peter and the Wolf I animated the shot where the wolf eats the duck. I felt horrible. I felt stupid
because it's just animation, but I was affected by it. I felt like I had murdered my own friend.
SB - Because I hold a puppet just about everyday what I'm feeling varies. Sometimes I feel like I'm just
going through the motions and sometimes I get absorbed by what I'm doing.
RH - I can almost always recognise my own animation, and sometimes I get a pleasant surprise when I
see my own work. Sometimes, it looks better than I had remembered it. On the day you are so wrapped
up in what you are doing that you become too critical and too much of a perfectionist. This is true of my
case, but it forces you to do your best, and so therefore your work turns out better than you anticipated
when you view it away from the atmosphere of the studio.
JC - Puppets are a little like people, some you warm to, others you don't. If a puppet is well made,
allowing good movement and control, you would like it. It's more important for the puppet to have an
interesting character, good or evil, funny or sad, something to get your teeth into. Good lines always
help. On any show different animators will have different favourites. Sometimes you have puppets that
you just don't get on with. I do prefer characters I have created. Then I know exactly where they are
coming from and how they would react.
TA - If a shot was of particular pleasure or pain to do, I seem to keep an emotional memory of how I felt
doing it. If I watch such shots as part of a fi nished fi lm, those distance feelings do resurface slightly. This
can actually get in the way of simply enjoying the fi lm! On Peter and the Wolf , I did a piece where Peter
opens the trailer door to release the wolf back into the wild. It's an important shot where they stare into
each other's eyes and we see the unspoken bond between them. However, I get memories stirred of being
so tense whilst animating it. Both puppets had lots of hair or baggy clothing and I had to be so careful
where I touched them. It took four days! It's an unpleasant memory.
On Fireman Sam a squirrel had to animate fairly realistically. Squirrels move so fast I could move it from
one pose to another in just two or three movements. You could take it off set for repairs midshot because
the moves were so big. I had such fun playing with squirrel actions with no fear of limitations. It freed my
work up and I have happy feelings watching those shots these days.