Using the Body - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 232

dif erent part of the stage, and without any reference other than feeling the part. Later in the
same i lm he surprisingly uses a bit of pixilation for a chorus of tumblers. In another i lm, he
has some cast members come in with various limbs and assemble them, only for the character
to walk of very much alive, all without an obvious cut; a trick that Georges Méliès would have
loved, and probably did many times, and a trick not dissimilar to any of ours.
I get the impression from biographies that Keaton was far happier with gags that relied purely
on his incredible physical dexterity and versatility, than on mechanical ef ects, and I feel much
the same about the stop motion I have been involved with. I would be very happy with a simple
wide shot showing a full-length puppet with a space for him to move around. I would like the
tricks to come from what I could do with the puppet rather than any special ef ects. I am very
much the purist. Give me a few props and I'm sure I can get a good story going: bare boards and
a passion. I would love to build a series around a central persona, for a series of comedy-led i lms
that did not rely on words, but told their stories totally through pantomime and body language
as Keaton does. This mime is not the mime that involves the shorthand of pointing at wedding
rings and l uttering hands over the heart, but much more about communicating emotion
through a walk, a ripple through the body, a pause or a well-timed prat-fall out of a window.
Much as I adore ballet, and I do, my heart sinks when various 'mothers' start pointing at their
i ngers then at various princes. It seems to be cheating, as they are capable of saying so much
through their bodies and dance, and this literal spelling out seems to be a bit of a failing. I know
that it's a convention going back several centuries, but it's all a bit obvious and stops the l ow.
There must be choreographic ways to convey the same thoughts.
There have only been a few occasions where I have had to resort to wedding-ring acting, and
one was in Achilles . This was fortunately in the play scene, so the scene was quite stylised, and
a lot of information had to be conveyed very quickly. Achilles and Patroclus act out the story
of the other lovers. Patroclus, acting as 'Paris, l utters his hands over his heart at seeing 'Helen.
Achilles as 'Helen' taps her wedding-ring i nger and removes a non-existent ring. I doubt the
Greeks wore wedding rings as such, but it did convey very quickly that Helen was going to run
away with Paris. I'm reluctant to use this sort of acting, but here it worked as it was removed
from the main convention of the i lm. I similarly dislike pointing i ngers to the mouth for
when a character is thinking, and reprimanded an animator who did just that on Hamilton
Mattress for acting as in a bad children's television series. There are far more interesting ways of
conveying things, and I i nd these visual shortcuts lazy, unimaginative and dull.
It amazes me how silent comedians were able to time a gag on i lm and make such i nely
tuned i lms without being able to see any playback, but most of these performers come from
the theatre, where gags and storytelling have to be told without the safety net of retakes and
editing. It becomes totally instinctive. Many of Keaton's gags have some mechanical or set
element that could only be done once, and that sort of pressure must keep you on your toes.
The preparation must have been extraordinary, especially for i lms such as The General or
Steamboat Bill Jnr . There are several sequences where you can see Keaton having
to think quickly, still in character of course, as something has gone slightly wrong,
such as in the scene where he is washed down some dangerous rapids and even
though his safety wire snaps, he still keeps in character. In many respects that is
how stop motion animators work. We do the planning, but generally only get one
chance at a shot, thinking quickly if things go wrong. This can be exciting and
terrifying. Sometimes you scream, wishing you could press a button and rewind