Production - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 280

Starewicz's The Grasshopper and the Ant (Saemi Takahashi).
have just animated you had to put yourself into the puppet's position more, and you had to
know the shot you were shooting and be totally prepared. Animators probably had a more
intimate connection. Technology provides an often welcome safety net, and many animators
rely on having their performances enhanced or even created in postproduction by clever
editors. But it would be a shame to lose that adrenaline of having to get it right i rst time. One
big clunky 35 mm camera I worked with had mechanics that allowed you to look through the
viewi nder by sliding a substantial piece of the camera across on a special sliding rig. It was
terrifying to see the camera move during a delicate take, but the camera usually returned to
the precise position. However, the shots often had to be structured according to the camera, as
sometimes the piece that slid across came into contact with the set, prohibiting any access to
the viewi nder.
The i rst video playback system I worked with, probably in about 1986, was a very cumbersome
af air. To take a frame you had to drop it on to the sequence that was being built up. The tape
had to roll back probably ten seconds and then, with an alarming click, it would drop on the
new frame, while denying you access to one frame from earlier. Very frustrating. Usually the
image was poor black and white, and not always taken from down the actual lens,
meaning that you were animating with a distorted sense of parallax. Sometimes
the image was so poor that a light had to be turned on to take the video playback
image, and then turned of to take the real image on i lm. The extra light was
invariably forgotten, giving a length of frame with l ash frames: an editor's
nightmare. This led to having more people on set than necessary, and animations
sets are hideously cluttered at the best of times.