Directing - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 309

Gilbert and Sullivan has yet to be available on DVD. I'm actually a little surprised and pleased
at the favourable reactions from the most fanatical and traditional of Gilbert and Sullivan fans,
who see it as a game. They are quick to tell me of the gentle changes from Gilbert's original.
Perhaps the subjects themselves, Shakespeare, Greek myths, opera, inspire such devotion, but
the audiences who seem to enjoy my fi lms do so with a most agreeable passion, or modifi ed
rapture (thank you, Mr Gilbert). Likewise, the audiences who dislike my fi lms do so with a solid
indifference.
Since this fi lm, people have suggested a complete Gilbert and Sullivan opera in stop motion, with
The Mikado and Iolanthe being the favoured works. I'd be up for that, and I would do something
as refreshing and as innovative as the operas were in their time. Yes, please, but where are the
talking animals?
I was pleased, just before the recording, to fi nd a line from a letter that Gilbert wrote to Sullivan,
which the latter sadly never received: 'It gives one the chance of shining right through the
twentieth century with a refl ected light'. That's a very respectful compliment, and I quickly
incorporated it into the script, unlike the quote about 'God save the Queen', but there will always
be 'what ifs' and 'if onlys' on any fi lm. We never make the fi lm in our head, as our thoughts are
always developing, and new ideas just happen as we work. At least in stop motion, the process
takes place over such a long period that any new research can usually be accommodated,
although this can work against a fi lm. It would be lovely to be so sure of the storyboard, the
script and all the production elements that the fi lming goes as planned, but it never does. Stop
motion is, thankfully, an organic beast.
Do you think animation is a tedious process for which you need a lot of
patience? Is that the question you have been asked most? What is the
dumbest and the most profound question?
JD - No. 'How do you know how far to move it?' The dumbest was by a senior person at an effects
company: 'we found that animating in sunlight didn't work because the shadows move'. Perhaps the
most profound turns out to be 'how do you know how far to move the puppet?' because that takes in the
entire spectrum of mechanics and dramatics.
TB - No, I fi nd animation quite relaxing. There are no dumb questions, only stupid answers, and
I've given plenty in the latter category. Most profound? That would be from a pastor who asked me,
'Do you believe that there is a possibility that Jesus actually rose from the dead?'
KD - You do need patience, but maybe that comes with practice. I always get 'ohh, you mean like
Wallace and Gromit'!
DC - 'How come you can't see your hand when you take the picture?' (dumb) and 'why do you do it?'
(profound but depressing if you soul search too deep). Before an interview on Hamilton Mattress , Barry
Purves and I joked with the journalist about questions he might ask, like 'bet you're patient?' and 'does
it take a long time?', then he held up his microphone in all seriousness, asking 'do you have to be patient
because it takes such a long time?'