Evolving into Stop Motion - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 18

of these astonishing puppets. Harsh side lighting with a gentle key light from behind picked
up every sensual shape in the puppets. When animating, I could feel myself gently pushing
the puppet a little further into or away from the light to make the shadows more ef ective. The
shadows were as much a part of the i lm as the light.
Paul Smith's dramatic lighting for Achilles , emphasising the textural sculpting.
I tried to reference the Greek friezes and how they rely on a strong side lighting to make the
relief stand out most ef ectively. I asked the excellent cameraman Paul Smith not to use i ll,
so some of the puppet was unseen, echoing they way that the puppets themselves stepped
out of the darkness. The idea of using darkness is often a forced economy. I had used darkness
in Next to play various theatrical tricks, but with Achilles I had ten puppets to walk: a time-
consuming feat by any standards, and where would they have walked to when not needed in
a scene? They couldn't walk of the set, as the set comprised just a stone circle. So the puppets
evocatively emerge in and out of the dark, being physically removed when possible. This has
become something of a signature trick. A cheap trick, but an ef ective one.