29 Aug 2007
27 Aug 2007
The ideas behind Die Murmilen
'Die Murmilen' is a stop frame animation in the making. It has many influences, however the initial idea came from the David Attenborough 'Chisselors' episode in which the behavioural traits of marmots is the main point of focus. As the episode proceeds the wicked ways of the marmots unfold. Marmots are loving creatures who form strong pair bonds, mating with the one partner throughout their entire life. A family of marmots consists of the adult pair and some of last years female offspring. The daughters who are allowed to stay with the group are persecuted so severely by the dominant female (Gross mutter to be) that any that have become pregnant instantly abort. The reason for this is that the adults cannot keep more than one litter warm during the hibernation period. A sort of cruel to be kind approach, but rather frightening and tragic for the expecting parents at the same time.
My fascination with the marmots compelled me to write a story portraying their lives, which would work as a basis for an animation. Many of my early memories of TV are of stop frame animations. Each one of the programmes I watched created a self-contained miniature world of unusual haunting beauty. The puppets/models were very appealing yet surreal. They resembled a person or animal with no life of their own, yet when manipulated they conjured up the illusion that they possessed a life and soul. To see these inanimate objects come to life was uncanny and sometimes frightening.
My aim for 'Die Murmilen' is to make it look like a programme that you would watch as a child. The charming little marmots are supposed to look like toys that you would play with and fall in love with. However, the plot is sinister, thought-provoking and tongue-in-cheek. These anthropmorphous puppets possess life! There will be some unseen force lurking behind these marmots. House hold appliances will move by themselves and the rooms will pulsate with movement. I want to create an aesthetic and uncanny experience to overwhelm the audience.
'Aesthetics means not merely the theory of beauty but the theory of
the qualities of feeling.'
Sigmund Freud.
Uncanny experiences occur when repressed complexes that we have as children are revived again. By making this short look
childlike, but possessing an underlying sinisterness I hope to arouse dread and horror amongst the misty-eyed audience, who were half expecting to see something cute and innocent.
In the world of stop motion there is freedom to do anything and not be restrained by the needs of human actors. Impossible and fantastic situations can become reality in a charming and somewhat jerky way. The beauty of european animations and the craftsman ship involved captivates me. Is it because there is a real sense that someone has moulded, sculpted, stitched those characters so lovingly, moved them frame by frame, created atmospheric lighting and achieved all this without the aid of 'trickery?' Or that these films conjure up the nostalgia of childhood, when the imagination could bring things to life?
A large part of enjoying stop frame animation lies in the fact that it asks you to accept it for what it is, to accept its little imperfections, whereas CGI likes to pretend its real when it obviously isn't. It seems like CGI's final goal will be to replicate reality. It has taken the effects in live action films to places that stop motion could never really go in terms of its seamlessness, but as it becomes cheaper and less time consuming than stop motion, will it not become average? 3D CGI may prove to be a threat, but stop frame's presence, texture and tactility will always allow it to maintain its distinctiveness.
Starting off
One of the things that makes traditional puppet shows and stop-frame animations so fascinating is the old-world craftsmanship involved. You can imagine the techniques being handed down generation after generation. I decided to give the marmots a typically traditional looking Tirolean house to live in, inspired by the many alpine houses that I have visited and the Mitteleuropa animations that I have watched. Here I am in my Southport workshop sawing the wood needed to make animation set number one. Once the pieces for the set were ready for assembly, doors, flooring, window panes and furniture needed to be planned, measured, cut and pieced together.
Bench progression
In Iselsberg every house has wooden wall panelling and benches like the ones in this kitchen.
Painting spoons
The Leeds workshop where cutting, sticking, varnishing and painting take place. A lot of the items needed for the animation have been made, but there are still plenty of accessories that need designing and creating. I feel like I have become a carpenter and decorator on a miniature scale over the past few months.
Tiling the hert
What a job! Not having any experience of tiling I forgot to use adhesive the first time round and pressed the tiles into the clay. Low and behold I woke up one morning to find that the majority of the tiles had dropped off. There were tears, but once i'd overcome my frustration I returned to work. Now the marmots have a heater to keep them warm.
A lovely table display
The kuchl where the marmots spend most of their time eating, reading, conversing and plotting.
The hert
Finally, the heater is erect and all tiles are intact. Such heaters are typically found in Tirolean Stuben (living rooms).
Vater isst gern
Gross vater is in his favourite spot in the kitchen, eating his cheese knoedl. He appears extremely youthful here. I am in the process of making him a pair of reading glasses and a cap in the attempt of adding some years to him.
Vater and Mutter plotting
Gross vater and mutter speak to one another in lowered grave voices. They appear to be discussing/plotting something quite serious.
I am unsure about these marmot eyes. I need to experiment and give them more soul.
26 Aug 2007
Mmm
Mutter is doing what she does best - slaving over a hot stove. Is that knoedl in the pot or have more ingredients been added?
Murmile and Gittie in the Stube
Our beloved murmile and Gittie discuss their joyous news. Murmile gazes lovingly at Gittie's protruding tum.
Flee Flee
Doesn't this cat look great! She lives on the front of a 'wooden finger puppets' box. She and her friends look like they were born in the 70s.
Quipic the Hedgehog, Pere Castor
What a deliciously enchanting story by Pere Castor, about a little hedgehog who enjoys going for solitary walks, only to end up having many an exciting adventure. Quipic encounters travellers who are intent on cooking him in clay and a snake who likes to pick a good fight. Our brave and gallant knight wages a merciless war on all vipers and manages to outsmart those ravenous humans all by himself! This story is fantastic and beautifully illustrated and the lithographs by Rojan are so fresh with colour. It reminds me of stories that my grandma used to tell me when I was little, about the wildlife that surrounded her farm in Iselsberg.
Bruin the Deep Sea Diver, Vilhelm Hansen (1959)
This is a short story that I found in an antiquarian. It is laid out like a comic and is based around Bruin, Pingo and Wilmot who sail the seas in search of the North Pole. They meet several perculiar characters along the way, for instance Oswald the octopus who is incredibly helpful, Father Neptune who insists on a 'crossing the equator' ceremony and a friendly dolphin who helps them to find a lost hat. These creatures may not sound strange, but if you ever manage to locate this twee and charmingly illustrated book, you will know what i mean.
Bimbulli
Bimbulli is a lovely childrens book that I bought in Austria, about a little doll that two children make, as part of a game. The doll comes to life and meets a newly hatched chick named Prinz Kueken. The two of them embark on a perilous venture, which involves being swept downstream during a terrible storm and being saved by a rather surly old frog. I initially bought this book for its attractive and vibrant illustrations, but now that I have read it, my inner child is screaming for me to make my own Bimbulli as instructed on page one.
Bretislav Pojar
I love love love love this! Its called Pojd'te pane budeme si hrat and was designed by Miroslav Stepanek and directed by Bretislav Pojar. I discovered this joyful and incredible animation in a shop in Prague. It was an extraordinary find and like nothing I've ever seen before.
The series is over 40 years old, however looks fresh, stylized, effortless and is as vital as any stop motion animation created today. Although pojd'te pane is in another language I can understand how the characters feel just by looking at them. The furry felt like bears, with their distinctive voices were animated on top of a sheet of glass so only half of the puppet was constructed. These enchanting creatures work so well in a flat enviroment yet still look fully dimensional.
My favourite episode, 'Opardalu kitery vonel,' sees the two bears competing to win the affections of a beautiful, alluring, mysterious cat. The small bear morphs into different articles in the attempt to tend to the feline's every need. The big bear becomes increasingly jealous and decides to win the fair lady for himself. When we see him pummeling his chest in a Tarzan manner, we know that he means business. It all goes terribly wrong and as we suspected in the beginning, the kitty is not a fan of cross breeding and finds herself a tom cat to spend the rest of her days with. The bear's heartbreak is short lived and before too long they are back to playing and morphing again.
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