File puptcrit/puptcrit.1001, message 406


Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:03:25 -0800
From: Steven Barr <lapuppet-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] La Traviata gypsy chorus animation


To Hobey and others,  Puppets and Animation.

     As you know I've been making Puppet films-- what I consider
"pure-puppet" films, where the object-puppet defines the story, the action,
and everything in between-- The emotion comes from the puppet-object, not
from humans reacting to the object. But I teach a few classes per year
within the UCLA film school in the ANIMATION department, called REAL-TIME
animation: puppets in film. I don't think that stop motion animation and
filmed puppetry are to be considered the same thing but I argue that both
are animations of objects-- the emotions come from objects themselves. I'm
not sure if I agree that Corpse Bride shouldn't be considered in the UNIMA
category, because I call the animated objects PUPPETS. But the question
remains, is playing with time (stop motion) what makes the Animation become
an Animation or is it the object itself irregardless of the way it is
animated?  Actually, I teach filmed animation in the Animation dept. because
neither the Theatre dept. nor the film dept. wanted anything to do with
Puppets. So Animation is Puppetry's best friend and lover. But I argue that
Avatar is hybrid animation, not puppetry (because it is filmed visual
effects both done in real time and in stop-motion through computers not what
I call filmed puppets).
    In Central Europe, where stop motion kings ruled the earth, (Trnka etc)
 the Animation dept. resided within the dept. of Puppetry, not film. So,
UNIMA in Prague (where it was founded), saw stop motion films as Puppet
films-- not as People or as 2-D animation films. My FAUST film has been
shown at European puppet festivals along side stop- motion films.
Stylistically, they do seem to fit together more than when my Puppetfilm is
shown within the Animation category at US film festivals. But in the top
Animation Festivals, Puppet films are not invited or accepted. For some
unknown reason their bureaucratic hierarchy defines Animation as altering
time, not as the object as subject, therefore eliminating the millions of
puppet films on the market from entering their festivals (that's a joke,
there are very very few). also in Central Europe the puppetry departments
are where the animators learned movement analysis for the characters.

-- 
Steven Ritz-Barr
Visiting Professor, Animation, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
Owner, Classics in Miniature, Inc. <www.classicsinminiature.com>
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