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> _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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