Anifest, Teplice and Prague!

Oh my God!


Anifest was amazing- I met Barry Purves and got to hold the Tchaikovsky puppet made by Mackinnon and Saunders. He introduced a collection of his films and a couple of clips of things that have inspired him to do what he does.
His latest film 'Tales From an Old Piano' was incredibly well animated and beautiful. The puppet was so well made, i can't remember how long it took to make but Barry Purves was animating for 4 months and only used one puppet and NO hand replacements! The puppet was larger than I expected it to be but maybe that was to make it more durable?

There was so much detail on the puppet, from the skin and hair to the
costume.

Me and Tchaikovsky

The hands were just incredible. Purves learnt all the notes  by Tchaikovsky
used in his film and animated them. The puppet is
miming playing the piano as he couldn't afford to have a working
piano prop made.
He used an old french mime technique that mimics pressure
being applied to the finger tips to make hime look like he was
playing an invisible instrument.

Me and the man himself 

It was really heart warming to hear him talk about his work and inspirations, he's so passionate about it. He says a lot that he doesn't feel good enough

"One is always full of self doubt about one's own work..."


and to hear him say that (even though it is a bit sad to hear he feels that way) made me feel better, because  I feel so unconvident about my work and if it will ever take me anywhere but I guess thats just normal. I just need to absorb my self in what I love and make it my life. I spent too much time thinking about how to do something rather than just doing it.



Laika Studios


I went to a talk by Laika. Again very fascinating. I've watched a lot of their making of films and studio films on their website.
They showed a couple of trailers for their new production 'ParaNorman' which they are using rapid prototyping again but this time they are using a colour printer rather than a black and white printer that was used in 'Coraline'.

I got to hold Coraline 

Coraline's Dad- he is probably my favourite character in the film.
They used an armature in the head instead of replacements
and it was so flexible. And I got to to move his jaw about!

(well i look pretty gamey) but Coraline's Dad seems to like me

Se-ma-for

The talk by Se-ma-for Studios was interesting but they didn't go into the details of fabrication more just who the company has developed. They did say that when there are no immidiate projects the makers just spend time experimenting and finding new ways of making things so when they have a project they have knowledge of new techniques.

Me and the first Peter puppet from Suzie Templeton's
Peter and the Wolf