Context of Practice 3 - Notes 3 (The Art of Making ParaNorman, Jed Alger)

Yet again this follows on from the other two 'Notes' blogs, these are the quotes that I may use from the Art of Making ParaNorman.

The Art of Making ParaNorman

‘You make a stop-motion film twice - first in story, with drawing. Then you make it for real.’ Chris Butler pg 16

‘Some animated movies want to transport you to a fantasy world or another time. ParaNorman needed a different philosophy. It didn’t make sense for the film to feel like it was conjured up by designers tucked away in a studio. We needed to be ‘of’ the contemporary world; exploring mundane reality and reporting on it. There’s just something fundamentally cool about seeing the world you live in observed in miniature.’ Sam Fell pg 21

‘The 3-D printer really bridges the practical, hands-on side with the technical side. The computer is a tool and the printer is a bridge between the tool and the real world.’ Brian McLean pg 48

‘However, the first generation of 3-D printers did not print in color. That meant that for Coraline, each and every face needed to be hand painted.’ pg 50

‘We've got big puppets that are technically challenging - characters with huge necks, thick arms, all the no-no’s in puppet making.’ Chris Butler pg 60

‘They are constantly playing with the mix of materials to get a better look and better performance.’ pg 64

‘silicone gives a great look to a puppet, but if you cast a large puppet, like Ms Henscher, entirely in silicone, she becomes nearly impossible for the animators to manipulate.’ pg 64

‘So George’s team cast Ms Henscher in foam rubber, then cut away the surface and did a second cast of silicone to achieve a puppet that looked great and could still perform.’ pg 64

‘The clothing needs armatures as well; it needs to move frame by frame, if it’s going to move at all. Sometimes the judge’s cloak flies behind him - he has special action cloaks for the big scenes.’  Georgina Hayns pg 70

‘In stop-motion, straight hair past the shoulders is the biggest nightmare in the whole entire world, it has to interact with the shoulders as the puppet moves, and the straightness of it, the physics of it, makes it challenging to tension the hair so that it can move naturally without strange buckles.’ pg 76

‘You often find that people who get into stop-motion animation aren't trained in animation - they are natural born craftspeople who want to work on a small scale, who are incredibly patient.’ Georgina Hayns pg 79

‘You borrow things from you life, from people you've met - I've got a catalog in my head of stuff I’m waiting to use.’ Nelson Lowry pg 92

‘It has to be a collaboration (with the art department). I’m allowed to go in and say, “I think this color is a bit wrong” and they can come to me and say, “I think this lighting is a bit wrong” and there is absolutely no problem. That’s how it should work.’ Tristan Oliver pg 120

‘In stop-motion, nothing moves of it’s own volition. Everything you see is evidence of a human hand and a human mind. Every physical detail, every blade of grass, every branch of every tree, every emotion on every character’s face was designed, built, and manipulated by an artist’s hand.’ Travis Knight pg 123