Welcome to a new blog series! The Pinocchio Placement weekly debrief (or something to that effect!)
For those just tuning in, I have recently started a placement working on the new Guillermo del Toro stop motion film Pinocchio in Portland, Oregon. An opportunity facilitated by the amazing folks at Screen Australia (a million times, thank you!), and spear headed by incredible producer Melanie Coombs (Legend!)
I like the word debrief, as honestly this blog series will be as much for me as it will be for you. A chance to get the information out of my brain and on to paper (figuratively speaking). I used to blog a lot, and found it to be very useful, but have had a biiiiig gap in writing anything like this. But now is definitely the time; this experience will be one of the biggest challenges I have undertaken in my professional career. I am the small fish in a big, beautiful pond, there is so much for me to learn, and I know there are many of you out there keen to come on this journey with me. So here goes!
It. Has. Been. Surreal.
Right now, it is still very surreal to be here, but also, oddly, I feel instantly at home. It has been a surprisingly smooth transition. This is in large part due to the people here. First and foremost, my amazing housemates Zilla and Chris. I could not have asked for a warmer welcome when I arrived. These two wonderful humans have been so welcoming, and so supportive, and we all get along so well. The day I arrived (last Saturday at around midday) they took me on a driving tour of the city, and then we spent the evening playing board games (which for those who know me well, is my one of my favourite pastimes!). I can honestly say already that my warm, friendly home environment will be hugely instrumental to the success of my time here.
Zilla (short for Mattzilla) also works on the production, in the puppetry department as part of the mould making team. This has been such a bonus, to have an immediate friend in the studio, someone to debrief with daily… plus a lift to and from work in his old Volvo “Gregory”. Zilla also has a basement studio at the house, which means I have somewhere I can practice techniques in the evenings or on the weekends. I am excited for when I get to shadow Zilla at work, and learn about the mould making techniques they use at the studio.
But what have I been up to this week you ask!?
Well. Day one was mainly orientation and introductions. Following on from my comment earlier… The People! Everyone on the production is so lovely. I have felt so welcomed and so supported… everyone is very approachable, very down to earth. It is such a nice culture, and a wonderful environment to be in. So after day one of tours, meeting people, signing things, talks about safety, I.T, NDA guidelines etc. By day two I was set to work with the sculpting team. Actually for about 2hrs at the end of day one, I had my hands in some clay!
So all this week I have been sculpting a tiny maquette (tiny for my standards). Obviously, due to the very strict nature of our NDA, I can not tell you exactly what I was sculpting, but I can tell you that it was more detailed than anything I have ever done before. Clay sculpting is certainly not my area of expertise, so this has been a real challenge, but I am loving it. The sculpting team are incredible, seeing what they are working on, the level of detail, the gorgeous shapes… it is a little overwhelming and at times intimidating. Sometimes I need to take a deep breath and remind myself that I am here to learn, I am the little fish (imposter syndrome be damned!)
My supervisor for this little sculpt project is Toby Froud who is an incredible artist, very experienced, and also just a lovely human. Fun trivia fact, Toby’s parents worked on The Labrynth, and Toby was the Baby kidnapped by David Bowie as the Goblin King! Toby also worked on the new Dark Crystal series… among lots of other amazing projects (look him up).
So… back to the sculpting itself. I have learned a few key things through both my own revelations, and direct advice from people in the studio. Toby offered me the choice of using oil based clay or Sculpey; as the latter is something I use a lot at home, I decided it would be better in this situation (again, here to learn!) to try something out of my comfort zone. I am actually loving it as a material to work with. I built a simple wire armature for my maquette, and later had the revelation, that I should have included the character’s prop in the armature. Though I put a little armature of its own inside the prop, it would have been a lot stronger to have it connected to the main armature. One of the other sculpter’s, Hasani Walker, confirmed this when I asked saying it is indeed how he would approach it (the joys of hindsight).
I also put epoxy putty on my characters limbs, to mark out the upper arm, lower arm etc, leaving the joints exposed. I later regretted this, as the characters limbs are so slim that the epoxy putty got in the way of shaping those sections.
On top of it being the most detailed sculpt I have done, it is also the first time I have ever sculpted to someone else’s design. I was given a to-scale, 2D image of the character front on. I later realised how much I would have benefited from an image of the characters side profile, as one of my first big critiques from Toby and head of Puppetry Georgina Haynes, was that I had made the character too flat. In saying this, Toby told me that this is often the case, that they are only given a front on design. I think for the sculpting team, they have the talent and expertise to flesh these designs out into 3D without that guide. It is a challenge for me, but I am figuring it out, and really enjoying the process.
So I have literally sat, sculpting this maquette every day, 8hrs a day. It is the longest time I have ever dedicated to one sculpt, and yet people around me say I am moving quite fast! I joked “There is working fast and then there is working well and clearly I am doing only the former”. A self deprecating gibe I think that was based in a true insecurity on Friday, after I had sliced my characters entire face off twice after receiving critiques. The issue with the face was again based on the profile look, but Georgina and Toby drew me a couple of sketches of what they thought the characters face would look like in profile, which has really helped!
Oh, and at one point my character was too short as well! This led to another good lesson from George, that I could create a stand for the 2D design so I could literally see the proportions standing behind the puppet, rather than referencing the design on the table. This was immensely helpful and a simple technique that I know I will use all the time in future! Luckily it was only the characters legs that were too short, everything else was proportioned correctly, so it wasn’t too difficult to fix!
It has been a lesson in patience, and in taking my time. It is a very different style of work to what I normally do at home. I feel like in general, my puppets are more focussed on functionality than appearance. These puppets are all of the above… and to the ninth degree! Everything is so well planned out and so detailed. It is a big, well oiled machine, and I am so happy to be apart of it. Speaking of functionality, I also work next to the armature team, and am excited to work with and learn from them when the time comes.
My official title on the production is “Puppetry Intern”, and I will get passed around between all the different teams in the Puppetry department over the next 6 months, getting to know all the different techniques, and hopefully leave with a great overview and understanding of how all of it works. It is a crash course in stop motion puppets, and I have the best teachers you could possibly ask for! I feel like I have really needed this shake up, and what an incredible place to be and grow as an artist.
So that was week one. Oh wait! How could I forget to mention… THE DOGS! Oh my, the dogs. The beautiful, gorgeous dogs! So the people have definitely made me feel at home, but the dogs… have made me feel all warm and fuzzy and constantly bring a big goofy smile to my face. The studio is a dog friendly workspace, and there are so many gorgeous pooches, all ready for pats and games and love at any moment. I am working on a video montage of them all (keep an eye on my instagram). When you see the video you will wonder how I get any work done!
Overall, I am feeling so happy and so blessed to be here. I cannot thank everyone around me enough for the support and the welcome I have received. Bring on week 2!
Pictured in the photo above with me is the amazing Amara Gantz, my Screen Australia counterpart in the animation department. Amara is an incredible artist from Tasmania. You can follow her on instagram @amaramation