Amusement Parks & Family Entertainment Amusement Parks

September 18th
I gave Sullivan his heart
attack today and made a bit of a
mess of it. I gave him two violent
spasms before he collapsed, and
they were probably too violent. I
pushed it too far and I’m worried
that Sullivan looks a bit comical,
like a pantomime Quasimodo. Still
the aftermath is quite effective,
and with the help of some telling
grunts and groans, I can probably
make it work. It’s stupid that I panic
about the gestures that go wrong
and barely look at the ones that
go right. I would have liked another
go at this, but there just is not
the time.
Of course, there are a few
shots that I hate, but I clearly have
two favourites. One is Sullivan
dancing with Queen Victoria, and
the other, is Carte turning his back
on G and S. His body language
speaks volumes, and it’s a satisfying
composition. I must keep looking
at these shots when things go
wrong. We set up the final shot of
Episode Four, but it really did not
look as I saw it in my head, so I
changed it all quite drastically. Our
work experience chap this week,
another Andrew, was pleased to
see me improvise. Andrew, who
has done some pretty encouraging
animation, has been an enormous
asset to us this week, as
have all the various students. We
really could not have made this
film without them, as we would
have otherwise literally not had a
crew.
September 21st
That’s it. I’ve reached overload.
There were too many people
on set today and I didn’t have a
clear head. It’s my fault as I don’t
want to discourage people coming
to see us, and it’s good to have
some fresh reactions at this stage.
However, it was a bit much today,
and my head was taken up with
post-production issues and other
things that need to be done. But I
also need to finish this film. We
had rushes back this morning,
masses of them, and they all look
good. Sullivan’s spasms didn’t look
too bad in the cold light of day,
but I’ll still have to find exactly the
right sound to make it work.
We really could not have
made this film without the
students, as we would have
otherwise literally not had a
crew.
We went on to the shot of
Sullivan’s limp body being laid on
the floor as Carte and Gilbert look
aghast. Well, that was the intention.
It was nearly 14 seconds,
most of it in silhouette. To make
the emotion stronger I wanted to
keep the characters, as still, as
shocked, as possible, but as any
animator will know, it is damned
hard to keep a puppet still for long
periods. Puppets, in particular,
“die” after a few frames of holding.
So I fidgeted and fidgeted, and
there were rather too many empty
gestures. Also what is odd about
this shot is that there is no music.
It will need some suitable plaintiff
sound. It was a little distressing to
see Sullivan sprawled on the floor.
The pose I’d put him in was a little
too familiar for comfort, and had
painful resonances for me.
September 22nd
Just listening to Wagner’s
Ring — wow, that’s an antidote to
G & S, though Sullivan does often
allude to Wagner, especially in
Iolanthe. My mind still not much
clearer, as I’m having to think
about the post-production, writing
of a publicity blurb, who we
should contact to get an article
written, and a million things like
this. Oh, and finishing the film. We
did a series of cutaways of Carte
dressed as a Beefeater. This is without
doubt my favourite costume;
well done Clare. Though I gather
at an early stage it was a rather
uncomfortable shade of salmon
pink, not the deep rich red it
should be. This costume looks so
vibrant against all the black — but
sadly, we never see it full length,
and it probably only has about 8
seconds of screen time. I love costumes,
but they can be both blessings
and curses. They do make
things difficult to work with. I’ve
just remembered when I was part
of the Manchester University
Gilbert and Sullivan Society
(M.U.G.S!), one year we had an
end of season party en travesti. I
went as Mad Margaret from Ruddigore.
A very picture of sober
decorum, in black riding ensemble,
with a flash of red hair, woven
with country flowers, betraying
her “madness.” Sadly, or happily,
no evidence of this exists.
Trying to think of a catchy
tag line for this film, and I keep
ending up with other people’s tag
lines. Oh, here come the Valkyries,
racing ‘round the living room, terrifying
the cats. I love it that in the
midst of all Wagner’s sometimes
suspect mythology, he still found
time for the Valkyries to basically
call each other rude names. A bit
of humour amongst four days of
less than lightweight music.
Anyway, tag line — I can
feel the rhythm of it, but can’t
ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE December 1998 40