After touching on the subject of fantastical puppet making
in my previous blog post, and introducing one of the world’s leading puppet
making companies, Mackinnon and Saunders, I felt the need to learn more about
the vast world of puppet making and looking in particular into the talented
team at Mackinnon and Saunders.
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| Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders |
The founders of the company Ian Mackinnon and Peter
Saunders, teamed up over 30 years ago on a stop-motion version of The Wind in
the Willows and since then they have collaborated together on countless
creative and inspiring television commercials and on some of the most
successful stop-motion feature films. Based in Greater Manchester, the company
was founded after the pair established their puppet making team at Cosgrove
Hall, an organisation that shaped the British animation industry. Cosgrove Hall
films was a British animation studio and was once a major producer of
children’s television and animated programmes. There are best known as the
creators of such creative productions such as Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, The
BFG and The Wind in the Williows as well as making a handful of episodes for
the BBC including Noddy, Bill and Ben and Andy Pandy. Both Mackinnon and
Saunders learned their creative trade at the famous Cosgrove Hall studios and
also recruited many of the company’s former employees after its closure.
Describing the region as the heart of creative talent, the pair were keen on
keeping this visionary talent in one place, particularly for their thriving
business. In addition, the company still receive fantastic opportunities for
collaboration and also have expanding networks, proving that they can still
continue to run a prosperous global business. What is more Mackinnon and
Saunders have set an example for the animation industry not just in Manchester,
but also in the UK.
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| Danger Mouse produced by Cosgrove Hall Films |
Despite having over 30 years of experience, the creative pair found one particular collaboration daunting. Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animation version of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, challenged the duo, their team and their preconceptions about what stop-motion puppets are. What is more with Anderson not haven’t worked a great deal in stop- motion, accelerated the creative team to try new ideas, new techniques and new materials. In addition, the director insisted that he didn’t want the film to look sleek and polished, which can sometimes resemble computer-animation, but instead versioned for the viewers to respect and embrace the medium of stop-motion itself. Furthermore, the puppet makers rediscovered and adapted techniques dating back to ‘King Kong’, which was to cover most of the cast in fur, this was insisted by Anderson whom was infatuated with the tangibility of real fur and the effect it gave on camera. When using real fur meant that the hair would appear to ripple unnaturally, this was due to handling the models between frames. However, it give the feeling and effect that there’s a soft breeze blowing on the character, which resulted in quite beautiful qualities. In addition, the animals’ fur was a combination of real goat’s hair, which was dyed using supermarket everyday hair dye and artificial fur, plucked off plush toys. The characters hair colour required specific, individual dying times in order to get the colouring right. In addition, the human characters hair was taken from studio employees, who had matching colour hair to the character. Mackinnon and Saunders produced over 500 puppets for the entire film and every last detail was made by hand. Mr. Fox had 17 different styles and each of these styles had to be done in six different sizes, resulting in the character having over 100 puppets alone.
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| Applying the fur - image taken from Mackinnon and Saunders' website |
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| Puppets varying in size |
Overall, this one collaboration out of many that Mackinnon
and Saunders have experienced, proved a challenging yet learning curve experience.
Pushing the boundaries, exploring new techniques and materials and
re-discovering the old ones, allowed for the pair and their team to expose
themselves to something new and re-invent the old. Furthermore, it also shows
that even with having 30 years of experience, there is always a new challenge
and a new way of thinking just around the corner.
Sources:
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