One aspect of the film series Gremlins that gives it its ultimate charm is the use of puppetry to bring the Gremlins alive, It gives such a unique look to how they move and personally I feel like its a great area to explore further and look into other films that use puppetry in them and how they utilise it in the story. Another area of cinema I want to look into is the use of animatronics which was also a huge part in bringing the Gremlins to life though the use of animatronics is still rather recent in the overall history of cinema.
Shadow Puppetry
One of the first uses of puppetry being used for entertainment is through the form of shadow puppetry. This is the form of storytelling where the use of cut out black figures or ones own hands is place in front of a light which casts a shadow onto a white backdrop. Shadow puppetry has a long history of use with it dating back to ancient china, where shadows would be cast on dried out cow hide. The look of this storytelling is bold and has an extremely unique look which I would love to play around with to create a fun and bold art style. Though the movement here is not close to the same sort of unique movement seen in the animatronics I wish to look into capturing.
It is also worthy to note that in the sequel to gremlins the creatures are seen to be making their own shadow puppetry which could be a fun call back to their own routes in the history of puppetry. Either way I love the possibility of just how a game could look in this style and the possible humour that could be conveyed in this style.
Below you can also see one of the videos I watched when looking into this artform. The story below shows the well known fairy-tale of the three little pigs.
Oskar Fischinger
When researching the history of puppetry it opened me up to several artist and takes on the medium that you wouldn't first think of. One of the artists that makes interesting use of it is Oskar Fischinger. Oskar Fischinger was an artist born in 1900 and passed away in 1967, he was known for creating artwork in the 1930s in Germany. His work was abstract films created by using shapes glued to laminate and filmed while being moved in directions to create pycadellic films. His work was well loved during Germany's golden age of film. This would of course end with the beginning of Nazi rule who would shun his work. His take on the idea of puppetry is extremely interesting and creative, its a type of art that feels way before its time with it feeling like something more a kin to animations made in the 90s.
These are some examples of his work, one thing they really remind me of is the old school intro sequences for the James bond films and when reading further into if there was any link I found that the animators for many of the intro sequences looked at his work for references.
Below you can see one of his experimental Avant Garde animated videos released in 1938 one year before the breakout of world war 2.
Animatronics
The other area I wanted to look at was the use of animatronics in films of note at the time. One thing that is of note when I was researching this area was that I wanted to focus on early films that where known to use this type of puppetry, this is due to what I'm aiming to focus my research on is the staggery not perfect movement of them, as this was the same sort of movement seen in the original gremlins film and is the movement I want to look into in possibly applying to characters in a future game idea.
Jaws (1975)
The 70s classic horror film jaws, which saw the story of a police chief, a marine scientist and a fisherman try to stop a menacing shark from terrorising a holiday resort. The film saw the need to build a 25 foot animatronic shark which was nicknamed Bruce. The animatronic shark was known to malfunction several times throughout production though the final product is extremely impressive. Designed by production designer Joe Alves and constructed by Bob Mattey. The plan was originally to shoot the film using miniatures composited into shots though director Steven Spielberg was against this idea and wanted for a life size animatronic shark to be made.
The animatronic is really impressive though re-watching the film today and clips where the shark is present it is clearly obvious that this is a 25 foot animatronic shark. Though in the area I'm wanting to research and that being the movement of classic film animatronics, this is perfect. Though this is obviously a massive shark and far from the small mischievous gremlins I wanted to look into in capturing, It shows some clear traits of animatronics with how muscle movements are influenced by machinery underneath and how this in turn effects the artificial skin covering the animatronic.
King Kong (1976)
This remake of the classic 1933 king Kong film, which used animatronics to depict the main creature of King Kong, yet in this 70s remake the creature was now depicted with huge animatronic statues and an animatronic incorporated suit. The main suit was designed by Carlo Rambaldi, the suit/ mask was built with an in-depth animatronic system so that it could capture the emotions the creature would have to show. The film even won a special achievement award at 1977 Oscars.
Even though this is an impressive use of animatronics I think its just too far from what I'm wanting to capture the look of possibly in a game. This may have its place in the history of animatronics but it just doesn't fit into my research enough to warrant delving deeper into it.
Alien (1979)
The film Alien sees the crew of the spacecraft, Nostromo, find and have to deal with an alien lifeform that invades their ship and slowly picks off the crew. With a strong cast including actors such as Sigourney Weaver and John hurt, along with the striking art direction of H.R Geiger and directed by the legendary Ridley Scott the film was a massive success and launched a huge franchise. The film also made use of a wide arrange of animatronics to show the creature in its many stages of life.
One of the main uses of animatronics I wanted to look at was from the scene you can see below. The scene sees John Hurts character collapse during a meal in pain as a small creature bursts out of his chest. The animatronics for the creature I'm really in love with, They're impressive and demonstrate this horrible creature perfectly. Though at the same time It has soo much character to it in this humorous way due to how the animatronic moves. Examples like this I want to capture in how creatures could move in my game ideas.
Empire Strikes Back (1980)
In the second instalment to release from Star Wars series, the story sees the introduction of the character Yoda. This character is brought to life with a mixture of puppetry and animatronics along with the voice acting of Frank Ozz and his puppeteering, with the original concept being designed by Nick Maley. This is one of the examples on the list in my opinion where the animatronic was truly seen as a character that the audience connected with. The movement of his face is exactly what I want to capture in possible characters for game ideas.
Another interesting area they explore with his movement is showing him walking around his swampy home. This movement is rigid and parts seem quite obvious that this creature is a puppet, though this adds to character in a weird way. One thing to note is how the arms move due to them being directed by sticks coming from the ground.
An American Werewolf in London
In this classic horror film, two American tourist visit an rural pub in England where they end up being attacked by a werewolf. One of them is killed and the other is bitten by wolf and once back to London begins to transform into a vicious werewolf. Of course majority of the animatronic work is used in moving werewolf suits and especially in a scene which shows the transformation.
The animatronics and creature work was created by the legendary special effects artist Rick Baker and would even go on to win Oscar for his visual effects in this John Landi's Horror classic. The scene below shows the transformation scene which took a week to film with it mixing prosthetics and animatronics to get the final result. The scene exclusively using only practical, I feel adds more to the horror of the scene, making it feel grounded and very unsettling.
The Thing (1982)
This classic horror film sees a scientific research group isolated in the Antarctic come across an alien life form that can mimic the appearance of humans and animals by a grotesque transformation. Due to the film being shot in the 80s these transformations are captured through a mix of animatronics and prosthetics attached to human actors and individual animatronics. The visual effects in this film, in my opinion are superb. They mix such a great combination of grotesque unsettling imagery and unnatural creativity that fits in perfectly, giving this creature's personality.
The animatronics for the thing are notorious in the visual effects industry, with the maker of them , Rob Bottin having to work tirelessly even known to have spent most nights sleeping at the studio. How the film depicts the gore of the transformations and the aliens anatomy is how I would like some of the visuals to translate into a Gremlin games with them showing the same sort of design for their internals.
E.T. (1982)
ET saw Carlo Rambaldi known for King Kong and Alien get his third Oscar for his work on the main character of ET. The animatronics and effects for this film are really impressive though the creature effects in my eyes are too good even though they have dated. In the game I would want to present the creatures in a more rigid more obvious puppet inspiration.
Below you can see an example of the effects.
Jurassic Park (1993)
The last film and most recent I looked at was the effects used on Jurassic Park. One of the few films on here to mix a blend of practical models and CGI animated models.
The films animatronics in my opinion are near perfect with all the dinosaurs depicted feeling so real. One area I would like to take away from this piece is the detail on the scales. It almost feels like you could imagine touching all the dinosaurs. I would love to carry over this textured look to any creatures I depict.