Exploring Stop Motion : Jan Svankmajer...

One of the most inspirational directors behind stop motion is Jan Svanmajer. He is a czech filmmaker and artist, who work spans several media. As a self-labelled surrealist he is known for his surreal animation and features, and as a director he has greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam and The Brothers Quan, as well as many others. As a child he was given a puppet for Christmas, which is turn became an early influence on his later artistic development and it was under the influence of theoretician Vratislaw Effenberger that he moved from the mannerism of his early work (example = 'The Last Trick' 1964), to more classic surrealism, this was first manifested in his film 'The Garden' 1968. Over the several decade of work he had developed a reputation for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish yet somehow funny pictures. The trademarks of his work includes; exaggerated sounds, fast-motion sequences for when people interact, inanimate objects being brought to life through stop-motion, especially favouring in terms of stop-motion clay animation. Many of his short films (example = 'Down to the Cellar') are made from a child's perspective, whilst at the same time having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature, so much so that in 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, therefore many of his later films were suppressed. However today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. Among his best work is his feature film 'Alice' (1988), which incorporates stop motion alongside live action, this especially inspired me for my second idea where I wanted to corporate stop motion along side real life action, focusing on the idea of separation and a mother leaving a child, this I wanted to mirror through the use of stop motion of the child leaving her doll. Below is the full film of Jan Svanmajer films Alice :