The extract i have chosen is from the book 'Animation Art', written by Jerry Beck. I was particulary captivated by this segment because i have never experienced a lot of shadow puppet animation, therefore i wanted to learn about the advantages of working with this medium.
German animator Lotte Reiniger began as a theatre student at max Reinhardt's school in Berlin. whilst there she created a title sequence for expressionist director Paul Wegener's Die Raffarger van Hamelin, 1917 (a German adaptation of the pied piper of hamlin), made for the Berlin Institut fur Kulturforschung.
Her first love was for Chinese theatre and first used the technique in Das Ornament des Veliebten Herzens 1922. In 1932, with her film director husband, Karl Koch, she started work on a feature-length silhouette film, adding depth to the end product by filming figures through shelves of glass.
around the same time Nosferatu was released, which contained a sequence involving shadows as the focal point, in order to create mystery and conjour a sense of fear.
in many ways Reiniger used the shadow puppets to portray a scary character, thwarting monsters and devils en route.
Lotte Reiniger's creativity and imagination found expression through the exacting details of finely cut paper, and moved frame by frame. This is the same technique used by puppet animators, for example, Nick Park and Jan Svankmajer.
German animator Lotte Reiniger began as a theatre student at max Reinhardt's school in Berlin. whilst there she created a title sequence for expressionist director Paul Wegener's Die Raffarger van Hamelin, 1917 (a German adaptation of the pied piper of hamlin), made for the Berlin Institut fur Kulturforschung.
Her first love was for Chinese theatre and first used the technique in Das Ornament des Veliebten Herzens 1922. In 1932, with her film director husband, Karl Koch, she started work on a feature-length silhouette film, adding depth to the end product by filming figures through shelves of glass.
around the same time Nosferatu was released, which contained a sequence involving shadows as the focal point, in order to create mystery and conjour a sense of fear.
in many ways Reiniger used the shadow puppets to portray a scary character, thwarting monsters and devils en route.
Lotte Reiniger's creativity and imagination found expression through the exacting details of finely cut paper, and moved frame by frame. This is the same technique used by puppet animators, for example, Nick Park and Jan Svankmajer.
In conclusion Lotte Reiniger incorporated shadow puppetry in animation, marking a turning point for the route of animation. the really effective approach of using puppets to cast shadows, immediately relates to chinese theatre and captures a historic technique on film.
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