“The technique itself doesn’t really matter, whatever works, that’s why I use cut out, it’s the quickest and easiest form of animation I know”. (Terry Gillingham on Cut Out Animation – BBC Archive)
Terry Gillingham, a cut out stop motion artist, is best known for his attention grabbing work on Monty Pythons “Flying Circus”, “Life of Brian”, and “The Meaning of Life”. His most notorious, scenes from ‘Baby Carriage”, in which old ladies repeatedly get devoured by prams.
His work didn’t directly influence mine, but as I began experimenting in stop motion, using clay, sand and cut-out, I realised there were similarities in the absurdist type narratives I was creating. Having taken to cut-out, I have, on reflection, been able to better understand why my work was more successful and engaging.
“You can be silly with your walks”. (BBC Archive)
At the start of Year 1, working on 2D software such as TV Paint, learning basic technicalities like walk cycles, I didn’t feel as though I was producing interesting or playful work. These basic understandings are imperative to gaining deeper understanding for character development but as I began experimenting in stop-motion later on in the year, I engaged with a lot more enthusiasm. Mostly because I was able to use my improv skills with more freedom, I felt as though I had suddenly been given permission to engage with absurdist narratives, on the basis that I was able to pick and choose different parts of a magazine apart promptly and in the moment.
Gillingham talks about how walk cycles can be created in many ways, “The camels legs never moved, just simply slid across”, as he describes the Christmas card scene from the ‘Three Wise Men’.
Cut out animation allows for quick thinking, improvisation and organised chaos. My priority as an animator is to tell stories, cut out allows for these stories to be understood even if body language or walk cycles don’t make real world (life-like) sense.
‘Baby Carriage’, as mentioned above, is an interesting moment in the animation, in which a hand appears in scene, altering the narrative by changing the direction of the pram. This creates a very meta moment, as what would automatically be thought of as a accidental take, and not in keeping with the scene, Gillingham decides to actually incorporate it, making this piece feel very ahead of its time in terms of what can and can’t be done in stop motion. The experimental nature of his work gives me a sense of freedom, as though I can work by my own rules and make use of what “goes wrong”.
Below is a mood board video from a cut-out experiment partner (Ori) and I created as inspiration for our Final piece in the stop motion pathway.
We gathered some more cut-outs and created a final version.