Mirage (Joel Fletcher; Estados Unidos; 1982)

Joel Fletcher (Pesadilla antes de navidad, Peter Jackson's King Kong, Pesadilla en Elm Street 3), uno de los grandes animadores stop-motion de los Estados Unidos, se paso ayer por el blog y al encontrarse con la noticia del PIXILATION DAY MADRID 2011, me escribió para que le echara un ojo a un corto estilo avant-garde que realizó en 1982 mediante pixilación: MIRAGE.

For several years around 1980 I was experimenting with the pixilation process, in collaboration with my friend Mark Daniel who was an amazing athlete. Our goal was to do something that had not been done before with the technique, and we developed an artistic style that combined dance and acrobatics. We did lots of tests with super 8 cameras, and eventually I bought a 16 mm Bolex camera which I used to shoot MIRAGE.

MIRAGE was composed of several vignettes that are metaphysical and Jungian in concept. The natural environment was important to the concept, so all the shooting was outdoors. This caused a lot of difficulties, as clouds, wind, and the moving sun can ruin the effect. We always tried to shoot on cloudless days with minimal wind. Everything was shot in-camera, there was no blue screen used or any high tech methods. The opening scene where the man divides in two was done by double exposure; shooting at 50% exposure, backwinding the film, and shooting the second 50% pass. The scene was carefully planned, and the Bolex was perfect for frame-accurate backwinding. The floating levitation effect was achieved by jumping in the air, and exposing the frame at the peak of the jump. Obviously this has to be done as consistently as possible. Being in great physical shape is important for this type of animation! All the animation was done on two's, with the exception of the levitation, which required ones.

Thanks a lot Joel!