Contextual Research-Jan Svankmeyer

Jan Svankmeyer was arguably one of the most famous animators recognised in Europe and Czechoslovakia. I decided to look into him as his stop motion work was a similar analogue method I wanted to experiment with. He was used and created claymation puppets from all sorts of bits and bobs, particularly organic things or tools. The first thing I wanted to take was the jittery uncanny movement from his more extreme work and apply them to brief moments with the characters, I am thinking along the line of detailed close ups of heads or paper cache recreations of the characters to create a sense of unease. Another is the use of surrealism and fairytales which is something Jan svankmeyer was very keen on, he particularly liked Alice in Wonderland for its use of anthropomorphising objects and creatures. This works well with the uncanny nature of his animation. The third has to be the organic foley sound which does not let up in a lot of his films, they really add life and a feeling of chaos in the everyday domestic setting. Something I am very interested in to make my film as unsettling as it can be.