Lotte Reiniger

Shadow Puppetry

Surf Twilight Sensations

Released: September 2009
Advertiser: Unilever
Brand name: Surf Twilight Sensations
Agency: BBH London
Country: United Kingdom

Credits:

Agency: BBH, London
Creative Director: Marc Hatfield
Creative Team: Kimberley Gill, Mareka Carter
Illustrator: Kam Tang
Typography: Alison Carmichael
Agency Producer: Ruben Mercadal

Production Company: Sonny, London
Director: Guy Manwaring
DP: Bruno Delbonnel
Post-Production: Glassworks
Editor: Mark Edinoff
Sound: Factory Sound Studios
Music: Squeak E Clean, Los Angeles

The Queen's Throne

Rough concept for a throne room set. It also doubles as the room where the magic mirror is used when the curtain would be open.

final throne. Made from greyboard, cheep crushed velvet from a shirt that was on sale for a pound, and stuffing. Then painting over in white acrylic.

Cute Little Theatre Model

I was searching for fairytale related set designs on google and came across this lovely set:

It's funny because I was actually thinking of doing a few similar things with the forest and Dwarves house, although I was thinking of using real branches. This is meant to be for a 'Midsummer Night's Dream' set. Check out Mary's Merryland where there's more pictures and other crafts like puppets by her. I do hope she did save it and made it into a coffee table. What a great idea!

Dreams from the Woods

I was just browsing for music when I came across this unexpected gem:

Although the puppetry is relatively simple, it's still stunning (esp with the music). You can clearly see how the film was made and there is no attempt to hide the methods it used but in the end the beauty of this short is that it really doesn't have to.

'Dreams From the Woods' was made by Swedish artist Johannes Nyholm for and with the Swedish band 'Little Dragon'. It was used for the music video 'Twice'. You can check out his website here and his youtube channel here.

Looking a Theatre Sets

So I've started to look a set designs and there have been quite a few relating to fairytales and in particular Snow White. I immediately came across the set designs for the pantomimes by QDOS which were designed by Ian Westbrook. I'm a little nervous about posting any of their images on my blog but you can find images on the QDOS site here and on Ian Westbrook's site here.

Picture of cast members taken from Birmingham Post

Another production of Snow White by 'First Family Entertainment' featured set designs by Terry Parsons. Again images can be seen here. There's a trailer which shows apparently shows Warwick Davis was in it. I already knew he featured in a Snow White theatre production at some point, so now I know which one.

I must say there's a lot to take away from looking at the production of these pantomimes but funnily enough, aside from the beautiful costume and set designs, the thing that strikes me the most is how much they remind me of my experiences working with GAOS. Honestly, even though they're much, much bigger productions (ie: they're of a proffessional standard) the vibe I get from it is uncanny...

Back to Storyboards

So, finally got round to finishing with the storyboards. They're very roughly painted and I mostly did what I felt was right at the time and went with it. I think I really got into an interesting combination of geometric design and surrealisim not usual of my work.