Canadian Short wins in Cannes

[Rick Palidwor]

A new short from the legendary National Film Board of Canada just picked up two prizes at the Cannes festival. Madame Tutli-Putli is an animated/puppet piece with the unique feature that the puppets have human eyes, apparently creating a very unnerving effect on the viewers:

"The special visual effects were produced in collaboration with acclaimed portrait artist Jason Walker. The puppet eye effects demonstrate a first in the field of animation: a seamless, unnerving integration of human and puppet performance. This innovative process, created by Walker for the film, required meticulous precision and involved the placement of real human eyes onto individual puppets. For each scene, the puppet's animation was analyzed and corresponding human facial expressions were filmed in order to match the puppet's motion. The eye performances required long rehearsal time, great patience and precise notes. Once the live-action eyes were filmed, Walker then individually positioned, digitally scaled, painted and re-timed the footage for nuance and believability of gesture. The extraordinary result of this process is a new kind of puppet: one with the soul and memories of a living being."

Sounds kind of crazy eh? It was. The "eye-actress" (there's a new credit) was Laurie Maher, the female lead in Sleep Always (although I think she is only credited with "choreography", which she did as well - "scenes were improvised with Laurie Maher in order to work out a choreography of accents and gestures that were essential to the character's animation"). It was a full-time job for her for a couple of years - doing these painstaking little movements for the camera and then "eye acting" for months on end.

More info and a trailer at: http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/madame-t ... i/film.php

Anyway, I thought people here would be interested in the technique and kudos to Laurie for succeeding in such an interesting gig. She has amazing eyes.

Rick

[MovieStuff]

Totally coooooolll!

I could not get the trailer to play but just reading about this is amazing. What a great concept.

Roger

[Rick Palidwor]

Totally coooooolll!

I could not get the trailer to play but just reading about this is amazing. What a great concept.

Roger

I couldn't get it to play either. I was hoping someone would see it and comment. It is screening in Toronto in a few weeks so I will go see it. (For those in France, it will be screening on Canal Plus at some point in the near future).
Rick

[Mitch Perkins]

Here is Laurie's website -

http://www.lauriemaher.com/

If you click on "films", and then on the elegant little arrow to the right at bottom, you can watch "How Audley", a film we shot years ago at my friend's farm up near Owen Sound. Apparently, the directors of Tutli were initially ambivalent, but Laurie tells me that she left the tape and they called her back rather desperate to work with her.

We are hoping the current buzz will maybe spill over, and breathe new life into old Audley, as it's something for which she can get the full credit she so richly deserves...mmm, once we tighten it up and license the music, that is. ~:?)

Truly a woman of many talents.

Mitch

[Rick Palidwor]

Here is Laurie's website -

http://www.lauriemaher.com/

... you can watch "How Audley", a film we shot years ago ...

We are hoping the current buzz will maybe spill over, and breathe new life into old Audley, ...
Truly a woman of many talents.
Mitch

I am thinking our new Sleep Always marketing strategy should be: help Laurie become famous and hopefully collect some crumbs! I love her paintings. It's a great site.

Rick

[Bjarne Eldhuset]

Searching Tutli-Putli at youtube brought up several hits. Those eyes really brought life into the doll, looked life-like maybe in a little creepy kind of way

[Skippy]

just watched the trailer. that is truely stunning. The eyes really do work and because they are real it seems to really pull you into the animation.

The lighting looks stunning from what i can tell on the 45 second trailer on youtube

Tom

[BK]

Great to know that NFB have done it again. You Canadians are so creative and innovative.

Bill

[downix]

The trailer played fine for me. Truely immovative, and beautiful.

Ya know, pity I'm not in Canada, all of these talented people to work with.

[Mitch Perkins]

The trailer played fine for me. Truely immovative, and beautiful.

Ya know, pity I'm not in Canada, all of these talented people to work with.

Come on up - we're just getting in gear to start work on a new feat...wait a minute, is that you in your avatar, shirtless in a bath towel?

~:?)

Mitch

[downix]

The trailer played fine for me. Truely immovative, and beautiful.

Ya know, pity I'm not in Canada, all of these talented people to work with.

Come on up - we're just getting in gear to start work on a new feat...wait a minute, is that you in your avatar, shirtless in a bath towel?

~:?)

Mitch

If it'll land me the job.... 8)

[Jim Carlile]

"The puppet eye effects demonstrate a first in the field of animation: a seamless, unnerving integration of human and puppet performance.

What about Crash Cargo?? It was unnerving, to say the least.

[toby_tools]

Wow'
That looks amazing.
Thanks for the link.

[Rick Palidwor]

For those who have not checked Laurie's site or did not poke around much, a key internal link to the making of is http://www.madametutliputli.com/
Rick

[MovieStuff]

"The puppet eye effects demonstrate a first in the field of animation: a seamless, unnerving integration of human and puppet performance.

What about Crash Cargo?? It was unnerving, to say the least.

I think you mean "Clutch Cargo", which had human mouths. It was made by the same people that gave us "Space Angel", another weird looking cartoon that didn't move.

Roger