Visiting Professional: Barry Purves

A Morning with Barry Purves! - Notes

"I love telling stories"

"Finding a story is easy, making it interesting is the hard part."

+ Started out with wanting to be an actor, stopped breathing when on stage. All he wanted to do was tell stories. Animation seemed to answer storytelling and performance for him. The first oil painting in history, renaissance, showing how he can paint everything. This is what I can do. We want to be noticed. Attention must be made. If we just told our life story, it would be boring, we already edit our story, telling only the good bits. Storytelling has nothing to do with real life.

+ Structure. Storytelling is not just about ' this happened and this happened' its about colour, media, texture and staging. We need something artificial to talk about ourselves. Look at superhero's, they need an alter ego to be a superhero. Even in today's culture we are obstructed by religion, culture etc. It is somewhat safer to find a mask to talk about ourselves. This could be animation.

+ Whenever you write a story, find a device to let the protagonist talk. ironic that the fact a mask, meant to conceal you, actually liberates you. A visual mask that tells, communicates with the audience that they're not who they normally are, they are someone else, they are allowed to behave in that way.

A good story tells us about ourselves. Shakespeare might be a good read, just to tell a story convincingly and attract the audience's attention. Setting up the language of the storytelling, allowing the audience to understand the language. The audience fill in the dots, its not literal, they're not pretending it is real, it is a metaphor. The audience become a part of the of the storytelling.

Due to the lack of budget over the years - created an animation with just a puppet and light, 'Plume'. Purves wanted to see what he could do, if he could create storytelling with just these elements. 'Plume' all about surviving, going over and moving from a tragic experience. Personally through his experience of losing his mother. About embracing - The start of the movie begins with an eye, cliche but its a start, a beginning. The most important part of animation are the eyes. They convey emotion, language and gives them life.

Plume - Barry Purves

The wings were from a dead duck - the wings are the source of light. Took two shots, one UV to make the duck wings shine white which meant alot of post production work. No set, no geography, which meant the audience were dependent on the movement of the main character. The main character always traveled from left to right, as this is the natural way that the eyes reads.

Puppet was made from silicone. Very heavy material to work with but the material lasts and is easy to clean. If he could make it again, he would use latex, easier to stretch but would mean more repairs.
Didn't want the puppet to have any identity, he was just a man.

A good cut - if you are cutting from a wide shot to close shot, ensure the character is at the same side - you want the cut to be invisible. Eyes help the thought process, connect to the spectator. When animating add more energy think about the movement, from A to B, and make it dynamic, adding extra parts to it, subtle to make it work.

"I love the irony of giving puppets life, It's lovely seeing a puppet breathe."

Likes to work with music, a good discipline to animate to.

"On my budget I have to shoot 12 frames per day."

Feel what is going on in your head, whether it is puppets or a pencil, go with your instinct.

Making the environment simple with storytelling.

Shadow characters -> Feathers -> man with wings

The feathers connected these characters together, the audience know what the shadow creatures want. Stronger body language for the shadow creatures to show how they rely on the other senses, they are blind.  Try and have a front of the animation, think of it like a stage. Light suggests hope in this sequence, the darkness a void.

CONSIDER EVERYTHING, EVERY GESTURE NO MATTER HOW SMALL - ADD TO THE MOVEMENT IT IS ESSENTIAL.

Cut the number of characters down, make the characters strong. Budgets are tight, ensure everything contributes to the story. It is all you will need.

Another piece, stopmotion, about classical composers, "The tale of the old Piano" - was the smallest budget he has ever worked with. Not having a piano, allowed fluid movement. Purves still learnt music for the piano so that he knew the notes, the timing, the height and distance that the puppet needed to replicate.

The Tale of the Old Piano - Barry Purves

"A bit of Barry-fication" showing the off screen space to the spectator, allowing the viewer to see the darkness surrounding them, the environment. This disorientates the viewer, too much lack of environment - I actually thought the use of the environment outside of the frame being completely void of life and colour worked well. The audience were given an awareness of space that is revealed, becoming a revelation towards the atmosphere and tones conveyed through the movement and narrative of the stopmotion piece.



STORYTELLING IS EVERYTHING. DON'T THINK ABOUT BEING LITERAL. ENJOY THE SETTING. CONSIDER HOW YOU TELL THE STORY.