Take a couple of minutes and watch this behind-the-scenes clip from Mauricio Baiocchi’s animated short Cicada Princess.
I recently reflected on the unmatched power of hand-crafted images in a piece called “The Mystery in Materials,” which was published at Image.
Cicada Princess is a perfect example of what I was talking about when I wrote:
Surprises are rare at the movies these days. Strange. With digital animation, filmmakers can make anything happen. So they launch relentless, overwhelming images until audiences are exhausted. I don’t disrespect digital artists—they can produce wonders when their imaginations are equipped with grace and restraint. But most Friday night spectacles offer a barrage of audacious shocks and derivative imagery.
What big-screen images have left you truly awestruck? Most of my favorites were achieved by artists striving for transcendence with very limited resources. When I revisit Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back—the originals—I’m still amazed at what model-makers, artists, and puppeteers accomplished with metal, plastic, fabric, and wood. When George Lucas began inserting digital animation into “special editions,” the films lost some of their magic.
2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner, and Raiders of the Lost Ark—these classics were crafted by artists, performed by stuntmen, enacted on stages of elaborate design. We saw real light reflect off of real surfaces. The Dark Crystal? Half of that film’s power came from the fact those elaborate costumes and lifelike creatures were all handmade. They had weight and dimension. They weren’t illusions produced by lines of code.
At a recent science fiction exhibit in downtown Seattle, I marveled at intricate details etched on a model of Star Wars’ Death Star, the tiny lights twinkling through the cracks. Last March, after I gave a lecture about the power of play, a woman presented me with a gift: a single yellow feather. “That’s from the real Big Bird,” she said. “From Sesame Street.” Today, it’s on my writing desk—a sacred relic from my childhood.
There’s mystery in materials.
The official website for Cicada Princess tells us
The book is a series of images based on miniatures and sculptures that follow the lifecycle of the Cicadas and the party they attend at the end of their lives. When the idea to expand it to moving pictures came about, it was decided the best way to move forward would be through live action puppetry. Steve and Mauricio have worked on numerous creative projects over the years in different mediums and were very intrigued by the possibility of merging current imaging technology with strings and springs.
The film will run approximately five minutes, and is being shot in IMAX format, slated to be completed in 2011. As an independent production, both the film and the studio are self financed.
Has a moment of big-screen, hand-sculpted artistry left a strong impression on you? Tell us about your favorites.