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LOCATION UK 2012

Victor and Sparky in Tim Burtons Frankenweenie. Photo: Leah Gallo. Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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whats on? Frankenweenie

is the subject of a new Disney exhibition that features 3 Mills Studios and explores the stop-motion techniques used in the production. Frankenweenie opens in the UK on October 5, 2012.

FROM Beetlejuice to Jack Skellington, Tim Burton has created some of the most memorable and beloved characters of our time. It is Halloween 2011 and a testament to the enduring enchantment of Burton that, on the tube en-route to 3 Mills Studios, we sit opposite an Edward Scissorhands. 3 Mills Studios, in Bow, East London, has fast gained a reputation as one of the worlds finest stop-motion animation centres. While London has been preparing for the most important event to be staged in the capital in modern times The London 2012 Olympics 3 Mills Studios has watched the Olympic Stadium take shape next door and the whole of nearby Stratford has been redeveloped around them. But meanwhile this prolific studio continues with business as usual, and last year Tim Burton returned after shooting Corpse Bride at 3 Mills in 2005 to shoot Frankenweenie.

3D is going to be exciting, producer Allison Abbate says. And its black-and-white 3D. When you see a set and you can touch it and put your hands in, thats what 3D will do. It will open it up for people to really be inside so that theyll feel like that theyre part of it, like a dolls house. Abbate, who worked with Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and produced his stop-motion Corpse Bride (2005), as well as Wes Andersons Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), shows us around the set. The former site of an 18th century mill, the studio is now home to an army of talented animators from around the world as well as a gruesome Puppet Hospital where tiny teeth and skeletons line the worktops and sick puppets go to rehabilitate. The love and pride the animators feel towards their charges is evident throughout the tour. If they go, were wondering when theyll come back! production assis-

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FRANKENWEENIE IS A STORY CLOSE TO TIM BURTONS HEART. DISNEYS FULL-LENGTH, STOPMOTION REMAKE OF HIS 1984 SHORT TELLS THE STORY OF A BOY WHO RE-ANIMATES HIS DEAD DOG. AND IT COULD BE HIS MOST BARKING MAD CREATION YET. IT WAS SHOT AT EAST LONDONS 3 MILLS STUDIOS. LOCATION UK PAID A VISIT

pet

Tim URTON

tor is about 40cm, and Sparky is about 11cm. The miniature sets built in varying scales are stunning in their detail. An animator shows us a segment he has just completed. There are gasps and sighs. Thats Vampire Cat, Abbate says. Tim Burtons favourite part of the WE MIGHT DO TWO OR THREE DIFFERENT movie is Vampire Cat VERSIONS OR MOCK-UPS AND TIM WILL SAY and Weird Girl. of In this version I LIKE THAT ONE Frankenweenie, Victors HANNAH FERGUSON scientific experiment crying. An animator comes running out unleashes a whole host of other fantastic from his unit, excitedly waving his hands creatures on the town, from Wererat (hes in the air. Are you visiting me? he says, a rat that was turned into a werewolf but eager to show his work. You want to show hes a rat) to Turtle Monster. You can creus some stuff? replies Abbate. Yeah, yeah! ate a hero or you can create a monster, AbIve got some really cool stuff to show. bate says. This, it turns out, is the crux of There are dozens of sets on the go at any the movie. If you are doing it for power, one time. We see at least seven, with one you create a monster. If you are doing it for or two animators working in each unit. love, you create a superhero. Adult puppets stand at 50-60cm high. VicMoving on we visit a series of other elabtant Hannah Ferguson says. Were often thinking about the puppets. Its nearing the end of the shoot and the production is beginning to wrap up. Its really emotional and sweet, Abbate says, adding: In every unit theres somebody

s p
roject
orate sets, including two different scale models of a fairground. The breathtakingly beautiful creation includes an intricate working Ferris wheel. Careful thought even went into what was playing at the cinema, and Burton settled on Bambi. The set took two months to build. The animators demonstrate how the Ferris wheel turns. At the moment were just rotating the Ferris wheel and slightly adjusting the chairs so they maintain their gravity, the animator says. The spin here is fully-mech. Not only does it spin, but those arms are fully mech too, so theyre going up and down Ive just got to turn the cars. Every detail has to be perfect. Frankenweenie has been in production for two years. This is stopframe, Abbate says. Image by image. Move it. Take a picture. Move it. Take a picture. The computer doesnt do it Sometimes they have five or 10 characters. You have to remember whos getting up, q

MAKING A SCENE FRANKENWEENIE

MAKING A SCENE

LOCATION UK 2012 49

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q whos walking, whos winking, whos crying. Whatever theyre doing. They have to keep it all in their heads. Next up we see a full-scale model of the fairground. And this is after the Turtle Monster has come in. But now the set has been trashed. They made all these beautiful props and then we messed them all up. They were nice for a minute and then they were broken. We destroyed it. Heartbreaking set after heartbreaking set follows. Victor carries Sparky down from a gothic-looking windmill; Sparky lies in front of a car; Victors attic room is rigged for a monstrous experiment; this has to be one of Burtons most endearing monsters yet. The emotion a puppet can hold can match the most seasoned of actors. A lot of it is in the posing of the puppet, Abbate says. We make our way to Burtons own mad laboratory the Puppet Hospital. The puppets often break and get sick and need to be cared for, Abbate says. So we have a whole team of people who do that. Puppet maker and animation producer Mackinnon & Saunders has re-teamed with Burton to continue the groundbreaking advancements made on Corpse Bride. The Manchester-based company split the puppet build with the team at 3 Mills. One of the worlds leading puppet making companies, Mackinnon & Saunders created the iconic Martian from Mars Attacks! (1996) and worked on both Corpse Bride and Fantastic Mr. Fox. These puppets are so real, they are so sensitive and textural, you really do be-

lieve they are alive, Burton says of Mackinnon & Saunders. They do such beautiful work. The team at the Puppet Hospital is also responsible for the ongoing maintenance of puppets and makes any specific props or costumes that are needed from tiny leather bags and dinosaur-print pajamas to miniature working bikes and minute umbrellas. We might do two or three different versions or mock-ups and Tim will say I like that one or I really like that one and

TIM IS SO HAPPY ITS BEEN MAGICAL FOR HIM

then well go ahead and make an approved costume. A lot of them are backed with wire or they have silicone or foil inside to make them more animatable, Hannah Ferguson says. Before we get an approval, we go for a sculpt, then we make the mould. Then we can do lots of duplicates. We have 18 Victors and weve got 11 dead Sparkys. Ferguson shows us the armature the puppets mechanical skeleton which allows the animator to move the puppet into the required positions. Custom-made joints are fitted; some are adapted from existing mechanisms the feet, for example, which are made from spectacle hinges. After the puppet goes through the armature stage, it goes back in the mould and is given a foam body and silicone skin. It took us about 10 weeks to get the first Sparky right, Ferguson says. After that, to get a Sparky turned around takes about 10

ALLISON ABBATE

MAKING A SCENE FRANkENWEENIE

LOCATION UK 2012
Director/producer Tim Burton studies a model of Sparky during the making of Walt Disney Pictures Frankenweenie. Photo: Leah Gallo. Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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days. The complex head necks have lip and eye paddles that can be adapted to move the face; allen keys control the hair and other movements. Mr. Rzykruski is the only puppet with replacement mouths 14 different mouths fixed with magnets. It gives you an idea of all the different mouth sounds we have tried to achieve, Ferguson says. Various techniques have been used for different effects. The Victor puppet has real human hair, while some puppets have synthetic hair and others, for example Mr. Whiskers, have goat hair. Mr. Whiskers the cat is something of a show stealer. You have to make new eyes and pupils all the time, because things get damaged from wear and tear or they get lost. And then we blink as well, so weve got about 20 different blink positions per puppet. So thats 40 And there are 18 different Victors thats a lot of eyes. So weve constantly got someone filing down pupils for us and making eyes. Then there are other little touches, like the Bride of Frankenstein streak in Elsa the Poodles hair, the shadow of rain in Victors attic, and the wagging tail that drops off Sparky post-resurrection, that complete the captivating world of Frankenweenie. The shadow in the attic was done on the set using a back projection. We shot water, Abbate says, then projected it one frame at a time onto a screen that puts a shadow onto him. Tim is so happy its been magical for him, Abbate says. Its the combination of this beloved story and the medium
ALISON WILLIAMS