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And Their Eyes Were Watching....Madame Tutli-Putli!
If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then Madame Tutli-Putli is a breath of fresh air. Animating art – bringing life and soul to drawings and puppets, is the challenge of animators that, when accomplished, creates an air of magic, a sparkle of mystery. The creators of Madame Tutli-Putli added a new perspective to this task – in addition to creating beautiful silicone puppets and sets, the team of artists brought substance to the set by tracking human eyes on the faces of the stop motion puppet. The team didn’t use any CGI, but created traditional silicone and wire puppets about 15” tall and then used After Effects to seamlessly match and meld the human eyes to the face of the puppets, creating a grippingly ethereal visual effect.
Inspired by a shared vision and a painting, Madame Tutli-Putli is the story of a woman weighed-down by baggage, both literal and figurative, who boards the night train to interact with characters both real and imagined. Traveling alone, she cohorts with kindness and cruelty as she confronts her inner demons in an undertow of mystery and suspense accentuated by a haunting and mysterious musical score.
Directed by Clyde Henry Productions and produced by three-time Academy Award winner Marcy Page of the National Film Board of Canada, Madame Tutli-Putli was written, directed, edited, sculpted, and managed by Chris Lavis, and Maciek Szczerbowski. Utilizing his skills as a portrait painter, Jason Walker provides profound patience and precision, managing the special effects to merge the eyes and the puppet together into the soulful and surreal creature, Madame Tutli-Putli. Laurie Maher designed costumes and choreographed with astonishing attention to detail and subtleties. The team, in fact, spent 2 years of 14-15 hour workdays, 7 days a week, locked in a dark room to create the magic of Madame Tutli Putli.
Was it worth it? Along with its Academy Award nomination, Cannes awarded the film Best Short Film of the year, while it also garnered Best Narrative Short Animation at the International Animation Festival in Ottawa, Best Animation at the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, Best Animation at the New York Film Festival, Best Short Film in Montreal, Best Animation in Palm Springs – and the list goes on.
Looking for more? Scope out the goods at NFB.com. Another excellent review and a closer look at the technical side is available at fxguide.com, while SxSW offers an excellent synopsis of the story line. Catch a glimpse of their comic strip with its cult following; Untold Tales of Yuri Gagarin, a serial comic strip published in Vice Magazine.
