Surrey Border Film and Video Makers press report for September 2009
Tana Fletcher demonstrates how she uses puppets to make animation films

At the September club night, members of Surrey Border Film & Video Makers were entertained by Tana Fletcher who talked about her animated series “Willoughby Drive”. Tana brought two of the puppets with her to demonstrate how she made the stop frame puppet animation.

She explained how patience, dedication and attention to detail were imperative to making this type of puppet film. The puppets were made to approximately one fifth the size of a person, i.e. between sixteen and eighteen inches as opposed to the usual 9 to 12 inches used in most puppet animation. She had two different types of puppet head. One was made from a hard material with a simple hinge joint to open the mouth, the other had a camera cable release which pushes the mouth open and shut easily and with the character of Mrs Gumble Bump a second cable release caused her to frown. The eyes were either moved by a finger or with a hatpin which fitted into a tiny hole drilled into the centre of the eyes. Separate eyelids were used for either blinking or shutting the eyes and lids of different sizes were used to either widen or narrow the eyes to change an expression.

Initially actors Jonathon Cecil and Anna Sharkey created the different voices for the various puppets and eventually Gillie Robic joined the team for the children’s voices.

How does one start to make an animated film? The way Tana did it was to first write the script. She chose simple stories about three couples in a street called Willoughby Drive, and during each episode some extraordinary person or event would take place. Once the script was ready she would record the actors. She would then break down every second of recorded voice into frames, there being twenty-five frames per second, and by listening to each syllable she would note on her dope sheet the number of frames each word would require.

After getting the puppets, props and sets ready she would then create a detailed storyboard by practicing the movements with a stopwatch in real time. Then translate this into animated time. (25 frames a second.) So if for example the puppet raises it’s arm, she raises hers (1 second) and multiplies this by 25 and then moves the puppet’s arm 25 times while the camera takes 25 still

photographs. This equals one second’s worth of animation. Although she usually does two frames a movement.

Working roughly 45 hours a week, Tana took 10 months to a year to make one episode. The puppet series known as Willoughby Drive, with all its innumerable changes, cuts and remakings, took somewhere near fourteen years to complete.

Between explaining how the films were made Tana showed three of the thirteen episodes. All the club enjoyed the subtle humour portrayed so well in the voices and characters of the puppets and several members bought copies of this wonderful animated series.

To learn more about Willoughby Drive and the Dolphin Puppeteers go to: www.dolphinpuppetfilms.co.uk