A revolution threatens puppet regimes
Since Yoda's puppet strings were replaced by a digitalized Jedi Master in Star Wars, jobs for puppeteers have been scarce
By CHRIS LACKNER
Tuesday, June 8, 2004 - Page R1
While the puppeteers behind the Tony-winning Avenue Q have won over Broadway, their success comes at a time when many puppeteers -- and puppets -- find themselves being replaced by pixels.
Avenue Q, a satire of puppet-based children's programs such as Sesame Street, was the surprise winner of best musical at the Tony awards on Sunday night and also picked up the awards for best book and best original score.
The New York-based production is being heralded as a breakthrough for puppetry as a form of adult entertainment. But can its victory, and the critical success of puppeteers such as Canadian Ronnie Burkett, who brings a dark edge to his one-man puppet shows (Street of Blood, Tinka's New Dress), revive a vanishing art?
Avenue Q's popularity, for example, comes at a time when many North American puppeteers are hungry for work. Evidence that their job prospects are evaporating can be seen in Hollywood's embrace of computer graphics.
The Lord of the Rings' Gollum was computer-animated, though based upon the movements and voice-work of actor Andy Serkis. For George Lucas's Star Wars prequels, Yoda's puppet strings were cast aside in favour of a digitalized Jedi Master.
"When they animated Yoda, it just wasn't the same," says Fred Stinson, a veteran Canadian puppeteer and director at The Sheep Shop, a Toronto-based puppet designer. "Many people said his soul was missing."
Stinson's resume includes the films Child's Play 4: Bride of Chucky, The Santa Clause and numerous Canadian children's shows such as Big Comfy Couch and Sesame Park.
He says digital special effects have usurped the role of animatronic (electronically controlled) puppets in film production.
"Digital work still can't capture the full realism of human movement -- it can't fully capture what it's like to live and breathe," he explains. "But the technology's getting there and it will only get better."
Such technological advancement does not bode well for the job prospects of Stinson and his peers.
Like a vast number of Canadian puppeteers, Stinson cultivated his skills while working for the legendary Jim Henson.
Canada has been a frequent home to some of Henson's Creature Shop productions since the 1980s. From 1983 to 1986, Fraggle Rock was produced in Canada and broadcast on the CBC.
When The Muppet Show debuted in 1976, Kermit the Frog, Fozzy Bear and a ragtag group of misfits and monsters were thrust into the limelight.
Today, 28 years after the late Henson's creations took centre stage, Henson's company is "giving pixels soul" and revolutionizing the role of the puppeteer. Digital worlds are replacing those once occupied by characters built of rubber, felt and feathers.
The Henson Digital Performance Studio allows puppeteers to physically "perform" computer-generated characters.
"For many years, we've been taking what we've done in the past -- which is puppet performance -- and moving it into the digital age," said Pete Coogan, managing director of Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
"This is an extension of what we've always done -- it's about characters and it's about storytelling," he said. "It didn't take a leap of faith, it's a natural progression."
The digital system enables its performers to use the same skills they've developed using animatronic puppets.
In 1991, the company first experimented with digital characterization while creating Jim Henson's Muppet Vision 3D -- an attraction at MGM Studios in Orlando, Fla.
Today the Henson digital studio is an integral part of the company's business -- a hybrid of new technology and traditional puppeteering.
Inside the digital studio, puppeteers are connected to a small rig accompanied by a computer station and screen.
They wear what look like giant gloves that are connected to a motor system; the gloves' movements are programmed to control everything from a digital puppet's eyes to its lips.
Puppeteers use the gloves to produce complex gestures, facial expressions and lip-synching, bringing digital characters to life on the screen.
Whereas traditional animation of a character's face can take days, the Henson system can produce the same results in minutes.
Animation for video games, commercials, television and films are produced in the company's two digital studios -- located in Los Angeles and London, England.
"Our puppeteers usually voice the characters too -- they capture the characters in real time with very little post-production," Coogan says.
Every puppeteer can customize the digital studio system. For one performer, a particular gloved finger can be programmed to control a puppet's eye movements, while another may elect that one to control the character's ears.
Puppeteer Allan Trautman has been in the business for 30 years and has worked for the Creature Shop since 1990.
He says the digital studio "allows puppeteers to use their natural skills" to bring digital characters to life.
"We can digitally capture what it would take an individual animator weeks to capture using key-frame animation."
Animators are provided with immediate feedback as a digital character is recorded.
"You can immediately see if you need to go in another direction," Trautman says. "[The director] will offer me advice on using different shades of emotion or approaches to delivering a line . . . once he sees what he wants, we can move on."
While Henson died in 1990, those who inherited his company say he would approve of the craft's evolution.
"Today, we're only limited by the ability of our CPUs and our imaginations," Coogan says. "Jim would have embraced this technology enormously and really enjoyed it. He loved to play -- he would have embraced it and pushed it to its limits."
For puppeteers like Stinson, digital puppetry is both a blessing and a curse.
Those who have adjusted to the new environment consider it an evolution of the craft -- a chance for continued work. But there remains a nostalgia for traditional puppetry.
"[The Creature Shop's] interests seem to be going towards the new technology . . . and they'll do well because they have a lot of talent behind them," Stinson says.
"Jim also loved new ideas and new things, but he never forgot that Kermit was a felt sock. . . . I think he loved the simplicity of things."
Henson puppeteer Bruce Lanoil says digital puppeteering offers the craft a "survival mechanism" for those willing to adjust.
"There is less meat for the lions, so everyone is protective of what they do."
The character of Mr. Tingles, a cat in the 2001 live-action film Cats & Dogs, offers a prime example of the studio mixing both forms of puppeteering, he explains. Where an animatronic puppet was used during the filming of the feline, its facial expressions were performed using the digital studio.
While Lanoil has embraced digital performance, he says traditional puppeteering will never completely disappear because actors need something tangible to interact with while performing.
Gollum's character in Lord of The Rings offers a case in point.
"[Director Peter Jackson] wanted Gollum to be actor-led," actor Andy Serkis explains during an interview for the film's DVD.
"Peter wanted Frodo and Sam looking into Gollum's eyes, rather than to a tennis ball on a stick . . . Frodo, Sam and Gollum have such a physical relationship, I don't think it could've been done any other way."
Lanoil says more actors are likely to use a computer-graphic interface -- such as the Henson digital studio -- to perform in the near future.
"All actors will be able to use these tools . . . what if you didn't have to go to makeup for hours for a role in something like Planet of the Apes?" he asks. "Tom Hanks could become a dragon, Sean Connery could become a butterfly . . . you never know, you could have actors become anything."
But he's not willing to announce a death sentence for traditional puppetry.
"Puppets still have a place in storytelling. Kids are still attuned to it, and I think the pendulum will swing back."
In Canada, Stinson hopes for the same shift. For now, he doesn't believe digital technology or Avenue Q'ssuccess are going to lead to an immediate influx of job opportunities.
"Avenue Q hasn't brought about more interest," he says. "But those who are really good at their craft are still doing work."
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