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The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912)
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/kvPfOtH.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="Two foxes">
The stop motion animated film The Cameraman’s Revenge was directed by Polish Russian animator Ladislas Starevich. The film was created in 1912, during the silent era of cinema (1894 – 1929). This is film is significant to film history because of how it pioneered the use of puppets in stop motion animation. This film and Starewicz's later work help develop a new technique in the stop motion industry, that improved and grew into the one of the most common use of stop motion animation in cinema.
The film follows the story of Mr. Beetle's and Mrs. Beetle's troubling marriage. While Mr.beetle goes about his day, his wife is having an affair with a dragonfly. The dragonfly is a photographer and artist who devotes his time to record his affair with Mrs.Beetle. The film hits its climax when Mr.Beetle confronts his wife’s lover and chasing the suitor away.After chasing him off, Mr.Beetle and his wife make ammends, but the dragonfly gets his revenge by projecting the affair in the theater Mr. and Mrs. Beetle are at. The film ends in a light hearted tone, stating how the Beetles will try to live a less eventful life.
[[Cultural context]]
[[Influences]]
[[Legacy]]
[[Sources]]Reception when first released:
When the film was first released, the public reception was mostly positive. [[(Crews)->Sources]] Audiences at the time were entranced with how Starewicz manage to capture and portray personalities through these stop motion bugs. Audience members stated that they could feel the tense romance and betrayal of the characters. Because stop motion was a new development, and puppet stop motion animation had just been developed, people believed that the bugs were alive and trained to act. It was not uncommon to have bugs perform for entertainment, flying circuses were still popular at the time. But the confusion could have been derived from the fact that Starewicz had just pinoreed using puppets to animate with, and said puppets were the embalmed remains of actual bugs. this could have caused confusion as audiences at the time were not familiar with stop motion puppets. Regardless of what caused the confusion, Starewicz had earned the nickname of “The Bug Trainer” due to wide belief he had trained the bugs to act in his film.[[(Crews)->Sources]]
Modern time reception:
The film is still well received. The film is seen as an important work of art in the development of stop motion animation. There has been multiple projects to restore Starewicz’s films. Because of his status as a pioneer in the animation field, a lot of animators looks towards his work for inspiration. One example is Wes Anderson, specifically his stop motion animated film fantastic Mr. Fox, which was released in 2009. During an interview Anderson stated that the visuals of the film was heavily inspired by the look and feel of Ladislas Starevich’s work. [[(Borowski)->Sources]] Anderson notes how the realistic look of Starewicz’s puppets, especially his bug puppets, was the single biggest influence on this film’s appearance. His fox puppets were designed with bristling fur that would chatter (chatter is when there is unwanted movement in a stop motion film. An example is when fingerprints on a clay puppet visibly change, creating a glitchy look to the animation.) made from real animal hides.[[(Borowski)->Sources]] Anderson is mimicking how Starewicz would take real parts of an animal/bug to animate with. While Starewicz used insects for puppets, Anderson used animal hides to capture the realistic fur look for his film. The purpose of using real animal hides was to mimic the look of taxidermied animals, giving it an uncanny valley feel towards the film. The constant chattering also adds to the realistic effect of the film. Another part of Starewicz’s legacy is the continuing use of puppets in stop motion industry. This can been seen in studios like Laika, Aardman studios, ShadowMachine, and etc.
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/pS8ZTxM.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="Two foxes">
In terms of legacy, it pushed for more narrative work during the silent era. anothor film that does something similar is the film The Thief of Bagdad (1924).
<a href= https://homi.neocities.org/2019/t/The_Thief_of_Bagdad.html target=“_blank”>The Thief of Bagdad (1924)</a>
both films uses narrative cards to get their story across. these films help pushed others in the era to be more narrative driven compared to the simple films that document daily life. also these films have detailed backgrounds, giving more depth and consideration to the cinematography and mise en scene.
Another in terms of legacy, the film Alice in Wonderland (1949, which also uses puppet style of stop motion animation.
<a href=URL of Twine HTML here” target=“_blank”>Alice in Wonderland (1949)</a>
the film took the basics of puppet animation that Starewicz layed out. the film mixes both live action actors alongside these stop motion puppets, expand the range of animation at the time.
[[(Borowski)->Sources]]
[[Home]] Starewicz is a pioneer of stop motion animation because of his work on Beautiful Leukanida, 1912.
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ojrbhWd.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="Two foxes">
Starewicz had started his film career with live action documentaries, mainly focusing on insects. At the time, He was intrested in entomology. He wanted to document how stag beetles fight, but he ran into problems when filming them. When trying to document them fighting, he realized that the spotlights he used was causing issues. It turns out that stag beetles are nocturnal and would not fight during the day. [[(Whiteley)->Sources]]The spotlights were strong enough to convince them that it was daytime. Starewicz’s solution to this issue was a bit unorthodox. He decided that in order to document them fighting he will turn the stag beetles into puppets. To turn the stag beetles into stop motion puppets he had them embalmed.[[(Whiteley)->Sources]] He then removed their legs and replaced them with wire. He replaced their legs with wire because he needed to be able to animate them, and wire was the most stable way at the time. the wire allowed him to bend the puppets and keep them upright when filming. After completing the puppets, Starewicz set out to animate them fighting. But instead of mimicking their fighting, he instead did a more fantastical take on their battle. He portrayed the beetles as knights fighting with weapons. Insipred by this process, he decided to resue this technique in his later films, most notably his next film "The Cameraman's Revenge"
[[(Whiteley)->Sources]]
[[Home]]The film was produced and made in Russia during the 1910s. During the 1910s in Russia there was high tension between Russia and Eruope, both on the political front and cinema front. At the time Russia was going through a revolution and shift in power in their government.[[(McCauley)->Sources]] At the time, animation was still relatively new and unexplored media in cinema. Wladyslaw Starewicz was born in Moscow, Russia on August 8, 1882. He would later changed his name to Ladislas Starevich after fleeing the Red army during world war 1.
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Y5cjQb2.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="Two foxes">
Before he fled and even before he started animating, he had an interest in entomology. He was fascinated by bugs and their movements. He would document them via live action footage. He was made Director of the Museum of Natural History in Lithuania in 1910. [[(Crews)->Sources]] At his time working he got more invested in documentation. He would soon dabble into stop motion. His first stop motion film was The Beautiful Leukanida in 1912. This is a notable moment in history because this was the first film to use puppet style of stop motion animation. He would take the skills he learned from making Beautiful Leukanida in his next film. [[(McCauley)->Sources]]
[[Home]]Whiteley, Aliya. “The Stop-Motion Animation of Ladislas Starevich.” Den of Geek, 2 Sept. 2014, https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/stop-motion/31903/the-stop-motion-animation-of-ladislas-starevich.
Borowski, Jacek. “Władysław Starewicz: The Polish Entomologist Who Invented Puppet Animation Films.” – The First News, 5 May 2019, https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/wladyslaw-starewicz-the-polish-entomologist-who-invented-puppet-animation-films-1582.
Crews, Samuel, and Moscow Museum of Animation. “The Film Club: The Cameraman's Revenge.” The Calvert Journal, 25 Apr. 2013, https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/824/the-film-club-the-cameramans-revenge-vladislav-starevich.
Interactive, FreshForm. “StopSmiling.” Too Twee or Not Too Twee? Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox :: Stop Smiling Magazine, 25 Nov. 2009, https://stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=1312.
McCauley, Martin, and Andrew B. Wachtel. “Russia from 1801 to 1917.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 7 Dec. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia/Russia-from-1801-to-1917.
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