While doing research for a separate paper on the filmmaker Robert Bresson, I ran across this quote;
“How does this eternity appear
while remaining invisible? Mainly through the inexpressiveness of faces and
through death. By expressing nothing, the masks express precisely what which is
beyond expression.....The whole point is that behind these inexpressive faces lies death.
Jacques Prevert wrote: how vague, inconsistent and disturbing a live face would
seem to us if there was not a death mark inside it. But even if Bresson’s
Characters do not always see their own death, they have no difficulty in seeing
death around them and in seeing in it the sign and the gate to the beyond.” (pg
22)
Masks and death…The thought that the characters have death behind their eyes is interesting, particularly when relating it back to puppetry. Perhaps this is the element that “realistic” robots are missing and is one of the "tells" of something progressing into the Uncanny Valley. Arguably some puppets on screen have the notion and possibility of death behind their eyes – such as Jedi Master Yoda and to some extent Kermit the Frog. A frailty or a wisdom that is communicated through their eyes and mask of the face, which do not have many expressions that travels across them. A puppet's face is very often neutral.
Frank Oz - is I believe one of the best and most consistent puppeteers able to capture thought and emotion. Starting at 0:58 in this scene from "Empire Strikes Back," Yoda is teaching Luke the force, and expressing expectations of what he (Yoda) expects Luke to accomplish. Around 1:48 those expectations are not met and an emotion of disappointment and/or shame is communicated through Yoda's entire body. At 2:19 is where a beautiful monologue begins and passion and wonder along with a gamut of other emotions pass across his face,
Here is a video compilation of all of the Yoda scenes from all of the movies - what is it about the CGI animated Yoda that does not make him as convincing as the original puppet? Is it because the animated version does not have a representation of a "death mark," within its face/eyes? I believe the answer to be yes. I also would like to add a quote by Stephen Chiodo in regards to Stop-Motion animation vs CGI, "No matter how real a CG character looks, it was never real and no matter how fake a puppet looks it is always real."
Referring back to my earlier statement that an emotion cannot exist without the context of a thought behind it - here is a dub over of one of Frank Oz's other characters Super Grover over the same scene of Yoda. The scene, while funny and certainly accurate in terms of syncing up the performance to the scene - the beauty of the original scene and the original performance is lost. The subtly, the motivation, everything is lost except humor....and fine examples of Frank Oz's "bag of tricks," as a performer.
With a simpler puppet, but the same performer, emotion can still be conveyed just as well. Here in this scene from 1978's "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street," Bert and Ernie are performing a "Gift of the Magi," bit - trading in their prized possessions to Mr. Hooper at Hooper's Store for gifts to each other. Bert's scene begins at 5:05 - around 5:30, as Bert is explaining his paper clip collection to Mr. Hooper, he begins by being proud of his collection, which quickly turns to sentiment, he then catches himself and goes back into "business mode," and makes the trade for the soap dish, which for him is relieving. Then comes one of the strongest examples of a simple puppet such as Bert trying to hold back tears after making the deal....and then carrying on. All with a simple stammer, roll of the neck and shake of the head.
These two characters -Yoda and Bert - have something that this "Ultra Realistic Robot," does not,
BUT!...This character Leonardo might possibly posses...
Does Leonardo have the potential to be interesting, cute and emotional because he isn't a representation/imitation of a human and he is instead furry and puppy like? This probably has a lot to do with it as well as the uncanny valley. But I also think that it is something within Leonardo's hand-crafted eyes that give him that inner-death mark. Leo's eyes are more soulful and expressive than the human robot.
I believe the above examples of emotions on a puppet to be different from say, this angry/upset emotion that Kermit exhibits in this scene in which he fires Miss Piggy.
I believe the above examples of emotions on a puppet to be different from say, this angry/upset emotion that Kermit exhibits in this scene in which he fires Miss Piggy.
The founders and designers of Handspring Puppet Company, Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones gave a TED talk about their puppets in general and for War Horse and said; "While and actor struggles to die on stage, a puppet struggles to live." Which I think to be a very powerful statement - to show a puppet dying or dead is easy, a puppeteer simply has to let go or be poor at their craft, which is where the struggling comes in.
This music video for the artist Keaton Henson has astonishing beautiful puppetry that has an overall sad tone, but the characters certainly exhibit simple emotions.
