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By Emily Russell
Most of us have watched or at least heard of holiday movie staples such as Rudolph, A Year Without a Santa Claus, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, and Jack Frost. These movies are widely recognized for their distinct styling and catchy songs, which capture their viewers' attention and transport them into a sphere of seasonal spirit. There’s one element these movies have in common that can be collectively credited for creating the nostalgic and festive feel these movies create: stop motion.
The history:
As cel animation (hand-drawn animation technique) began to develop and grow in popularity, the material plasticine (putty-like modeling material) was created in 1897. Well, this didn't create a “large” shift in the movie world, animators began exploring possibilities within the material for new unique projects. The first published work using both film and claymation came in 1908. It was titled The Sculptor’s Nightmare and depicted a fictional outcome of the 1908 election. It was a large step to combine a fully filmed movie with the process of claymation. Over the next few decades, the process underwent immense progress. For a long time, it had fallen into the cracks due to classic single-cell animation. In the 1950s-70s’ claymation finally made its mark. As animation tools developed, producers started searching for more distinct and advanced tools within the claymation world. Characters like Gumby (1955) made large debuts and new animation studios that specifically focused on claymation such as Aardman Animations were formed. This particular studio was responsible for many of the world's most iconic claymation films such as Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit. The popularity of claymation led to many material developments that changed the structure of the characters, making them slightly easier to keep together and withstand long periods of filming. This created the overall film category of stop motion. The art of stop motion has evolved immensely since then and while it still involves clay elements, it also includes many other diverse elements and moveable figurines.
The Process:
When boiled down, the process of creating a stop-motion seems simple. You create the figures, move/pose them, and shoot them frame by frame. The frames are edited together to give it a live sense of motion. Characters are typically created using mixtures of clay and plasticine crafted around a wire skeleton. Most of the backgrounds, especially in older stop-motion films, are completely crafted by hand. Due to the meticulous movements needing to be shot step by step throughout the whole motion, one scene can take an excruciatingly long time. The entire setup is worth it and is part of what gives the movies such an old and special feel.
The Movies:
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was the first Christmas claymation to break the barriers. The film was released in 1964, adding up to approximately 55 minutes of watch time. Its creation required 100 people on set at all times and took an entire year to film. One mistake required the crew to almost completely start over due to the meticulous process that comes from shooting shot-by-shot. Having people on hand made it easier to manage and shoot scenes. We, viewers, expect small, easy-to-bend figures when we think of stop motion, especially claymation. However, Rudolph used large, puppet-like characters. Sam the Snowman is a great example of this. Most of the figurines used in the movie were only up to 4 inches….besides Sam. On-screen Sam appeared to be just a few inches taller than the reindeer and elves but in reality, he was about the size of the top of your head, down to your hip bones. Sam had strings attached to many of his limbs for structural support during filming. Another height exception was of course Bumble, a.k.a. the abominable snow monster. He towered over even Sam and was very difficult to navigate motion-wise. Rudolph, many of the other reindeer, and of course, the elves were crafted out of wood carvings. Rudolph’s iconic nose was created using a small LED light bulb. The movie featured about 22 hand-crafted backdrops and scenic elements. 82 puppets were created for the film, costing about $500,000 ($4.5 million by today's standards) to create. The audio was added in after filming and most of the song recordings were captured in one day. The dialogue was said to be recorded almost entirely in Canada.
Stopmotion created one of the most well-known Christmas movies around the globe. Rudolph itself is incredibly iconic and knowing the history and creation process behind it poses an extremely interesting topic. In case you are interested in a watch or rewatch, Rudolph can be found on Apple TV and any streaming service with individual purchases (Amazon Prime).
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