Barry Purves Part 1 - Visiting the Leeds College of Art

A couple of weeks ago, we have the privilege of meeting Barry Purves, a famous stop motion animator, as he came into our uni to give us a talk about his experiences in the industry! With 37 years under his belt I think it's safe to say he knows his stuff.

Despite this he originally wanted to be an actor; after not doing so well in this field he realised that animation has a similar effect as acting does, in the sense of giving a performance. Purves creates all of his films with the performance of the characters primarily in mind, to create life within the puppets

He opts to animate with puppets because it's a very hands-on technique, which allows him to use props and materials to build a character, and to really be able to feel the character as if it were alive for real. He also believes that stop motion is the best way to get the audience to relate to the film, since this technique uses real materials that people can actually hold, therefore making it more amazing to see it moving on screen as if it were alive.

During the presentation was a screening for two of his films, 'Plume' and 'Tchaikovsky', in which he took us through scene-by-scene to describe why he used certain camera angles or random facts about details in the films.

Overall it was a very insightful talk about various aspects of the animation industry, and he was a pleasure to listen to.

Plume

Tchaikovsky