Supermarionation

Supermarionation (a blend of "super", "marionette" and "animation") is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was "Thunderbirds". The term was coined by Gerry Anderson, possibly in imitation of Ray Harryhausen's stop motion technique.

Development and use in Gerry Anderson productions

The system used marionettes suspended and controlled by thin wires. The fine metal filaments doubled as both suspension-control wires for puppet movement, and as electrical cables that took the control signals to the electronic components concealed in the marionettes' heads.

The heads contained solenoid motors that created the synchronised mouth movements for dialogue and other functions. The voice synchronisation was achieved by using a specially designed audio filter which was actuated by the signal from the pre-recorded tapes of the voice actors; this filter would convert the signal into a series of pulses which then travelled down the wire to the solenoids controlling the puppet's lips, creating lip movements that were precisely synchronised with the dialogue.

Because the marionettes could not be made to walk convincingly, most scenes depicted the characters either standing or sitting, or placed them in settings that allowed the use of vehicles and other mechanical transportation systems. The personal hovercraft used in "Fireball XL5" and "Thunderbirds" were one of the devices the producers used to overcome this problem.

Occasionally, close-ups of a live actor's hand would be inserted to show actions such as turning keys and pressing buttons. This was affectionately parodied in the 2004 live action feature film "Thunderbirds", in which director Jonathan Frakes included a brief shot of a puppet hand, suspended by wires, operating the controls of Thunderbird 2.

The control mechanisms were originally placed within the puppets' heads, which meant the heads had to be disproportionately large compared to the bodies, like many comic strip characters. The advent of miniaturised electronic components in the mid-1960s meant that, beginning with "Captain Scarlet", a new type of puppet was designed, with a correctly-proportioned head and control mechanisms in the chest, connected to the mouth by narrow rods through the neck. This resulted in a far more realistic appearance for the puppets.

In many cases, the puppets were modelled on the actor voicing the role; two good examples are Lady Penelope in "Thunderbirds", which closely resembled Sylvia Anderson, and Captain Blue in "Captain Scarlet" who looks like his voice actor Ed Bishop. Other characters were based on well-known film stars, such as Captain Troy Tempest in "Stingray" who was based on James Garner, and Captain Scarlet, who was modelled on Cary Grant. "Stingray" also featured the only non-speaking Supermarionation puppet: the mermaid, Marina.

Anderson's 'Supermarionated' television shows:

*"Four Feather Falls" (1960)
*"Supercar" (1960)
*"Fireball XL5" (1962)
*"Stingray" (1963)
*"Thunderbirds" (1964)
*"Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" (1967)
*"Joe 90" (1968)
*"The Secret Service" (1969)

The term "Supermarionation" was not actually coined until during production of later episodes of "Supercar". As a result, "Four Feather Falls" is often omitted from lists of Supermarionation productions.

"The Secret Service" was actually a hybrid of live-action and Supermarionation, using footage of live actors from a distance to depict driving, walking, etc. Production was cancelled by ITC owner Lew Grade before the pilot episode aired; the 13 completed episodes aired sporadically on ATV and other British broadcasters beginning in 1969. Despite the poor reception, Anderson has been quoted as naming "The Secret Service" as his favorite Supermarionation series.

In 1973, Anderson produced a pilot episode for another Supermarionation/live action hybrid entitled "The Investigator" but was displeased with the results, so no series resulted. This is the last known occasion in which a full Supermarionation production was mounted.

Two feature films based upon "Thunderbirds" were also made with Supermarionation: "Thunderbirds Are GO" (1966) and "Thunderbird 6" (1967).

upermacromation

In the early 1980s, Anderson returned to puppetry for the science fiction series "Terrahawks". In this show the characters were realised using hand-controlled puppets, mostly controlled from beneath using a system called Supermacromation, which was broadly similar to the techniques developed by Jim Henson.

Hypermarionation

In 2004, Gerry Anderson produced "Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet", which was rendered using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and motion capture techniques. As a nod to Supermarionation however, the show is promoted as being produced in Hypermarionation.

upermarionation in non-Gerry Anderson productions

*Refined Supermarionation techniques were used in the South African children's science fiction show "Interster" in the late 1970s.

*The 1980 Japanese TV series "X Bomber" was filmed in Supermariorama, a puppeteering process similar to Supermarionation.

*A recent US television advertisement for the Orbitz online travel service is styled to suggest Supermarionation, though whether it could correctly be described by the term is open to question.

*', a 2004 movie by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, is inspired by and uses the same style of puppetry as "Thunderbirds". Stone and Parker, however, dubbed their version of the technique "Supercrappymation" since the strings controlling the puppets were intentionally left visible. Coincidentally that same year, a live action "Thunderbirds" movie, directed by Jonathan Frakes, with computer effects was made, attempting to mimic the popular children's movie "Spy Kids".Fact|date=July 2008 The live action "Thunderbirds" film was met with poor reviews, and ' creators Stone and Parker slated Frakes's live-action approach as "a terrible miscalculation": "I mean, if you aren’t using puppets, then you ain’t got nothin’. They sure didn’t have a story." [ [http://www.movieweb.com/news/06/5406.php Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk Team America: World Police ] ]

* Action League Now! was filmed in Chuckimation.

*In 2006, the 200th episode of television show "Stargate SG-1" includes a segment in which SG-1 and crew are featured as puppets in this same style. The sequence was created as an homage to both "Thunderbirds" and "Team America: World Police".

References