Dec 18, 2012

Terry Gilliam Tribute at the Fringe

This week's FRINGE/Fringe (Episode 96, "Black Blotter") had a pretty cool homage to Terry Gilliam's animation in Monty Python's Flying Circus. This animation was used to illustrate the acid trip flashbacks. Here's the footage:

The 75-second Gilliam tribute was produced by 6 Point Harness and directed by Greg Franklin. Producer Brendan Birch explains: [This film about the hallucinations of scientist Walter Bishop was produced in less than two weeks. Such a compressed schedule required that the characters (designed by Saharat Tantivaraniyu) and storyboards (created by Franklin and Anna Hollingsworth) be fixed in the first week, so that animators could prepare for the final stretch of animation, which was called Gilliam's cutout cartoons for Monty Python's Flying Circus were analyzed by the dozens and dozens.

"Studio photographer Dave Vamos took production photos of his own pudgy fingers, which were used to depict the giant hand that pulls Dr. Bishop into a psychedelic dream world. The stomping foot, a direct homage to the famous Python title sequence, belongs to production coordinator Nick Butera. Butera's foot was a perfect match for the original, but required sharpening and a little airbrushing work by animator John Dusenberry.

"Animation was created by the aforementioned Dusenberry and Hollingsworth, along with Frank Macchia and Kelly Turnbull, paying close attention to all aspects unique to Gilliam. The final animation was edited and composited by Tony Christopherson, using layers of digital paper, real film grain, shaky projector gates, and blotches to recreate Walter's drunken memories of seeing Monty Python in the 1970s.