Read yesterday?s post here. Follow along with Flickr pics here.

Day Eight: Green Jelly, Animation and Improvisation

Today started oddly, as I slept in ? on purpose ? but I wanted to sleep so much more. I?m exhausted! I rushed through breakfast, as I got there at the end of the time they serve it, and then headed off to catch a train. 

You see, I was to meet another online friend from Theatre Australia, Bec (AKA Tari), who is studying in Fremantle, and offered to have lunch with me there. (Writing this is quite odd, as she was joking with me that the whole thing was going to end up in my blog!) Well, I?m not going to give you all the details, just that she was very nice in taking me through Fremantle and showing me all around. She?s an excellent tour guide, because she seems to know the history of the area very well. We had lunch at Notre Dame?s (local university) training restaurant for their hospitality students. It was very good service, excellent food, and it was very cheap - $6 for lunch each! 

Afterwards Bec took me through to the Round House, an old prison, where on the dot at 1pm, they fire a cannon. It?s to recreate the days when they used to fire the cannon to let nearby ships what time it was, so the ships could calculate their location. (I?m probably paraphrasing) It was great fun, I?ve never watched a cannon being shot; plus there were some great views. 

We headed through to the Maritime Museum ? both places asking a gold coin donation for entry ? and we looked at the exhibits. My particular favourite piece of info today: some students got together years ago and figured out where the beachline would have been during colonial times. They then plotted this out over ten years, by inlaying bricks along that old beachline; so every now and then, while walking through Fremantle, you?ll see this long curving set of bricks. What?s amazing about it is that the line is quite often extremely far from the current shoreline; say a couple of blocks worth of houses. 

Anyway, we went back to Notre Dame, and I treated us to jelly cups (Bec having paid for lunch), which is a nice treat for a hot day? Except now I?m sunburnt, which is totally not good because I got sunburnt on Sunday too! 

Well, by this time Bec had to get back to uni, and I was totally tired ? my feet being rather swollen still ? and I took the train back to Perth city. It?s a nice train ride, and it struck me how clean the train stations are compared to Melbourne. While there is some graffiti along the train line, there doesn?t seem to be any at the stations themselves, and there?s not rubbish around either. Maybe it?s an odd thing to notice, but it really is nice to go through some clean train stations for once. 

From the station, I headed to Perth Town Hall, where I?ve booked myself in for one more show ? Richard Bradshaw?s ? and then went back to the hotel to rest my feet for a while. I didn?t get long, and had to get to my next panel discussion 

This one was The Animating Spark, which focused on the notion of digital and animatronic puppetry vs. traditional puppetry. I love animatronics and stop motion, but it?s not something I would personally work on. However, I thought the discussion would still interest me, so I booked it in. 

First speaker was Philip Millar, one of the more notable Australian puppet makers (he designed and made puppets for Walking with Dinosaurs), and he did a sort of journey through his life from making foam dinosaurs to making large animatronic ones. He included a lot of pictures ? even one that was hilariously showing the fashion of the 80s ? plus a great little behind-the-scenes of design to final product of a T-rex animatronic. He mentioned that hybrid puppets (ie. using both animatronics and CGI) is a good way to go. 

Next, we had Tom Lubin, who comes from a completely digital background, and took a look at the current trend of people using online games to create avatar-based performances. Ie. You get on Second Life, and you can perform in a virtual theatre. Others are using games, such as Halo, and invent things for their avatars to do, and then record them and put it on Youtube. I have to say that I personally am not fascinated by this topic, but it is interesting that so many people out there enjoy it; many shows created using online avatars are now selling DVDs of their work in
Wallmart. 

Thirdly, we had Chrissie Parrot, who spoke from a choreographer?s point of view. She?s been spending several years using motion capture to create digital animations of dancers, which she then presents on stage, sometimes with live dancers. It was quite interesting, as she showed three different animations of dancers, which have been done in succession, and each one shows the development and improvement of the animation software that she used. 

Lastly, we had a prerecorded interview from Alan Murphy, who has worked on the Harry Potter movies. He discussed his work, and noted how CGI is so plotted out that there?s no chance for any spontaneity, and that often the best puppetry work comes from the accidental. 

Some great little gems from the discussion: that there is something more interesting about animatronics or live puppetry, because live puppetry can often have a more direct connection to emotion than CGI. (Philip Millar mentioned that some puppeteers call CGI the ?dark side? of puppetry) 

Afterwards, I went up and introduced myself to Philip, whom I?ve known via email for a while now, and we swapped business cards. He?s very nice, warm and friendly, and I?m glad: his reputation is such that I was quite intimidated! 

Well, this brings me to my next event: a puppet show, down at Perth Concert Hall. I headed down, hoping to buy some dinner on the way, but nothing was open. One thing that confuses me in Perth is that all the restaurants seem to be closed after 5pm. Ok, yes I know, most people go home around that time, and it?s Tuesday night. But come on; you?re telling me that it?s not worth staying open in the evening for a while? 

So yeah, read my review on Puppet Sports here.

Tomorrow, a masterclass with Neville Tranter, a keynote speech, and yet another show! UPDATE: Read next day’s post here.