Terry Gilliam AOP.

Poo Poo Pictures Productions Ltd'

The job of an animator is to inject humanity into the bits and bytes of pixels.'

Terry Gilliam, now a respected and successful live action film director, was back in the 1970's creating a set of short surreal animations for the comedy group Monty Python. Having first experimented with some very strange images for the 60's TV Show 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' (1967 to1969).

Gilliam sent in some written sketches to the Producer of this comedy Show who bought them for the program, and also hired Gilliam, where he met Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Eric Idle. With his drawing skills, he also created some short black and white animations for 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' TV program and then later with the same team he moved to Monty Python, he repeated his "Christmas cards" animation the "Joy to the World" for Python. Gilliam would produce an animation with little or no money and no time and because of this he was forced to work with images lifted from famous works of art taken from magazines and old photographs, he would cut them up and animate them (‘stop-motion’) style. This surreal animation of cutout Victorian masterpieces became 'Gilliam style'. His need to meet the programs requirements were inspired from films that he had liked such as 'Death Breath' (1964, Stan van Der Beek) featuring Richard Nixon in cut out photographic form, trying to talk with a large foot in his mouth! The same foot idea later appeared in Python in the form of another giant foot stomping down on the show’s end title, the foot of Cupid, cut from the painting of the Renaissance artist Agnolo Bronzino’s painting of ‘Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time’. Did this early painting influence him even more than just use of the foot? As each individual word to this paintings title could easily sum-up much of Gilliam personal approach to his animations work.

These stop motion picture animations were full of images that seemed unconnected to one another but are in fact part of a larger action, or secondary action. Each Collage had lots of detail in each segment, which in the end helps pull all the pieces together no matter how absurd the actions seem to start with. Gilliam has a lot of control over how he plays out his animations because they are not always easy to anticipate, are they funny or very dark or just absurd?

This unexpected direction in much of his work often meant that the audience did not fully understand the nature of the joke, but later this was to be seen as the genius of his work.

Always restricted by time and money. He would lock himself away in his study and animate, again and again till he was happy with his work. Waiting till the eleventh hour before handing it in to the producers. This continued through out his time with the Python team from 1974 with 45 TV episodes to the last film the “Meaning of Life” in 1983. In 1978 he brought out his book ‘Animations of Mortality’ with samples of his work and Philosophy.

(Terry Gilliam at Cannes, 2001

Well, I really want to encourage a kind of fantasy, a kind of magic. I love the term ‘magic realism’ whoever invented it – I do actually like it because it says certain things. It's about expanding how you see the world. I think we live in an age where we're just hammered, hammered to think this is what the world is. Television's saying, everything's saying 'That's the world.' And it's not the world. The world is a million possible things. Terry Gilliam )

Gilliam stopped animation for film after 1983 and moved over to live action. He never completely left animation and in 1996 his book was turned into interactive CD-ROM with many new Gilliam images.

Email to the Terry Gilliam

From Martin Tierney Birmingham city University

3rd Year studying Animation.

To Terry Gilliam / Animations / Poo Poo Pictures Productions LTD

Would like to ask Mr. Gilliam a few ( 5) questions about animation to add to a Dissertation piece on Animation, thanks martin.

On 29 Oct 2010, at 12:16, Jenne Casarotto wrote:

Dear Martin:

Here are Terry's answers to your questions.

Best

Jenne

1. Your style of animation was born out of the little time and lack of money, would you have done anything differently if you did not have those restrictions?

I would probably have been less original and violent and far more mediocre.

2. What are your thoughts of Animations today?

I don't think about animation much since there is so much of it about. It certainly doesn't need my mental imaging to help it exist.

3. What in your mind is the difference between an Animation and a cartoon (not a trick question)?

I assume one moves and the other doesn't. But I'm not certain which.

4. In the last few years the Internet has brought many unique Animation to the attention of the General public, much the same way that Monty Python did with your work, what have you seen recently and what did you like?

Wall-E

Toy Story 3

The Illusionist

5. I am attempting to mix live action with 3D animation, aside from telling me not do it! What other advice would you give me and other animators today?

Mix away! You are living in a lucky time for animators. Animation is popular

and seemingly able to deal with more interesting stories and ideas than live action films... and to have fun in the process. The studios and commercial companies are pumping lots of money into animated films so you probably will be able to get a job that will pay your mortgage and booze bills.

Many thanks Jenne
This is a great help and I appreciate both your time and to Mr. Gilliam in answering the entire set of questions so quickly.
I will add them to my work piece with full references to both of you,
Thanks Martin Tierney/Birmingham City University.