Thursday, November 16, 2006

Paul Berry

At the B.A.F.(see post below) this year they are paying tribute to Paul Berry. Paul Berry was an amazing stop-motion animator that passed away at the tender age of 40 in 2001. Although, even at that young age he still had been in the animation field for almost 20 years. Personally, I never knew that I was exposed to Paul's work at such an early age but it was he who brought Mr. Toad to life in The Wind in the Willows. Paul worked on several movies for Cosgrove and Hall, that I haven't seen, but it was in 1992 when he made THE SANDMAN (shown above) with MacKinnon and Batty! Now, he not only got my attention but the whole world's attention. Ironically, it was seeing the Sandman that cured my blindness and fed my interest in animation. He has probably fed thousands of other peoples dreams in the art of stop-motion,too! You can now watch The Sandman on YouTube. The thing that amazes me about this film, besides the fluid gestures, is the head of the Sandman is solid (not malleable clay) yet Paul achieves such different looks of expression with lighting or just the tilt of the head or the angle of the camera. Classic!!

3 comments:

Das Brick said...

Love it! I'd never heard of this before and it gave me the greeblies sometin fierce. Thanks HCB man!!

Anonymous said...

i was fortunate enough to have known Paul and his inseparable partner Graham over 20 years ago before i moved abroad. I only learnt of his passing away yesterday, I am deeply saddened by the loss of such an amazingly talented person. I just hope I can re establish contact with Graham to offer any possible support and heartfelt condolences as i do to any of his friends , family or loved ones. Gill

Anonymous said...

I knew Paul from school, we went all through primary and secondary school together and i am so shocked to learn of his death.He was a lovely lad and i will never forget him. I learned some years ago from his brother that he was an animator which didnt surprise me in the least and i have often wondered how he was doing.Paul if you can read this God Bless my friend you will always remain in my heart.