Transcript Jiri Trnka 1

Background
0 Born on February 24, 1912 in Pilsen, Czech Republic
0 His father was a plumber and his mother was a dressmaker
0 Went to School of Applied Arts in Prague(Academy of
Architecture, Art, and Design)
0 Worked as a children’s book illustrator
0 Best known as puppeteer and animator
His Years as an Illustrator
0 First illustration - Mr. Boska: The Tiger of Vitezslaw
Šmejc in 1937
0 Famous illustrations include: The Brothers Grimm,
several works of Shakespeare, and folktales from Jirí
Horák and Jan Pálenícek
0 Illustrated over 130 stories
0 Illustrations for Bajaja by Vladimir Hoan, the story
was later turned into an animation
Early Years as an Animator
0 1936 – Created puppet theater but
disbanded due to war
0 1945 – Joined up with Jirí Brdečka
and Eduard Hofman, created
“Grandfather Planted a Beet”
0 1946 – Formed a new studio now
known as the Jiri Trnka Studio
0 Animals and Bandits, The Springer
and the SS Men, The Gift
0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=lKjKTKX4BXI
0 Began using puppets in 1946
Puppet Animation
0 First puppet animation “The Czech
Year” 1947
0 Short film comprised of six parts
0 Illustrated folk customs of the time
0 Won award at Venice Film Festival
0 Studio began receiving subsidies from
the government in 1948
0 Made second film “The Emperor’s
Nightingale” 1949
0 Based on story by Hans Christian
Anderson
0 Continued to make short puppet
animations throughout the year
The fifties
0 Experimenting with new techniques:
0 - 1951 “Golden Fish”
0 - “The Merry Circus” uses stop motion and 2-
dimensional paper cutouts;
0 1953 -Old Czech Legends – quarter-length movie, 7
episodes about history of Czech people. Challenges.
0 1959 - “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, his last feature
by Shakespeare. Used plastic puppets.
The sixties
0 Only a few short films, pessimistic notes
0 1962 – “The Passion”
0
- “Cyber Grandma” – a satire
0 1965 – “The Hand”(Ruka) ( he considered
it his greatest work, a short). It was his last
film. Ruka is a protest against the
conditions imposed by Czechoslovak
communist state to artistic creation.
0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qzvC
ZojnWQ
0 1969 – he died of a heart condition
57 years old.
Animation Techniques
0 Trinka experimented with different animation techniques:
from traditional cartoons in his first shorts to animation
with shadow puppets;
0 Preferred method – stop-motion puppet work
0 Even he did not invent puppet animation, his style was
different:
He did not alter the appearance of dolls to display their
emotions, but instead worked with lighting and framing.
0 Music played an important role to him. In all his films the
composer of the music – Vaclav Trojan.
Summary
0 One of the most famous European cartoon makers,
“The Walt Disney of Eastern Europe”
0 Illustrator and puppet maker
0 Most of the movies for adults
0 “Puppets films are truly unlimited in their
possibilities: they can express themselves with the
greatest force precisely when realistic expressions of
the cinematographic image often faces
insurmountable obstacles”.
References
0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji%C5%99%C3%AD_Trnka
0 http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.04/5.04pages/dutkatrnka.php3
0 http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czech-history/jiri-trnka-100th-anniversary-ofthe-birth-of-a-great-czech-animator
0 http://www.rembrandtfilms.com/jiritrnka.htm
0 http://www.spjst.org/jiritrnka.html
0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qzvCZojnWQ