Puppets and Human Movements by Steven Ritz-Barr

A scene in Quixote, my recent project, revolves around the “hero” marionette getting in a brawl and losing his teeth. The script required him to open his mouth to show Sancho Panza how many teeth he lost in the fight. I included this scene with the express intent to make the puppets feel more human. My reasoning being that with the association of teeth and pain with a puppet the public would regard him with more human attributes. I also liked the camaraderie between the two characters that revealed their trusting relationship.
My collaborator argued exactly the opposite. He wanted to drop anything that made the viewer aware that the puppet was not human. Teeth are in humans; therefore putting a light to this part of the anatomy would strain the credibility of our main character and therefore our story. The viewer would be reminded that they are mere Puppets and disengage their attention from the story. He also felt the scene wasn’t strong enough to merit inclusion in our highly summarized version of the epic novel.
Since I am the final decision maker in this arrangement I was prepared to overrule my partner. But he made me aware of the dance we writer’s make in regard to the Puppets versus Human movements. We don’t see Quixote eating in the film, so teeth are not an issue outside of this scene. If we need to emotionally humanize Quixote because of this scene it is because we have not done so adequately throughout the piece. We can add it later if we feel we have the need to do so. We are on a terribly tight budget and shooting schedule so including the scene may mean cutting another scene more important. So, at this point I am putting the shooting of the scene at the end of the schedule, meaning we probably won’t get to it.

~ by lapuppet on July 5, 2009.