Research on Lotte Reinger

Full name: Charlotte Reiniger, nicknamed Lotte Reiniger 

Born in June 2,1899

Died in June 19, 1981

The Adventures of Prince Achmed was the first full animated film in the history of cinema which was released in February 1926 in Germany.

Made between 1923 and 26 in Potsdam Germany

• She's produced unique silhouette films. After producing Prince Achmed, she has made over 40 films all using different variations of the same technique.

• She chooses a character and finds a way to fit them into the story.

• She goes through concepts as to how the character would look like then puts them through a storyboard sequence

• Once she decides on what the character would look like, she starts to draw on black cardboard, paper and other cards and cuts them out

• She draws and cuts out limbs separately and the amount of drawings/separate pieces vary to how much movement a character will do.

• Small holes are pierced in relevant points and will be joint together with small wire hinges. They are intricately tied because it is very essential

so that it can withstand the constant movement that is demanded from them. 

• When it is used excessively and to keep it flat to prevent it from warping under the heat of the camera lights, they weight it with flat pieces

of lead. 

• Afterwards, to keep the figure a lot more flatter, they roll it out using a roller.

-Once the character is ready to be animated, she uses a "trick table", as she explains if you don't own one, "get your dining table, cut a hole into it

put a glass plate over it and all the glass plates have transparent paper and then you put some light on from underneath"-

• In order to make the figure move it needs to be placed in the right position. So in modern days, it is somewhat like stop motion animation, she takes a 

photo then the figure is then moved by a fraction to proceed to the second shot and so on. All that it requires now is patience, concentration

and following the storyboard. 

• The final result would be the figure moving across the screen. 

Reiniger doesn't only animate figures, she also draws objects and backgrounds for the character to interact with during the sequence. She also draws and

cuts out alternative drawings for a headswing or any other movement based animation. She sometimes "cheats" the movement or turning the figure when 

another figure passes infront of the character.

During the process of making the animation, the camera is at a fixed location, the reason behind this is so that the small figures wouldn't show their rough

outline. So to do things like close-shots and other perspectives, she has to draw and make an entirely new figure to compensate for that. Whether that would 

be an elarged drawing of the same character to imply a "zoom" or other different methods. The expression of the figure could also be altered when doing an

entirely new figure. 

An extra mile has to be considered and that is the backgrounds. Just like in modern digital drawing, we could apply different layers to be able to make 

a drawing appear from front or behind. Whereas Reiniger has to draw them individually and layer them to get the sense of perspective in a flat drawing.

Scissors play one of the most vital role in Reinigers work because in the construction of the backgrounds she needs to consider the thickness with

the transparent papers that she uses. Over all the layers that she's produced for the background, a single sheet of paper is put over them so that 

the figure has the freedom to move without conflicting with the background. As for the extra details like clouds and water, a second glass plate is used 

so that these can appear slightly out of focus. It is a necessary action to move the whole set to get a panning effect. During the process of the shoot, 

each frame is numbered and recorded. This is so that it helps the number of shots correspond to the timing of the music and the movements.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-TJvNBO1fw

https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/archives/lotte-reiniger-scissors-make-films-cut-out-animation-process-description-1936