Hoffmaniada

Stanislav Sokolov is directing his latest film, since 2006.

Due to financial reasons, Hoffmaniada was put on hold. But, since 2008 it's back on track, and still being produced to this day. Stop motion films take a very long time to make, and this one is no exception. So if your film seems to be trudging along slowly, it happens to everyone.

The film is based around three of Hoffmann's tales, one of which was the Sandman. For those who remember Colin Batty, Ian MacKinnon and Paul Berry made their own version of that film, so it seems Hoffmann attracts stop motion film makers. Maybe it's because visually the designs are so nice. From the looks of it, Hoffmaniadas' puppets are very well made. I'm not even sure how the female puppets mouth was made to move. Possibly an entire face replacement system? It's hard to know, especially since the film is made in Russia.

Soyuzmultfilm is the production studio creating the over 150 puppets. Since the film is now government funded, it has come almost to a halt as workers are paid hardly anything. So hopefully someone will help them out with a little cash so they can finally complete the project.

There is a great behind the scenes video on YouTube showing all the various puppets. It has English subtitles, however you'll need to visit the YouTube page and click the CC button at the bottom of the video. You can go there to see it here, or watch without subtitles below.

Dim lights

There is even a trailer showing some of the animation and puppets. You can watch it below, and it has an English narration to it.

Dim lights

The studio has put together a very sparse web site with only a few pictures. But it's worth checking out if you want to bookmark it in case they finally post some behind the scenes pictures or videos. You can see it by clicking here.

Comments (10)

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written by Marc Hendry, March 12, 2011

It's beautiful! The style reminds me of Corpse Bride, albeit lower budget. It's funny how similar the way they're doing it in Russia is to the way stop motion is created in the west, and the way that the animator in that video was saying that sometimes it feels like the puppets want to add their own things to their performance. To me, it looks like the girl has a mechanism to raise and lower her jaw, and she has Celebrity-Deathmatch-style replacement mouths stuck on.

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written by Lilt, March 12, 2011

Think so too... Replacement lip pieces and slide-able eyelids? Not sure if her jaw moves at all though?

Looks so beautiful Very 'Rigoletto', or 'Fool of the World and the Flying Ship', which, actually, was set in Russia... I wonder if the puppet styles reflect the style of cla*sic figurines or dolls?

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written by Ron Cole, March 13, 2011

"Since the film is now government funded, it has come almost to a halt..."

How can this even be possible? I thought government funded programs are so much more efficient than the greedy private sector? OK, I'll stop before I blow a gasket.

I really hope this film comes to fruition because the animation and puppets look wonderful!

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written by ben whitehouse, March 14, 2011

Dear lord!!! I really really hope this gets finished! Everything about it is just amazing.

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written by Paul Harrod, March 15, 2011

Definitely a replacement or movable lower lip on the woman. If you did full replacement faces you would add a suggestion of chin movement and jaw extension.

A small point of history by the way: The 1992 Academy Award nominated short, Sandman, though credited to the late Paul Berry, was in fact the brainchild of Colin Batty and Ian MacKinnon. Colin designed and boarded the entire film and Ian was responsible for building the puppets. They brought Paul in as the animator, but upon submitting the film to festivals found that most of them would accept only a single or dual credit for director (but never a triple) and decided to (very generously) relinquish directing credit to Paul. This is to take nothing away from the exquisite animation Mr. Berry provided, but for too long it seems neither Colin or Ian have received their proper due for Sandman. Colin went on to design the Martians in Mars Attacks as well as all of the characters on the stop-motion series The PJs, and continues to work as a character designer and fine artist. Ian of course founded MacKinnon and Saunders with armaturist, Pete Saunders and they have provided puppets for The Corpse Bride and The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

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written by Marc Spess, March 15, 2011

Hi Paul, thanks for that very interesting info about the Sandman! I didn't realize that they changed things to get into the festivals. I made a change to the news post to reflect what you posted. Thanks!

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written by Paul Harrod, March 15, 2011

And of course, in failing to thoroughly proofread my remarks, I managed to misspell Pete Saunders name.

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written by Marc Spess, March 15, 2011

No problem, changed it!

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written by WhiteRabbit, March 27, 2011

@Paul Harrod - I never knew about their involvement in 'Sandman'. What a shame they couldn't get full credit for festies. Mad world!

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Why funny?
written by Hans van der Kraan, December 12, 2012

@Marc Hendry,

Russia & the West? Funny? Quite a strange remarks, Sir.
Do I detect here remnants of Cold War thinking?
People all over the world make animation movies and use the same or different techniques and in which country or region of the world these techniques are used seem quite irrelevant to. But YMMV.

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