Anthony
Lawrence
(Anthony
Robert Lawrence)
b. December 20, 1960, Melbourne, Australia.
BIOGRAPHY:
Anthony Lawrence first had the opportunity
to make films at Essendon High School between the years of 1975
to 1977 when Media was offered as a Creative Arts subject. He
then went on to purchase his own Super 8 gear and made his first,
and only, cell animation film Boxed In, which he entered
in the 1980 Moomba International Film Festival and which was awarded
a Certificate of Merit.
Between 1980
and 1983 Anthony studied Film and television as part of his Bachelor
of Education. Portable and colour video was now accessible but
Anthony preferred the quality of film and got himself a Beaulieu
4008ZM2. With this he shot a comedy spoof inspired by the first
two Mad Max films, entitled The Naughty Boy. Anthony
rented the Glasshouse Theatre at RMIT where he showed The Naughty
Boy along with his Super 8 Plasmo films and also a Super 8
work by animation director Nick Donkin.
In 1985 Anthony
geared up to make a clay animation of a professional standard.
The script for the 27 minute film Happy Hatchday to Plasmo
took two years to animate and put Anthony in hosptial from an
auxiliary vein thrombosis (blood clot in the shoulder) he developed
from trying to track read the whole 27 minutes worth of dialogue
in a single day in order to return the borrowed equipment in time!
The ABC consequently bought the rights to broadcast this film,
and spawned the creation of the Plasmo Series for TV, which
took five years to secure full funding and then 18 months to prepare
and shoot.
Since Plasmo Anthony has developed other series concepts, and acquired a rebuilt
35mm Mitchell camera for future animations. In 2001 he completed
the 6 minute long puppet animation Looking for Horses which
won two Best Animation awards in Australia and a few overseas
awards including one at Annecy in 2002.
Anthony was
first inspired by animations such as Gumby, The Castle, Wind and the Willows and later by the work of fellow Australian
animators such as Nick Donkin, Nick Hilligoss and Glen Hunwick
to name a few. He is a fan of directors Kubrick and Kurosawa.
His days at college exposed to the works of Corinne and Arthur
Cantrill opened up an alternative way of looking at films.
Plasmo
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
Clarity and quality of image is one
of Anthony's main concerns. Clear and well planned storytelling
is another. In puppet animation pre-planning is almost 70% of
the work. Anthony does not like public speaking but fully enjoys
being present whenever his films are shown.
"Tony
Lawrence is one of the Australian masters of stop frame animation.
He was responsible for the Plasmo series about an innocent
shape-changing alien, broadcast for children by the ABC. In Plasmo
there were flashes of joyous perfection, where the puppetry is
so exactly right that it honours the reality it imitates. There
is a moment where Plasmo swims through the clear, sun-filled waters
of a reservoir, bubbles swirling from the aqualung, pink fins
trailing weightlessly behind, to rescue a fat alien stuck in the
outlet pipe. It is a true delight. But there is a twist in here.
Unlike most stop frame animation, Tony is not ultimately interested
in creating the perfect illusion. His work is not just hyperrealism.
Instead there is a kind of perceptual mirror in the corner of
the frame, that calls attention to its own devices."
- David
Tiley, "I
Spy with my Little Eye - Anthony Lawrence and the Art of Puppet
Animation" ABC's "Strange Attractors" website.
FILMOGRAPHY:
(this
list does not include the numerous Super 8 home movies made with
friends and family for pure enjoyment, nor any television advertisements)
Boxed
In (1980, 10 mins, Super 8)
The
Naughty Boy
Pacific
(1980, 3 mins, Super 8)
Biton
of Rum (1980, 15 mins, Super 8)
Plasmo
versus the Space Bullies (1981, 8 mins, Super 8)
Plasmo
and the Space Party (1983, 12 mins, Super 8)
Impressions
of the Blockade (1984, 12 mins, Super 8 blown up to 16mm)
The Naughty
Boy (1985, 42 mins, Super 8)
Happy
Hatchday to Plasmo (1989, 27 mins, 16mm)
Plasmo
and the Bookworm (1993, 5 mins, 16mm)
Plasmo
The Series (1996, 13 x 5 minutes, 16mm, for TV)
Looking
for Horses (2001, 6 mins, 35mm)
Plasmo Episode 1 (1996, 15 mins)
Looking for Horses (2001, 6 mins)
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"I
Spy with my Little Eye - Anthony Lawrence and the Art of Puppet
Animation" by David Tiley, ABC's "Strange Attractors"
website.
