In the pursuit of realism, newly built models and sets were deliberately "dirtied down" with paint, oil, pencil lead and other substances to give them a used or weathered look. [88] Jetex propellant pellets were fitted to the undersides of miniature ground vehicles to emit jets of gas resembling dust trails. [89] Over time, the effects used for puppet gunfights became more elaborate: whereas gunshot effects in Four Feather Falls were created by simply painting marks on the film negative (which showed up as white flashes on the finished print), for later series the puppets' miniature prop guns were fitted with small charges that were fired using a car battery. [90] List of Anderson Supermarionation productions [ edit ] Title Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4thed.). London, UK: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1.

It was founded by a group of filmmakers who first collaborated on Filmed in Supermarionation, the story of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's hit puppet shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet. Halifax Ad Campaign – Lady Penelope, Parker, and Brains returned to screens to advertise the services of Halifax bank. DVD documentary on the making of Captain Scarlet. Linking sequences feature the puppet characters of Captains Scarlet and Blue. Produced by Gerry Anderson and credited as being "filmed in Supermarionation". [109]MARINA, a dumb beauty who really is dumb, but not in the accepted sense of the word. She is a lovely girl from an under-ocean continent whose race has never learned to speak. She understands what is said to her, however, and makes herself understood by the expressive use of her hands. After being captured and made slave by the leader of an underwater city, she escapes with Troy Tempest and becomes his devoted aide, accompanying him on most of his adventures. She is a lithe, beautiful creature, far more human than fish, with a perfectly shaped human body. Her hair is green, long, silky and glistening. Her eyes, too, are green. She is in love with Troy, but she has a rival. Lewis, Richard (2002) [2001]. The Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV. London, UK: Allison & Busby. pp.285–286. ISBN 9780749005290. South Park 's Puppet Regime". wired.com. Condé Nast. 1 October 2004. Archived from the original on 29 April 2017 . Retrieved 8 May 2020. Thunderbirds – Three brand-new, half-hour, classic-style episodes produced to celebrate the series 50th anniversary. Century 21 Films Ltd is a multi-faceted production company whose work spans drama to documentary, miniature effects to puppet shows.

Team America: World Police, a 2004 puppet film by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, was inspired by Thunderbirds and has been described as an imitation or spoof of Supermarionation productions. [9] [10] [11] [132] Stone and Parker dubbed their filming process "Supercrappymation" (or "Supercrappynation") as the wires were deliberately left visible. [133] [134] [135] [136] Firestorm Aims to be 21st-Century Thunderbirds with Next-Gen Puppets". CNET. San Francisco, California: CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016 . Retrieved 23 June 2018. In the 2010s, Stephen La Rivière and his production company Century 21 Films began a revival of Supermarionation. [118] Their productions are listed below. Since the team at Century 21 Films first started working together, Supermarionation has returned to film and television screens in the form of:Noting that Gerry Anderson would have preferred to make live-action productions instead of puppet series, Percy argues that his style of filming was developed to "make the puppet film as 'respectable' as possible". She also comments that APF's filming techniques "would not only result in a level of quality and sophistication not seen before in a family show, but also give birth to some of the most iconic series in the history of British children's television." [50] Multiple appearances on television programmes including The One Show, This Morning, and Good Morning Britain. Clarke, Donald (17 January 2005). "Puppets of the State". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019 . Retrieved 22 September 2019. Thunderbirds – 50th Anniversary Specials". century21films.co.uk. Century 21 Films. Archived from the original on 7 May 2020 . Retrieved 5 June 2020. a b Cohen, Noam (28 December 2012). "The Breakfast Meeting: Tighter Internet Rules in China, and Thunderbirds Creator Dies". mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com. New York City, New York: The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on 28 June 2018 . Retrieved 22 September 2019.

Includes newly filmed Supermarionation puppet sequences featuring characters from Thunderbirds. [119] [120] [121] [122] Elliott, David. "Foreword". filmedinsupermarionation.com. Century 21 Films. Archived from the original on 6 May 2020 . Retrieved 9 June 2020. Endeavour, Season 6: Supermarionation". pbs.org. WGBH Educational Foundation . Retrieved 18 May 2020. Century 21 Films also worked on "Apollo", a 2019 episode of Endeavour that is set partly in a TV studio which is making a puppet series called Moon Rangers. The episode features story-within-a-story marionette sequences that were written and filmed as a tribute to Supermarionation. [126] [127] Non-Anderson productions using similar techniques [ edit ] We were determined to break away from [children's puppet programmes], so we treated those programmes as if they were something really special and hoped people would see the effort we were putting in and offer us live-action films ... When we did those early things we asked ourselves what we could do to improve them. Christine Glanville, who was so important to us as we went on with the puppets, came up with improvements all the time.

Garland describes the underlying theme of Anderson's work as a "self-reflexive obsession with an aesthetic of realism (or more accurately a surface realism often associated with naturalism) borne of an unfulfilled desire to make live-action films for adults", further commenting that Anderson's typecasting as a puppet TV creator "led him on a lifelong quest to perfect a simulation of reality". He notes that Anderson's involvement with puppets began at a time when Western puppet theatre "had become increasingly marginalised to a niche, to an association with children's entertainment", and that APF's productions used an "aesthetic of incremental realism" to appeal to children and adults alike (a target audience that the Andersons referred to as " kidult"). [112] Garland suggests that this drive towards increased realism echoed "19th-century marionette theatre's own attempts to distinguish itself from other forms of puppetry (especially glove puppets), which also involved a tethering to the newly-emergent realist aesthetic across the arts". [113] Successor techniques [ edit ] Because we had characters who couldn't stand properly without their knees sagging, and characters who had no expression, it was very difficult to play a love scene and impossible to have a fight. And so it seemed the way to go was anything that was fast-moving and had a lot of excitement, so it seemed that science fiction was the best option.

Following the completion of Twizzle, APF was unsuccessful in securing new clients, so accepted another puppet commission from Leigh: Torchy the Battery Boy. [26] This series used puppets with heads of "plastic wood" (a mixture of cork dust, glue and methylated spirit) and wooden bodies. [27] [28] The heads incorporated moveable eyeballs and a hinged jaw that was opened and closed with a string. [28] [29] [30] In practice, jaw movement was difficult to control due to the bobbing of the puppets' heads. [31] By now all puppet sets were three-dimensional. [27] They had also become more detailed, being made mostly of cardboard with fibreglass props. [20] [31] [32] a b Archer, Simon; Hearn, Marcus (2002). What Made Thunderbirds Go! The Authorised Biography of Gerry Anderson. London, UK: BBC Books. p.69. ISBN 978-0-563-53481-5. CAPTAIN TROY TEMPEST, commander of Stingray, strikingly handsome, fearless, conscientious and everything a man should be. He has dark brown hair and the clearest of blue eyes. His voice is spoken by Don Mason. a b c d e Lewis, Jon E.; Stempel, Penny (1996) [1993]. Cult TV: The Essential Critical Guide. London, UK: Pavilion Books. pp.175–176. ISBN 9781857939262. The Japanese series Aerial City 008 (1969) and X-Bomber (1980) also featured Supermarionation-style puppets, [129] [130] with the latter of the two referring to its filming style as 'Supermariorama' in reference to Supermarionation. In South Africa, similar techniques were used to make Interster (1982–86). The American puppet series Super Adventure Team (1998) was created in imitation of Supermarionation but with more adult themes and suggestive situations. [131]

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Apparently, Century 21 stills photographer Doug Luke was interviewed for the documentary, but is neither on it nor the deleted scenes. [5] Reception [ edit ] APF's first colour series. First production on which puppets' facial expressions could be varied: main characters could now be fitted with "smiler" and "frowner" heads. For greater realism, poseable hands and glass eyes (bearing miniature prints of real human eyes) were also introduced. [101] [102]