20 years of JPL Films

The idea for this exhibition is to concentrate 20 years of production from JPL Films, in terms of animated films using puppets and other hybrid techniques and approaches, which constitute the originality of the society since its inception.

The puppet from the film Cyclope de la mer, the first big production from JPL Films, is shown and installed within its universe of a lighthouse on the high sea, just as during the filming itself. Photographs of the production and filming accompany the set, allowing us to go back 20 years in time.

Twenty is the number of films which reveal their behind the scenes, showing the viewer the secrets of producing a film directed image by image. From the initial graphics research for sets and characters, through the creation of puppets and props, through the decorations themselves, the storyboards and animations with storyboards that are filmed and sound designed (“animatiques”), the course of the exhibition allows for a direct look, into the different skills used by the artistic and technical teams, which guarantee the perfect execution of an animated film.

At different points during the exhibition, the excerpts of the films and of the “making-of”, the animations and the animation tests, complement the visit of the JPL Films studio and its activities.

In the center of the space which houses the exhibition, we reproduced a set, as if we were in the middle of filming, like that of the Argentinian Juan Pablo Zaramella, who just finished the series L’homme le Plus Petit du Monde. A small 15cm tall man made of resin and aluminum wire, dressed in black, and who evokes the burlesque era, tries to infiltrate the world of humans, just as a Lilliputian might. The animation of the character, is done image by image on a green screen and reintroduced through manipulation of the decór filmed live around the city.

Finally, various drawings, original paintings and posters complement the visit. At times, the animated drawing and 2D/3D films utilize numerous mock-ups and character models.

An example is Jean-François Laguionie, in his latest feature length film Louise en hiver, presented
in this year´s edition of the Festival MONSTRA in Lisbon.

The exhibition is also an encounter between different generations of authors, from the young Victor Haegelin to the master Jean-François Laguionie. An essential encounter in the creative act, but also for generational and human growth and understanding.An encounter with the history of a production house and its creations which have been
interacting on the world´s screens for 20 years, and which come together, for the first time in Lisbon, in this unique space, the Museu da Marioneta, at the hands of this singular festival, MONSTRA.