“Pinocchio” del Toro: the secrets of cinematic artistry

Scenography artists and animation technicians transform a script into miniature space, into maquettes that summarize the place where Pinocchio lives, portrayed by Guillermo del Toro in a highly complex workshop (Pinocchio according to Guillermo del Toro: Cinema Sculpted by Hand 2022).
Therefore, a technical artistic workshop was formed, in which paintings are depicted sequentially, embodying a huge visual heritage. Robo was drawn and made for Pinocchio, and for animals featured in the tales of Aesop, Ibn al-Muqaffa, and La Fontaine. Animals represented in a puppet theater, more than in an animated scene. In animation, backgrounds are drawn, while in film, they are marionettes. Del Toro built a complex scenography for his minor characters. Many details have been worked on in shapes, colors, and indicative backgrounds.

The benefits of 3D printing are emerging. The robotic puppets, with a technological heart and a wooden face, move to tell spectators their story. Moving cameras of different sizes in this scenography was a tricky business. Depending on the shooting style, the camera or characters move, or the camera and characters move together. This is one of the characteristics of directing in del Toro’s films. To embody this style, interior designers and light engineers watched his previous films, to create decor that reminds the viewer of an atmosphere he has seen previously. This made sure of stylistic unity. This technical effort has long-term profits.

The fictional film Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was released to great media coverage. In the first quarter of an hour, an independent story is told about the child’s death in wartime. A story with features of oral narration. Months later, del Toro released his documentary about how he made his fantasy. The second did not receive much media coverage, because it presents complex information, and is not an amusing tale of a wise cockroach. However, the documentary film will have a great impact on the influence and influence of the fictional film. After watching the imaginary film again, in light of the facts of the documentary, the first seems incredibly amazing, because the viewer knows how much effort was put into each image. Every second you need 24 photos. This requires tremendous knowledge, talent and technical workmanship. How is that? How does camera position make sense?

The answer is in a documentary about technical steps to make a movie, which took 15 years. It is a long-term investment in the secrets of the cinematic artistry. This is a behind the scenes look at the art of animation production. Behind the scenes of cinematic art, which is technically and financially incomprehensible.

Cinema is a collective dream production factory. A factory, literally and figuratively. Where do the two manufacturers figure in the documentary on the del Toro methodology? The work took place in a real factory for sculpting spaces and faces. Decorations were made, anthropomorphic and painted. A wooden building in which the characters play, and a space in which to move. Filming takes into account the complexities of montage. In the end, the elegance and depth of the footage reveal the talent and efforts of its makers. Technology produces meaning, and builds a miraculous world overflowing with meanings. The production is expected to present a narration in a visual language that can bear several interpretations.

This is a wonderful world. Old Geppetto fell in love with the wooden child he carved, and the sculptor Pygmalion fell in love with the woman he carved. As in a Greek myth, and the play “Pygmalion” (1913) by George Bernard Shaw. This wondrous world is presented by the eye of the cockroach, the lazy singer, and the enemy of the hardworking ant. The cockroach is a positive, powerful and explanatory character, with a deep narrative structure. Therefore, it is easy to quote his biography in a Muppet movie without strings. A movie about a cockroach and a wooden baby who wants to be accepted for who he is, and is afraid of the warning that humans have never applied: “Don’t lie, or your nose will grow.” In our childhood, we used to scratch each other’s noses to identify liars.

The cockroach was a storyteller of others. To embody the change of humans, del Toro designed different masks, of different sizes, for each doll, because smooth faces do not change their expression. Thus, technology became an expressive horizon. Lies appear like a long nose to all people, except the owner.

The director balances realism and fantasy. For him, the realistic dimension must prevail. In order to reach the most accurate and truthful possible simulation of real life, the events took place, chronologically, after the First World War. War kills and begets fascism in Italy. With the aim of strengthening the credibility of the decoration, the director’s assistants dirty the dolls after making them, to make them appear involved in life, instead of looking like they were washed and left from a supermarket.

Whoever watches the imaginary movie does not see all this effort, but only small games. Who is the director working with on these games? He works with A-list stars Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton. It is clear that this is great art, even if it looks like small games that move and appear on the screen as real beings. This is great art done by an artist.
What does “cinematic artist” mean? Netflix came up with the answer from the workshop of a famous contemporary filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro. A documentary about technical technical steps to make a movie.

In modern art, talent and theoretical knowledge are not enough. Is art a magical talent, or an organized work of a long time? The poet and visual critic, Charles Baudelaire, answers: “Art is a constant and stubborn struggle against stereotypes and constants” (Baudelaire as an art critic, Zeenat Bitar, Dar Al-Farabi, Beirut, 1993, p. 26). With these two races and struggles, the artist is supposed to be ahead of his time. Here, having ideas is not enough. Knowledge and technical means are required to convert ideas into images and money.

This is a necessary effort. The artist who tries again, succeeds. It is said about hunting: “The lions only succeed in hunting in a quarter of their attempts,” meaning that they fail in 75 percent of their attempts. Despite this small percentage of success, lions do not despair of attempts to chase and hunt.

Few attempts succeed in 15 years of making a movie. This applies to the artist. Scientific and practical technical knowledge is required to embody artistic projects. After talent and long perseverance, luck may smile. This arrangement is not to be reversed.