THE HOUND OF FOLKLORE: INTERVIEW WITH “SHUCK” CREATOR EMERSON NEW
Throughout history, dogs have played many roles in narrative folklore. From Anubis (Egyptian), to Cerberus (Greek), to the Beast of Gevaudan (French) to the black dog found in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, these canines pervade our minds in literature, cinema, and art. Sometimes omens of tragedy or death, sometimes psychopomps (messengers between worlds), we will always be fascinated by the mystery surrounding dog-lore.
But what if these beasts weren’t meant to carry a negative or terrifying connotation? Emerson New’s “Shuck” takes the classic folklore of The Black Shuck (English), a black dog who haunts the moors and English countryside, and puts a heart-wrenching and spiritual modern spin to an old spooky tale. Masterfully created with stop-motion animation, Shuck is sure to tug at your heartstrings while leaving you in awe over its symbolic and artistic beauty.
Shuck (UK) won the Best Animated Film award in the autumn edition of ZIFA.
ZIFA: What inspired you to create this film? Any influences?
Emerson: I was massively inspired by the work of Archmodel Studios and Andy Gent, who make the puppets for Wes Anderson’s stop-frame films like Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs (most recently they made some absolutely gorgeous puppets for his Roald Dahl shorts on Netflix which I massively recommend!). Susie Templeton’s short films Dog and Peter and the Wolf are a big influence to me as well. The way she animates and paces her characters is so thoughtful and absolutely something that I aim for in my own work, and similar to Archmodel Studios, her puppets have a beautiful, emotive texture to them. Texture is something I find really important to storytelling, especially when the story being told is tied to folklore as Shuck is - it should feel tactile, like you could pass it from one hand to another, as the tales have been passed from voice to voice.
ZIFA: Where did you film it? How long did it take?
Emerson: Shuck was my graduate film project for the animation course at Edinburgh College of Art, so I got to use the brilliant stop-frame studios there! From preproduction to post the film probably took about 7 months to make, where I spent the time designing the characters and settings, making the puppets, animating and then finally compositing it all together.
ZIFA: Can you talk about the process of stop-motion animation?
Emerson: If you peel back all the wool and fabric from my puppets, you’ll find their twisted wire armatures with carved wood torsos, hips and heads- the twisted wire means they’re pose-able but sturdy, and the wood serves as a solid base for the less flexible parts of the body whilst remaining light so the puppet doesn’t fall over all the time. There’s a rigging point just above the hips in them both which I could then attach to a rig which held them both up whilst I posed them frame by frame. Sometimes they needed more than one rig helping them along in especially badly balanced poses and walk cycles.
I clipped a lot of nature documentaries of wolves and dog shows so I could get to know all the movements that Shuck should use, but I played with some more human expression in him and his mannerisms, too. I had sheets of dog poses and facial expressions up in the studio whilst I worked to make sure I didn’t forget how dogs emote though! For Murph (my human character) I recorded most of the reference myself, so I have a lot of videos of me running about and looking generally sad that helped me get her right.
Where I could, I animated the two puppets separately to composite them together afterwards so I could focus on one’s movements at a time- I did a lot of retakes on Shuck’s four-legged walk cycles! After animating them I would remove the rigging digitally and layer up the grass, sky and souls behind them in After Effects.
ZIFA: What was the biggest challenge you faced during production and/or post-production?
Emerson: As I say, I did a lot of retakes on Shuck’s walk cycles, I think getting the hang of the weight and balance in a four-legged trot was one of the most challenging parts of the whole production!
ZIFA: What was the most memorable moment on set?
Emerson: For me the most memorable part of this production isn’t a single moment but the experience of making a film next to all my friends at uni. We would all crowd around a monitor when one of us had finished shot to see what we’d made and help if we could. I worked especially close to my friends Sammson Orr and Silvana Roth, who are both insanely talented animators. It was such a lovely experience and one I wont ever forget as being a very happy time, even when we were all stressed out of our minds with deadlines!
ZIFA: The jurors commented on how this film tugged at their heart strings. How did you come up with the concept?
Emerson: My main inspiration for this film came from Black Dog Folk Tales - specifically that of Black Shuck and Church Grims. Black Shuck is a folk figure from East Anglia, where I’m from, he/she’s (Shuck’s gender changes between tales) both an ill omen of things to come and a helpful spectre for lost travellers. Church Grims appear in stories across England and Scandinavia and have always fascinated me- villages of superstitious folk used to believe that the first to be buried in a church yard would remain there as a spirit to guide all following buried souls to the afterlife. To avoid this fate falling on the shoulders of a human, communities would bury an animal first- and more often than not this was a dog. I’ve always felt sympathy for the creatures that ended up in this cycle and wanted to give insight to their side of the story as well as following the journey of the dead.
The English “Grim”
I have to say that a lot of the emotional weight in this film comes from Alistair Brown’s incredible score. Without his music both providing a strong folkloric atmosphere and pacing itself beautifully with the characters’ thoughts and feelings, the film wouldn’t be nearly as emotive as it is.
ZIFA: You and your team have certainly inspired a few tears. Anything you would change or things you would have done differently?
Emerson: This is the first project I’ve used wood in my puppets, and I absolutely loved the process of carving the small blocks down to shape and including them in the armatures. It makes me want to make puppets that have carved wood as their final look, all rough and ready looking but with a lot of soul! If I were to make this film all over again I would definitely have liked to put more time towards the production and postproduction as there are so many details that I would have changed, even if only in slight movements or the composition of some shots.
ZIFA: Any advice for aspiring filmmakers?
Emerson: Don’t be afraid to share works in progress and get feedback from others! It’s hard to make a film when it’s only existing in your head, even when it’s scary to taking it out.
ZIFA: Any upcoming projects on the horizon?
I have my hands in some music videos at the moment that should be really exciting, but I can’t say too much on that right now as they’re in their very early days.
ZIFA: How can we find you and follow your work?
Emerson: You can find me on my instagram @florivot, where I’m most active! I also have my website where you can check out more of my work: https://emersonnew.myportfolio.com/
Interview by Alicia Oberle Farmer