'Filming in Supermarionation' Documentary (2014)

When watching TV I came across a documentary that went into the intricate filming of the 'Thunderbirds' series puppets and those before it. The documentary started off with the description of the filming of the 1960's hit kids programme 'Supercar' - the protagonist being an 'all American' character who challenged the techniques of their filming. Obviously with it being puppets, everything was scaled down to a smaller size, leading to problems with elements such as fire and water that they had to manipulate to look in scale with the puppets themselves.

 I found it interesting about the alternate problems that they had whilst filming, such as the actual Supercar was supposed to nose dive into the water and go under the sea, however the actual car wasn't heavy enough to go under the water so they had to overlay a separate clip of a rock being plunged into the water, and add the splashes on top. Although thorough with aspects such  as dusting off the strings and painting them so they couldn't be seen as obviously, this technique still had huge obstacles- such as the fact that the puppets couldn't walk due to strings complications, and their lips couldn't be synchronised to the voice actors unlike most animations. However, the lips being out of sync was actually a good thing in some cases, as the vocalists felt that they could be more explorative with their voices as the lip sync didn't restrict them.

In 1963 they moved studios with more space, money and equipment, and through this filmed alternate programmes for kids such as 'Stingray' which was puppets filmed underwater, which was really intricate sets with the puppets placed on it and a fish tank in front of it, to give the illusion that the characters were underwater.
 Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were the main couple behind all these creations, and due to success, were approached to produce a bigger and better programme, funded by APF Television Productions. They did so by producing the programme we all know, which is 'Thunderbirds' 'Thunderbirds are go'.

Success of Thunderbirds

The idea behind Thunderbirds was the idea that it was a rescue service that was supposed to go where no other service could go, with it being dramatic and full of action and heroes, Thunderbirds became a very popular programme amongst kids and also adults, and with their previous programmes the studios had gained more valuable experience of the best techniques to use. A popular technique was the 'Rolling Sky' technique which allowed the vehicles to look as if they were landing and taking off.
 The actual vehicles themselves were actually made of random objects that resembled parts, and then constructed together and painted and 'dirtied up' to look like worn pieces of metal.
Lady Penelope and her Butler Parker became the only two English characters because of the fact that the larger population of the Thunderbirds viewers were American. The actual inspiration behind Parker the cockney butler was when Gerry and Sylvia went for a meal out together, and there was a funny waiter who inspired them to produce a character that would show a quirky nature, with normal separation of classes being shown through their accents.

Overall despite not watching Thunderbirds myself, I came to appreciate the overall techniques, lighting etc. that went into this production.