"Shadow Puppetry": a short movie

This Saturday we had organized competition on Shadow Puppetry: a short movie. In this a flat human or animal shape's are fixed as thin sticks. People use shadow puppets for telling us a story by moving them in front of light in order to show shadows on screen.

Shadow puppetry is considered the oldest form of puppetry in the world. It began 1,000's of years ago in China and India. In China the shadow plays are often folk-tales and legends of the past, many based on Chinese opera themes. In Indonesia shadow plays are an integral part of traditional culture. The plays are taken from two religious epics where there is often a struggle between good and evil. Turkey and Greece also have a history of shadow puppetry, where plays are based on everyday life and contain much physical comedy. In Western Europe shadow puppetry enjoyed popularity during the 1800's when the art of cutting silhouettes out of paper was fashionable. In 1926 German shadow puppeteer Lotte Reiniger made the first full length animated film The Adventures of Prince Achmet. She hand-cut beautiful opaque silhouette figures that were moved on an animation table.

Traditional shadow puppets are flat and made of leather. Areas within the puppet are punched out with sharp knives. These areas suggest facial features and help define clothing. The puppets are made from separate pieces and joined together with wire or string. They are controlled by long rods and moved behind a white translucent screen made from paper or cloth. A lamp on the puppeteer's side of the stage provides the light: the audience on the other side sees the moving shadows. Cut-out areas within the figures allow light to shine through.

Contemporary shadow puppets may be made combining a variety of materials including paper, plastic, wood, colored theatrical lighting filters, cloth, feathers, dried plants or found objects ranging from silk scarves to kitchen utensils. Shadow puppets have been made with three-dimensional wire heads and cloth bodies. Contemporary shadow puppeteers might employ a host of specialized lighting effects, including various theatrical lighting instruments, overhead projectors, reflected light, projected films, head lamps and hand-held lights.

First Winner

Movie Name: Ganpati Live ,

Members : Himanshu Bariya, Sagar Sinojiya, Maulesh Shah, Kiran Tanwani & Sonal Patel

Theme : This puppetry was based on Ganesh Visarjan and how it is connected to us with one message. That Ganesha Idols made by dangerous chemicals and materials like POP. We are polluting rivers and sea by doing Visarjan of Lord Ganesha in it, which is harmful for river & Sea lives. During the process of Lord Ganesha's murti visharjan at that point of time one Fish come's out of the river and tells them that this Visarjan is endangering aquatic live's. At that point of time Lord Ganesha magically appears in front of them and asks them not to put anybody's life in danger by doing his visargan in water. He also advises them to use Eco Friendly Idols so that it does not harm any aquatic life and that way we can keep our environment safe.

Shadow Puppetry: a short movie from Tekhnix Studios on Vimeo.

Second Winner

Movie Name: Bada Hai To Bahter Hai

Members : Narendra Singh, Sneha Sodha, Anandraj Dave, Dimple Vaghani & Rajesh Jangir

Theme : Its is a story about three Fish and their love story, Big Shark, Male & Female gold fish. In this story smallest female gold fish was wandering here and there. After that small gold fish tries to attract female gold fish and then female gold fish call's his Boyfriend Shark and looking at his huge frame the male gold fish runs away.

Shadow Puppetry short movie from Tekhnix Studios on Vimeo.

Third Winner

Movie Name : Junior Crow

Members : Bhvya Goti, Mihir Rana, Hiten Babariya, Mohit Shah

Theme : Back in the past we knew that greedy Fox cheats the crow and takes a chapati from him , but at present crow want's revenge from the fox ,so the crow makes Iron Chapati's for Greedy Fox to attract him . The greedy Fox tries to eat the Chapati by using his old trick, but this time he gets fooled by the crow ,all his teeth gets broken by biting the iron Chapati and it realize's that the crow takes revenge from it via this iron Chapati and it becomes shameful occurrence for the Fox, and it goes away from that place and finally the crow gets his revenge for this old story.

Shadow Puppetry short movie from Tekhnix Studios on Vimeo.