As most readers of this blog have figured out by now, I love identifying animators and comparing their work on different Pat & Mat episodes. Each and every one of them brought their own interpretation of how the characters should move and act, sometimes probably unconsciously. In my previous post, I mentioned how Jan Klos is probably the best animator of them all when it comes to scenes where the character and personality is most important.
This post, however, deals with strange animation credits on ... a je to! episodes from 1984 and 1985. Pat & Mat series usually had two animators handling most of the episodes; in the aiF era, those two were František Váša and Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly. In 1979, the two animators were Karel Chocholín and Xenie Vavrečková. In 1981-1983, it was Karel Chocholín again and Jan Klos. However, an unusal discrepancy in the credits happened in 1984 and 1985. Instead of Jan Klos, Ján Keks was credited for animation on Korčule and Hrnčiari, while Karel Klos was credited for Porucha. Interestingly, the Jan Klos credit was replaced with Ján Keks very noticeably ― you can literally see the smudges left by someone erasing L and O and replacing them with E and K.
This is something that I always found strange. I've seen these episodes so many times and in the end arrived to the following conclusion: I believe that Keks and Karel Klos are in fact the same person - Jan Klos. Of course, my intuition is not enough to sell that statement. Here then are some other arguments for my case:
1. These names do not appear in animation credits outside the series.
Credits are known for most of the shorts the Jiří Trnka Studio produced in the 1980s; they can be found on site like csfd.cz or fdb.cz, where complete filmographies exist for all available films. Ján Keks and Karel Klos don't appear in any of them. Of course, there's always a possibility that there are films out there which haven't been listed yet, but these two names were listed as animators, not assistants or a similar less important position. In contrast, Jan Klos continues to appear in credits all the way up to 2000s and - crucially - working at the same Jiří Trnka Studio even in the 1990s.
2. The two unknown names are almost identical to Jan Klos.
What are the chances that two animators would have almost the same name? As you have seen previously in this post, one of these was Karel, one Alfons with a double-barrelled surname, two were women. Ján Keks is very similar to Jan Klos, while Karel Klos obviously uses the same surname. Could it have been Jan's brother? You would say possibly, but point 1 excludes it. I also considered the possibility that Porucha, where Karel Klos popped up, could have been animated by both Karel Chocholín and Jan Klos, but it wasn't. The episode is definitely the work of one animator only.
3. Lubomír Beneš worked with Jan Klos before, during and after the episodes in question were made.
Jan Klos was credited as the only animator on two theatrical shorts made by Beneš at that time: Muzikant a Smrt (The Musician and Death, 1984) and Rohy (Horns, 1987), the second 17 minutes long. Also, Beneš directed thirteen episodes of Jája a Pája in 1986 and 1987. The three animators credited on all of the episodes from that series were Jan Klos, Karel Chocholín and David Filcík, all well known names from ... a je to!
4. All "three" animators used the same Pat and Mat puppets.
One of the easiest ways to spot different animators doing work in the same episode is to spot a puppet with different eyes or faces. The puppets typically used by Jan Klos and Karel Chocholín differed in 1982-1984. The former's had thinner mouth and eyes, while the latter's had rounder eyes. See for yourself.
The puppets used by all three names are, in fact, the same. Of course, the puppets are not easy to make and are reused a lot. Karel Chocholín used the same puppets over and over so much that by Hrnčiari in 1985 they had become worn out, with their faces having significantly whiter "complexion" from the second pair of puppets used in that episode. However, the puppets used by Mensdorff-Pouilly in his sole outing on the series had significantly different faces to the rest of the series' puppets.
5. Ján is a Slovak name.
This is something I learned while doing research for this post. While Jan is the typical spelling of that name in Czech, the spelling differs in Slovakia, where it is Ján. So, my Czech and Slovak readers correct me if this isn't true, a Ján is automatically assumed to be Slovak. A Slovak animator working at a studio in Prague at that time would be unlikely.
6. Stylistically, there are no differences in the animation of the three episodes compared to Klos' work.
This is, of course, the hardest thing to prove, which is why I've placed it last. Simply, I believe the animator for all of the three episodes is the same person and that same person also did the previous episodes. I've tried to find some earmarks of Jan Klos' animation and I think I have found something that only applies to his animation. Jan Klos did a lot of work with the two handymen's caps. Specifically, he always moved the caps up when the characters were surprised and shocked, while he usually moved them down when they were thinking deeply. Take a look at this sequence from Skokani: Mat goes from deep thinking to surprise while in the same position.
If I were you, a logical question following this would go: Sure, yes, the expressions are the same, but wasn't that the case in all of the episodes, regardless of animators? I would say: no. Karel Chocholín spent considerably less time on the caps. I even think that the action of the cap flying from Pat or Mat's head into the air when they get an idea appears only in episodes by Klos, but I haven't checked that. However, I did look for the same expression in Chocholín's episodes and didn't find it. Here's a scene: a shocked and scared Pat is frantically searching for water to splash on Mat's head, who is lying half-dead on the floor. As this is a Chocholin episode, Pat's cap, however, doesn't move.
All of this makes me believe that all of the listed episodes are the work of the same person.
Obviously, I can't prove it, but let's assume I could. The question remaining then is: why? Why change Klos' credit to something nonsensical? Was it a practical joke? Keks, in Czech, just like in Croatian, means cookie. Was it a random mistake by someone doing the credits? Was it some kind of Communist blacklist that prevented the name Jan Klos appearing in credits? Does janklos or any of the variants of the name mean something dirty in Slovak? "I don't know, but I sure hope someone in the comments can provide some explanation."
That is what I originally had written down for one of the ending sentences of this post only yesterday. However, a random Google search for "Jan Klos" turned up quite a few results. It seems that his family suffered a lot in Communist times. In 1951, the family lost practically everything and Jan's father was imprisoned. Jan Klos tells his story as part of the Memory of Nations project, which you can find at this link: https://www.memoryofnations.eu/en/klos-jan-1941. Here's how his life story went before he joined the studio in 1973:
Fellow Pat & Mat fanatics will recognize Viktor Fixl's name, as it appears on several of the episodes. Taking all of this into account, the story about the credits being changed makes more sense. It is now not that strange to imagine somebody having a problem with the name Jan Klos appearing on a successful TV series. It would seems his name was intentionally removed as he was not in good standing politically. That would be very bizarre, but, remember, this was not the first time the series encountered political problems, the changing of Mat's shirt from red to grey being a primary example. It's really a shame that Jan Klos in all likelihood had his name removed from these episodes. The first of them, Korčule, contains maybe technically the most complicated sequence in the series, of Pat demonstrating his ice skating prowess, which was executed beautifully.
Update, March 14: For some more information about Klos' animation style, please check out the comments below this post.
Update, April 25: For more of Klos' story, head here to the man himself: https://ajetology.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-few-words-from-jan-klos.html
Jan Klos is still with us and, hopefully, somebody will ask him about this peculiarity someday, as there is probably more to this story. Despite all of his troubles, it seems Jan was pretty content with his life in animation. The interview posted on the Memory of Nations contains a nice summation, a perfect one to end this story:
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| Jan Klos working in 1976 (photo: Ivan Vít) |
This post, however, deals with strange animation credits on ... a je to! episodes from 1984 and 1985. Pat & Mat series usually had two animators handling most of the episodes; in the aiF era, those two were František Váša and Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly. In 1979, the two animators were Karel Chocholín and Xenie Vavrečková. In 1981-1983, it was Karel Chocholín again and Jan Klos. However, an unusal discrepancy in the credits happened in 1984 and 1985. Instead of Jan Klos, Ján Keks was credited for animation on Korčule and Hrnčiari, while Karel Klos was credited for Porucha. Interestingly, the Jan Klos credit was replaced with Ján Keks very noticeably ― you can literally see the smudges left by someone erasing L and O and replacing them with E and K.
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| 1982 |
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| 1984 |
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| 1984 |
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| 1985 |
Here also is the animation credit for Porucha, this time redone completely:
This is something that I always found strange. I've seen these episodes so many times and in the end arrived to the following conclusion: I believe that Keks and Karel Klos are in fact the same person - Jan Klos. Of course, my intuition is not enough to sell that statement. Here then are some other arguments for my case:
1. These names do not appear in animation credits outside the series.
Credits are known for most of the shorts the Jiří Trnka Studio produced in the 1980s; they can be found on site like csfd.cz or fdb.cz, where complete filmographies exist for all available films. Ján Keks and Karel Klos don't appear in any of them. Of course, there's always a possibility that there are films out there which haven't been listed yet, but these two names were listed as animators, not assistants or a similar less important position. In contrast, Jan Klos continues to appear in credits all the way up to 2000s and - crucially - working at the same Jiří Trnka Studio even in the 1990s.
2. The two unknown names are almost identical to Jan Klos.
What are the chances that two animators would have almost the same name? As you have seen previously in this post, one of these was Karel, one Alfons with a double-barrelled surname, two were women. Ján Keks is very similar to Jan Klos, while Karel Klos obviously uses the same surname. Could it have been Jan's brother? You would say possibly, but point 1 excludes it. I also considered the possibility that Porucha, where Karel Klos popped up, could have been animated by both Karel Chocholín and Jan Klos, but it wasn't. The episode is definitely the work of one animator only.
3. Lubomír Beneš worked with Jan Klos before, during and after the episodes in question were made.
Jan Klos was credited as the only animator on two theatrical shorts made by Beneš at that time: Muzikant a Smrt (The Musician and Death, 1984) and Rohy (Horns, 1987), the second 17 minutes long. Also, Beneš directed thirteen episodes of Jája a Pája in 1986 and 1987. The three animators credited on all of the episodes from that series were Jan Klos, Karel Chocholín and David Filcík, all well known names from ... a je to!
4. All "three" animators used the same Pat and Mat puppets.
One of the easiest ways to spot different animators doing work in the same episode is to spot a puppet with different eyes or faces. The puppets typically used by Jan Klos and Karel Chocholín differed in 1982-1984. The former's had thinner mouth and eyes, while the latter's had rounder eyes. See for yourself.
 |
| Chocholín |
 |
| Klos |
5. Ján is a Slovak name.
This is something I learned while doing research for this post. While Jan is the typical spelling of that name in Czech, the spelling differs in Slovakia, where it is Ján. So, my Czech and Slovak readers correct me if this isn't true, a Ján is automatically assumed to be Slovak. A Slovak animator working at a studio in Prague at that time would be unlikely.
6. Stylistically, there are no differences in the animation of the three episodes compared to Klos' work.
This is, of course, the hardest thing to prove, which is why I've placed it last. Simply, I believe the animator for all of the three episodes is the same person and that same person also did the previous episodes. I've tried to find some earmarks of Jan Klos' animation and I think I have found something that only applies to his animation. Jan Klos did a lot of work with the two handymen's caps. Specifically, he always moved the caps up when the characters were surprised and shocked, while he usually moved them down when they were thinking deeply. Take a look at this sequence from Skokani: Mat goes from deep thinking to surprise while in the same position.
Here's the same shock expression appearing in different episodes with a Jan Klos credit, even in the first of them:
Now take a look at screenshots from the three problematic episodes. The same exact expression.
Let's make a small comparison. Tell me this doesn't look like the work of the same person. That's what the credits will have you believe.
If I were you, a logical question following this would go: Sure, yes, the expressions are the same, but wasn't that the case in all of the episodes, regardless of animators? I would say: no. Karel Chocholín spent considerably less time on the caps. I even think that the action of the cap flying from Pat or Mat's head into the air when they get an idea appears only in episodes by Klos, but I haven't checked that. However, I did look for the same expression in Chocholín's episodes and didn't find it. Here's a scene: a shocked and scared Pat is frantically searching for water to splash on Mat's head, who is lying half-dead on the floor. As this is a Chocholin episode, Pat's cap, however, doesn't move.
Conversely, in Korčule, animated by Keks, Pat is thinking so deeply that his cap almost covers his eyes completely.
The cap also goes down in Porucha, albeit less.
All of this makes me believe that all of the listed episodes are the work of the same person.
Obviously, I can't prove it, but let's assume I could. The question remaining then is: why? Why change Klos' credit to something nonsensical? Was it a practical joke? Keks, in Czech, just like in Croatian, means cookie. Was it a random mistake by someone doing the credits? Was it some kind of Communist blacklist that prevented the name Jan Klos appearing in credits? Does janklos or any of the variants of the name mean something dirty in Slovak? "I don't know, but I sure hope someone in the comments can provide some explanation."
That is what I originally had written down for one of the ending sentences of this post only yesterday. However, a random Google search for "Jan Klos" turned up quite a few results. It seems that his family suffered a lot in Communist times. In 1951, the family lost practically everything and Jan's father was imprisoned. Jan Klos tells his story as part of the Memory of Nations project, which you can find at this link: https://www.memoryofnations.eu/en/klos-jan-1941. Here's how his life story went before he joined the studio in 1973:
 |
| young Jan Klos (photo: memorfyonations.eu) |
Jan Klos was born on 26 February 1941. He spent his youth in Mělník-Mlazice. His half-grandfather, Václav Kryml, ran a road transport business in Mělník. His father, Josef Klos, founded the company Dadák and Klos in 1930s. He was engaged in the production of baskets, furniture, toys, interior equipment and exhibition spaces. In 1942 his business partner was executed during the persecutions associated with the assassination of Heydrich. Josef Klos eventually escaped probably due to family acquaintances and money. The company was renamed to Muse - Mělnik Art Works. In 1951, the family lost everything because of nationalization, and Jan Klos laughs to say that only since then he had a dad, who until then was still working and had little time left for the family. They moved to the last thing left by the communists - four-room unfinished outbuildings of the old farm. His mother, Běla, née Štípková, gave birth prematurely due to the trauma of nationalization and emigration and suffered psychological consequences for the rest of her life. Two families of the former grandfather’s employees, Jan, two siblings and parents, the mother’s grandparents, and the mother’s three-member family had settled in the four rooms and the improvised room on the attic. After completing his eighth grade, Jan was given a placement at a vocational school, where he was to be trained as a carpenter. Thanks to his father and his former colleague, Viktor Fixl, however, he applied for exams at the Secondary School of Housing Design in Prague. He successfully passed the tests and studied in the department of toys and small art industry. The school participated in the realization of the Czechoslovak exhibition at Expo 58. Jan worked according to the designs of Jiří Trnka, he earned a decent income and he actually enjoyed the work. After school he could not get a job because of his cadre assessment. Finally, thanks to the intervention of Viktor Fixl, he got a job in the development department of sports and technical equipment, from which he later joined the military service. He was assigned to the auxiliary technical troops (PTP) that were soon reorganized. In 1963-1973 he worked as a puppet master at the Spejbl and Hurvínek Theater and then worked as an animator. He married the sculptor, Helena Samohelová.
Fellow Pat & Mat fanatics will recognize Viktor Fixl's name, as it appears on several of the episodes. Taking all of this into account, the story about the credits being changed makes more sense. It is now not that strange to imagine somebody having a problem with the name Jan Klos appearing on a successful TV series. It would seems his name was intentionally removed as he was not in good standing politically. That would be very bizarre, but, remember, this was not the first time the series encountered political problems, the changing of Mat's shirt from red to grey being a primary example. It's really a shame that Jan Klos in all likelihood had his name removed from these episodes. The first of them, Korčule, contains maybe technically the most complicated sequence in the series, of Pat demonstrating his ice skating prowess, which was executed beautifully.
Update, March 14: For some more information about Klos' animation style, please check out the comments below this post.
Update, April 25: For more of Klos' story, head here to the man himself: https://ajetology.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-few-words-from-jan-klos.html
Jan Klos is still with us and, hopefully, somebody will ask him about this peculiarity someday, as there is probably more to this story. Despite all of his troubles, it seems Jan was pretty content with his life in animation. The interview posted on the Memory of Nations contains a nice summation, a perfect one to end this story:
"One day my neighbour says, 'Look, Mr. Klos, you said you've been doing these animated movies all your life?' And I said, 'Well, that's over, it's finished, let's not talk about it.' "Well, I'm telling you, Mr. Klos, when they're on TV, I shut it down." He topped it a week later with what's the greatest reward for me. He said: 'Yeah, so you're the animator. Look, what about the lady, what about the lady? ‘And I say, 'Well, the lady has talent and graduated as a sculptor.' - 'Sculptor? Like Lenin´s statue and all that? ‘- 'Not Lenin, she has a small furnace, and she does things like that.' He said: 'Well, Mr. Klos, an animator and a sculptor. Well yeah, you have lived your lives as completely useless people. ‘That's a credo! It is so perfectly formulated that I am happy to have been able to live it.”
interesting...
ReplyDeleteHi Marin, Congratulations on the blog. As a puppet animator, I have also studied the early Pat and Mat episodes closely. I agree that Jan Klos is probably the most outstanding animator to have worked on the series. I also noticed the strange animator credits on the episodes from 1984 and 85 and the visible correction on the end credits roller from Jan Klos to Jan Keks. I am sure you are correct that Keks and Karel Klos are in fact Jan Klos. What convinces me is the animation on Korčule (Skates), which is probably some of the most outstanding work in any episode. Klos also has a very distinctive way of mixing his animation frame rates – he mixes up singles (one frame per movement), 2’s (2 frames per movement), and 3’s, which gives his work a very distinctive texture. This mixing of frame rates is very evident in episodes such as Búdka (Birdhouse); After they’ve attached the tray to the tree and held hands, Mat (?) rocks from side to side and claps his hands together on 3’s before being pulled behind the tree by Pat. None of the other animators seem to use such bold timing. A little later, Pat peeks out from behind the tree, again starting on 3’s. Other animators seem to stick more to singles (for smoothness) or 2’s, with more in-between positions. Klos’s use of variable frame rates gives his animation a real unpredictability and an “edge”. In fact, I have tried to study the logic behind how he switches between these frame rates during an action, but it is almost impossible to understand – I believe it must simply have been instinctive. Klos, more than any other animator on the series, makes the animation of very complicated action seem effortless and clear.
ReplyDeleteHi Puppet Man,
DeleteWow, it's an honour to have someone as knowleadgeable as you commenting on the blog. Glad you enjoyed it! I am not an animator of any kind, so all of my observations are a result of watching the episodes many times and noticing the animators have different styles. As you say, I was perplexed that some “random” animator could have done the great ice-skating sequence in Korčule and that was one of the first things to make me believe it was in fact Klos.
Thank you for the comments about Klos’ timing. I have noticed the difference in action in Búdka, but I would not have been able to explain it so clearly. The more I watch his animation, the more interesting it becomes. In the meantime, I’ve also discovered that before working on this series, Klos was one of Břetislav Pojar’s chief animators.
Do you maybe have any comments in general regarding other animators on the series? Unlike 1982-85, it is difficult to spot who animated what in the 1979 episodes as the puppets used were nearly identical. One of the episodes where this is most interesting is Tapety. It is the only episode on which Vlasta Pospíšilová, one of the greatest Czech puppet animators of all time, worked as an animator. I think there’s a possibility that she did the majority of the scenes (especially the whole sequences of putting up the tapestry) and Xenie Vavrečková did the scenes in the kitchen. Any thoughts on that?
P.S. I recently watched all episodes of Jaja & Paja (a series made right after ...a je to!) and a good example of Klos' varied timing sprung to mind. Check out the scenes with the growing "cactus" (actually a deadly orchid) from this episode:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/6fjFyTGLVt8
Hi Marin, I agree with you that the more you watch Jan Klos’s animation, the more interesting it becomes. There have obviously been some very good animators working on the series over the years, but my feeling is that it was probably Klos’s approach to animating the characters that was taken as a benchmark, and the other animators had to try and copy his style. Inevitably, most of the animators can’t really reproduce the quirky feel of Klos’s animation - his technique is too idiosyncratic and too difficult to analyse and make sense of. However, I must admit I have picked up various tricks that he does that I use in my own animation.
ReplyDeleteI don’t really have any comments on the other animators who have worked on the series – I’ve not studied their work. This is because Klos’s episodes were the ones that immediately grabbed my attention, and (in my opinion) were so superior that I was only really interested in studying these. I really only have looked carefully at the 7 Klos episodes from 1984-85, and also Klos’s Jája & Pája episodes.
As you say, Klos was a favourite animator of Břetislav Pojar, and he animated Pojar’s “Tom Thumb” section from Fimfarum 2. As a general observation, I think the introduction of video-assist into puppet animation has sometimes led to less interesting and more conservative animation. The 1984-85 A Je To episodes were all shot the old way, where the animators animated “blind”, with no video assist, and had to wait until the film came back from the lab to see how their work turned out. Because the animators weren’t constantly checking a video replay, they could animate much faster and more instinctively, and had to use “muscle memory” to remember how far they’d moved the puppets each frame. This requires them to animate relatively quickly and instinctively, always concentrating on what’s ahead. I think this is why Klos’s animation seems so incredibly free and “loose” – he was probably animating quite fast. Using video assist in animation has been likened to looking in the rear-view mirror when you’re driving – you’re always looking at where you’ve been, not where you’re going. Inevitably, you fuss over details, keep changing things and it slows you down, and can stop the animation feeling free. Also, the animation can start to become very smooth and a bit bland. Klos’s animation in A Je to was often quite “choppy” and rough, because he wasn’t worried so much about smoothness.
I am reasonably familiar with Vlasta Pospíšilová’s work, so I will take a look a Tapety and see if I can identify any distinctive features. Pospíšilová is also an interesting animator, and I have studied some of the animation in her Lakomá Barka film. Klos does some absolutely astonishing animation with the devil character in Pospíšilová’s episode of Fimfarum called Az opada listi z dubu (When the Leaves Fall From The Tree).
The Jája & Pája episode you linked to is also quite interesting – and quite alarming! Nowadays, it would not be possible to have such scary (and dangerous) things happening in an animation that was to be seen by children.
Hi Puppet Man, thanks for another insightful comment. I do see echoes of Klos' work in some later episodes. For instance, the hat flying into air to signal an idea has been used in Dlaždice (1992) and some episodes by the Anima studio, while, I believe, it wasn't used by Patmat film yet. In his animation work 1989-92, Marek Beneš used the raised hats to symbolise shock a lot. However, none of the later episodes got close to Klos' style.
DeleteAs for Jája & Pája, I believe more animators worked on one individual episode on that series. As for different children sensitvity nowadays, you're right. For instance, Polish Fox Kids removed almost all a je to scenes which featured the use of a knife from broadcasting more than 15 years ago. That definitely ruined some scenes.
To use a metaphor suitable for a je to, you hit the nail on the head with your comments about video-assist in puppet animation regarding Klos' work. Being a longtime professor at FAMU, Klos was interviewed by Czech Television about puppet animation in the digital age in 2015. He absolutely hated working with video assistance. Here's the link to the interview: https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10624368437-pruvan/215562254300005/obsah/401406-zkusena-navsteva-jan-klos
Deleteand here is what Klos said, first in Czech, then in a hastily arranged translation:
"Poslední práci, na to nerad vzpomínám, Pojar už byl starý, nevím, v kterém to bylo roce, do Fimfára 2 - Palečka, a to bylo takové utrpení. Přišli kluci, zorganizovali to, už se to nebude dělat na film, protože tam se budou dělat triky, a teď na mně chtěli, který jsem se naučil už tady od Šrámka a mistrů se dívat na to, co mám před sebou, oko těsně vedle objektivu, a říci: Fázička. Trrrrrrr....Tzzzzzzzz, dvě, tzzzzzzzzz a jedete pořád. Ten pohyb, tu dráhu vidíte v tom kontrastu s tím, co je za tím, třeba kus kostela. Řeknete si, věž ta hlava přejede na 12 oken. Nebo na míň, na 20. Tímhle způsobem jsem se mnoho let učil pracovat, řekněme patnáct, abych se nemusel chodit dívat do kamery, jak to vypadá. A oni říkali, teď to vezmeme do počítače a ty budeš hned mít možnost vidět, co jsi tam udělal. A já říkám: A proč já bych měl mít hned možnost vidět, co jsem tam udělal, když jsem tady každé okno byl? A vím, co jsem tam udělal. A on říkal, ne, třeba ti tam něco zhasne nebo co. Byl foťák s ohromným krásným objektivem a teď jsem nesměl zmáčknout dvě okna, zmáčkl jsem jedno okno a musel jsem se otočit na počítač mimo dekoraci, abych viděl, jestli počítač to nabral z toho foťáku. A to bylo cvak, cvak, desetina vteřiny, nad Tatrou sa blýska, hromy divobijú... Dobrý. Teď jsem se vrátil a už jsem nevěděl, kde jsem, protože jsem byl zvyklý to vidět před sebou a jenom to realizovat. Sedm měsíců hrůzy. Jsem si řekl, to je dost velký důvod k tomu, abych už to nikdy nedělal."
"My last job, I hate remembering it, Pojar was old, I don't know what year it was, Fimfárum 2 - Paleček, and it was such suffering. Boys came, they organized it, it wasn't going to be done on film because there were going to be tricks, and now they wanted me, who I already learned here from Sramek and the masters to watch what I have in front of me, eye right next to the lens, and say: Stage. Trrrrrrr .... Tzzzzzzzz, two, tzzzzzzzzz and you go all the time. You see that movement, that path in contrast to what is behind it, perhaps a piece of church. You'll say, the tower head will move in 12 shots. Or for less, at 20. This is how I have learned to work for many years, say fifteen, so I don't have to go to the camera to see what it looks like. And they said: now we'll take it with a computer and you will quickly be able to see what you did at that point. And I responded: and why should I be able to see what I did there when I was here for every shot and I know what I did at that point? And he said: no, maybe something goes wrong there or something. There was a camera with huge beautiful lenses, and now I wasn't allowed to press two shots, I pressed one and I had to turn the computer outside the set on to see if it took it from that camera. And it was a click, a click, a tenth of a second, there is a glitter above Tatra, thunder of wild [this is a reference to the Slovak national anthem] ... Good. Then I came back and I didn't know where I was because I was used to seeing it in front of me and just making it. Seven months of horror. I thought, that's a big reason to never do that again."
I took another look at some Jaja & Paja episodes and this one immediately struck me as Klos' work. He really had fun with Krkovička and him being more and more aggravated with the tree and the saw in this one. Even though some other episodes don't seem to have any of his work, I think he did a lot of work on this series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE_JB-LpO2U
DeleteHi Marin, Thank you for providing the quote and English translation from Klos’s Czech television interview from 2015 – I had not seen that before. When I first wrote the comment above, I was going to say how disappointing I found Klos’s animation in the Palaček episode of Fimfarum 2, and was going to suggest that this might have been due to Klos’s use of video-assist. However, I changed my mind as I did not have any real proof of this. It’s fascinating now to read this interview where Klos confirms what I had long suspected – that video-assist removed his ability to animate quickly and instinctively. When Klos describes the process of taking the frame, then checking the computer, then making adjustments and finally turning back to the puppet, he is describing how this system breaks the concentration of the animator. More importantly, during this time, the animator’s “muscle memory” i.e. their instinctive sense of how far they have moved the puppet - dissipates, and can no longer be relied on. This instinctive quality was Klos’s greatest asset as an animator, and video-assist essentially removed it. Video-assist is a wonderful tool, but it can be a “crutch” that weaker animators can rely on – it enables an animator to make “smooth” animation, which is often regarded as a sign of quality, but it provides a safety net (because you can always check your work and correct it), that sometimes leads to safer and less interesting work. Many older professional puppet animators have had to adapt, and video-assist offers enormous benefits, but nearing the end of his career, it’s understandable that Klos did not want to adapt to using video-assist, when the greatness of his work never relied on it. From what Klos says, Palaček was the first (and last) time he ever used video-assist in this way. His animation in Pospíšilová’s Fimfarum episode “Az opada listi z dubu” (2006) is still full of the old Klos energy and style. Video-assist was certainly around by this time, but Klos was probably only using it to check the framing for his shots, not to monitor his animation This would make sense because Fimfarum 1 (I think) would still have been shot on film. It’s sad to read how uncomfortable and unpleasant the experience of animating was for Klos on Fimfarum 2 – without realizing it, the producers forced Klos to work in a way that meant he could not give them the best animation he was capable of. I think Klos’s animation on Fimfarum 1 is the last work he did where his “old” style is still very apparent, so we can be grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteJust a small correction: the first Fimfarum came out in 2002 and the second in 2006.
DeleteIt's interesting how some of the old Kratky film guard have retired with the advent of video assists, while some have continued working, like Mensdorff-Pouilly, still animating on Pat & Mat at the age of 72. He always nurtured a "smooth" style so he may not have minded video's introduction much.
Even though I planned to, I have never watched Fimfarum, so I checked out Az opada listi s dubu last night. Of course, I liked the animation. I thought that, besides from the devil, the bartender in hell was another fascinatingly animated character.
@Puppet Man: I have been (re)watching Fimfárum these days and I see that there is a record regarding its segments that needs to be set straight (of course, I didn't know this when I wrote the previous comments back in March). Although the feature was released in 2002, it is composed of several segments, a couple of which were actually produced much earlier: Až opadá listí z dubu was made in 1991, while Lakomá Barka was filmed way back in 1986. The latter was released as a normal theatrical short, while it seems the former wasn't for some reason. In any case, they just cut the opening and closing titles of the films and inserted them into the feature. Of course, even older are Jan Werich's wonderful interpretations of his own "fairy tales", which were originally published on records.
DeleteThe other three segments (Splněný sen, Fimfárum and Franta Nebojsa) were filmed in 2000, 2001 and 2002 respectively, presumably with the feature release already in mind. The only segment of the five on which Klos did not work on was the oldest, Lakomá Barka, which was animated by Pospíšilová and Mensdorff-Pouilly when Klos was still with "Benešfilm".
Hello, Marin,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this blog (and for linking it on the IAD Forums)! I've been curious about the Jiří Trnka Studio's animators lately and whether or not it's possible to identify their unique styles, and it's so nice to see someone put the time and effort into just that (especially on a beloved series like Pat and Mat). It's particularly gratifying to see so much written about Jan Klos, in particular - I've always been interested in his work due to his extensive involvement with Břetislav Pojar as was mentioned above, and in recent times I've been wondering how to distinguish his scenes from those of Pojar's other main collaborator in the 70s, Boris Masník. I've begun working on finally giving English subtitles to Pojar's key series, namely "Pojďte pane, budeme si hrát", "Zahrada", and "Dášeňka" (https://twitter.com/Toadette_IAD/status/1238878797065261056), and the latter two are all Masník and Klos (with "Dášeňka", in particular, there were some episodes solo-animated by either one of the two!) - by the end of the year, I'm hoping to have them all subbed and to write an article/overview including information on Pojar's and designer Miroslav Štěpánek's troubled relationship that isn't too well-known in English-speaking animation circles, and ideally I would love to try picking out Masník's and Klos's scenes in "Zahrada" and "Dášeňka" as well.
I also enjoyed your profile of Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly - I always suspected he was one of the most talented animators at the studio, given the sheer brilliance of the animation in the films I've seen with his involvement (Pojar's Nightangel, Ivan Renč's Daliborka, and Beneš's own Král a skřítek come immediately to mind) - as well as your in-depth look at Pat and Mat's production history and how it differs greatly from the actual airdates. Keep up the good work! : )
Hi, Toadette,
DeleteIt's very nice to see somebody covering the history of the Czech studios as well, and in such detail. I myself have just been slowly getting into non-Pat & Mat stuff recently, as my only exposure to it has been YouTube. I'm glad this blog has helped you out and thanks for the kind words.
As for Mensdorff-Pouilly, as I've said, he always nurtured a "smooth" style, probably more than other animators and he has a very distinctive style. A few days ago I bumped into this series by Animation People from 2017 and it took me literally two seconds to figure out it was him animating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQOdSRcxtw
There are many characteristic poses he does, like a character moving his head slightly to the side and extending his arms when communicating to someone else - 1:30 at that link. Also, as he does so much work, I presume he's a very fast animator.
"A Slovak animator working at a studio in Prague at that time would be unlikely."
ReplyDeleteActually, this is not entirely true since at that time there were some animators who were of Slovak origin or lived in Slovakia but have worked for some time in Czech studios (for example, Milan Klikar, Milan Horvatovič, Jaroslava Havettová, Viktor Kubal).