Join us for a select day each month during the run of Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio for a day of all things animation, from demonstrations, to storytelling, to tours and lectures. Get a peek into the artistic, animation and storytelling process, as told by Shadowmachine animators and other Portland-based animators and scholars. All ages are welcome!
Included with General Admissions, Animation Art Days’ events are first come, first serve.
Animation Art Day events
Puppet Masters: Behind the Scenes with Pinocchio Puppet Fabricators
11:00 AM-12:30 PM, Grand Ballroom (Mark Building)
This Animation Art Day program brings the world of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio puppet design and fabrication to life through the perspectives of 8 ShadowMachine artists. Moderated by Georgina Hayns (Director of Character Fabrication) this panel discussion engages the work of Puppet Department artists Jessica Crawford (Puppet Wrangler / Asst. Production Manager), Elsa Dye (Puppet Fabricator, Costumes), Brittany Bennett (Puppet Fabricator, Costumes), Toby Froud(Lead Sculptor), Shannon O’Neill (Puppet Fabricator, Armatures), Mattzilla Duron (Puppet Fabricator, Mold / Casting), and Jennifer Hammontree (Puppet Production Manager). Walk through the process of puppet creation from beginning concepts and designs to material sourcing and puppet creation in this dynamic discussion.
Gallery Conversations with the ShadowMachine Puppet Department
2:30-4:00 PM, Crafting Pinocchio Exhibition Galleries (Main Building)
Catch up with ShadowMachine Puppet Department artists in the galleries for puppet demonstrations and one-on-one discussions around their work in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Come meet Georgina Hayns (Director of Character Fabrication)Jessica Crawford (Puppet Wrangler / Asst. Production Manager), Elsa Dye (Puppet Fabricator, Costumes), Brittany Bennett (Puppet Fabricator, Costumes), Toby Froud(Lead Sculptor), Shannon O’Neill (Puppet Fabricator, Armatures), Mattzilla Duron (Puppet Fabricator, Mold / Casting), and Jennifer Hammontree (Puppet Production Manager) with your questions.
Animation Art Day participant bios
Georgina Hayns has served as a puppet creator and creative director for over 20 years. Her career began in the UK, working for Cosgrove Hall Films, with puppet-makers Mackinnon & Saunders. She worked on projects including the BBC Television’s Noddy, HIT Entertainment’s Bob the Builder, Lipton® Brisk® Tea and Puffs Tissues. She also worked on animated feature films, Mars Attacks and Corpse Bride and shorts including the Academy Award®-nominated Periwig Maker. She was the Creative Puppet Fabrication Supervisor at Laika for over 10 years, supervising the puppet builds on the Oscar-nominated films Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and The Missing Link. She is currently the Creative and Technical Director of Character Fabrication for Guillermo Del Toro and Mark Gustafson’s Pinocchio. Georgina serves as a consultant on various projects, including the upcoming Spotted Fawn Productions film Wheetago War. Georgina is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Though she grew up loudly declaring that one day she’d be a Muppeteer, Jessica Crawford began her career in music and the performing arts. She worked for nine seasons as the music librarian at Portland Opera, and has also worked for Portland Baroque Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Chamber Music Northwest, OrpheusPDX, Atlanta Opera, and Pink Martini. She spent several years as a music editor for Oregon Catholic Press, and then in 2019 made the leap home to stop-motion. Jess spends her non-puppet time paddleboarding; hanging out with her dog, Toby, and her horse, Cookie; tending to her chronically overgrown garden; and attempting to play through every Legend of Zelda game in order of release.
Elsa Dye has had a life long passionate interest in textiles, fabric, and related fabrication techniques. She attended school for apparel design, but truly found her niche in puppet costume fabrication. Her film credits include: Paranorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio. She lives in Saint Helens with her husband Tony and angora rabbit Felix.
Brittany Bennett grew up in New England and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. She graduated with a BFA in textiles and specialized in weaving, dyeing, and creating sculptural fabrics. She has done human-scale costume work for the Boston Ballet School, Six Flags, Cirque du Soleil, and Disability Arts and Culture Project. Her stop motion credits include The Boxtrolls, Missing Link, The Shivering Truth, and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio. She lives in southeast Portland with her cat Hebe.
Around the world, countless movie fans remember Toby Froud for his role as the “Baby Toby” in Jim Henson’s 1986 feature film, “Labyrinth”. The son of the film’s conceptual designer Brian Froud and puppet builder Wendy Froud, Toby Froud has spent a lifetime steeped in a world of goblins, faeries, trolls, puppet theatre and film-making. Toby continues to create creature effects and puppets for Film and Television as well as directing his own award winning short film “Lessons Learned”, recently he directed on children’s television series “Slumberkins” for Apple TV. From 2009 he has worked in the stop-motion industry as a puppet sculptor and fabricator, working with several companies including Laika. Toby’s work includes Para- Norman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link.Having spent almost 2 years supervising, sculpting and fabricating on the live action TV series Dark Crystal – Age of Resistance for Netflix, He has now returned to stop- motion working as a lead sculptor & Fabricator on Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio.
Coming from a background of ceramics and silversmithing, Shannon O’Neill accidentally entered into the world of animation in 1995. It was her first job out of Uni, at Mackinnon and Saunders, in Manchester, England. The film was Tim Burton’s ‘Mars Attacks’, and Peter Saunders and Georgina Hayns became her mentors. Beginning as an armature builder and then moving into head mechanics for the ‘Corpse Bride’, she has accumulated a broad range of skills and experience in the ensuing years, whilst working in different countries and a variety of projects. She loves the variety of work and the collaborative aspect of the industry, always striving to improve the overall experience for the animators, whilst also encouraging and helping teach the next generation of makers.
Mattzilla Duron is a stop motion puppet fabricator in Portland Oregon. As a child he would make stop motion videos with his toys. As he grew up he learned to make his own puppets and kick started his career on a little movie called Coraline. He has since worked on five Oscar nominated films and one Oscar winning film at multiple studios in Portland, OR. Mattzilla continues to create puppets and monsters inside and outside of work.
Jennifer Hammontree is a stop-motion and event production manager, equally at home in the worlds of stop-motion animation, classical music, dance, and events. She has worked locally with Portland Opera, Chamber Music Northwest, Montavilla Jazz, and Portland’5 Centers for the Arts. Jennifer loves the fast-paced world of artistic creation and the never-ending problem solving required on a daily basis in the world of stop-motion. She was the puppet production manager on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and is currently working on multiple projects with ShadowMachine. Jennifer lives in SE Portland with her husband, Roger, and two very scruffy rescue terriers, Merle and Clyde.