Shadow Puppet

Shadow Puppetry Research:

Shadow puppetry is an ancient form of puppetry for storytelling and entertainment. It usually consists of using multiple cut out flat shapes that are then held behind of a translucent sceen and have a light sorce behind them to project a shadow onto the screen. It has been used worldwide for hundreds of years but has a particular history in Southeast Asia where it was likely to orginated in China or India.

Shadow theatre is used a lot less today as it can now be easily imitated through cel and computer animation. One of the most notable being the tale of the three brother in the Harry Potter film which imitates German animator Lotte Reiniger’s (Who created many films using this style of shadow puppetry) style of shadow puppetry animtion but using digital means instead. However, it is still quite popular in many places in Asia and does occasionly get used in western culture such as the broadway production of The Lion King.

The young Simba puppet is operated by five people: two who hold the rods at the waist, two that hold the rods at the legs, and the last lights a bright torch behind to project the shadow for the audience to view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAsNammJrjU – From 1.29

Shadowgraphy:

Shadowgraphy is different to shadow puppetry as instead of using flat objects to create a silhouette behind a screen, the shadow is created from using your hands. This form of shadow puppetry is a modern version of the traditional shadow puppetry, where it was popular in Europe in the 19^th Century. This form of shadowgraphy was typically only used in live performance and was typically used by magicians.