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Title: NO STRINGS ATTACHED

Reference number: 4539

Date: 1959*

Director: filmed by Mr R G Giuliani Dec'd

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 28.49 mins

Description: The work of the Puppet Theatre in Aberdeen. All the different stages concerning a production are shown ; auditioning school children for players ; making the sets ; making the puppets, and making the costumes. The rehearsals, and advertising art work is also shown, along with the enjoyment of the audience and players during a production of Robin Hood.

Shotlist: An R G Production. Title superimposed over a bridge. (.05) Featuring Aberdeen College of Education Puppet Players directed by Barry Symes in. Titling superimposed over Marischal College.(.07) No Strings Attached. (.10) A Film By Ralph Giuliani MA. Titling superimposed over a view of the harbour from the sea.(.14) Boy coming out of his house. A man is digging in a garden, two women are talking by the garden hedge. (.25) Sign - Corporation of the City of Aberdeen, Education Committee, Kaimhill Secondary School. (.28) Girls and boys walking or cycling to school. Girls walking in through the front door. C/u on the boy shown leaving his house. (.44) School notice board advertising for puppet players. (.48) Boy walking into school. (.52) Notice Auditions in Progress. (.56) Children reading scripts at the auditions. (2.00) C/u of boy as he is selected. (2.07) Man gives boy a card giving the address of the Aberdeen Puppet Players rehearsal rooms, 23 Adelphi. (2.13) Two boys going through an archway to the rehearsal rooms. (2.22) Boy meeting one of the adult instructors building a set. (2.36) Boy tacking a back onto the wooden frame, another is sawing some wood. (2.49) Girl working with a model set of the puppet equipment. (3.08) Gv's of the various people involved in making the sets and props. Shots of wood cutting, shaping chicken wire, covering the base with glue and paper, and painting to finish. (5.05) Short demonstration of how the sets move on rollers. (5.16) Boys leaving the rehearsal rooms. (5.21) C/u on the girls sewing costumes for the puppets. (5.44) Man twisting a piece of wire to make a frame for a puppet. (6.17) Gv's of women making a padded body for the wire frame, and sewing together the various costumes required. C/u of the delicate stitch work. (7.40) Woman shaping some clay to make a puppet's face. (8.16) A man makes a wire frame to go inside the puppet head. Woman splits open the clay head and hollows it out, then places the wire frame inside. (9.01) Woman paints the clay puppet's face and attaches the wig. (9.59) C/u of more of the wire puppet frame being made - the frame for a hand. (10.20) Woman tying a noose (?) around the neck of one puppet. (10.25) C/u's between the wire frame for the hand, and the hanging puppet. Once the wire frame has been shaped it is wrapped in paper and painted. The hand is then fitted to the puppet. (11.42) C/u of woman playing the piano, and marking a score. (12.17) Women singing. (12.26) C/u of woman playing the piano, a man operating a mag recorder, and a child singing. (12.48) Gv's of a man and children painting the sets for a production. (14.52) Gv's of rehearsals. Boy reading a script, woman operating the puppet. Another woman paints a poster advertising the puppet play, while other tests props and special effects. (17.09)Posters from previous productions at Peterhead Academy. (17.24) Peterhead Academy art department painting and printing the posters for the puppet theatre. (18.22) The final assembly of the different pages for the programme are assembled, joined and cut. Posters are placed on walls, tickets are written out. (19.53) People arriving at the Aberdeen College of Education for the play. (20.06) Audience waiting. (20.11) Sign Silence is Golden - So Belt Up! (20.15) The puppets are laid out with their costumes on the wall behind them. (20.32) Scenery, lights, music and scripts are checked and the performance starts. (20.59) The play is Robin Hood, and an introduction is given using real people in costume with life size sets. (21.44) Gv's of different acts of the Robin Hood Production, however the dialogue and story is not shown, the section concerns the mood of the puppet players and the audience when the play is in performance. (27.51) Books of Peter Pan are handed out as the next production. (28.09) Lorraine Crowe, Bill Baxter, Jennifer Dinnie, Neil Campbell, Joyce Fraser, John Keith, Frances Keith, Billy Leask, Maureen McLean, Charles Miller, Margaret Murdoch, David Moir, Nora Paterson, George Palmer, Muriel Robb, Edi Swan, Ruth Nicol Smith, Fraser Watt, Muriel Sturrock, James Yule. (28.21) This film could never have been made without the help of the pupils of Kaimhill Secondary School. (28.30) The End. (28.34) (1028 ft) No picture, but music continues. (28.49) (1037 ft)