Benjamin ArthurIllustrator, animation director & author

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The screening room

A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight?

NPR, with Robert Krulwich · 2010

Blindfolded, nobody walks in a straight line. The film spent ten months on show at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the BBC borrowed it for QI with Stephen Fry.

How it was madeThe story on NPR

Made for
NPR
With
Robert Krulwich
Year
2010
Ben’s part
Director and animator
Running time
3:34
Honors
Shown for ten months at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and used by the BBC on QI

Stills from the film

  • The blindfolded man in a flat cap stands beside Schaeffer, in glasses and a bow tie, in a wide sepia field.
  • Schaeffer points across the field while the blindfolded man listens.
  • Close on the blindfolded man, frowning.
  • Close on Schaeffer, mid-sentence.
  • Schaeffer sketches on a pad as the blindfolded man strides off across the field.
  • Three small figures walk through fog past a weathered barn.

Process

From the field to the page

How A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? was made for NPR: acted out and photographed first, then drawn.

  1. 1. ReferenceLive-action reference, acted out for the camera.
  2. Photograph of a man in a flat cap and waistcoat, blindfolded with a white cloth, lighting a pipe in a sunny field of dry grass.
    2. ReferencePhoto reference for the blindfolded walker.
  3. Photograph of a man in glasses and a bow tie in the foreground of a dry grass field, with the blindfolded man in the flat cap behind him.
    3. ReferenceAnd for the scientist, in his bow tie.
  4. Three ink portraits of a long-haired man with round glasses, a mustache and a bow tie, labeled A. A. Schaeffer.
    4. Character designA. A. Schaeffer, three ways.
  5. An ink and wash drawing labeled Blindfold subject: a bearded man in a flat cap and three-piece suit, smoking a pipe.
    5. Character designThe blindfold subject, before the blindfold.
  6. A drawn frame of the blindfolded man in his waistcoat, leaning forward with both hands out, feeling his way.
    6. AnimationFeeling the way.
  7. The set of the BBC panel show QI, with a still from the film on the big screens behind the panelists' desk.
    7. On the BBCOn the screens of QI, with Stephen Fry.

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For animation, title design and visual effects, through my studio ArthurAnimation, or just to say hello.