Jan Svankmajer Practitioner Study

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist who was born in Prague 1934 and he still lives there today. He studied at the Institute of Applied Arts from 1950 to 1954 and then at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts (Department of Puppetry). Svankmajer made his first film in 1964 "The Last Trick" for over thirty years Svankmajer has made some of the most memorable and unique animated films ever made, gaining a reputation as one of the world's foremost animators, and influencing filmmakers from Tim Burton to The Brothers Quay, But he has also gained reputation for his distinctive technique of the use of Stop Motion. He could create surreal, nightmarish but somehow funny films.  Stop-motion features in most of his work, though recently his feature films have included much more live action sequences than animation. Many of Svankmajer's films feature clay objects coming to life using Stop Motion, as you can see in his animation Darkness Light Darkeness: