Interview With John Coppinger Scientific Model-Maker, Sculptor And Animatronic Designer For Museums, Films, And TV

Interview done by Michael Wilkerson

MW: Please introduce yourself?

JC: Hello, I’m John Coppinger.  I have worked for over forty years as a Scientific Model-Maker, Sculptor and Animatronic Designer for Museums, Films and TV.

MW: Please tell me about what you did on each of these movies? And also give me a story from the set?

The Dark Crystal

I was Group Head for the Environment Puppets – Mostly plants, moving trees and creatures for the swamp set, but also moving rocks and rock spiders for the Aughra’s mountain set.

The swamp set was designed by Malcolm Stone to be quickly reconfigured by the use of wheeled rostrums, that carried trees, ponds, hummocks etc.  So most of the time we were operating puppets from under the set which was cold and damp.  But temperatures on top of the set sometimes exceeded 130degrees F. – Especially when we were sending down the ‘helicopter seed pods’.  They were filmed on reverse camera, so any that broke would appear to assemble themselves and then take off.  We eventually got a shot where none of them broke!

Star Wars: Episode 4 – Return Of The Jedi

One of my favourite creatures – Jabba the Hutt!  He was an outrageous character and a challenge to build.  Probably the largest, most complex ‘puppet’ that had ever been attempted back then.  Everything about him, from mechanisms to foam skin, required experiments and research to find solutions.  But he was the most fun we ever had when it came to operating him on set.  We asked Richard Marquand, the director, to talk directly to Jabba rather than any one of the eight or nine people who were operating him.  Somehow we all co-ordinated and made him live as the character everyone knows today!

Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes

I was working for Rick Baker, who is not only a great organiser and boss but also a world class sculptor.  Life isn’t always fair!  I ran the sculpting shop in the ‘Ape Factory’ for him.  Mostly hands, feet and behinds but also some character heads – I could probably still sculpt an ape hand in my sleep.

There was an amazing forest set on Stage 6 at Elstree studios and a padded practice area on Stage 7.  We had fun leaping 20 feet into circus nets and huge boxes of foam chips.  But the performers had to do it for real on the set, on wet branches, during the rain forest scenes.

Santa Claus

I was working for Malcolm Stone again – Running the workshop that made full size animatronic reindeer for the front-projection flying scenes with Santa’s sleigh.  They ran on air rams, supplied by Festo Pneumatics, and had to be operated on top of an enormous ram-powered plate; something like a huge helicopter swash-plate.

We also made collapsing reindeer for a scene where Mr. and Mrs. Santa nearly freeze to death.  We were relatively cool, under the set again, but the actors had to pretend to be dying of the cold, in heavy furs, at temperatures around 120degrees F. !!

Return To Oz

I worked in the Art Department, supervising development of the main characters.  We sculpted maquettes and then made test rigs to work out how to make Tik Tok, Wheelers, The Gump, Cowardly Lion etc. work.

The Wheelers were probably the most difficult and the most fun.  I never managed to get more than three feet on the wheel rigs, so the performers did an amazing job.  Many of them came from ‘Cats’, the musical, and went on to perform in ‘Starlight Express’.

Babe

This was the beginning of the real CGI revolution for me – Sculpting animal heads that linked the real animals with the puppet animals.

The sculpts were scanned to allow virtual transitions between live and puppet animals, and also the speech animations.

The Fifth Element

Another favourite project; particularly designing and sculpting the decorative elements for the Diva’s costume (produced by Vin Burnham’s costume department).  Also sculpting and fabricating the headress, the back of her head and her ‘spines’.  Luc Besson insisted that no-one saw the final effect until the curtains opened at Covent Garden Opera house, where the scene was shot.  A full audience of extras reacted in just the way he wanted!  The spines also worked so well that he cancelled the CGI for that scene – – –

Lost In Space

I worked as a sculptor for Vin Burnham again; in a small team sculpting the Cryo-Suits.  I also got to design the LED panels for the suits, using artwork of the Jupiter 2 as reference and starting point.

The Mummy

Bodies, twisted bodies and more bodies.  And shrunken heads and snakes and locusts and spiders.  We all wanted to do a fluffy bunny film after this one!

Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace

This was both fun and very nostalgic; to come back into the Star Wars universe after fifteen years (since Return of the Jedi).  I was working for Nick Dudman, who was creating Bib Fortuna, for Stewart Freeborn, when I first met him.  Now he was running the creature effects shop – We re-sculpted some of the classic Cantina characters and made new creatures.

I really liked the drawing of the Anxx, by Doug Chiang, and got to sculpt the character, help with the developement of the costume rig and play the part of Graxol Kelvyyin in the Pod Race scene.

I didn’t get to sculpt Jabba as a lad, but Nick made up for that by getting me on set as Wookiee Senator Yarua.  One of my best days in filmland – – – !

The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas

Just a few weeks for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop on this one.  The only creature I remember was an octopus sculpt – It was used for both the hairdresser and the croupier characters.

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

Working for Nick Dudman again, after the second Mummy film.  Actually working on both films at one stage, as they overlapped.  The main sculpt I remember was the Unicorn: based on a real horse called Fado.  I was on set one cold, wet Sunday, with the stunt men practising Voldemort flying away after killing the Unicorn.  One kept hitting a tree and falling on the ‘horse’, but I remember thinking ‘I might be cold and bored, but then again, I am in the Forbidden Forest’ !

MW: Do you not do any movie work anymore?

JC: Very occasionally, I’m semi-retired now, but we still make props for the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures most years.  This takes me back to my first interest in Science and Art; from when I worked at the Natural History Museum.

MW: What was your favorite film to do?  And why?

JC: It’s too easy an answer probably, but I guess it has to be ‘Return of the Jedi’.  There were so many new ideas and techniques thought up to make Jabba.  And of course, the chance to operate him on set.  ‘The Fifth Element’ runs alongside that, because of the power of the image of the Diva and a great performance by Maïwenn Le Besco.

MW: Did you get to keep any of the props from any movie? And what?

JC: Not many, just a few pieces from Dark Crystal – one of the helicopter plants for instance.  I had a face skin of Jabba, and part of his tail, and those went to a good home with a collector in America.  Working on a film is usually hectic and intensive; I could have collected more souvenirs but tended not to think of it at the time. It sometimes upsets people that most of what we make for a film is destroyed – But it is all part of the process, and the final result survives and is celebrated if the film is any good.

MW: Give me a day in your life?

JC: It varies; sometimes busy, sometimes not!  I pursue my love of writing whenever I can, and work on websites and interviews like this one!  I also get to Sci-Fi Conventions whenever I’m invited – That gets me to places I probably wouldn’t see otherwise; Tokyo, Orlando, Los Angeles for instance.  This month we went from Madrid, on to Tenerife (for a small film my partner, Nicole, was working on) and then back to Copenhagen for a small but excellent convention.  That’s not really typical, but it happens now and again 🙂
MW: What would you like to say in closing?

JC: I’ve been very lucky to work in the film industry; particularly during the period from the 1980’s onwards when Animatronics really got going and CGI was still on the horizon.  There’s something of a backlash now and both audiences and film crews still prefer to work with ‘real’ characters and creatures.  I think the way various technologies are going will generate some spectacular new possibilities; most likely in the fields of robotics and bio-engineering.  It’s not impossible to imagine a Jabba bio-robot with its’ own artificial intelligence for instance.  And that of course is Science Fiction – – – !