It started off as a silly concept: "Didn't he have squirrels in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?" But when I started doing some research, it was fun and amazing. This is what I found:
"Just as Wonka needed to use real squirrels to run work in his nut sorting room, the director of the film, Tim Burton, only the real thing would do for the movie. Burton’s wanted 100 real, live trained squirrels to appear in his film.
“When I found out what was involved, it was a bit overwhelming,” says Senior Animal Trainer Mike Alexander, of Birds & Animals Unlimited. Alexander had worked with Burton as a chimpanzee wrangler for Planet of the Apes, and was happy to work with him again, but he admits, “squirrels can be very tough, and training 100 of them was inconceivable.”
Burton and Alexander compromised on the number of squirrels and decided on 40 individual live animals. To give the appearance of more, the animals on screen were a combination of the live squirrels, skillfully crafted animatronics, and CG and multiple images. Alexander’s team of four trainers, in accordance with the Humane Society, spent 19 weeks participating in mostly one-on-one interaction with the animals.
While the little critters are intelligent, they can also be difficult to handle due to their independent and unpredictable nature. Alexander relates, “they’re not necessarily good at doing specific, intricate things. They don’t like to sit still. They’re hard to keep in one place. The first couple of weeks were spent in just getting the animals to come out of their crates and sit with us, nevermind any of the things they were supposed to do.
“We took baby steps,” he continues. “After they were comfortable sitting with us we introduced them to the props. We taught them to pick up a nut and put it into a metal bowl, which is not what they’d do in the movie but once they got the idea of picking the nut up and putting it into a bowl we could change the bowl to a conveyer belt. Once they grasped the basic concepts, they began to learn faster and things started coming together.”
When I read that, I wanted to see what would happen with walnuts. I actually wanted to build a little stool for them to sit on, but with thanksgiving that week, there was no time.
The squirrel was afraid of the walnut to begin with. (I guess there's no walnut trees out here.) So I had to get him slowly used to the walnut by putting peanuts next to it. He would sniff the walnut and go look for more peanuts. After awhile, he would stretch out and sniff the walnut. When he finally realized that it was something good, he'd grab it, but run off with it immediately, so I couldn't get the shot.
This shot took about 3-4 hours over two days, but I was cooking thanksgiving dinner during that time. I shoot through my kitchen window, so while I was making homemade rolls, sweet potatoes, etc, I was constantly looking out the window. I'd wipe my hands quickly and grab the camera from the table. That's why it was difficult since the squirrel wouldn't stay around when he picked up the walnut. He'll come up on my deck, but he's not tame. So while it may seem easy to people, it usually takes multiple hours to get a shot
The shot was definitely inspired by Tim Burton -- he used lived squirrels and trained them to do what he wanted. I spent two days trying to train this guy to hold the walnut, and it's almost an exact copy of a shot in the film.
Thanks for listening! :)
-w
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erm... uh... not too proud of my score on this one. I gave it a 3 because I thought it was a shoehorn (don't tell Yo_Spiff). I never saw the remake (why remake a perfect movie?).
As a photo, it's actually not bad. The overexposure creates an interesting composition by adding negative space.
LOL - I just saw that movie tonight for the first time, but only saw about 10 minutes of it and it was THAT scene. Weird. Anyway, the movie sucked, but this photo doesn't. :)
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