保羅米勒分享

保羅米勒

英國聾人電影《科學小怪人》導演、現為Rory Studio編劇、導演、插圖家和動畫師

 

保羅米勒 (Paul Miller) 生於英國加拉沙爾，長居紐卡素泰恩河畔，懂英國聾人手語；他第一套動畫作品為《羅尼的牙齒》 (Rory’s Teeth) 。

 

保羅一直夢想參予藝術創作，可惜學校裡聾人鮮有機會接觸藝術。離開學校後，他當了二十年廚師，工作環境很熱，充滿汗水，同時也因為缺乏溝通，廚房氣氛很納悶。

 

保羅三十多歲時，發現自己仍然忘不了藝術和設計。後來，他入讀紐卡素學院修讀英國高級國家圖像設計文憑課程，並在2005年取得動畫與插圖預科學位。

 

電視節目和影片製作人布貝鄧肯 (Bob Duncan)製作多套英國聾人手語影片。保羅有幸向他展示作品。二人呈交計劃書予北部電影媒體 (Northern Film and Media (NFM)，申請英國電影協會的數碼短片計劃，製作一部反諷電影。保羅早已完成製作，片名《羅尼牙科預約》(Rory's Dental Appointment)，影片故事參照兒童圖書，講述一條年輕的龍；其後改名為《羅尼的牙齒》。

 

這齣電影是英國首部由專業聾人動畫家製作的作品，影片單靠卡通畫面敘述故事，沒半句口語對話。(保羅仍偷偷加插了一些英國人手語！)

 

保羅借由羅尼故事系列，熱衷發展動畫作品。(包括羅尼故事系列第二部的作品《羅尼瘦身》 (Rory Gets Fit))

 

保羅引用兩本童書：諾連維士(Noreen Rees)的著作《沙灘樹》(The Beach Tree) 和布貝鄧肯的著作《七彩車》(Cars of Many Colours)，並製作短篇動畫《矮胖子》(Humpty Dumpty)，發佈在手語報網頁上的手語故裡。

 

保羅曾與一個聾人電影會工作，與聾人兒童合作製作短片。保羅啟發他們的創作意念，教導他們攝錄和剪片。最後，他們製作的《消失的聽覺》(Hearing Disappearing)獲得兒童電影節獎項。2010年5月的伍佛漢普頓電影節，保羅展出布貝鄧肯撰寫的《魔戒小伙子》(The Lad of the Rings)。

 

2011年，保羅參加歐洲各地聾人電影節，展出電影《羅尼瘦身》。2011年5月21日，該電影獲伍爾弗漢普頓聾人電影節提名，又於同年7月和11月，獲得法國的電影節 (Festival Clin d'oei) 和西班牙國際聾人節 (Tolosa Spain International Deaf festival) 提名。電影《羅尼瘦身》亦曾在尼斯湖電影節 (Loch Ness Film Festival)、格拉斯哥電影節 (Deep Fried Film Festival Glasgow) 、西班牙惠特利灣(Spanish City in Whitley Bay)及瑞典聾人節展出。

 

保羅在學校、青年協會和兒童電影節，為聾人和健聽兒童，安排各種動畫和插畫工作坊。最近在研討會上，保羅與傑克鼓藝合作一個新項目，安排電影工作坊，影子木偶表演和創作。

 

保羅現正與線路媒體 (Wiremedia) 和兩個聾人蓮達 (Linda Day) 和泰莎Tessa Padden，合作為手語世界網站設計和繪畫圖像。

保羅亦與參與北泰恩賽德，桑德蘭和南希爾茲博物館計劃和籌備工作坊。北泰恩賽德工作坊以羅馬為主題，在沃爾森德舉行；桑德蘭工作坊以環保為主題，；南希爾茲則以多利亞時代風格為主題。

 

目前，七個故事兒童圖書中心展出朱莉婭唐納森(Julia Donaldson)的咕嚕牛(Gruffalo)故事系列。保羅在該廣告牌上的英文字旁邊，以圖片的形式，附上英國手語中字母的手勢，並加入簡短介紹。

 

保羅與聾人貓頭鷹參與短片《米蘭：語言的最後力量》。影片在東北部拍攝，由尼克史利(Nick Sturley) 執導和編寫，選自米蘭小說。

 

保羅曾參與紐卡素地區的聾人戲劇團的演出，包括《屋頂上的提琴手》(Fiddler on the Roof) 和《白雪公主和七個小矮人》(Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)。

 

後來，保羅受邀加入一個名為位於聖約翰教堂惠特利灣的彩衣(Dreamcoat)劇團，在劇目《約瑟和神奇彩衣》(Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat)和《手語和奇績》擔任壬要角色。

 

保羅成功讓聾人與健聽人士一同參與工作坊，完成一直以來的夢想。現在每週在聖約翰教堂都會舉辦工作坊，聾人和健聽人士的參加人數漸增，證明劇工作坊十分成功。他寫了一個黑暗的童話《歌莉拉和魔術歌劇手套》(Gothrella and the Magic Opera Gloves)，自導自演，，演員包括聾人與健聽人士，預計在11月公滇。

 

最近一次的工作坊，我帶領兩個班學生，參與一個國際計劃，創作動畫《駕駛靈感》(Driving Inspiration)，目標在2012年殘奧會開幕儀式時演出，旨在推動殘奧價值觀。

 

電影目錄

《羅尼的牙齒》2007 (編劇、導演、動畫)

《矮胖子》2009 (動畫)

《魔戒小伙子》2010 (編劇、導演、剪接)

《羅尼瘦身》2011 (編劇、導演、動畫、剪接、製片人)

《漢紳與烈圖》 2011 (導演、動畫、剪接)

《科學小怪人》2013 (編劇、導演、動畫、剪接、製片人)

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Paul Miller

Director, Boris Bolt, currently Writer, Director, Animator and Illustrator of Rory Studio

 

Born in Galashiels, Paul Miller is a Deaf British Sign Language (BSL) user who has spent most of his life in Newcastle upon Tyne. ‘Rory’s Teeth’ was his first animated film.

 

Paul always dreamed of a career in art, but at school, as a Deaf person, he was told there was no hope for him in that field. He trained as a chef and spent his twenties working in various hot, sweaty and, often, fairly bewildering kitchens – bewildering because of the lack of communication.

 

In his thirties, Paul realised that his heart was still in art and design. He enrolled at Newcastle College, where he undertook a BTEC National Diploma in Graphic Design, followed by a Foundation Degree in Animation and Illustration. He graduated in 2005.

 

Paul showed his work to Bob Duncan, a producer of TV programmes and videos, many of them in BSL for the Deaf community. Bob and Paul put together a proposal to Northern Film and Media (NFM) to produce a Stingers film under the UK Film Council’s Digital Shorts Scheme. The film would be based on a children’s booklet about a young dragon, which Paul had already produced, called ‘Rory’s Dental Appointment’. The result was ‘Rory’s Teeth’.

 

The film is the first attempt of its kind in the UK by a professional Deaf animator to tell a cartoon-type story in pictures alone, without spoken dialogue (although Paul did manage to sneak in a couple of signs from BSL!)

 

Paul is keen to go on and develop his work in animation, with more Rory stories (including ‘Rory Gets Fit’,  this is the next in the series of Rory’s stories).

 

Paul has illustrated two children’s books, ‘The Beach Tree’ written by Noreen Rees and ‘Cars of Many Colours’ written by Bob Duncan and has also created a short animation of Humpty Dumpty for ITV’s SignPost Signed Stories website.

 

Paul has worked with a Deaf film club, working with Deaf children making a short film. Paul helped them to create their ideas and taught them how to use cameras and how to edit the film. The end result was a film called ‘Hearing Disappearing’ being created which went on to win an award at Kids For Kids Film Festival. In May 2010 Paul attended the Wolverhampton film festival to show his film ‘The Lad of the Rings’, written by Bob Duncan.

 

In 2011 Paul attended various Deaf film festivals around Europe to show his film ‘Rory Gets Fit’. This was nominated at Wolverhampton Deaf film Festival on the 21st May 2011, Festival Clin d'oeil in France in July 2011 and Tolosa Spain International Deaf festival November 2011. Rory Gets fit has be on screen at the Loch Ness Film Festival, Deep Fried Film Festival Glasgow, Spanish City in Whitley Bay and Sweden Deaf festival.

 

 

Paul has facilitated a variety of animation and illustration workshops with Deaf and hearing children coming from youth clubs, schools and at various children film festivals. At the most recent workshops, Paul worked with a company called Jack Drum Art, collaborating in a new project facilitating animation workshops and demonstrating to his audience the art of shadow puppets and how to create them.

 

Paul is in the process of designing and illustrating images for the Sign World website in conjunction with a company called Wiremedia and two deaf women called Linda Day and Tessa Padden.

 

Paul is also involved with North Tyneside, Sunderland and South Shields museums to plan and create workshops. The North Tyneside workshop is held at Wallsend and has the Roman theme; Sunderland workshop has the environmental theme and South Shields the Victorian fashion theme.

 

Paul is currently illustrating some fingerspelling images to be put alongside English words on a billboard and is making a short presentation in British Sign Language for Julia Donaldson’s "Gruffalo" stories for her exhibition at The Seven Stories Children's Book Centre.

 

Paul has been acted with Deaf Owl in a short film ‘Milan: The Last Power of Language’ It was filmed in the north east with director Nick Sturley who also wrote the Milan novel.

 

Paul has been involved in a Deaf drama group within the Newcastle area. He has been involved in various performances such as ‘Fiddler on the Roof ’ and ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’.

 

Later, Paul was asked to join a drama group called Dreamcoat which is held at St John church Whitley Bay. Dreamcoat has produced performances such as ‘Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat’ and ‘Signs and Miracles’, where Paul was heavily involved with acting.

 

Paul had the idea of bringing Deaf and Hearing children together through workshops. His idea became reality and he now runs, on a weekly basis at St Johns Church, drama workshops. It is proving to be very successful as the number of Deaf and Hearing children involved is growing. He has written a play script of a dark fairy tale  ‘Gothrella and the Magic Opera Gloves ’ and he will be directing and acting the show which will hopefully be ready to perform in November with the deaf and hearing cast.

 

At the most recent workshop, I lead 2 classes of students as they created animations for ‘Driving Inspiration’, a global project revolving around the Paralympic Values, which was then show at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in 2012.

 

Filmography

Rory’s Teeth   2007 (Written, Directed, Animated)

Humpty Dumpty  2009 (Directed Animated)

The Lad of the Rings  2010 (Directed, Animated, Edited)

Rory Gets Fit  2011 (Written, Directed, Animated, Edited, Produced)

Hansel and Gretel  2011 (Directed, Animated, Edited)

Boris Bolt  2013 (Written, Directed, Animated, Illustrated, Edited, Produced)