Philips Light Show

Story

An entertaining collage of various musical sketches on a stage. Both the performers and the audience are (Philips) light bulbs.

Trivia

Most of the light bulbs performing in this film were not made of glass, but of plaster. This material offered both the puppet makers and the animater a more solid base than the thin glass. Several exact replicas could be made from one casting mold. After all, the only alternative was to produce the figures piece by piece manually on an analog wood lathe. Understandably, this was not practical. The advantages of plaster casts included that all the lamp-puppets were the same size; they were fairly quick to produce; and the puppet-maker could drill holes in the torso to secure arms and legs. In glass, that would not be possible. The replicas were sprayed with a high-gloss varnish that was meant to suggest the reflection of the original glass.

For specific applications, the creators could also choose to give the puppet a wooden body. In particular, for a scene in which the lamp needed to be able to walk. In such cases, the puppet was divided into two parts. The upper half was the “glass” bulb and the lower half consisted of the socket in which the legs were mounted. The two halves fit together thanks to a custom-made pin-hole joint.

Walking and dancing

To make the lamps walk or dance, a series of pre-manufactured phase legs were used. These were rigid pre-formed legs, made of wood or metal. The animator had (offscreen) a custom-made stock of interchangeable numbered puppet legs. Using the aforementioned pin-hole connection, the individual elements were clicked together. One step usually required 12 interchangeable leg sets. The advantage was that this series could be reused endlessly. This form of phasing technique was very time consuming. The puppet had to be completely removed from the set between each image shot. Without changing the position of the arms, the puppet was fitted with a new set of parts and returned to the same position in the set. Then the rest of the animation was realized. On the next image capture, these steps were completed again. Realize that in this time there was no video assistant to find the position again. Here craftsmanship and ingenuity of the animator was required.

Where the lamp-figures had to be illuminated, a painted real lamp was used. The possibilities for the animator to animate a real lamp were lacking. In many cases, the effect of the often flashing light had to compensate for the fact that virtually no animation was possible. Power cables were connected to each flashing lamp.

The exact year of production of this film is not easy to determine. In 1954, the trade magazine of the Dutch Cinema and Film Association reported the production “Light” (Working Title). The credits are missing.

More light

Dollywood made several such films for Philips. In each case, lamps acted as people. A film was also made about a Miss pageant (Philips Light Contest - 1959) in which elegant lady lamps step into a fitting to be praised by an increasingly frenzied jury. All the lamps are 100% quality. They also all appear to be Philips brand.

Another production is called “Lamp Light Band” (1957). It can be viewed on this website elsewhere.