Lucanus Cervus, (russian: Жук-олень) is a 1910

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...

short film directed by Ladislas Starevich. It was the first puppet

stop motion animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames ...

in history, consisting of two preserved male stag beetles (''Lucanus cervus'') their legs replaced by wire, animated fighting one another over a mate.

Production

Starevich created ''Lucanus Cervus'' in 1910 while he was director of the Museum of Natural History in Kaunas, Lithuania. He had been commissioned to produce four nature

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

. Starevich had originally intended to film live stag beetles rutting over a mate, but the stage lighting in use at the time would quickly kill the nocturnal insects. Instead, Starevich experimented with making

articulated An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint in its construction, allowing it to turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains. Steam locomotives were somet ...

puppets out of dried stag beetle specimens. He fitted them with wires glued to their abdomens by

sealing wax Sealing wax is a wax material of a seal which, after melting, hardens quickly (to paper, parchment, ribbons and wire, and other material) forming a bond that is difficult to separate without noticeable tampering. Wax is used to verify something s ...

, replacing their legs. He drew each position of movement and composed each position before shooting the insects with a frequency of sixteen frames per second, the maximum at the time. Starevich animated these puppets with

stop-motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

to recreate their fighting behavior as accurately as possible. The result was not only the first recorded use of puppetry in film, but the first use of dead insects as stop-motion puppets. Starevich would make widespread use of stop-motion throughout his career as a filmmaker and

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games ...

. The unusual idea was reportedly inspired by the short film ''Les allumettes Animées'' (''The Animated Matches'') (1908) by French animator Émile Cohl.

References

External links

* 1910 films 1910s Russian-language films Russian silent short films Russian black-and-white films 1910 short films Films of the Russian Empire {{1910s-Russia-film-stub