Entomology and Animation: A Portrait of
An Early Master Ladislaw Starewicz
by Eric Schneider

(Excerpt)

As early as 1910 a young graphic artist/entomologist, who had begun to discover the unique possibilities for expression through cinema, sat down under hot lights for many hours tediously manipulating intricate puppet figures. His name was Ladislaw Starewicz, and, in fact, his first attempt at filmmaking was with live stag beetles. The beetles, though, proved too frustrating to control: “I waited days and days to shoot a battle…But they would not fight with the lights shining on them.” It took the death of one beetle, under such stress, before Starewicz tried a different approach: “I [created] trick animals…I liked molding them so much that I continued.” And he continued until his death in 1965 to produce his distinctive brand of stop-motion puppet animation, along with about fifty live-action films.

Full article at: http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.02/5.02pages/schneiderstarewicz.php3