Supermarionation  Supermarionation (a portmanteau of the words "super", "marionette" and "animation") was a style of television and film production employed by British company AP Films (later Century 21 Productions) in its puppet TV series and feature films of the 1960s, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed at APF's studios on the Slough Trading Estate. The characters in these productions were played by electronic marionettes with a moveable lower lip, which opened and closed in time with pre-recorded dialogue by means of a solenoid in the puppet's head or chest. Most of the productions were science fiction, with puppetry supervised by Christine Glanville, art direction by either Bob Bell or Keith Wilson and music by Barry Gray. They also made extensive use of scale model special effects, directed by Derek Meddings. The term "Supermarionation" was first used during the production of "Supercar", whose final 13 episodes were the first to be credited as being "filmed in Supermarionation". Some sources consider its precursor, "Four Feather Falls", to be the first Supermarionation series because it saw the introduction of the electronic lip-syncing mechanism that featured in all of APF's later puppet productions. The term was coined by Gerry Anderson, who regarded it as APF's trademark. In later life, he said that he invented the term to increase the "respectability" of puppetry, a medium that he had not originally intended to work with. According to Sylvia, the productions were described as "Supermarionation" to distinguish them from traditional puppet theatre. Noting that a major disadvantage of APF's marionettes was their inability to walk convincingly, commentators have argued that the term expressed Gerry's preference for artistic realism and his wish to make the company's puppet techniques more lifelike. The term was coined in 1960 by Gerry Anderson. Sources describe Supermarionation as a style of puppetry, a production technique or process, or a promotional term. Emma Thom of the National Science and Media Museum defines it as APF's use of electronics to synchronise puppets' lip movements with pre-recorded dialogue. According to Jeff Evans, it "express[es] the elaborate style of puppetry" used in APF's productions. Anderson denied that the term referred to a process, stating that he coined it as a promotional tool to separate APF's output from other children's puppet series like "Muffin the Mule" and "Flower Pot Men".