11.11.2019 AXEL ONLINE #15

BRISTOL REVISITED/GENSYN MED Steen Dalin pays a visit to evaluate the digital revolution in model Having booked the flight and making an Our first adventure The Tinderbox brought us not signed up for the competition. But for the appointment with old acquaintances at Aardman to the Annecy Festival d’animation in France. first time in the history of the festival a giant , the opening lyrics from the Beatles’ That year 1993 was special. Dave Borthwick screen had been set up outside the Pâquier lawn 1967 Sgt. Pepper album kept playing in my ears: presented his weird mixture of models and real overlooking the Lac d’Annecy. By sunset I had my humans in his epic pixilation feature The Secret first revelation of an animated marvel together It was twenty years ago today Adventures of Tom Thumb. It quickly became with the local general public for whom the screen Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play. evident that the Brits participating were top of had been erected: had They’ve been going in and out of style. the pops. Much to the annoyance of the French just been flown over to the Continent still wet But they’re guaranteed to raise the smile. hosts who later at the gala did everything to from the laboratory. Never before had the world ridicule the hereditary enemy in the worst experienced such a tour de force of animated And surely Wallace & Gromit have also clownish way. Of course Aardman were present turned into cinematic splendour. It guaranteed a smile. One reason of course is too, but anticipating not being able to finish was amazing. No wonder it gained Aardman it’s their being so typical British their new Wallace & Gromit in time, it was second Oscar half a year later. The first Oscar in humour and style, just like The Beatles and also bore the name of director in 1990 Monty Python. But and Peter for his upon which Lord brought that spirit into the 21st Century. The and David Sproxton made him junior partner of two founders of belonged their company. to the Woodstock generation together with a lot of their co-workers. In addition it’s exactly twenty Then six years later when recording our second years ago I myself for the first time set sails Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale Clumsy Hans towards Bristol. During the 90’s I’d made two or Jack the Dullard or Simple-Simon (a rose is a model animation shorts in Copenhagen based rose is a rose, red) I allowed myself some time off on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales with to go see what went on in Bristol. Our 35 minutes Romanian animator and director Mihail Badica. animation were well over half done after six months of production. So I reckoned I could hand Frontpage: over the DOP work to a temporary replacement Think of it: Hans Christian Andersen and Isambard for the proximately one minute of animated Kingdom Brunel were contemporaries, born only one cinema that would equal a trip of ten to twelve year apart. Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge (1864) days. So accompanied by Tone Tarding from the spanning the Avon Gorge still stands as a distinctive animation department of the Danish Film School landmark of Bristol. we arrived in Bristol. I brought my DV-camera not to forget anything said, because previous To the right: visitors had lost their memory when returning A generation of musicians and artists; this is DOP Dave Alex Riddett. to Denmark. In 1998 Bristol was swarming with smaller animation companies. A typical example 2 would be cinematographer Andy MacCormack. In addition to work for Aardman and the Bolex Brothers he had set up his own tiny studio, equipped (of course) with a Mitchell. The studio was very narrow and somewhat elongated and thus he’d named it ‘Big Fat Studio’. Already at that time Aardman had proved to be the most successful and commercial competent of all the Bristol based studios. In addition to traditional model animation they had set up an experimental CGI department, whereas everybody else demonstrated a profound fear of things to come. Andy Mac was no exception with his deep voice exclaiming: “If it ain’t got sprocket wheels – it’s the Devil’s work!” Or as model maker Tim Farrington put it: “I think it’s just very cleverly manipulated light in a box!”

I personally experienced the approaching digital avalanche during the next three years as a summer substitute for the DOP at the only commercial stop motion studio in Copenhagen. We set out with 35mm stop motion cameras, next summer replaced by freakish frame grab video systems until the studio finally was equipped with Canon EOS cameras. The whole game had changed very rapidly. 2D animation was now mainly executed on computers and CGI had taken over from a lot of the former model animation. Mainly by features and adverts but also by art house one-off shorts. In time CGI became so sophisticated that you could hardly tell the difference. Consequently a lot of cottage The Wrong Trousers pulled the rug out from under the feet of industry studios in Bristol had been wiped out. everybody present at the 1993 Annecy Festival d’animation in France. Only Aardman and a few smaller ones like the Bolex Brothers remained. 3 Dave Borthwick’s The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb blended models with real humans in this pixilation feature.

4 Dave Borthwick and David Sproxton visiting Copenhagen 2005 Wallace & Gromit’s first feature The Curse of the Were-Rabbit still shot on 35mm

By pure luck I had focused almost entirely on Burton’s Corpse Bride had gone all digital with whole new modern building has risen out of the those two studios in a documentary we put Canon EOS cameras. Sproxton said that if he tarmac. Well inside we are welcomed by David together from the many interviews Tone and I could have started all over again he would have Sproxton and Dave Alex Riddett. It seems there’s had done in 1998. When Why Bristol? had its preferred digital too, but the build up of a fleet of a frightful lot of ‘Daves’ around so in continuation second premiere at the cinematheque in 2005 customized Mitchells over time at Aardman had I prefer to call people by their family name. Both we managed to convince the two CEOs David secured a reliable pipe line. Changing to digital in of them are cinematographers but regrettable Sproxton of Aardman and Dave Borthwick from the midst of production would have caused too none of them members of ‘the club’ when I ask. the Bolex Brothers to make a renewed trip and much disturbance. Riddett replies by quoting Groucho Marx on participate in Copenhagen. I had my doubts wishing or not to be member of a club which about Sproxton as he was busy promoting Now almost 15 years later I’ve returned to see include yourself – a well known joke which I won’t Wallace & Gromit’s first feature, but he took me what happened. The old studio at Gas Ferry repeat. But I guess they are not going to sign up by surprised by simply saying: “Yes, that’ll be Road looks awfully abandoned and nobody for the BSC and IMAGO tomorrow so the club quite feasible.” The Curse of the Were-Rabbit answers the door. But at the former parking lot a will have to do without them. They both appear was shot entirely on film whereas another in the closing credits of The Wrong Trousers as model animation feature that same year, Tim DOPs. Riddett started out working with (David) Borthwick with whom he founded the Bolex 5 Brothers. Your correspondent in front of the original studios at Gas Ferry Road Somewhat disturbed as nobody answers the door. 6 However nowadays Riddett is the primarily “Since we last saw you, of course we’ve gone digital was very interesting. Dave (Alex Riddett) responsible DOP at Aardman. Sproxton set 100% digital.” Sproxton starts out. “The first big made the might jump and has never looked up with childhood friend and animator Peter film we did that way was A Matter of Loaf and back. But we’ve been shooting digitally for Lord when they were only mere schoolboys. Death (Wallace & Gromit). That transition to commercials for some time to kind of prove the The Aardman name derives from a 2D half- case.“ baked Superman figure they created for a BBC children’s programme. His name combined with the animal aardvark and the name stuck. In 1972 they registered the name with the advantage of always being number one in the telephone directory. Today Sproxton is the CEO of one of the main companies in a billion dollar industry. In addition he and Peter Lord were awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) half a year after our last rendezvous in 2005.

The eponymous animal of the company can be seen at Bristol Museum.

David Sproxton and Peter Lord. Both Commanders of the Order of the British Empire. 7 A Matter of Loaf and Death marked Aardman’s transition to digital cinematography.

8 “Up to that point.” Riddett adds, “we were waiting. Specially with the investment we’ve made in film. During the years we’ve build up this amazing collection of converted Mitchells.”

Sproxton: “It’s kind of interesting because the guys we work with now, they wouldn’t recognize a sprocket hole if it hit them in the face. Trying to explain what a 35mm mag-back is? What the hell – you know!”

Riddett: “The fact that you can’t see the image until the next day: “Terrible! How were you supposed to do it?”

Riddett: “We went to the States about the time they were developing the RED camera. We thought that this might be the solution to get a digital camera there. We asked them if it would shoot single frame and they said: “No, we haven’t thought about that.” It hadn’t really come into their reasoning at all, that anybody wanted to shoot single frame on them.”

Sproxton: “There will always be pioneers that get lost in space. It’s the people coming behind them who learnt from the pioneers and I remember thinking that Arri with all it’s muscle will eventually sort all the issues. They’ve been in the camera business for a hundred years so they know what the issues are from the cameraman’s point of view.” David Sproxton and Dave Alex Riddett with plasticine characters that won Oscars.

9 On set Early Man, Nick Park and Dave Alex Riddett at work with Canon EOS cameras.

10 Riddett: “I did some test shots with the Nikons use the top of the range, the 1D Mark III. And I’ve Riddett: “You can get it into so many spaces. of Wallace’s front room and immediately it didn’t had a little bit of an argument with other people And of course the immediacy of having an image look at all right. Nikon always had that red bias. about that, cause they are quite expensive, about there cause we constantly got so many sets. The wallpaper looked fake, all the reds coming 6 grand or something I think. And there are a lot Trying to match light from one set to another. out. A lot of sort of radiant effect. Someone of people in the States that all use 5Ds and say: Which on film was difficult because you’d have to suggested to try the Canon and it just suited “Why are you using such an expensive camera?” shoot something and you’d have to wait until the the colour range. And this is where the beef But in fact we’ve proved it was worth the next day to see it. Whereas now we just network would have been for us to make films, so it’s investment. Because we actually got them at a with towers together (the animators work-stand quite important. There was a certain look to the good price because we bought so many of them. using Dragonframe stop motion software, red) widescreen which sort of came across on film We got quite a discount. They are really solid so we can immediately match the light. Because and it looked right. Gentle on the colours, it had and they have not let us down. We have replaced quite often we are shooting the same scene on a slightly nostalgic warmth to it. It just seemed some sensors in them, but they have been a different sets – reversals and things. Forty-five appropriate. With the choice of the camera, well really good worker. Whereas the 5D sort of burn sets on Pirates and about thirty active cameras at that’s the first thing really, we don’t want to get out after a years use. But we actually managed to any time shooting something. That’s why we go out of that look. We don’t want to leave that shoot Loaf and Death and then we shot a feature in mob-handed as DOPs as well, cause you can’t world and have to try and recreate it.” film with the same cameras. It’s only recently we actually cover that many sets. Just physically out dated them to 1DXs.” getting around from one place to another. So Sproxton: “The other thing I remember we did we have to have a bloody big team. But the fact was a physical thing where both cameras were Riddett: “But it was a hell of a difference, being that we can link them up and check one against switched off if they were getting too hot. I able to get them into a set. Before you really had the other is a God send. Well, I tell you what: remember the Nikons quite early on, because to think about where you’re placing the camera Physically it’s taken it out of us over the years, they were on all of the time and they got quite or you’d have to build the set around it. But the the amount of millage you cover on a concrete warm. The Canon switched off later but it had a fact that you can just hold it on an extended arm floor. About a year ago my feet were killing me heat sink in there to help that. And Canon were and a bit of scaffolding because it’s a smaller and I was in a really bad way. I was hobbling more responsive to what we were just talking camera. It’s amazing.” around. We covered a lot of ground. We worked about as well.” it out to be about 8 or 9 miles a day you could be Sproxton: “I think that’s what came up really walking – every day!” Riddett: “I’ve known people shooting Nikons with early on, that just the rigging of the camera was feature film and they have lots of trouble with so much quicker and easier. And you can flip it Sproxton: “And you were on your feet most of them. Remember the one Tristan did – Mister up-side-down and get it in really close and then the time, weren’t you? Saving the gym fees then! Fox? (Fantastic Mr. Fox is an American stop just flip the image.” What I think is interesting: When we went digital motion film by Wes Anderson from a novel by we gained about two stops, because the Canon Roald Dahl, red). They were shooting on Nikons cameras are really good at low light. On film we and they had to put fans on them to cool them got reciprocity failure cause the shutter speed is down. We always use the Canons. Basically we quite slow. You would probably, if there is a 100 11 ASA film, you would register it at 64 or so. So Dave Alex Riddett and Gromit with one you’re almost losing a stop. But digital cameras of the classic rack-over 35mm cameras. have come a long way, so the way we used to apply the big tungsten lamps of 5K or 10K, we hardly ever get them out now. The trouble is we now have to heat the studios.”

Riddett: “We will light generally at an exposure of one – or maybe two seconds if we want to introduce some blur with a bit of go motion. Occasionally I’ve gone to as much as a ten second exposure for some very low level lighting. With digital you can actually see what is happening during the way. Again you would have to do a lot of testing with film. We have lit scenes with just practicals. I’ve lit the inside of a caravan with a 12 volt torch bulb. It was the only thing that fitted in there and I thought why not just try it. I don’t like to do it too often, because when your operating with hardly any light – if the animator comes in changing his T-shirt from one day to the next, that alters the lighting as well. When you’re operating on that lower level you have to make sure you’re standing in the same place: “Don’t smile, your teeth will change the exposure!”

Riddett: “One thing I do miss, and in particular appropriate to animation, is the film grain. One thing I always found with shooting on film is just the fact, that every frame is slightly different because the grains are moving around a bit. It sort of puts a bit of life into it. I mean, it did frighten me when we first went digital how clinical it looked. And you just try to get a bit of 12 New digital technology on in 1998 revolutionized Actually in 1999 I was talking to Tom Barnes post production at Aardman, if not the whole industry. from Aardman’s camera department about the possibility to buy one of their Mitchells. Quite luckily for me it came to nothing. But now Riddett gives me an even better deal: “In fact, if you would look after it you could probably have one for free! I think we all got one in trust. They don’t give it to us but if you could look after it somewhere – it would be helpful. Coming from the old days of film, we like to keep things for sentimental purposes. Poor old Tom, he’s getting told off by the production manager to get rid of a lot: “You can’t have this or that! Those dollies have to go!” And these cameras we are never gonna use again.”

By the turn of the millennium Aardman had joined forces with DreamWorks to produce their first stop motion feature Chicken Run. Featuring Mel Gibson i.a. it became the highest grossing stop motion animated film in history. Still shot on film, albeit introducing radical changes in production. Sproxton explains: “When we’re shooting on film on a daily basis we’d send out a that organic feel back into it. Same thing applies be well over fifty. So when I ask about this pile of cans. Within each can there would be 2-3 to how we used to do all our camera moves. We magnificent fleet of Fries 35mm Mitchell cameras seconds worth of film. So the film leader you lace used to do it by hand and all the jerks and the equipped with Aardman’s own customized into the camera and later let out of the camera faults brought it to life. Nowadays we have to try stop motion controller, Sproxton leans towards was probably 3 times as long as the actual shot. and program much of the idiosyncratic mistakes, Riddett: “What have we done with our Mitchells?” And there’s a whole lot of paper work that went just to keep them a bit more realistic.” And immediately after he turns to me making me with it. So you can imagine – unloading – fill out a bid with a big smile: “Do you want one? Buy the forms and that, 30 times a day. Just to get a Last year I accidentally wrote in this magazine one and you can have one for free!” latent image processed which got scanned. It’s (Axel #11) about the thirty-three Mitchells in kind of – it’s nuts! If you look at it logically: The the possession of Aardman. But during the kind of process was in a way bonkers! But it was conversation I realize that the number might all that we could do.” 13 Riddett complements: “During the making of way we worked and the CGI went into that as “Looking at the archive bit of it.” Sproxton Chicken Run technology changed so much. We well. Some explosion stuff at the end of the film.“ ponders: “Obviously we got an original camera were probably the first to do a digital negative. negative from Chicken Run. We also got the DI When we started the film that possibility didn’t “We also had the problem,” Riddett remembers. and indeed the print negative. So you’ve got the exist. One of the problems we had shooting on “Although it was quite a big budget, we couldn’t internegative for the release print. What we now film was that the animators would be cutting afford a lot of effects work. I think we envisioned have is terabytes of data, in all sorts of bits and back all the while. He might shoot 6 frames like 300 shots. That would be crucial stuff like pieces. We’ll end up with a final DCP. And the and if he didn’t like that last frame, he would taking out rigs etc. The sets were with painted scan back for the black and white separations go back two frames and start over. Afterwards backgrounds. There was little compositing, so for archive purposes. But it’s quite weird now the negative cutters went mad. Once there was we started out doing everything to hide the what we store in archives of material. It’s still one of them wanting to hit me: “Why do you rigs as everything was done in-camera. But as the convention of the studio to scan the DCP to keep sending me this stuff? How am I expected technology was changing we could do more black and white colour separations. And those to cut this?” Then half way through Chicken and more in digital. And in fact a little bit of will be put in the salt mines for ever. Cause you Run we could actually scan the stuff. We were mathematics came into it. Well, first of all we can always retrieve the image that way. So it’s still shooting on film but once we had shot the were chatting to the labs. They were saying to us: very, very stable.” film we could scan it and then just put it back “Why don’t you just digitize it from the start?” I together with digital editing. So we would have a said, but we can’t really afford it. But we spoke “We know that’s gonna last for at least a 100 nice slick negative after we had scanned it back to their post supervisor who said: “Well you’re years.” Riddett eagerly breaks in: “Because it to film. The digital colour grading system was a going to digitize this film anyway!” Because that has already been proven. The digital method – box full of soldered bit and parts, but we could did happen in those days for DVDs etc. Obviously nobody knows how long it’s gonna last!” actually adjust quite a lot, play with contrast there is a budget for that – like a million dollars and digitally grade the film. Everything that is to do that. So he said: “Can we have that earlier now commonplace. It was build by the company so we can digitize while we’re making the film?” doing our effects work and became the Baselight They were saying, well it hasn’t been done grading system.” before, but yes, that is possible. So it was an accountant thing really.” “They built a basic film-scanner.” says Sproxton. “It was the Computer Film Company which Sproxton continues: “The digitization came out eventually developed into Framestore. It became of the marketing budget, it wasn’t the production almost the only practical solution to scan the budget. Basically we took that budget and put whole negative and forget about any cut backs it into the production budget. And that made and just take those out later in the digital edit. it feasible. And the digitalization managed to I think it was the first time in the UK (in fact in eradicate a lot of these little problems.” Europe, red) where the whole film did a digital Finally the three gentlemen each at intermediate. From then on it revolutionized the an age of sixty-four could meet. 14 “I don’t know how many versions of become a one hundred and fifty independent Farmageddon we have on Avid.” Sproxton seven-minute episode series for the BBC for continues. “I mean, the amount of data you more than twenty years. This winter Shaun the store – it’s colossal! What do you keep and what Sheep will premiere as a feature: Farmageddon. don’t you keep? Ranks and ranks of terabytes If the title sounds familiar – think of Bruce Willis of material are being accumulated. Whereas on saving the world from a menacing flying rock and film... I think that’s one reason why films like Star combine it with the rural home of Shaun. Wars are being shot on film. Because on the studio it’s more efficient, cause you’ll find the The quest of Lord and Sproxton have always off-bottom more quickly. Cause it’s costing you been adult animation and the trademark of real money as the film goes through the camera. Aardman was to combine it with children And in terms of what you then have to store you television. That’s why you ever so often finds only scan the okay takes. So you end up with a traces of unforgettable classical cinema within relatively small amount of data, cause all the out- the plot. Take for instance the so far latest takes – you don’t bother with them. You realize, if Wallace & Gromit film A Matter of Loaf and you’re shooting a live action film purely digitally, Death. For a start the title may also ring a bell? you’ll just shoot tons and tons of stuff.” Well into it you might feel in the midst of a thriller by Hitchcock and later you can imagine We now decide to move ourselves up the Sigourney Weaver fighting an Alien-mother. majestic staircase dominating the vestibule When Gromit, towards the end refrains from to the second floor in order to avoid the ever disposing a smoking bomb into a pond full of increasing noise from people visiting the canteen. ducks, Adam West did the same thing in the 1966 These studios at Gas Ferry Road in central version of Batman. In the first Aardman feature Bristol are not the hotbed of what you have to be shot at Aztec West you would expect seen in cinemas and television. The production prudent Alec Guinness and brave William Holden of Aardman features and series needs more to fool the Japanese army by escaping the POW space and have long ago been moved some 12 camp – only they are all chickens! miles up north to Aztec West. It’s neighbouring the Filton production site where the Concorde At last we find the CEO office of David Sproxton was born and where Airbusses are being made. and inside decorating the wall is a movie poster Ascending the staircase the two Daves tell me of the old Chicken Run dressed in autumn Aardman feature to premiere in Copenhagen very soon about their latest feature which they have just colours. Happily Sproxton waltzes towards concluded filming. Originally it exclaiming: “And now we start working on: was a character from the Da-da-da-da! Chicken Run 2! - Well uh..? The 1995 short film . But it spun off to poster is sort of fading away, isn’t it?” Riddett 15 elaborates: “Yeah, after twenty years. A little mean drink... there is a strange thing with the thing, what you can say and what not. But in more than chickens normally live.” drinking thing. There’s a shot where they think general Jeffrey was great because he was so they’ve shot the rabbit. One of the guys in the much hands on when he was over here every few This time it will be in cooperation with the foreground pulls out a hip flask. I heard Jeffrey months, making comments and he did trust Nick French company Pathé and Studio Chanel. I (Katzenberg) saw that and said: “Well, we can’t (Park) a lot. He would say funny things though, remember Aardman already intended to finance have that, that’s alcohol in a children’s film.” wouldn’t he? Like looking at Wallace’s wallpaper: their very first and very expensive feature by There’s another scene a bit later on where this “I don’t understand? This is the sort of thing your European capital amongst others by Pathé. guy is pointing a gun at the children. “That’s OK.” grandmother would have?” And we were going: However, to balance the budget it was necessary He said, but not alcohol. It’s a strange cultural “Yeah, all right?” to guarantee American distribution and that was when DreamWorks entered the scene and financed the Aardman features.

“We were with Jeffrey Katzenberg for ten years.“Sproxton recalls. “We were financed by DreamWorks three times: Starting out with Chicken Run, then and Curse of the Were-Rabbit. They were obviously pushing a bit more for the American market. Actually there was a line on here where Mrs. Tweedy says: “Go and get the torch!” And a ‘torch’ in America is a flaming firebrand thing. And they said: “No, no, no – it’s a flashlight!” We said: “No, she wouldn’t say ‘flashlight’ up there. We’ll bring it out! We’ll see it so you CAN say ‘torch’ and you’ll see the thing. And on Were-Rabbit we had a couple of weird... couchette and marrow stuff.”

“Oh yes!” Riddett adds: “We had to change to melon and we had already done the animation. Then you definitely want to say something in two syllables. ‘My prize melon’ instead of ‘my prize marrow’. In America that would be a squash, isn’t it? The people wouldn’t understand what Dave Alex Riddett and Nick Park at set with Wallace’s rusty Austin A35 van. a marrow is. But they have all these issues – I 16 But they spent a fortune on them and then Wallace and Gromit at the Prom 20 in the Royal Albert Hall. they turned into a public company. And an American public company is very public. So their expectations for each of their films was that they had to do something like 300 million dollars each at the box office to fulfil their business plans. And our films are never gonna do that. They are much more art house and more niche. I’ve often said that our films play in America like a Polish film plays in Britain. There is a constituency which loves them, but they’re not gonna play in the Midwest in a way that say a superhero film plays.”

The hallmark of Aardman is of course Wallace & Gromit. Over the years they have become a national treasures to the British people. At the Prom 20 on 29 of July 2012 they performed ‘live’ at the Royal Albert Hall on big screens communicating with the conductor Nicholas Collon, their title track by Julian Nott being played in an orchestral rendition of the theme. Of course Wallace almost ruins the event but Gromit ends up saving the night by composing his own musical piece, A Double Concerto for Violin and Dog. He plays it on a violin over the monitor in a Sproxton smiles: “You know, he was looking at “I think,” Sproxton continues. “That if he hadn’t heartbreaking duet with English violinist Tasmin Wallace’s little van and kind of said: “Why is his had to go public we would have stayed with Little, who is performing live on the concert truck so rusty?” He was expecting him to have a them. Originally their funding was from him, hall stage. How in the world they managed to brand new sparkling Chevrolet. It’s very hard to Stephen Spielberg and David Geffen. But synchronize plasticine animation with live action explain. This is sort of down at Yield, in a poor, DreamWorks were refinanced three times, cause in a BBC direct transmission is beyond my grasp. you know, struggling through... But he let us do they were burning a lot of money. It took them Then last year 2018 Wallace & Gromit appeared it and he was a huge supporter of the talent and 6 or 7 years until they got to . They did in a tribute to Prince Charles at his 70th birthday. the story.” a couple of films that didn’t make any money. After which the Duchess of Cornwall exclaimed that the duo was “Prince Charles’s favourite people in the world.” 17 Gromit performs his A Double Concerto for Violin and Dog in a duet with violinist Tasmin Little.

18 But in fact the birth of the duo set out utterly modest. Having attended the National Film and Television School Nick Park left for Aardman in Bristol with a half finished W&G film: . The dog is mute, has no mouth, his only visual expressions are that of his ears and eyebrows. In contrast Wallace does all the talking, but not in a very intelligent way. He is Laurel and Hardy merged into one single character. The voice of Wallace is very peculiar. It belongs to Peter Sallis who was the longest surviving actor in a BBC series that went on for 37 years and the only actor to appear in all 295 episodes.

Sproxton recounts: “That piece has a funny Peter Sallis made the voice of Wallace unforgettable. story to it. Peter Sallis got a phone call from this young student who said: “I’ve seen you in the series Summer Wine and I’d love you to read a few lines. Is that something you would like to “The last thing he did with us was A Matter of do?” Peter said “Yes” and he did the session and Loaf and Death.” Riddet recalls. “And even then sent Nick a cassette tape. Then it all went silent. his eyesight was going and his memory was Seven years later Peter’s phone rang again, it was certainly gone. For him to do the recordings Nick saying: “I’ve finished the film Peter. Would he said: “Write it out in real big lettering.” And you like to come and see it?” - Yeah, seven years then we just held up the cards basically. Also later!” his assistant, an actress took on the task to look after him. On the sessions I went to, she would The Northern accent Peter Sallis brought into actually read the lines for him and he would the character went so well that it became an repeat it. Immediately afterwards he would have integrated part of the Wallace and Gromit forgotten: “Have I said this line?” We had to universe up to the last film in 2008. But Sallis speed up his voice a little bit as well because it died 2017 at an age of 96 years. was showing his age at that point. But somehow he managed to get quite a coherent script out of it. Peter, bless him, still injected character and Gromit is mute. His expressions only derive humour to each and every line. But that was his from his ears and eyebrows. last proper job.” 19 Sproxton elaborates: “He got macular tongue in cheek. He brought wit and cheekiness degeneration in the retina. It’s where the retina to the delivery. Which Ben does a pretty good falls apart from the back of the eyes. So that job at.” bolexbrothers means you can only see small areas. But they had a great partnership Nick and him. They got But the last Wallace and Gromit film goes back Finally, as a kind of an epitaph, we take our on like a house on fire. He was a very charming ten years. So I’m eager to know if the duo will time to memorize our mutual old friend (Dave) and amusing fellow and he had a lovely cheeky ever hit the silver screen once more? Borthwick who died all too young at an age of delivery.” 65. Obviously I didn’t get to know him before Sproxton: “Yeah, Nick still works. He’s got some 1998, but the three ‘Daves’ go way back. His So what do you do when the voice of your ideas, as we speak actually. He’s got fired up, studio, the Bolex Brothers, did some pretty main character passes away? And I suppose which is great. He has a short idea on a longer creepy stuff with insects all over, even on the Wallace and Gromit are not going to fade away story. Good fun actually – nice idea. So we hope company’s letterhead. And so we’re back to any time? Well, at the studio there was a young to get those up and running. Cause there is the Grass Roots of that generation, which impersonator, Ben Whitehead, who already did always a demand, people actually love it. In terms coincidentally also was the title of the last film he quite a lot of dialogue in different voices. Mainly of Nick’s head I think the features are almost too threw his energy into. He went collaborating with bits and pieces for commercial work but he also big. The half hour form – there’s a natural format. American underground artist Gilbert Shelton to did some of the supporting characters in their And with the whole Netflix thing and the way tv make a feature of his 1968 comic The Fabulous films. Consequently Nick Park asked him if he is going it might be 45 minutes. But I think he Furry Freak Brothers. Shelton had for a long time could do Wallace. sits better in those shorts, definitely. The Wrong been searching for a producer that would not Trousers is such a wonderful film. That length water down his classic hippie tale. The match Riddet: “Oh yes, and we’ve been using him ever works very beautifully.” with the Bolex Brothers and all their dirty insects since and quite a lot. When we did the Proms, seemed perfect. They hit it off immediately Musical Marvels, and recently for the Prince Riddett: “We have never been able to quite and the last time I saw Borthwick he was on Charles’s birthday. He does a fantastic voice. capture it again though, have we? That magic cloud nine about the feature-long script. “It was But you have to remember that Peter was not a script really condenses everything. And it’s the most beautiful storyboard ever,” Riddett Northerner, he was a Londoner. It was an actor’s something quite hard to analyse why it works so concludes. “The test (trailer, red) was a beautiful voice, he just put on a very good Lancashire well.” fucking shot and the models... But no, it came to accent.” nothing in the end really. There’s a lot of Furry Sproxton: “You never feel rushed with it. There Freak Brothers fans, I think, but not the ones that Sproxton: “If you sort of put them side by are sequences in the museum with the have the money. The rights went back to Gilbert. side: What Peter brought to it was a real life penguin and it’s beautifully paced.” There was some interest in doing it as a musical, interpretation of a line and a nuance. And Ben which is a quite interesting idea. Like a stage does a pretty good job, but he hasn’t got that show! But no, sadly. The storyboard still exists little bit of flare that Peter brought and the slight but it’s not gonna happen as a film.”

20 The poster for the 1998 A Danish Documentary about British model Animation. Some punk animator from Bristol put it on YouTube and I’m absolutely happy Gilbert Shelton & Dave Borthwick with their Fabulous Furry models. about it because a lot of people watched it.

21 Peter Sallis and Nick Park during voice recording of A Matter of Loaf and Death. Dave Alex Riddett with the farmer from Shaun the Sheep.

22 Here are some links to the Wallace and Gromit films: A Grand Day Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFRzZegVIhY

The Wrong Trousers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV7AIG6U1TU

A Close Shave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NKLjm2qoU0

A Matter of Loaf and Death: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plY3s4NSSAI

Cracking Contraptions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbBO-hiF8wE

Wallace and Gromit’s musical marvels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Uor5gtVYo

Additional links: The Bolex Brothers test pilot for Grass Roots: https://vimeo.com/7560090

Why Bristol?- A Danish Documentary about British model Animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D33YUnk3ZU

Editor: Steen Dalin Layout: Maria Mac Dalland Illustrations by courtesy of Aardman Animations Ltd. Additional photos by Mette Ørbæk and Steen Dalin A lot of thanks to Anton Orbaek White and Jan Vittrup

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