Steen Dalin Pays a Visit to Evaluate the Digital Revolution in Model
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11.11.2019 AXEL ONLINE #15 BRISTOL REVISITED/GENSYN MED BRISTOL Steen Dalin pays a visit to evaluate the digital revolution in model animation 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 Animations, 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: The Wrong Trousers 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 plasticine 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 stop motion films being so typical British their new Wallace & Gromit film 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 Nick Park in 1990 Monty Python. But David Sproxton and Peter for his Creature Comforts upon which Peter Lord Lord brought that spirit into the 21st Century. The and David Sproxton made him junior partner of two founders of Aardman Animations 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.