The first day of BAF was one of the best in my opinion, mainly because I got the chance to attend an inspirational talk by Peter Lord from Aardman studios!
He showed the cinema behind the scenes photos of the crew, clips from episodes and films they have made as a company, and he described the process from founding the company, to where they are today.
The company is split into 5 main areas; Feature length films, TV commercials, Series for TV, Apps/games and the Rights department (who make money for all of the other areas).
An example of one of their earlier commercials was shown, which proves that Aardman can create clever concepts that are humorous:
One of the main focuses of the talk was the fact that the infamous Morph was to be revitalised as a Youtube series. For the past few months there has been a kick starter campaign to earn enough funds and an audience to welcome the character back, since Peter couldn't sell the idea to anyone.
Morph was first created in 1976, at a time when no one else was really making claymations, so the animators involved had to teach themselves how to use the technique. The two characters, Morph and Chaz, were made with terrecotta plasticine, which involves chalk in the mixture. No CG was involved in making these short films, only clay and clever tricks.
Another major asset to the company is their next feature length film which will be released 6th February 2015, developed on from their popular children's TV series - Shaun the Sheep. That brings their total to 2 CG and 4 Stop Motion animated feature length films. This and some of their other works require no dialogue, but instead brilliant sound design and actions to describe what is happening. Here's one of the trailers for the film:
He also discussed another recent blockbuster success, 'Pirates, in an adventure with scientists'. They had their biggest crew yet working on this film, with more special effects and characters then ever before.
It's so impressive that Peter Lord started out graduating with a different degree, to then just sell a simple animation to the BBC to kickstart his career and company.
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