Half a dozen journalists are sitting around a table, heads bent, their thumbs buried in plasticine.
asserted
thumbs → sit → plasticine
We are getting an express class from Will Harding, a model-maker at Aardman, in making the head of Shaun the Sheep in the old-school way; I’m determined to master the ridges in his woolly topknot.
asserted
I → get → topknot
If someone had told me this is what a bunch of adults would be doing on a set visit for Aardman’s latest stop-motion feature – Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom – I would probably have said something bitter about being treated like an Insta-idiot influencer.
asserted
I → tell → influencer
At least, I might have said that if it had been anywhere but Aardman, where fun – and plasticine – is taken entirely seriously.
uncertain
fun → say → Aardman
This is, in fact, the most fun you will ever have visiting a film studio, but it’s also an exercise in dexterity and concentration.
asserted
it → have → dexterity
Everyone wants to get it right.
asserted
it → want → ?
Getting very, very small things right is what Aardman is all about.
asserted
Aardman → get → what
Stop-motion is an almost inconceivably exacting way to make a film, with hand-made models moved by tiny increments on beautifully crafted table-top sets by animators.
asserted
models → stop → animators
There are 1289 shots in the film; an animator will complete 2.5 shots a week – or, put another way, two seconds a day.
asserted
animator → be → shots
At its peak, this production has 47 units working at the same time: a crew on site of around 170 people.
asserted
production → have → people
Directors Matthew Walker and Steve Cox started thinking about this film when they were making the sixth season of Shaun the Sheep for television, which launched early in 2020.
asserted
which → start → 2020
Their original idea was a Valentine’s Day special, which gradually evolved into a comedy horror.
asserted
which → evolve → horror
Just wanting to help, he turns to weird science to try to boost the farm’s Halloween pumpkin crop and the farmer’s romantic prospects, cooking up potions in his makeshift laboratory like an ovine nutty professor.
asserted
he → want → professor
His solutions, however, only create more problems – not least the unhappiness of the flock, as they see their leader becoming increasingly obsessed with his test tubes.
asserted
leader → create → tubes
Walker and Cox nod agreeably.
asserted
Walker → nod → ?
“We understand Shaun’s problem,” says Walker.
asserted
Walker → understand → problem
I have been lucky enough to visit Aardman several times; there is always the same benign buzz of people working hard to a whimsical common purpose.
asserted
I → visit → purpose
Our first stop is the puppet-making department, where designer Kate Anderson plunges us into her world of steel armatures, clay mixes, silicone mouldings and the problems associated with animating a furry beast.
asserted
Anderson → plunge → beast
“I don’t know if you’ve seen the film Fantastic Mr. Fox,” she says.
asserted
she → know → film
“They made a feature of the fact that every time you touch the fur or the air conditioning blows it, it ‘boils’, we call it.
asserted
we → make → it
We found that our directors and animators really don’t like that.
asserted
directors → find → that
So we had to find a way to make the fur look nice, but not twitch too much.”
asserted
fur → have → way
The Beast isn’t really scary – Shaun’s core audience is between five and eight years old, too little for scares – but it is supposed to be scruffy.
asserted
it → suppose → scares
“That meant we could put in a treatment that made the fur fairly rigid.
uncertain
fur → mean → treatment
But then there are lots of parts that are animatable.”
asserted
that → be → parts
The fringe is wired; the ears rotate.
asserted
ears → wire → ?
“And then the fur on the body and arms is a bit flatter so they can grab it.”
asserted
they → grab → it
The design of a new character is the work of years, although it has been speeded up by collaboration with a CGI artist who can try out different looks on screen.
asserted
who → speed → screen
“I’m pleased with how successful it is,” she says.
asserted
she → ’m → ?
“There’s some shots that I just really want to give the Beast a hug.
asserted
I → ’ → hug
He just looks so sorry for himself.”
asserted
He → look → himself
Director of photography Charles Copping says how enjoyable it has been to cast scenes in dim autumnal light or create Shaun’s laboratory, with luminous purple goo bubbling in a hand-blown miniature glass beaker, lit by UV lamps.
asserted
goo → say → lamps
And although the mood is ’80s Ghostbusters rather than Friday the 13th, there are visual references – a version of Nosferatu’s shadow walking downstairs, for example – to provide any film-buff parents with an entertaining game of Spotto.
asserted
mood → be → Spotto
“I’ve been on Shaun since the start,” Copping says.
asserted
Copping → say → start
“But here it’s more exciting; we’re pushing the colours, pushing the contrasts, and we’ve made it more dynamic.
asserted
it → ’ → contrasts
We’ve leaned into it being richer; there’s a Gothic feel.
asserted
it → lean → ?
It’s been a joy to do.
asserted
It → do → ?
But then, it always is: clay animation, he says, feels honest.
asserted
he → say → ?
“Everything is in front of the camera and feels tangible.”
asserted
Everything → feel → camera
Effects are often created with stuff everyone has in their kitchen drawers.
asserted
everyone → create → drawers
…and 34 more, not listed.
The Aporia
