As part of Moving Things Film Festival, which took place from 22-28 March 2010 at the Labia in Cape Town, Aardman Animations’  Arthur Sheriff shared the Bristol-based company’s story as an example for the South African industry to learn from.

The company’s first big break came with Morph, which was being watched by between eight and ten million viewers a day at a time when there were only four channels in Britain. “To this day, we still make Morph,” the head of communication says. “Any 2D animator who comes to Aardman for a job is given a lump of plasticine and asked to make a Morph. If you can make one to the Aardman standard, you’re in.”

Arthur acknowledges that most people think Aardman is Nick Park’s company, but says that even the Wallace and Gromit creator had to make a Morph before he was hired. “Aardman is actually Pete Lord and Dave Sproxton’s, but Nick’s the famous one.”

Aardman lecture and visit all the film schools around the UK, encouraging students to send in their showreels. One of these lectures was at the National Film and Television School, just outside London, where Nick was studying. Afterwards, Nick showed them a two year labour of love – the first five minutes of A Grand Day Out - and they invited him in to see if he could make a Morph. Five years later, Nick finished the 22-minute short film and “that’s how the whole Wallace and Gromit phenomenon was started.”

Arthur joined Aardman around this time, roughly 20 years ago. “I joined just as Nick had finished Creature Comforts and A Grand Day Out, because both short films were nominated for an Oscar. Creature Comforts beat A Grand Day Out for the Oscar, then at the BAFTAs A Grand Day Out beat Creature Comforts, so it was a great beginning.”

Even before the Oscars, the buzz was on Aardman because of their Sledgehammer music video for Peter Gabriel, which came out just after MTV launched in America and the UK. “The dancing chickens were Nick Park – that was his first contribution to Aardman. The funny story is the chickens they animated were dead, and that scene took five days, using the same chickens....”

Aardman are primarily a 3D studio but work in all mediums, for commercials, television series, feature films and their new website division. “It’s the story that has to take over, not the medium.”

Arthur says that after Sledgehammer and the Oscar, they were commissioned to make a lot of 30-second ads, which paid “relatively fantastic money. Pete and Dave put all that money back into the studio. They’re both modest guys who drive 10-year-old cars. They have nice houses, but not millionaire’s mansions.”

This meant that they were in a financial position to make sure they owned their intellectual property (IP). “They saw 30 years ago that they had to own everything, which is why they put all the money in to begin with. That’s why you’ve never seen Wallace and Gromit advertising things you wish they didn’t.”

Wallace and Gromit in the Wrong Trousers won the Oscar for Best Short Film Animated in 1994, while Wallace and Gromit in A Close Shave won the same Oscar in 1996. “When Wallace and Gromit won its second Oscar, TV companies around the world started asking for content: 52 hours at a time. But it dilutes the whole thing and we just couldn’t do it.”

Instead, Aardman started to think about feature films, as the success of The Lion King meant that all the studios were searching for the next big animation. They chose Dreamworks. “Pete and Nick pitched Chicken Run over a chicken dinner at a posh LA restaurant with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. Pete and Nick drew a chicken figure on the napkin in true Aardman style, with a big coathanger mouth and big eyes close together. It was digging its way out through barbed wire fences.”

Arthur credits Dreamworks for letting Aardman “make their own film.” When Nick went to meet Mel Gibson, the actor said he wanted the part before they even started. “Mel had five kids, all Aardman fans, who said he couldn’t come home if he didn’t get the role.”

Chicken Run opened at number one in America, grossing over $100 million dollars the year before the Academy Awards introduced the Best Animated Feature category. “Dreamworks didn’t make the money they hoped, but it was a success.”

Arther skipped over their next feature, Flushed Away, directed by Pete. “The reason Jeffrey signed us originally was because we were quirky and what America didn’t see every day of the week. But on Flushed Away, they tried to Americanise us. They had full control of the script and it just wasn’t our film. But there was no falling out.” To their credit, Dreamworks then allowed Nick to deliver Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-rabbit as he saw it and the film went on to take home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2006. Arthur says Dreamworks gave great script notes on the project. “We don’t want to sit in Bristol for five years with 300 people on the film, and it not to be a hit. You want to show it in 3 000 cinemas in the US.”

Nick co-directed with Steve Box. “There were 30 sets operating at the same time, some as big as this Labia cinema and probably a team of six on each. One person can’t get round 30 sets in a day; if you want to spend 30 minutes with each key animator describing the shots, you need to split it in two. That’s why most animated films have two directors.”

Despite the Oscar, Aardman moved on. “We realised our business model was different to Dreamwork’s and vice versa. We’re now with Sony and very happy.”

They’re currently working on two features for 2012: Arthur Christmas, a Father Christmas story where the elves leave out a child and have to find a way to make that one last delivery, and Pirates!!, a “Monthy Pythonesque, Aardmanesque take on pirate adventures, which Pete is directing.”

Arthur believes that part of Aardman’s success is their ability to appeal to both arthouse and commercial audiences. “We play in both areas – you can screen us at The Waterfront as well as The Labia.”

He also credits Pete and Dave for the way they encourage ideas. “Nobody here is motivated by money or awards. We’re not like that. All the departments are creatively driven. Anyone can put an idea forward. You can go knock on Dave’s office, whoever you are, or Pete’s, and ask if he’s got a minute. If he has, which is nine times out of 10, he’ll put you in touch with the right person to take it forward. The great ideas come from the floor.”

He says they’re learning to find the new ideas that are staring them in the face. “Shaun the Sheep featured in A Close Shave. We used to get great fan mail from kids and grown ups asking about him, so we developed it into a five-minute short. We showed it to the BBC and they loved it and wanted a series. We decided not to have any of the characters actually speak – they just make noises. It’s now playing in 175 countries and has proved so popular with all ages.”

Similarly, Shaun the Sheep introduced a little baby sheep, Timmy, who is now Aardman’s first preschool series, Timmy Time. “It’s for under fives and the BBC’s commissioned 52 episodes.”

Arthur himself has played a key role in generating fantastic press coverage for the studio. “It’s mainly because our pictures are so good,” Arthur says. “For a still, we take two or three days to light and set. Take the famous shot of Wallace on a motorbike and Gromit on a sidecar. When you look behind them, you see the side gags, whether it’s something in the window of a shop or the street names.  There’s always a secondary layer that people expect from Aardman, so when a picture editor gets that image he has to run it big so that the readers can see the side gags.”

Like the South African animation industry, one of Aardman’s biggest challenges has been growing scale. “When I started 20 years ago, there were 20 people. Now we have 35 permanent staff, with hundreds of freelancers from the four corners of the world. We’re constantly scouring the world for animators; whatever we have in production, there always seems to be a shortage of good animators. If you can think you can make a Morph, send us your reel.”

Arthur is currently the oldest employee. “To me, everyone looks sixteen, but the average age is something like 27 or 28. Youth is encouraged.”

He believes South Africa has great potential as an animation industry. “I see art on every street corner here, wire and beads and imagination. There’s a source of absolute creativity here to do something fresh. I would love it if that came out of Khayelitsha,” he said, referring to the Animation Academy they’ve helped launch there.

He encouraged South Africa to develop its own style rather than imitating “Hollywood blandness.”

Ultimately he believes success comes down to story. “There is no film that goes into production at Aardman until that story is signed off. Anyone can animate. You can get a computer to do the animation, but not everyone can tell a story.”

He recommends hiring writers to do comedy passes. “On Chicken Run, we had three or four comedy passes. It’s very important. You might just see a joke we’re not developing or something we’ve developed too much. From gestation to release is normally five years on animated features. As Nick says, after year two, when you’ve lived with something day in and day out, you start to question whether it’s still funny.”  

Kevin Kriedemann