How did Nick Park create
a Nation Loving Animation?
During this study I will be exploring how Nick Park conveys
emotion using his animation and how this animation can show/express or create
emotion. I will be looking at what influenced Park and how this has led to his
success. By looking closely at the models body language and facial features I
will be able to determine how this creates an ‘emotion’ for an audience such as
anger or happiness. I will also be exploring how set design and lighting
contribute to the overall ‘feeling’ and mood.
Park was born 6/12/1958 in Preston,
Lancashire. His mother, Celia, was a seamstress while his father Roger Park a
photographer, 'Dad worked in his garden
shed a lot, made things, was full of ideas, and acted in the same way Wallace
does,' says Park in an interview to The Observer [1]. Clearly
Park’s father was a great influence to him, leading him to base his main
character Wallace on his father although ‘It's only after making the first Wallace and Gromit film - A Grand Day
Out (1989) - that I suddenly realised he's actually based very much on my
father’ [6].
Park attended a Catholic High school and began making his own home-made movies
with his mother when he was just 13. However he began creating hand-drawn
strips of his family’s pet hen, Penny and a rat called Walter when he was just
11 using a camera his father gave him, “That’s
how I spent my time...” Park recalls
“While my mates were out playing with their bikes, I was in the attic.”[1]
Park studied Communication Arts at Sheffield Polytechnic where he created his first
Wallace and Gromit Adventure ‘A Grand Day Out’, “My growing-up years were always a reference point. Actually, the north
itself was always a reference point.”[3]
Like his father Park was also very inventive and would send
creations such as ‘a bottle that squeezed out different wools’ to Blue Peter. These ideas show clearly
through Wallace as he is an inventor. Interestingly these ‘inventions’ are the
focus of many of Park’s productions for instance in ‘Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers’ (1993) it is the
invention of the ‘trousers’ that cause the problems and in ‘Chicken Run’ (2000) the chickens are
inventing ways to escape. This is also shown in the recent production of ‘Wallace and Gromit’s World of Inventions’
(2010), a TV series where Wallace and Gromit are the presenters and looking
at interesting inventions to encourage the younger generation to invent. I was
fortunate to attend one of these events held by the BBC for the broadcast of A World of Inventions. The show captures
the need for inventions as well as the enjoyment of inventing the item. Park
also has a keen interest in wildlife ‘...indulging
in his favourite hobby, watching wildlife.’ And it is, ‘...These two influences, family and animals, encapsulate his world and
his work completely. His films are filled with deranged sheep, psychopathic
penguins, mournful pumas and neurotic chickens ... flat-capped, waist-coated
Wallace...’ [1].
Each creation began life as a small sketch/doodle on a
notebook which Park develops further into a storyboard and finally actual
characters and a set, until a final film is created, “Nick has an art pad with him all the time” says Sheriff (a
collaborator of Park’s) “He scribbles out
his ideas on it. All through Chicken Run he kept doing Wallace and Gromit
sketches”[1] . Park constantly developed these drawings until
they created the perfect characters and vision that was personal to him but
would also appeal to an audience. Park
particularly enjoyed humorous adventures in which Gromit would ultimately save
the day “Gromit was the dog I never had.”[1]
Park’s first film ‘A Grand Day Out’ began with a simple idea ‘An inventor
trying to visit the moon’, with this idea Park takes us on a journey of humour
and adventure. The films have everyday situations presented within the plot
which appeals to an audience such as Wallace’s romancing of on screen ladies,
Piella Bakewell, Lady Tottington and Wendolene. The films are designed for
laughs which are conducted with a British attitude, most ‘jokes’ are ironic and
include British dialect, “Wallace and
Gromit are unquestionably northern characters, and Park’s stories share a
charm, a plain-spoken warmth, and a sharp ear for florid language.”[3]
For the feature film ‘Chicken Run’ a lot of the language had to be reviewed to
make it understandable for American audiences, “We put in a couple of jokes early on because we cut out some stuff as
well because it was taking too long to get into the story. So we lost about a
minuet’s worth of animation at the beginning.”[2]
Park’s choice of media is an important aspect in the
creation of his characters “I’m a clay
man myself.” Says Park “They probably
wouldn’t have come about the same way if they came from a computer because
there isn’t that kind of direct access to the clay that humans feel.”[2]
The use of clay means the models are easy to mold allowing easy adaptation of
movements and texture as well as showing a hand-made quality, “I just find it such an expressive medium
and a very immediate medium as well.”[2] The animation feels
very personal which the audience responds to. In many frames the markings of
fingerprints can be seen showing the care and time taken into making the models
“And we're proud of them. The Wallace and Gromit films have a very
handmade feel to them and I think that's part of the charm.”[6]
My own attempts at modelling also show this, “It tells you that
they are real; they are tangible. Luckily for us, our audience has always
appreciated that personal touch.” Peter Lord states [11] about the Wallace and
Gromit Franchise. Although the models have developed since ‘A Grand Day
Out’ in design and personality, they remain the same much loved characters that
the public associate with stop still animation. Metal skeletons’ have been
added to the newer designs after ‘A Grand Day Out’ allowing for longer use and
more realistic movements, “Wallace and Gromit have got metal
skeletons inside and that helps to hold them up. Most of the floors are made of
metal - just under the carpet there's a metal sheet usually with holes in it
and you can either screw down the feet - this is a way of making them stand up
- if you've got a metal or wire skeleton it helps. Also use a magnet to keep
the feet down.”[6] The metal skeletons also stop the models melting under the hot
lighting conditions. Park did have to use a form of digital media in ‘The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit’, “...there’s
a scene where Wallace uses the Bun Vac for the first time – sucks up all these bunnies
and they’re spinning around. It was in a glass case and we couldn’t access the
bunnies.”[2] Instead Park allowed the London Picture
Company to scan a clay model into a computer and animate it. “I do like a lot of computer animation - in
the right hands it can be really good. I think it's just me - I just always
will like to work with tactile materials - I love plasticine and working with
clay - it's as straightforward as that.”[6] Gromit is
very simple design with few colours giving a clear contrast between his nose
and ears. He has no mouth and instead uses his ears and eye brows to convey
emotion, “Raised eye brows often
symbolize suprise and astonishment as well as uncertainty and confusion.
Lowered eye brows symbolize deception or annoyance. Eye brows can evoke anger,
sadness, fear and other various emotions that the human body can communicate.”[7] By placing his body in a human-like
position such as folding his arms, Park makes Gromit more human but also enables
the audience to relate to what Gromit is expressing. This is a very important
aspect which Park integrates into all of his animal characters. Wallace as a
human can be more expressive and it can be more accepted for a more exaggerated
approach to his emotion. With the added addition of a voice (Wallace is voiced
by Peter Saillis), Park can allow Wallace to be more openly expressive, “Wallace’s enthusiasm meshes with our sense
of Britishness.”[3] Wallace is also defined by the clothes he
wares, typically presented in a green sleeveless wool jumper and shirt,
complete with a red tie. These are carefully patterned and given a rough
texture as to represent woollen material. Wallace and Gromit are also designed
with plastic eyes; this reflects light making them appear more human. Park’s
style of modelling is instantly recognisable with human characters having large
round noses and large hands with the exception of the Lady Tottington and large
toothy mouths. The eyes sit on the surface just lightly indenting the modelling
clay. The birds are also very recognisable, being bottle shaped with small
black beady eyes, that an audience recognises immediately as being a Park
creation.
The sets upon which the characters live and act can
be very small but incredibly detailed. Park’s attention to detail gives the
films a more realistic edge but also conveys the characters personalities in
their surroundings, “...played out in a
kind of eternal historic present. The world Wallace and Gromit inhabit harks
back to the 1960’s and 70’s.”[3]. Wallace’s
personality is not only in his actions and what he says but in the items he’s
surrounded with, this is even more important for Gromit who is a silent
character, shown knitting or cooking. In ‘A Grand Day Out’ “Inside the rocket, it’s all like wallpaper and furniture he’s made
[Wallace]...He made like a trailer [Roger Park]...It had wallpaper inside just
the same.”[2] The wallpaper is very detailed showing
the period of time which the characters’ live in “You can see it in the wallpaper, interior decor, the houses and corner
shops near their home in West Wallaby Street.”[3] The texture of
the sets is very important; nothing is flat but carefully detailed to represent
the real life sized item, “Smoother
textures can contribute to a softer more soothing mood and can aid in focusing
attention on a specific element.”[8] Even small knick-knacks
that litter an average house are included within the set, such as trophies,
ornaments, books etc. The list is endless as Park aims to relate to the
audience as much as possible, again giving it a more personal touch. The bigger
the productions the larger the sets and more detailed, in ‘The Curse of the
Ware-Rabbit’ Park and his team create over 40 new characters all with their own
tastes and personalities, “Park concedes
that it [The Sets] reflects his childhood and adolescent years in Preston.”[3]
The production process is long and tiring
taking months to create a single scene, with Park paying attention to detail in
every frame. The characters are moved inch by inch as photos are taken in
between, “A happy character will perform
every movement and action faster than a sad personage.”[7] Then
the photos are reeled together to create a moving image and the films we see
today. ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit’ took five years to
make. Park is always trying to find inventive and exciting ways to film such as
the train sequence in ‘The Wrong Trousers’ “I really wanted that train sequence to
be like nothing you've ever seen - really high speed... So what we did was we
had this living room set which was about 20 feet long and we had the camera on
rails and we attached the train out of shot. It was attached with a metal rod
to the camera and every time we took a frame, which was actually a second
exposure or two second exposure, we pushed the train and camera along at the
same time which made the background blur on each frame.”[6] Park also uses the lighting to his
advantage creating moving shadows that dim with the natural light but stay
harsh like most indoor lighting when the characters are inside; shadows are
also used as an ominous effect, with approaching villains creating tension in the
audience.
Park
also has a love of ‘classic British’ films and pays homage to them in many of
his films, “I used to be into movies
based on H G Wells stories, such as ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘First Men in the
Moon’. I loved sci-fi films.”[3] In ‘The Curse of the
Ware-Rabbit’ Park creates a ‘Vegetarian Hammer Horror’ a homage to the ‘Hammer
Horror’ genre by using dark shadows, with enclosed spaces and highlighted
music. As well as carefully showing the characters’ reactions rather than the
actual action, keeping the mood tense and exciting throughout the film “It’s about people locking up their
vegetables rather than their children.”[1] ‘Chicken Run’ pays
homage to ‘The Great Escape’; however throughout all his films he keeps the
well known comic humour of the first Wallace and Gromit.
Although Park has amounted to great success he is still
described as ‘shy but spiritual’ (Richard Goleszowski) and even describes
himself as “an observer, quiet and
contemplative”, this also fits a description of Gromit. Little appears to
have changed in Park’s lifestyle since his success, “he recalls being so average few teachers could even remember his name.”[3]
He continues to promote inventing, ‘Wallace and Gromit: A World of Inventions’
as well as provide adverts but we can hope to see more of Wallace and Gromit in
the future. It is this time taken to create each individual film that
anticipates the audience for a new release. Park is respected by many other film makers
such as Danny Boyle, Pixar’s John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki (creator of
animated movie ‘Spirited Away’) who seek out Park’s opinion.
Reference List
An Observer article written Sunday 18th
September 2005 by Robin McKie
An interview with Nick Park by Jeff Otto,
in the US on October 4th 2005
·
[3] The
Daily Telegraph, Wednesday October 21 2009, page 29, ‘A Cracking Combination’,
by David Gritten.
An Article about Nick Park and the recent release of ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit’.
An Article about Nick Park and the recent release of ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit’.
·
[4] National
Media Museum, Pictureville, Bradford, West Yorkshire. BD1 1NQ.
www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
·
[5] http://www.aardman.com
The studio in which Park works for, the website gives a virtual tour of the studio and information on characters and film making.
The studio in which Park works for, the website gives a virtual tour of the studio and information on characters and film making.
·
[6] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/forum/2314009.stm
An Interview with Nick Park, Tuesday, 15 October, 2002, 17:26 GMT 18:26 UK, Name of news reader is unknown.
An Interview with Nick Park, Tuesday, 15 October, 2002, 17:26 GMT 18:26 UK, Name of news reader is unknown.
·
[7] http://animationguides.com/character-emotion-in-animation
Website looks at making animated characters have ‘believable’ emotional expressions.
Website looks at making animated characters have ‘believable’ emotional expressions.
·
[8] http://accad.osu.edu/~efarrar/thesis/proposal6.0.pdf
A study by Eric Farrar on elements that effect the presentation of emotion in Animation.
A study by Eric Farrar on elements that effect the presentation of emotion in Animation.
·
[9] http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/nick-parks-quick-animation-guide/6938.html
Nick Park conducts his own guide on how to create an animation in collaboration with ‘Blue Peter’.
Nick Park conducts his own guide on how to create an animation in collaboration with ‘Blue Peter’.
·
[10] http://www.animatormag.com/topical/plasticine-animation-beginners/#.Typ7cqVOj4s
A beginners guide to modelling clay animation.
A beginners guide to modelling clay animation.
·
[11] http://www.close-upfilm.com/features/Featuresarchive/wallacegromit.htm
A detailed look at the design of characters for ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit’.
A detailed look at the design of characters for ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit’.
Pictures/Video reference:
·
[A] http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2010/11/haynes-publishes-wallace-gromit-manual.html
Image of A ‘Cracking Contraptions Manual’
Image of A ‘Cracking Contraptions Manual’
·
[B] http://moodbuilder.com/blog/?cat=15
Shows pictures of the actual models used in Wallace and Gromit.
Shows pictures of the actual models used in Wallace and Gromit.
·
[C] http://wallaceandgromit.net/2009/04/09/wallace-gromits-world-of-cracking-ideas-exhibit/
A fan site dedicated to Wallace and Gromit.
A fan site dedicated to Wallace and Gromit.
·
[D] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/6395400/Wallace-and-Gromit-storyboard-drawings.html?image=1
A gallery of Wallace and Gromit storyboards created by Nick Park courtesy of the Daily Telegraph.
A gallery of Wallace and Gromit storyboards created by Nick Park courtesy of the Daily Telegraph.