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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 17 February 2018
Wallace and Gromit creator goes prehistoric with 'Early Man'

By SANDY COHEN As director, he was in-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The volved with every aspect of
kooky caveman charac- "Early Man," from character
ters that come to life in "Ear- and story development to
ly Man " have been kicking finding just the right color
around in Nick Park's imagi- for the soccer field's grass.
nation for decades. Park also personally worked
Long before he created with the vocal performers,
Wallace and Gromit, Park something he wasn't al-
was taken with Ray Har- ways comfortable doing.
ryhousen's animated dino- "I used to find it quite nerve-
saurs in the 1966 Raquel wracking working with ac-
Welch movie "One Million tors, especially if they were
Years B.C." quite famous actors," he
"I just couldn't believe real said. "I find it much easier
dinosaurs moving around to manipulate a puppet or
with people," Park said, re- a clay character, because
calling the film he saw as they do as they're told. And
an 11-year-old that would if they don't, you can squish
inspire his love of anima- their head in or whatever
tion. "So I guess that sort of you want. With actors, you
thing has been in the back have to be a little bit more
of my mind for many years." tactful."
"Early Man" translates Park's In this Feb. 8, 2018 photo, Merlin Crossingham, left, and Will Becher, animation directors for the Park voiced Hognob him-
vision into an epic clay- stop-motion animated film "Early Man," discuss the puppet characters Hognob, left, and Dug dur- self.
mation adventure about ing an interview at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. Associated Press While the techniques of
a tribe of colorful cave stop-motion animation
people who stake the fu- ic underdog sports movie unchanged since Harry- movements are synched haven't changed much
ture of their homeland on a before," Park mused. housen's day. to pre-recorded vocal per- since their inception, the
soccer showdown, despite U.K.-based Aardman Stu- It's a slow and painstaking formances. (Eddie Red- technology around them
not knowing how to play. dios tapped its largest pro- process to bring clay char- mayne, Tom Hiddleston has. The puppets are now
An ambitious young cave- duction team yet — with acters to life. and Maisie Williams lend made of a state-of-the art
man, Dug, and his loyal pet nearly 40 animators and "We've used some of the their talents here.) For ev- plasticine material, and
warthog, Hognob, believe sets working at once — to most advanced filmmak- ery shot, the puppets are most sketches and render-
the plucky tribe can pre- make "Early Man," which ing techniques in post- bolted into place on ex- ings are done in the com-
vail. uses stop-motion anima- production, together with quisitely detailed sets that puter.
"I've never seen a prehistor- tion techniques essentially stop-motion, which is as stand about two feet high. As for the film itself, Park
old as cinema itself," said Capturing just a few frames said he tried to use as little
animation director Merlin could be a full day's work. digital intervention as pos-
Crossingham. "Getting about five sec- sible: "It's always lovely to
Stop-motion animation (or onds of finished film is a re- keep the sense of it's all
"stop-frame," as Park calls it) ally good week," said ani- been done in front of cam-
creates the illusion of move- mation director Will Becher. era and not an effect."
ment through a series of still Because the process is so Background characters in
images. For "Early Man," time-consuming, artists stadium scenes were com-
Aardman's team of art- make duplicates of every puter-generated, he said,
ists built a cast of puppets set and puppet so multiple while other scenes called
based on Park's sketches animators can work on var- for the puppets to be filmed
that serve as the film's ac- ious shots simultaneously. against green screens.
tors. Each seven-inch-tall "The art department has Park may have been
silicone puppet has a joint- to be really on their game dreaming about "Early
ed metal skeleton inside so keeping the continuity," Man"-type characters
it can move. Crossingham said. "Be- since he was 11, but his first
"They're like expensive ac- cause of that, we use sketches for the film date
tion figures," Crossingham technical drawings for ev- back to 2010. Still, that's
said. erything — the puppets, nearly eight years spent
The faces are made of the locations. Everything bringing these bobbling
modeling clay — except for is documented so that we clay cave people to the
the noses and eyes, which can reproduce it, and that screen. Park said imagining
are hard plastic and serve gives us flexibility in work- the audience's eventual re-
as "grab points" for anima- ing." action is what sustains him
tors while changing the To show the disparate through the sometimes te-
puppet's expression. Mold- team of animators just dious work of stop-motion
able brows and more than what they're looking for, animation.
two dozen removable and Park, Crossingham and "For me, it's never really
interchangeable mouths Becher act out each scene been a choice between
allow for a variety of looks. on video, highlighting com- stop-frame and any other
Animators pose the pup- ic timing and behavioral medium," the four-time Os-
pets for each frame — ev- specifics. Park confessed car winner said. "I love the
ery movement, every ges- that sometimes he can see way it's so expressive —
ture — with 24 frames in reflections of himself in the even going back to Gromit,
each second of film. Mouth characters' movements. he was born out of clay.q