Wallace and Gromit Studio Loses History 246
TheFarmerInTheDell writes "CNN is reporting that the Aardman Animations building in Bristol, home of Wallace and Gromit, has been destroyed by fire From the article: 'Today was supposed to be a day of celebration, with the news that 'Wallace and Gromit' had gone in at No. 1 at the U.S. box office, but instead our whole history has been wiped out'"
APB (Score:5, Funny)
Re:APB (Score:2, Funny)
It was the chickens (Score:4, Funny)
Re:your sig (Score:2)
Wow... (Score:2)
I guess that's murphy
Backup (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Backup (Score:2)
very very slowly (Score:2)
-everphilski-
Re:Backup (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Backup (Score:5, Funny)
Firing clay figures (Score:5, Informative)
Earthenware is fired to 1000C (roughly 1700F, I think). It seems that the temps reached may not be enough to properly fire the pieces. Also there's the quartz inversion point at about 570C - heating too quickly up to this point could be disastrous.
I also doubt that the pieces are wedged properly to remove air (as they aren't intending to fire them) and so explosion with the air expansion is likely.
Finally
Plasticine (aka "modelling clay") melts when heated, FWIW.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticine [wikipedia.org]
http://www.vanaken.com/howclay.htm [vanaken.com] (note "melting them in a large vat")
Re:Firing clay figures (Score:5, Interesting)
(This is true with a lot of things you might consider being "clay" animation. For example, Klayman from "The Neverhood" was a foam latex character in most of the shots).
You can get more details in the Aardman book "Cracking Animation: The Aardman Book of 3-D Animation" (in the US it's labled "Creating 3-D Animation : The Aardman Book of Filmmaking"). You can see some really wonderful sets and minatures there - it's really a pity that it's been lost.
To answer someone else's question, plasticine is an oil-based clay, so it won't dry out. That also means you can't fire (harden) the material as you could with traditional clay.
Re:Backup (Score:5, Funny)
Point this out to a kid next time you watch a claymation-type feature.
Hey kids! Gumby's dead!
I think the child development experts call this a "teachable moment".
Re:Backup (Score:5, Informative)
They were filming different scenes in different parts of the studio, with different copies of Wallace and Gromit in each one. So they are truly expendable: cloned for the filming, discarded afterwards.
Spoiler ahead! (Score:4, Funny)
Also, Gromit is not a real dog!
Re:Backup (Score:4, Informative)
The actual film prints for their work are located at another site, and their studio itself is at a completely different one.
Re:Backup (Score:3, Informative)
The studio is unaffected.
Fire bad... (Score:4, Funny)
Joking aside, this is pretty sad. But I'm sure they'll be back on their feet in no time and making new stuff.
Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:5, Informative)
On the day that Aardman celebrate a chart-topping opening weekend in the US with
Wallace & Gromit 'The Curse of the Were-rabbit', news of a fire at our storage
unit in Bristol has been devastating.
The facility used to store sets, awards, and historical artefacts, is not a part
of the Aardman studio, and we are glad to report that no Aardman staff have been
affected. However, we have lost a number of irreplaceable storyboards, awards,
props and pieces of film memorabilia from our 30 year history.
None of the material from the new Wallace & Gromit film 'The Curse of the
Wererabbit' was in storage at the time, but we have lost many original sets from
Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, and the three Wallace & Gromit short films, that
were used for reference and toured around the world for exhibition.
This will not in any way affect existing or future Aardman productions as 100%
of sets and props are purpose built for each production.
Wallace & Gromit 'The Curse of the Were-rabbit': http://www.wandg.com/ [wandg.com]
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:5, Insightful)
- I love Nick Park's work
- I own all the videos/DVDs of his films, including Creature Comforts on compilation
- I can't wait to see whatever else his fertile brain imagines.
But, having said that, is this so much a tragedy? The storyboards, the sets - why are we saving all that crap? Isn't the work itself the treasure, not necessarily the tools used to make it? I mean seriously, Shakespeare was great, but would we want to have saved every piece of parchment he scribbled on? "Oh look, here's the backdrop of the setting which hung outside the prop window on his One-Act play which only showed one night and then closed because it sucked!"
The artworks themselves are treasures. The other stuff is honestly refuse, unless they seriously plan to use them again. Extrapolated further, in 50 years we're all going to be posting our bitter comments on Slashdot from rooms hip-deep in "priceless memorabilia" (Reese Witherspoon's earrings from Legally Blonde XVII, the dorsal fin worn by a stuntman from Jaws III, etc.). Eventually we'll have to develop the technology to build dynamic-foundation skyscrapers on the mounds of movie-memorabilia that cover the countryside....
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:3, Insightful)
I would imagine that some of these sets might have been re-used in the future, had they not been destroyed.
Moving making, espedcially using claymation is much more physical than programming. If my office burned down tomorrow, I'd need the offsite backup take restored onto a new server, a new
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:5, Funny)
And a source of power and security to guard all that 24-7 in the blackened empty lot that used to be your office building.
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:4, Insightful)
First off, your example is not going to make your argument. IF such a thing from Shakespeare existed, I have no doubt that collectors would pay through the nose for it. Sotheby's would make a small fortune from the auction comission alone.
However Nick Park noted that, "in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal". I would have thought they had reused some of the props (like the insides of Wallace's house). Instead, they state that each was "purpose built" for their respective films.
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:5, Insightful)
For many artists, process is often more valuable than the finished product. As a graphic design student, I find seeing the sketches and previous versions of some of the designers I admire very illuminating. Paul Rand famously provided his clients with process books (including one client [wikipedia.org] notable to
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:3, Funny)
"This is the cloth they were going to use for darth vader's cloak but changed it before shooting... it's very rare."
"I paid $390.00 for this roll of toilet paper stolen from Wil Weatons trailer when they were filming the last episode with him in it on location! it's very very r
If it wasn't for Bob Clampett... (Score:3, Insightful)
Who's to say that an original set from Chicken Run or The
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not everything is lost, only a warehouse (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, when you put it into perspective of the bigger human tragedies in the world, it suddenly see
My kingdom for a Shakespeare manuscript! (Score:3, Informative)
For centuries, historians and literary scholars have longed for hard evidence of how Shakespeare worked or what his literary background was. Unfortunately:
Our knowledg
That Ain't Crackin' (Score:4, Funny)
Re:That Ain't Crackin' (Score:3, Funny)
Well, they certainly were the wrong trousers, in that case – they were ankle-length!
TWW
Re:That Ain't Crackin' (Score:2)
arson? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:arson? (Score:2)
Isle of Man? Don't you mean Portland, where the cement comes from?
Never mind, to cheer you up, a pair of clever sods have just shown that Dark Matter is just an epicycle and that Einstein was more right than you could ever imagine.
Darn, there goes my Nobel Prize :-)
Re:arson? (Score:2)
Re:arson? (Score:2)
Darned spoil-sport!
Just like the folks who applied GR to galactic dynamics.
If it hadn't been for those pesky meddling kids, we'd have been selling snake oil for years to come.
Re:arson? (Score:4, Funny)
I put my money on the Smurfs. An airstrike [spiegel.de] has already been launched in retaliation.
Big Hint (Score:2)
Aardman Animations (Score:5, Funny)
Aardman Animations-"D"-Day. (Score:4, Funny)
Come on Disney.
Re:Aardman Animations-"D"-Day. (Score:4, Funny)
ZZ Top video clip cartoonists reply... (Score:4, Funny)
From TFA (Score:5, Insightful)
"Even though it is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal," he said.
Good to hear that Nick Park is so well-grounded.
So, does this mean. . . (Score:3, Funny)
At least put the quote in context... (Score:2, Informative)
Historic things were lost, yes, but still, they were only *just things*.
Got to be careful on who you partner with... (Score:2)
Overkill (Score:5, Funny)
They didn't have to resort to arson, unless they felt that Wallace and Grommet are really that evil and must be destroyed at all costs.
Keep the faith guys, from the ashes will rise a phoenix.
That's not a phoenix... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Overkill (Score:2)
With such a short list [rottentomatoes.com] it should be easy to nab the one who felt "felt that Wallace and Grommet are really that evil and must be destroyed at all costs."
The SAG is to blame doubtlessly... (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, the humanity!
I expected this (Score:4, Funny)
I feel bad for them, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I feel bad for them, but... (Score:2)
Would have been tough, I imagine. I mean, sprinklers would have caused about as much damage. And I doubt anyone considered specially designing a special fireproof storage room for the purpose.
Re:I feel bad for them, but... (Score:2)
Re:I feel bad for them, but... (Score:2)
After One Week's Delay... (Score:5, Funny)
Some are saved (Score:4, Informative)
Plus I talked to someone there today and they said that some of their best sets are already out on loan for exhibitions, so those "off-site" backups are safe!
Re:Some are saved (Score:2)
probably pyromaniac at work (Score:4, Funny)
A shame (Score:3, Informative)
As an aside, I saw a preview screening of the Were-Rabbit this weekend (first time I've been to the cinema in over a year and I noticed that the Federation Against Copyright Theft are now busy telling all and sundry that using a camcorder will land you in jail for 10 years) and it's well worth a watch. Humour "for all the family" (i.e. it's not dumbed down toy marketing fodder purely for kids) and the wealth of visual puns and arcane geekery will have any seasoned
Oh the humanity! (Score:4, Funny)
Let's hope Western Civilization can withstand the blow.
Next Movie (Score:2)
Wikinews story (Score:2, Informative)
Ultimate Anti-Copyright (Score:2)
Video archive (Score:3, Funny)
If only Aardman had taken the time to create a video archive of all these props and objects... something like a movie...
erm... nevermind.
(Especially on grim days like today, I really miss Emily Latella. And Nick Park's classy reaction to this personal catastrophe impressed the hell out of me. Thanks, Nick.)
Part of a bigger picture (Score:4, Interesting)
As Intellectual Property rights are strengthened, this type of loss is going to happen more and more. Rights holders will have tight control over the distribution of "their property," even to the extent of disabling it whenever they want. Fewer and fewer unmonitored copies will exist, and more and more material will be simply yanked out of circulation because it competes with something newer that somebody wants to sell.
I collect Old Time Radio shows from the 1940s and earlier. Thanks to our Congressmen-for-hire, these shows and ALL audio recordings made before 1972 are still copyrighted, and will remain so until the year 2067. Theoretically the only legal copies are those kept by the rights holders. Ironically, most of the shows that still exist have survived only through the illegal activities of a diehard fan community. Most old time radio shows were never intended to be heard again. They were recorded only so they could be retransmitted later to different time zones, or simply so the studio didn't have to be in the same building as the transmitter. Most were destined for the trash, or sometimes already in the trash, when they were rescued and taken home by radio station engineers and the like, later to be copied to tapes, CDs and mp3s over the years, and sold/traded/handed out to other collectors. These "pirates" have kept this material alive for decades while the original rights holders in most cases did absolutely nothing. These old shows may not be great literature, but they do provide an invaluable record of popular American entertainment during one of the greatest times in our history, showing us what average everyday people thought was funny, interesting and frightening at that time. You can't get that sort of thing out of a book, and we wouldn't have it today if everybody had played by the rules.
Re:News for Nerds! (Score:5, Funny)
Well their time zone is ahead of us, so they get the news early. Don't blame /. ;)
Re:News for Nerds! (Score:2)
Rumour has it that the building, being pretty old (couple of hundred years I think) wasn't set up with a proper sprinkler system.
Re:News for Nerds! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:News for Nerds! (Score:4, Insightful)
We've taken that advice. Truly, we have. Many of us no longer do. I used to read
Others have posted this in the past, but a lot of readers simply go to the sites
Frankly, the
This reflect wholly on the site in the past few years--The heavy moderation which was supposed to solve things created many worse problems, including censorship a la Lessig (via technological limitations and binds), the editors don't listen to truly practical advice (i.e. complaints that they don't read email address they set up explicitly to help prevent dupes, even admonishing those users in general on the main page), and basically the readership, while certainly having some true gems (which is the only real reason I check the site is to get varied opinions) has gone substantially down in terms of community and intellect.
Should such people start their own sites? Some have on neglected topics (deadly then undeadly.org). Others with a better story submission setup (kuro5hin). These days,
At least it isn't GameFAQs. (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, let's be fair. At least Slashdot has a fairly public moderating system, unlike a dictatorship like GameFAQs. You can still see any and all posts that have been moderated down, unlike at GameFAQs, where they're deleted outright. At least you can say what you want here, even if it may take people browsing at -1 for it to be seen. Contrast that to GameFAQs, where once deleted your post is not seen by anyone.
The moderators themselves at GameFAQs are most likely the worst problem, secondary to the absurdly complicated and intrusive forum rules. A lone moderator can delete your posts, even on the basis of just not liking you as a person. While that can happen here to some extent, at least other moderators can come around later and fix a mistake or abuse.
Funnily enough, at GameFAQs you can contest certain moderations. Of course, your appeal goes right to the moderator who either fucked up or intentionally abused their power in the first place. So the vast majority of the time you have no recourse when you have become the victim of a rogue moderator. At least here there are other moderators who can come along and remedy the problem.
Every time that someone talks about how horrible it is here at Slashdot, I just think about GameFAQs, and how truly horrible their system is. At least here we can express some disappointment with the Slashdot system. At GameFAQs you would have most likely been banned.
Re:At least it isn't GameFAQs. (Score:3, Interesting)
Could be worse. E-mail only lets you use two characters, but at least you can repeat one of them if you're careful to do it in the right order. Paul
Re:Ouch (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless of course you have some kind of matter duplicator in your basement, in which case more fool Nick Park for not coming to see you first.
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
Re:Ouch (Score:5, Funny)
-Graham
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
Re:in other news, 30k dead in asia (Score:4, Informative)
I know I'm feeding a troll here but I'd wager he's got things in the correct perspective.
Re:Please No!! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Please No!! (Score:5, Funny)
Page is a true humanitarian. (Score:3, Insightful)
BBC is reporting that an estimated 20000 people (at the very least) are dead in Pakistan and India. Compare that to the 1200 or so people killed in the southern US, or even the 3000 killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
At least Page is able to put his loss in perspective. It takes a real man to be able to do that.
Re:Page is a true humanitarian. (Score:2)
Likewise, what would be the greater loss to everyone alive today and everyone yet to be born, the sudden death of Matt Groening or the sudden combustion of every Simpsons show ever produced?
Mourning or promoting the case for Matt Groening, who you've probably never met or know
Re:Park is a true humanitarian. (Score:3, Funny)
RTFA (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Please No!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Perspective, people, this was just a bunch of crap that we would have made fun of someone for bidding too much for at some auction. It's more on the order of your mother throwing away your baseball card collection.
Re:Why not to store everything in one location. (Score:2)
It's bad, but as has been said, there's a lot worse shit going down elsewhere today.
Re:Why not to store everything in one location. (Score:5, Funny)
You're totally right, this is what they get for being so lazy. Had I been in charge of storage I would have carefully hid each bit of priceless memorabelia in a scattering of booby-trapped tombs in the most remote sections of the world. Furthermore, carbon copies of each item would have been blasted into a complex orbit which passed through our solar system only once every 217,326 light years, thereby protecting each piece in the case of Earth's total destruction.
Oh... wait... no, that wouldn't be practical... I'd just keep everything in a warehouse so that I'd know where the hell it was...
Re:Incredible Publicity Stunt! (Score:2)
So, would you consider this stunt crazy crazy, or is it just your ordinary, garden variety crazy?
Re:Appall us and vomit (Score:2)
Burning for money (Score:2)
Heck yeah. I'd burn my whole house down to the ground, with pictures and computers inside for a few million. Shoot, I'd do it for, oh, $200,000 so I could get another place.
The real question is, what's the least amount of money you would accept for your past? (photos, old school papers, your computer's data)
Me: $100 (I'm such a history whore) but I know how much other
Re:Burning for money (Score:2)
Re:Burning for money (Score:2)
Re:reavers did this! (Score:2)
Re:a shame (Score:2, Funny)
Re:a shame (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:a shame (Score:3, Funny)
Re:History "wiped out" ? (Score:3, Interesting)