locked so the film won’t move around when it is photographing the film clip, as it is projected on the
screen. A piece of glass is then put between the camera and the screen. The glass is painted black so
the portions of the picture on the screen that is to be in front of the fictional character are blacked
out when seen by the camera.
Between the glass and the screen is a table which is set up to place the miniature fictional
characters. In the projector developments one frame at a time. With each frame the fictional
character moves. When the position of the fictional characters is correct the camera then captures
one frame.
After the all the scenes have been filmed both the projector and the camera are set back to the
beginning. The glass is then replaced with a new piece of glass that is a reverse of the first one. The
fictional character model and the table are now cleared away. Then the film is reshot again but this
time exposing the foreground part of the image which was originally blacked out now isn’t. when the
film is developed and looked at it will look like the fictional character is chasing the people.
Ray Harryhausen became the most famous and revered motion picture animator of the era, inspiring
countless youngsters to take up animation including some of those in work today. He left behind a
legacy of filmmaking and a foundation still focussing on the art of animation in the movie world.
Aardman was founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton school friends who joined together to
found Aardman which was originally a low-budget studio. They filmed there the first production of
“Morph” an animated plasticine character for a children's programme "Take Hart". He was incredibly
popular both with the young audience and when joined by his friend “Chas” by the university
generation. This then started them developing towards a more adult audience. In 1982 they wanted
to change their technique of animating puppets to make it feel more real-life conversation. in 1985
Peter and David met Nick Park at the national film and television school when he was working on his
own student film "A Grand Day Out" which he then went on the join Aardman full time.
This relationship developed with Nick Park working on the ground-breaking music video
‘Sledgehammer’ for Peter Gabriel along with Park’s first set of shorts called ‘lip synch’ in which he
created ‘Creature Comforts’ It is Park’s painstaking attention to detail as well as the very well made
models and humour that made this a commercially and critically acclaimed success.