my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Wallace & Gromit warehouse destroyed by fire (Page 1)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: Wallace & Gromit warehouse destroyed by fire Erica Peterson Film Handler Posts: 26 From: Toronto, ON, Canada Registered: Jul 2003 posted 10-10-2005 08:51 AM                        On the same weekend that "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" opened at #1 in the US and brought in $16.1 million, Aardman Animations was completely destroyed by a fire (article reproduced below): BRISTOL, England -- The company behind the new "Wallace and Gromit" film said Monday its "entire history" has been destroyed in a fire at a warehouse containing props and sets. The roof and three interior walls of the Aardman Animations building in Bristol, west England collapsed after the blaze tore through the Victorian building, fire officials said The fire broke out at about 5:30 a.m. (0430 GMT), with flames reaching 100 feet into the air. The cause of the blaze was being investigated. A spokesman for Aardman said the building housed props and sets from the company's history, including its first three "Wallace and Gromit" films. No one was in the building when the fire broke out. Aardman said the sets and props from its latest film, "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," were not caught in the blaze. Aardman has used stop-motion clay animation to create a series of acclaimed films, including three shorts featuring cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his resourceful dog Gromit. The sets from those shorts -- "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" -- are all thought to have been destroyed, along with those from "Chicken Run" -- Aardman's first feature-length release. "Curse of the Were-Rabbit," Wallace and Gromit's first full-length feature, was released in the United States on Friday and topped the U.S. box office over the weekend. "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," Aardman spokesman Arthur Sheriff said. "It's turned out to be a terrible day." Sheriff said the warehouse contained sets, props and models from the company's productions, from the children's cartoon character "Morph" through the Oscar-winning, anthropomorphic "Creature Comforts" series to the Wallace and Gromit films. Wallace and Gromit's creator, Nick Park, said the earthquake in South Asia helped put the loss into perspective. "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. Aardman was founded in 1972 and is closely associated with Park, who joined in 1986 fresh out of film school. Park's "The Wrong Trousers" (1993) and "A Close Shave" (1995) won Academy Awards. Park and Aardman's Peter Lord directed the 2000 feature "Chicken Run," which spoofed the World War II prison-camp classic "The Great Escape" with a cast of clay poultry.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-10-2005 09:55 AM                        I hope they weren't storing original film elements (i.e. camera negatives) in there as well. Though presumably there'll be a fine grain 'insurance print' stored in a separate location from the camera negative.  |  IP: Logged Andy Summers Master Film Handler Posts: 397 From: Bournemouth Dorset United kingdom Registered: Jun 2005 posted 10-10-2005 03:43 PM                 Bugger me man, that’s a dame shame, I trust that all negatives are kept in a secure location with all the fire precautions taken into consideration to see that even rare films will last as long as time will let them. Again I’m deeply sorry for Nick Park’s; Warehouse I sure he will get the company up and running before no time.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 10-10-2005 04:18 PM                       quote: Leo Enticknap I hope they weren't storing original film elements (i.e. camera negatives) in there as well. I'd say those are probably at a lab or in a film vault somewhere.  |  IP: Logged Jon Miller Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 973 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 10-10-2005 09:07 PM                     My sympathies go out to the Aardman team..."Creature Comforts," "A Grand Day Out," and "Wrong Trousers" were just plain masterworks of clay animation and a refreshing diversion from the Will Vinton "Claymation" works popular during the 1980s. (I ran those three virtually a bazillion times in my Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation days during the early 1990s and had the pleasure of meeting Nick Park himself). Truly a sad loss for the industry...  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-10-2005 11:04 PM                     Call me a pessimist, but my first thought when hearing this awful news was industrial sabotage. Aardman does really wonderful work, be it Wallace and Gromit or even Angry Kid. It just has to piss off the Disney Corporation something fierce. Now I'm not saying Disney actually did something. But I would not be too surprised if it turned out some megalithical corporation hired some pyromaniacs to torch the place. Hell, it'll probably just turn out to be some old, faulty electrical wiring.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-11-2005 01:59 AM                        At the moment I'm voting for the latter. I'm a bit surprised that they were storing that stuff where they were. That part of Bristol, round the back of Temple Meads station, is a run-down, high crime area of town. I can only guess that they were assuming that no-one would know what was being stored in there. Tramps squatting in a disused part of the building (or an adjacent one) and starting a fire to keep warm is another possibility, especially if security on the complex wasn't very good. quote: Tim Reed I'd say those [preservation film elements from Aardman productions] are probably at a lab or in a film vault somewhere. That's what you'd hope, but having come across some staggering cases of master elements being lost/mislaid/not looked after, I wouldn't assume anything. When a major British lab went into liquidation last spring, you wouldn't believe the stuff which the receivers found in outhouses and pretty dodgy storage on the site. These included the cut camera negatives from at least two feature films released in the last decade. Producers - especially if it's an independent company rather than a big studio with its own corporate archive - frequently forget about original and intermediate elements once the print run and TK transfer have been done, leaving them with the lab for a nominal storage rent until either the production company or the lab goes out of business. Even in today's enlightened times, when any archivist could tell you all about the benefits of safeguarding these elements, it still happens. A friend of mine rescued preservation material and countless post-production sound elements from several well-known features from a lab in the early '90s when it moved premises. They're now with the BFI, but very nearly ended up as landfill. If you don't have a corporate archive to fall back on, then when production is complete your two options are to deposit original material with a public archive or to pay a commercial storage company (e.g. Hollywood Vaults in the US) to look after these elements for you. Producers are often nervous about going near public archives due to fears about restricted access and piracy, while some public archives won't accept new material without significant copyright concessions. Paying a commercial storage company is money which a producer is often reluctant to spend, especially after (s)he has the release prints and TK master tapes needed to commercially exploit the film. So quite often these elements drop through the system. It's short sighted, but it does happen. Things are better than they were - for example, films and programmes produced in-house by major studios are now much more likely to get properly preserved, because the studios realise that they have a long-term commercial value that justifies the costs of preservation. But nine times out of ten, smaller operators and independents don't factor in long-term preservation of the finish product into their budgets.  |  IP: Logged Brian Michael Weidemann Expert cat molester Posts: 944 From: Costa Mesa, CA United States Registered: Feb 2004 posted 10-11-2005 02:15 AM                        Creature Comforts is one of my all time favorite animated shorts. Classic, indeed. "I need ... space!" This is sad news. And, yes, a part of me (the pessimist) kinda agrees with Bobby. This is just coincidence that it happens on Were-Rabbit's opening weekend?  |  IP: Logged Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-11-2005 02:36 AM                     I disagree fully. Although a few rivalries exist, for the most part people within the feature animation industry enjoy and are uplifted by the work of other studios, especially ones as creative as Aardman. Secondly, Aardman produces 100% of it's sets independently for each project, even if similar sets exist in storage. For this reason, it wouldn't be prudent for someone to intentionally sabotage Aardman by burning down a warehouse full of sets that weren't going to be used again.  |  IP: Logged Dick Vaughan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1032 From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-11-2005 02:50 AM                        heard on the news this morning that the Were Rabbit figures were safe as they had been stored"in a rugged suitcase" Some of the sets from Were Rabbit were also spared as they form part of the Animated Adventures exhibition at At- Bristol. More info here We are also lucky enough to have a number of Aardmans models on permanent display here in Bradford nmpft animation including the Museum gallery set from Wrong Trousers, Morph and Rocky from Chicken Run  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 10-11-2005 03:45 AM                     No master film elements stored there either, and thier studio is also elsewhere.  |  IP: Logged Andy Summers Master Film Handler Posts: 397 From: Bournemouth Dorset United kingdom Registered: Jun 2005 posted 10-11-2005 12:46 PM                 Quote-Bobby ________________________________________________________________ industrial sabotage __________________________________________________________ Now that thought crossed my mind as well, very strange, I smell a rat, anyway as industrial sabotage and arson been ruled out in the investigation so far. I say if faulty wiring is the issue; it was fixed to make it look like it was legitimate faulty wiring if you see what I mean, so Bobby’ I’m a little in the dark hear why would the Disney corporation with sure power and scope do industrial sabotage, seems strange though, has the Disney corporation lost any money on big budget films, or do you believe they would like to eliminate the competition which would leave they in control of that market. Again I smell a RAT…..a BIG ONE….  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 10-11-2005 12:58 PM                     Quote-Andy ________________________________________________________________ I never noticed the easy QUOTE button before! __________________________________________________________  |  IP: Logged Andy Summers Master Film Handler Posts: 397 From: Bournemouth Dorset United kingdom Registered: Jun 2005 posted 10-11-2005 01:04 PM                 I don’t understand what you’re saying Brad’ but I’ll just say happy days, as it pissing down with rain in Sunny Bournemouth. So what do you think about this mystery concerning the fire at, Nick Park’s; Warehouse, there’s someone roaming around on this side of the Atlantic, play with matches….that just pisses me off…  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 10-11-2005 01:26 PM                     Quote-Andy ________________________________________________________________ I don’t understand what you’re saying Brad __________________________________________________________ quote: Andy Summers but I’ll just say happy days For someone who claims to have set up a far superior home theater capable of surpassing commercial THX installations, I'm sure you can stress your brain a little bit to figure out how to use this forum properly.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.