Animation Forum has the first of a substantial two part interview with Natalie Hinchley and Chris Randall of Second Home Studios, a traditional animation house based in Digbeth whose first short, The Animal Book, went to Cannes this year.
If you had to sell the Animal Book to someone in a minute, what would you say?
CR: In the way it was made, as far as I can remember, I don’t think there has been either a studio or a film of this scale or ambition that has been produced here before. That may sound like I’m blowing our own trumpet a bit, but I can’t honestly remember a studio that’s had the experience or the willingness, or I suppose ‘passion’ is a better word because we love doing it, to actually do large scale stop motion animation. So that’s why The Animal Book came about, and the reason for The Animal Book was that we wanted to do something that wasn’t just animation for the sake of it, there was a story behind it, a tale to tell, and I suppose the pitch for the story is it’s about going to where you belong, finding a better life.
NH: Yeah, simple pitch: it’s about two sisters who maintain the giant machine that they live in, until one day a mysterious book appears. And from that point, they have really crazy adventures, things happen and they end up discovering some place that they really belong in.
Their impressive showreel can be found on their site and the trailer and stills the Animal Book are here.
