Black-faced white fluffy coat, toothless crooked mouth magic smile, can not speak but full of comedy terrier sheep Shaun is back after 4 years!
Produced by Adman Animation Studios in the United Kingdom, the clay animation Shaun the Sheep 2: Doomsday Farm (hereinafter referred to as "Shaun the Sheep 2") will be released in the mainland on December 28, the film tells the story of Shaun and his friends in the farm found a lost little alien LULA , Shaun decided to send Gollla home with his friends. However, the mysterious agents from the secret agency have their eyes on Pula, and in order to reunite Pula with her family, Shaun and his friends' joyful adventure begins.
The film is produced in the form of lineless stop-motion animation, a simple and humorous British pastoral style, a brain-opening science fiction plot, and the shaping of the distinctive personalities of Shaun the Sheep and other sheep and sheep friends, it is difficult to be likable.
The film still continues the good reputation of the previous work, with a freshness score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8 points on Douban. The Beijing News exclusively interviewed the film's directors Will Beecher and Richard Ferran, asking them to reveal the creation of Shaun the Sheep behind the scenes.
make
"Shaun the Sheep 2" directly let the lambs fly out of the farm and the city and into the universe. Director Beecher introduced that "Shaun the Sheep 2" took a total of five years, from the beginning of the creative concept, to the development project, to the pre-production of about two to three years, the post-production needs two years. "For the issue of production deadlines, we don't have a strict dead line, and we don't release it immediately after the production is completed, so there will be a breathing buffer time during this period."
Meeting
Almost every day, the creators have a "weird meeting" that most people probably don't think is important, but in Beecher's opinion, this is the most crucial part: "We will discuss the use of a certain color in the background, how the aliens should hug, etc., not only professional animators, but also models who make movements for the characters." "For example, a one-to-one model of Gollum was made to observe her movements more intuitively, and the animators would interpret the character's actions together."
The number of frames
Shaun the Sheep takes 35-70 frames per action to complete, and every clay stop-motion animated film faces this problem. Some are extremely subtle movements, and some are big scenes with dozens of characters, such as towns and farms. Beecher said that each animator will summarize a complete action flow before shooting, while other members will adjust the action of each doll before the freeze frame, minimize rework, and if something goes wrong in a certain link, the whole action must start over.
Joy
Ferran thought Sean was funny, he didn't speak, he was universal, and behaved the same in any national version. In fact, at first, his design was very simple, positioned as a naughty and interesting little boy, like a younger brother, but after a long period of creation and evolution, the image became richer and more three-dimensional, and the heart was more mature. "There are so many things you can't imagine what a sheep would look like, and putting Shaun in a particular situation, the joy will naturally arise."
budget
Beecher said that the budget statistics are a complicated thing for him, the main energy of the creator is spent on creation, "of course, there will be producers and other investors to tell us 'you can spend more money here, but not there', we have a number of the scope of spending, but we don't spend too much energy to calculate." 」 ”
salute
Because Aardman Studios' films have never been aliens and space, Beecher and Ferrand want to tell a story that still takes place in Sean's world, but can bring the audience into outer space, during which the creators discussed the science fiction thinking of directors such as Spielberg, John Carpenter, christopher Nolan, and watched the science fiction movies of the fifties and sixties of the last century. "The film has both elements of a sci-fi movie and a unique retro comedy that belongs to Shaun the Sheep himself."
● Easter eggs
The tradition of the Shaun the Sheep series as a tribute to blockbusters also continues into Shaun the Sheep 2: Doomsday Farm. Animated series have been broadcast for more than a decade, and there are countless tributes to classic movies, from "Horror" to "Edward Scissorhands", from "Star Wars" to "Jaws", many Easter eggs are illuminated by the movie into the movie, presenting another wonderful look.
The farmer wakes up in the morning to see the farm's crop circle, paying tribute to the niche science fiction movie "Tianzhao".
Shaun the Sheep piloted the spacecraft into space, surprising the astronaut who met them, the astronaut who was on an extravehicular mission, paying tribute to "2001: A Space Odyssey".
Shaun the Sheep crosses the roof and even directly imitates E.T Alien.
● Lamb IP
British Aardman Studios, which has launched animated feature films such as "Super Invincible Dog", "Chicken Run", and "Magical Pirates", is one of the largest stop-motion animation production studios in the animation film market.
Sean is the studio's top fan, and his debut was as the male number three in the third "Razor's Edge" in the "Super Invincible Dog" series, a 30-minute stop-motion animation that won the Academy Award for Best Short Film that year, and also made Shaun the Sheep an overnight hit.
As of 2017, Shaun the Sheep has produced five seasons and 150 episodes, premiering on the BBC's CBBC channel in March 2007 and airing in 180 countries around the world, and the first and second seasons of the film were introduced by CCTV Children's Channel in 2012.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan
Edited by Xu Qiaoyang Proofreader Zhai Yongjun