Chicken Run was shot at Aardman’s studio in Bristol; the production initially occupied 60,000 square feet of stage space, but ultimately required more than 100,000 square feet to accommodate the 30-plus units that worked on the show. According to Dave Alex Riddett, the supervising director of photography, the filmmakers originally thought they would need 24 units to shoot Chicken Run (12 units shooting and 12 units being prepared), but that number was soon exceeded. "One animator can turn out an average of three seconds [of footage] a day, and we aimed to produce 90 seconds of film a week out of all the units," Riddett says. "Eventually, we had an average of 28 units on the production, though they were rarely all working at once."
To prepare for a given sequence in an Aardman production, the directors act it out for the animator, who in turn acts it out with the puppet in front of the camera. Blocking out the puppet moves gives the cameramen an opportunity to shoot lighting tests and finalize the camera moves. After watching the trial rushes, the filmmakers can request alterations before the sequence is rehearsed with the animated character. It is then finally animated and shot.
To achieve precise lip sync, the animators work from a dope sheet with a frame-by-frame phonetic breakdown, as well as a sophisticated video-assist system. The system incorporates the recording of the voice to which the animator is matching the lips and mouth, and plays back the soundtrack in sync with the pictures as they progress. An integral black-and-white frame store allows the animator to display the previous frame for comparison with the next frame of animation. The video-assist system is also loaded with continuity shots and other reference shots that can be used if needed.
Known as PVR (Perception Video Recorder), the system is made by a Canadian company called Digital Processing Systems (DPS). Before the system was adopted by Aardman, it was given an extended trial run by the studio’s animation trainees. During this trial period, Aardman and the U.K. division of DPS developed their Animate software to make the whole system more user-friendly for animators. It has now been fully adopted by Aardman and other animation studios.
Chicken Run was shot entirely on Fuji’s Super-F 8532 125 ASA stock. The show’s lighting units were tungsten, comprised of Rank Strand theater lighting and also 12-volt sources that included Micro Ellipse lights (miniature profile lamps that could be focused). Riddett found Kino Flo units to be invaluable, especially the miniature tube lamps, which were used to provide a soft light within the interiors.
Detailing the overall setup, Riddett explains, "We actually had Rank Strand design the racks for our lighting units, along with the control units, because we needed a system that would alert us if any lights blew out. The animators could be working on a shot for a week, going in and out, off to lunch and then coming back; if a light blew out, it might not be noticed, and you couldn’t have a spark [electrician] constantly checking the set. In the setup we used, an alarm would sound if anything [malfunctioned]. It was fine for most lights, but some 12-volt lights would not fit the system, so we still had to do [regular] checks."
Stop-motion cinematography requires exceptional technical precision. Cameras must be completely light-tight, camera movements have to be exactly repeatable, and close-focusing lenses are mandatory. Aardman uses Mitchell BNC cameras converted to spinning-mirror reflexes by Doug Fries. All of the units have color video assist for the PVR video-assist systems. A special baffling fits tightly over the shutters so that no light can get through to the film in the gate while the animator remodels the puppet which can take up to an hour, with lights burning all around the camera. When exposing just one frame at a time, it is critically important to have consistent exposure to avoid any possibility of flicker, so the studio built its own camera motors to ensure this within a range of 1/4 of a second to six seconds.
According to technical director Barnes, Aardman is now into the fourth generation of camera motor designed for this purpose by its senior electronics engineer, Allan Yates. "The motors can be triggered by our lighting racks and can link with motion-control," Barnes details. "We can therefore run a sequence involving a lighting change, a motion-control move capturing a video-assist frame and firing the camera, with the animator just pressing one button although the animators often prefer things to be a bit less automated. This is particularly important because the motion-control, lighting setups and everything else are done before the animator moves on set, where he’s left in isolation and takes charge of the pre-set camera moves.
"Once the size and shape of the camera was determined, we built our own geared heads," he continues. "That was important, because it was hard to know in advance whether motion-control would be used, so very often we would set the camera up on a motorized head on a tripod. That way, if we needed a slight pan or tilt instead of a locked-off shot, we could just plug a motion-control computer into the head and add a move to what was a static shot, without the camera assistants having to break that setup down just to put on another head that was motorized."
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