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Wallace and Gromit Studio Loses History
TheFarmerInTheDell writes "CNN is reporting that the Aardman Animations building in Bristol, home of Wallace and Gromit, has been destroyed by fire From the article: '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'"
An e-mail sent this morning to all the subscriptors of the Aarmand website:
On the day that Aardman celebrate a chart-topping opening weekend in the US with
Wallace & Gromit 'The Curse of the Were-rabbit', news of a fire at our storage
unit in Bristol has been devastating.
The facility used to store sets, awards, and historical artefacts, is not a part
of the Aardman studio, and we are glad to report that no Aardman staff have been
affected. However, we have lost a number of irreplaceable storyboards, awards,
props and pieces of film memorabilia from our 30 year history.
None of the material from the new Wallace & Gromit film 'The Curse of the
Wererabbit' was in storage at the time, but we have lost many original sets from
Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, and the three Wallace & Gromit short films, that
were used for reference and toured around the world for exhibition.
This will not in any way affect existing or future Aardman productions as 100%
of sets and props are purpose built for each production.
Wallace & Gromit 'The Curse of the Were-rabbit': http://www.wandg.com/
Since you were so quick to post, you apparently didn't rtfa. Even Mr. Park himself said, "Even though it's precious stuff and nostalgic - and it's dreadful news for the company, in the light of other tragedies it's not a big deal."
I know I'm feeding a troll here but I'd wager he's got things in the correct perspective.
I'll create an amusing sig when I have something meaningful to post.
This has to be the worst thing that could possibly happen Not according to Nick Page, who made most of the stuff. As he pointed out in the BBC article, it's dreadful news, but nothing compared to the awfulness of most of the other items of news today.
Virtually serving coffee
This was only their storage unit and not their main offices which are near the docks, so there at least there was no chance of anyone getting hurt.
Plus I talked to someone there today and they said that some of their best sets are already out on loan for exhibitions, so those "off-site" backups are safe!
You don't. The clay would disintigrate. According to the BBC, they didn't have their studio burn down, but their storage warehouse for things like storyboards and wooden sets that they used. That is the stuff that got burned. They've lost their original Wallace & Gromit storyboards.
The actual film prints for their work are located at another site, and their studio itself is at a completely different one.
I actually got a tour of the studio when they were doing the filming for The Wrong Trousers, which is where I learned their dirty secret: There is more than one gromit.
They were filming different scenes in different parts of the studio, with different copies of Wallace and Gromit in each one. So they are truly expendable: cloned for the filming, discarded afterwards.
I'm a bit of a beginner with this type of thing but ... the only general fire figures I could come up with put burn temperatures below 700C. Granted the commercial setting and open space of a warehouse probably promotes fast burning.
... I thought they used plasticine!
Earthenware is fired to 1000C (roughly 1700F, I think). It seems that the temps reached may not be enough to properly fire the pieces. Also there's the quartz inversion point at about 570C - heating too quickly up to this point could be disastrous.
I also doubt that the pieces are wedged properly to remove air (as they aren't intending to fire them) and so explosion with the air expansion is likely.
Finally
Plasticine (aka "modelling clay") melts when heated, FWIW.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticine
http://www.vanaken.com/howclay.htm (note "melting them in a large vat")