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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'"
Be on the lookout for a penguin with a rubber glove on its head.
What is music when you despise all sound?
And that is why 11 out of 10 firemen recommend off-site backup! How do you backup clay btw?
Wait, I thought the fire was supposed to come after the /.ing, not before...
Joking aside, this is pretty sad. But I'm sure they'll be back on their feet in no time and making new stuff.
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 The Wrong Trousers made an appearance at a shorts festival, I've been a fan. The good news should be that the clay figures should be ok evermore now that the heat has turned them into...ceramic...
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Maybe a pyromaniac is burning all the animation studios in alphabetical order?
Well their time zone is ahead of us, so they get the news early. Don't blame /. ;)
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.
Good to hear that Nick Park is so well-grounded.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
Well thats where it gets a bit difficult. Everyone here seems to come from a mentality of, "there is nothing but computer data worth saving". I'm sure they had that covered, however what is a little bit harder is to "backup" a physical item, like the original Morph model, or the sets from "The Wrong Trousers".
Unless of course you have some kind of matter duplicator in your basement, in which case more fool Nick Park for not coming to see you first.
. . . that Wallace and Grommit are Pottery?
"No beer until you finish your tequila!" -Leela's Dad
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
If the critics didn't like it a simple it sucked would have sufficed.
They didn't have to resort to arson, unless they felt that Wallace and Grommet are really that evil and must be destroyed at all costs.
Keep the faith guys, from the ashes will rise a phoenix.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
This is what happens when you beat Captain Malcom Reynolds at the Box Office. I imagine investigators will reveal that the cause of the fire was a "Crazy Ivan" Gorram claymation.
If it was so important to them they should have spend the money to store it in multiple locations.
You're totally right, this is what they get for being so lazy. Had I been in charge of storage I would have carefully hid each bit of priceless memorabelia in a scattering of booby-trapped tombs in the most remote sections of the world. Furthermore, carbon copies of each item would have been blasted into a complex orbit which passed through our solar system only once every 217,326 light years, thereby protecting each piece in the case of Earth's total destruction.
Oh... wait... no, that wouldn't be practical... I'd just keep everything in a warehouse so that I'd know where the hell it was...
...was there no preventative measures in place to protet the irreplaceable memorabilia?!
"if you dont like slashdot, dont read it."
/. daily, several times a day. I get to it maybe three times a week in total.
/. rips their stories from, e.g. Anandtech, Tom's, BBC News, CNN, Engadget. /. always ripped stories in the past, but there was a certain value added with timely and short summaries, a good forum for all, etc.
/. readers have outgrown the site. The site and editors haven't kept pace with the geek community they initially fueled together and even identified with; instead, they now have a shithole attitude of /. as "their job" versus a passion or a good project.
/. is less of a resource and even outdated, with the editors not caring or maybe not seeing what it truly has become--a ripoff site only.
We've taken that advice. Truly, we have. Many of us no longer do. I used to read
Others have posted this in the past, but a lot of readers simply go to the sites
Frankly, the
This reflect wholly on the site in the past few years--The heavy moderation which was supposed to solve things created many worse problems, including censorship a la Lessig (via technological limitations and binds), the editors don't listen to truly practical advice (i.e. complaints that they don't read email address they set up explicitly to help prevent dupes, even admonishing those users in general on the main page), and basically the readership, while certainly having some true gems (which is the only real reason I check the site is to get varied opinions) has gone substantially down in terms of community and intellect.
Should such people start their own sites? Some have on neglected topics (deadly then undeadly.org). Others with a better story submission setup (kuro5hin). These days,
*rolls dice*
Come on Disney.
I put my money on the Smurfs. An airstrike has already been launched in retaliation.
That is all.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Not wanting to sound like an ass, let me make the following pre-comment caveats:
- I love Nick Park's work
- I own all the videos/DVDs of his films, including Creature Comforts on compilation
- I can't wait to see whatever else his fertile brain imagines.
But, having said that, is this so much a tragedy? The storyboards, the sets - why are we saving all that crap? Isn't the work itself the treasure, not necessarily the tools used to make it? I mean seriously, Shakespeare was great, but would we want to have saved every piece of parchment he scribbled on? "Oh look, here's the backdrop of the setting which hung outside the prop window on his One-Act play which only showed one night and then closed because it sucked!"
The artworks themselves are treasures. The other stuff is honestly refuse, unless they seriously plan to use them again. Extrapolated further, in 50 years we're all going to be posting our bitter comments on Slashdot from rooms hip-deep in "priceless memorabilia" (Reese Witherspoon's earrings from Legally Blonde XVII, the dorsal fin worn by a stuntman from Jaws III, etc.). Eventually we'll have to develop the technology to build dynamic-foundation skyscrapers on the mounds of movie-memorabilia that cover the countryside....
-Styopa
Halliburton will announce they have received a FEMA no-bid $10 billion dollar contract to rebuild a devastated chicken farm in England.
-- Gary Goldberg KA3ZYW 301/249-6501 AIM:OgGreeb Digital Marketing Inc., Bowie, MD
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!
...phew!
I used to have a matter duplicator in my basement, but unfortunately it was destroyed in a fire. It was the only copy.
-Graham
Police are on the lookout
Be thankful that Slashdot isn't like GameFAQs. Take a look at all of the rules they have there. Did you know that you can be banned from those forums if you use a line consisting of more than three characters to separate your posts from your signature? The rules are that fucking strict, and that fucking pointless. And as such the place is an utter shithole for true, open, thought-provoking discussion.
Now, let's be fair. At least Slashdot has a fairly public moderating system, unlike a dictatorship like GameFAQs. You can still see any and all posts that have been moderated down, unlike at GameFAQs, where they're deleted outright. At least you can say what you want here, even if it may take people browsing at -1 for it to be seen. Contrast that to GameFAQs, where once deleted your post is not seen by anyone.
The moderators themselves at GameFAQs are most likely the worst problem, secondary to the absurdly complicated and intrusive forum rules. A lone moderator can delete your posts, even on the basis of just not liking you as a person. While that can happen here to some extent, at least other moderators can come around later and fix a mistake or abuse.
Funnily enough, at GameFAQs you can contest certain moderations. Of course, your appeal goes right to the moderator who either fucked up or intentionally abused their power in the first place. So the vast majority of the time you have no recourse when you have become the victim of a rogue moderator. At least here there are other moderators who can come along and remedy the problem.
Every time that someone talks about how horrible it is here at Slashdot, I just think about GameFAQs, and how truly horrible their system is. At least here we can express some disappointment with the Slashdot system. At GameFAQs you would have most likely been banned.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I mean seriously, Shakespeare was great, but would we want to have saved every piece of parchment he scribbled on? "Oh look, here's the backdrop of the setting which hung outside the prop window on his One-Act play which only showed one night and then closed because it sucked!"
First off, your example is not going to make your argument. IF such a thing from Shakespeare existed, I have no doubt that collectors would pay through the nose for it. Sotheby's would make a small fortune from the auction comission alone.
However Nick Park noted that, "in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal". I would have thought they had reused some of the props (like the insides of Wallace's house). Instead, they state that each was "purpose built" for their respective films.
I think the worth is relative. For example, I own a few original animation cels that I consider extremely valuable. If I lose them in a fire, I will be upset and the loss would cause a certain amount of grief for me. Is it as bad as the tragic loss of life in natural and unnatural disasters we see on the news? Certainly not. I'd trade all my cels if I thought it would save lives, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't miss my cels. The loss of these "treasures" in fire is tragic because they had value, sometimes deep value, to the people that created them, and the fans that loved what was created by and through them. It's similar to the pocket watch my grandfather gave me. It is of great worth to me, and I would be really upset if something happened to it. Same goes for these "treasures". People worked hard. It was a labor of love for many. To see it gone effects them. Yes, there are more important things in the world, but there's room for grief of these treasures as well as things that may even be more tragic. Nobody is asking for donations to help the victim's of this fire because they were all inanimate as far as we've heard. I think we're doing a fine job of keeping it in perspective. Let's continue to be sensitive to the grief of others regardless of if we really share it or not.
First the great library of Alexandria, and now this???
Let's hope Western Civilization can withstand the blow.
With this crowd, you can provide perspective by asking "how would you feel if the original storyboards from the three original star wars movies were destroyed by fire, along with the original models of the millenium falcon, et al?"
They're organized, I know it. Ginger, she's their leader, I reckon.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
And Leonardo DaVinci's notebooks were nothing but pieces of parchment that he scribbled on, too.
/.). This isn't about eBay fodder -- this is about the process and development of an artist. Should future animators wish to learn from Nick Park's storyboards, they'll have to look at his later work. And that's very sad.
For many artists, process is often more valuable than the finished product. As a graphic design student, I find seeing the sketches and previous versions of some of the designers I admire very illuminating. Paul Rand famously provided his clients with process books (including one client notable to
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Cheese it! It's the FEDS!
If my office burned down tomorrow, I'd need the offsite backup take restored onto a new server, a new Macintosh, a new desk, and a chair. That's it.
And a source of power and security to guard all that 24-7 in the blackened empty lot that used to be your office building.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
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")
Also, Gromit is not a real dog!
The loss of the Wallace and Gromit material is just one instance of a much larger process of history destruction that goes on continuously. More than half of all the movies ever made have been lost forever, because they mouldered away in vaults and filing cabinets instead of being out in free circulation, their owners hoarding them on the chance that one day they might produce profit, or forgetting them entirely and letting them crumble away. Simple neglect can be as destructive as fire or any other disaster.
As Intellectual Property rights are strengthened, this type of loss is going to happen more and more. Rights holders will have tight control over the distribution of "their property," even to the extent of disabling it whenever they want. Fewer and fewer unmonitored copies will exist, and more and more material will be simply yanked out of circulation because it competes with something newer that somebody wants to sell.
I collect Old Time Radio shows from the 1940s and earlier. Thanks to our Congressmen-for-hire, these shows and ALL audio recordings made before 1972 are still copyrighted, and will remain so until the year 2067. Theoretically the only legal copies are those kept by the rights holders. Ironically, most of the shows that still exist have survived only through the illegal activities of a diehard fan community. Most old time radio shows were never intended to be heard again. They were recorded only so they could be retransmitted later to different time zones, or simply so the studio didn't have to be in the same building as the transmitter. Most were destined for the trash, or sometimes already in the trash, when they were rescued and taken home by radio station engineers and the like, later to be copied to tapes, CDs and mp3s over the years, and sold/traded/handed out to other collectors. These "pirates" have kept this material alive for decades while the original rights holders in most cases did absolutely nothing. These old shows may not be great literature, but they do provide an invaluable record of popular American entertainment during one of the greatest times in our history, showing us what average everyday people thought was funny, interesting and frightening at that time. You can't get that sort of thing out of a book, and we wouldn't have it today if everybody had played by the rules.