Wallace and Gromit creators hire film graduate to work on next big hit

Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman Animation has employed a Staffordshire University film graduate to work on their next big hit. Jon Ryan, 23, from Lemington Spa, landed his dream job as a motion camera operator on the animated comedy The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.

The BSc (Hons) Film Production and Technology graduate has been working on the film since March, using the skills he learnt on his course developing and using new camera technology.

He said: “For my final year project I was looking at interactive media and 360 degree cinema that could be projected onto a curved screen. So I tried to create a rig that could film in 360 degrees using different equipment and testing different ideas.

“In the end I got four small cameras and I connected them all together so each camera could film a different angle. I was looking at new technologies and what images they could get.”

“With my job at Aardman, when the camera needs to move, because it’s stop motion, it’s controlled by motors. I program the motors to move where I want the camera to go. And that way I can do that move over and over again.

“Motion control is relatively new but it’s used in everything now and there’s not that many people that can do it.”

He added: “There’s nothing like working for Aardman. Pixar have a great reputation for their work place and Aardman is just the same. In the building, there are great places for people to meet and come up with new ideas. It works really well.”

As he is working at Aardman freelance, Jon is also a partner in Yeah Sure Man!, a film production company based in the Midlands that he set up with a friend.

He said: “We have just come back from filming the Nass Festival, in Somerset, where there were only two of us with filming equipment, so we covered it with backstage press access for the organisers. It was so much fun.

“We’re currently building the website for the company and hoping to move this forward in the future.”

Source: Katy Cowan, Creativeboom.co.uk, Thursday 18th August 2011