Director Nick Park has an unassuming demeanor, but he’s one of the giants of the stop-motion animation world. His Wallace & Gromit shorts are some of the best works of the genre, and he’s continually found ways to push this style of animation forward while still retaining a signature sense of humor that’s both irreverent and charming.

Earlier this year, I went to Aardman Studios with a small group of journalists to see the making of his new film, Early Man, which follows a prehistoric tribe that must go up against the citizens of the Bronze Age in a game of football in order to maintain their independence. At the end of our visit, we got to talk with Park. During our conversation, he talked about the inspiration for the movie, applying digital ideas to analog times, why he chose to tackle directing this project solo, if he might ever return to Wallace & Gromit, and more.

Check out the full interview below, and click here for my report on visiting the set. Early Man opens February 16, 2018.

early-man-poster

So did you work out all the animation of prehistoric times from inspirational research?

NICK PARK: Yeah, well I've always been, well from a kid being crazy about dinosaurs and prehistoric life. I knew all the ... way before Jurassic Park. I was obsessed with Ray Harryhausen movies. Particularly, we found quite inspiring what's the trailer? Well, I know one of the greatest movies in my childhood was 1,000,000 Years BC, so there is obvious reference to that in the opening.

Yeah, I knew my Harryhausen a little bit. We've even got two of the dinosaurs fighting at the beginning, called Ray and Harry, as a tribute.

Can you talk a little bit about the genesis of this project? Was it something that you wanted obsessively in prehistoric times, or was it the sports comedy aspect? What was it about this project the really leaped out at you?

PARK: Yeah, that's a good question, because I was looking for something. I didn't just want to make a prehistoric movie. It had to have something a bit quirky about it, and a little bit original. It was, it was just two things came together, and that's a way for ideas to arrest me, and make me, "Oh boy, this could be something." I think it's because I've never seen a prehistoric football match.

I think it came from the idea, and also the clay technique. I'm very much a clay man, myself. I thought it really lends itself to something prehistoric, and cavemen, sort of expressive and dim looking. But yeah, I think it was the idea sort of spawned from just kicking around ideas of cavemen and clubs. I started to think, "Now, what if cavemen played a sport?" It was the clubs that did it, really. But, then it came about, "What if cavemen couldn't swing clubs, but instead had to join one?"

So yeah, what if they had to put down their clubs, and the clubs were useless against a mightier force, and so had to play again, football, instead. That's how the whole thing started to evolve.

early-man-gong
Image via Lionsgate

There's a lot of little football references dotted around, so we've seen. Are you a big football fan yourself?

PARK: Well, I'm not really, I have to admit. I love watching the big games. I love watching the World Cup, but I think it maybe gives me an outsider's view on football or soccer. I do love the game, but I'm not a supporter of any.

I've been to matches since, and there's a lot of football fans working on the movie, so they've been really great in helping me, and informing. The writer, Mark Burton, is a big football fan, and I've had a couple of other writers involved, which are massive football fans.

It seems like there's a bit of a, maybe the U.K. or England, it reminds me of the England football team versus the most sophisticated continental team. So is that the kind of vibe you were going for?

PARK: I guess there is a little bit of that. I guess there is a bit of 1966. There's something, we tried very hard to make it universal, and not something that you have to know about British culture, and the whole football culture, which is massive. So, at the same time, I think I want the film to appeal to much more than football fans, but at the same time pay respect to football the way that fans would expect really, as well. But yeah ...

Also we didn't want, especially with the current climate, we didn't want anything to be anti-European in it, or anything like that, and to fly the wrong sort of flag.

Sure, of course, because this project, the genesis was long before Brexit.

PARK: It was.

You got the timing a bit, obviously, it's quite surprising.

PARK: It's very surprising, and very unexpected. We did in fact ask Tom Hiddleston to do an English voice at one point, just to see if that would help calm things, and not make it a particular political stance or anything. It was just funnier as a French accent. Even Studio Canal said, "Oh, it's a pity you lost the French accent." So, we changed it back again.

It's really that it's not so much about European politics, it's more about football and corruption of football, and the loss of the spirit of the game, really. Probably more ... Close ties with FIFA ...

What's the most fun part of making a movie?

PARK: Oh well, all of it, really. It's just, for me, just imagining an entirely new world and seeing that happen. There's something about, for me, the physical. The sets, and the figures, and the models. I love designing the characters. The whole working with Mark, the writer, and just coming up with ideas, I just love that. Then, seeing the whole process of it then becoming real on screen.

early-man-nick-park-interview
Image via Lionsgate

Okay, what's the least fun part?

PARK: The least, gosh. The length of time it takes. It's just so slow, any ... And it's just such a massive ... Directing it, for me is wonderful. I work with such a fantastic, talented group that in every aspect, lighting, model making, animation, editing, every aspect. But it's, for me, I think it was, what's his name? The director of Father Ted, writer of Father Ted?

Graham Linehan.

PARK: Graham Linehan. He said, because he was directing at one point on something, and he said, "It's like being pecked by a hundred chickens a day, constantly." I think it's like that from beginning to end, for 18 months, two years, really.

There are often two of you, actually directing, but this time it's just you.

PARK: Yeah, I just wanted to, I've got a couple of deputies who are animation directors, and they deal with a lot of the stuff. They take out a lot the hefty work for me, and I can stay more in editing, than script writing and storyboard and all these things, and character design and that kind of thing. But I just wanted to hold the reins myself on this one.

Because it was a very sort of personal project?

PARK: Yeah, I guess so, yeah, I've done it. I really appreciated working with fellow directors like Peter Lord and Steve Fox, but I just wanted to try it, it was a personal project, and I just wanted to yeah, to keep that one voice in the whole movie.

Can you talk a little bit about, for the Bronze Age, making analog versions of our digital world?

PARK: Yeah, I guess there always is that, because Bronze is the top of the technological thing at the time. Going from Stone Age to the Bronze Age. So there were kind of obvious parallels the whole time with technology. Is that what kind of thing you mean?

Just in terms of trying to design everything so that we can recognize what it represents in our modern day, even though you don't have electricity, for instance, in the Bronze Age.

PARK: That's right, yeah. You're right, there is that kind of parallel. Things start to run out, because you know you can't have cell phones in the Bronze world, but ... Yeah, exactly, he is a sort of, the message bird is a kind of equivalent to a text message, or whatever.

Yeah, we had other ideas, but they fell to the wayside. Of slates that were like iPads, and stuff. I've got to be kind of a bit careful, because there's a lot of humor that's just being done by everybody, so a lot tends to fall by the wayside because we can't fit it in the scene or ... But yeah, there's ... Yeah, my mind's gone blank on the other ideas.

early-man-nick-park-interview
Image via Lionsgate

Was the message bird something that was fairly persistent, or is that just in the one scene?

PARK: There's a couple of scenes for the message bird. Yeah, yeah. We liked it so much, we wanted to get it back in again.

With characters like that, there's obviously several animal characters. Does the design for stuff like that originate typically as an animal, and then involve into a character? Or, does it originate as a character that you give animal traits?

PARK: I think it was the idea itself that led really, on that, because it was ... It was like, going about what you were saying as well, it was like, what would the Bronze Age equivalent be of a modern thing? Like messaging, and phone messages and stuff. So I think it'd be, well, what could we use? Like a parrot-type, carrier pigeon-type, type thing.

So, it just came about like that, really, and because it's kind of an alter ego of the Queen, that was an interesting way of ... I think somebody said, it might have been at Studio Canal, who said, "Look, can we meet the Queen earlier?" But the only way we could do that, was to have her envoy come, and represent her. So it all evolved like that, really, it just suited. I think everything's led by, does it make us laugh? And that was one of those ideas.

We saw you acting out some of the early iterations of the characters. How clear in your mind are the characters when the process starts, or is it something you have to finesse?

PARK: Because I'm involved with the writing, I've come in it with a lot of ideas, and Mark's doing all the major writing work. But the ideas start there, really, they become quite solid in my head quite early on. So I tend to end up ... We call it "live-ing", the live-action video where we figure ourselves. I tend to do a lot of that, because I just got it in ... It's my way of conveying to Will and Merlin and also to the animators exactly what's in my head, and the kind of timing and everything. The nature of everything, really. It's not an accurate thing, but it gives them the main beats, really, of what I'm looking for.

In these final stages of production, what are your days like?

PARK: Busy. I'm not in that early, I tend to be about 9:00, 9:30, but we finish ... I'm here 'til 7:00 at least, every night. So they're not very long days, but I'm in Saturdays most weeks as well. It's more the intensity of the day—

early-man-dug-hognob-image
Image via Aardman, Lionsgate

Because it all seems so organized within itself. That everybody knows what to do. So what how do you oversee all of that?

PARK: Well, there's a regular pattern that I'm really told what to do, every 20 or 30 minutes. That's the basic answer. But there is a kind of regular pattern. Usually Will and Merlin have a million questions, or I have meetings where I brief them, and they have a chance to ask lots of stuff about…

We go through each scene, there might be a production meeting on each scene. I might need to see some shots that have come in, that I maybe have some questions, or problems. I'd spend time briefing story artists, and then I'd spend time re-briefing story ... As all ideas change, we put those story boards into the editing machine, add it, and we cut those around. We put temporary voices on, we put temporary music on.

Sometimes I'm in London recording actors, and then cutting it, choosing takes. I'm always way behind on... The studio floor is very hungry for... As the shots are rolling, and so they need to know. We need to have the dialog selected before. Yeah, so it's a million different things.

So you're overseeing this incredibly massive, well-oiled machine?

PARK: Yes.

Do you ever get the feeling that, "Actually, I started that mucking about with plasticine. I'd actually rather go back to that, and get smaller again." Do you ever get that?

PARK: Yeah, sometimes, but at the moment it's an amazing privilege to be involved in this. I kind of love where it is, but it's just, personally, it's very exhausting. It has been for two years or so. So, I'm looking forward to a break, but I'm also looking ... Each stage is very satisfying. Of seeing shots come in, and scenes are being realized.

early-man-nick-park-interview
Image via Aardman Animations

So after, you've got this break. What do you usually do? Do you do nothing, and it all kind of crashes, or does it immediately happen again, like all these ideas spring up?

PARK: Yeah, I've got ideas now, which are ticking, but of course that happens every time. That you're deeply involved in one thing, and there are ideas you can't use in this. That would be sparks, ideas. So yeah, there's always something bubbling away for another film.

But, I think I'd like to do something short, I think next. Just to free my mind a bit, really. But yeah, it's immensely satisfying doing it.

What has been the biggest challenge on Early Man, that you weren't expecting, based on your past work?

PARK: Yeah, my past work there's been a lot of Wallace and Gromit with, and checking on, and weighing in. Each scene obviously has a fixed kind of world with a whole lot of laws and parameters, so it's been great just being in an entirely new world that has to be imagined from nothing. So, working with the art department and deciding on what those rules are, that's been a big effort.

And when you create new characters, I guess, when it's feature length as well, the animation is one of those things. That's part of every day. That's what we do. So, it's really hard to create a story that is funny and compelling for 18 minutes. That's one of the biggest challenges ... and stays compelling and exciting, but also in a new world where characters need establishing, and we need to love those characters.

That's been a big ... You go around it many times, and get criticism. That's just everything ...

With such a big production, obviously every frame of the entire thing has been intricately planned in advance. Is there any room, or opportunity, or need, for pickup shots, or re-shoots, or anything? Or is that off the table in something like this?

PARK: Yeah well for me, that's what I like about this technique, really, because there's a lot of spontaneity happens, and because ... All the time you're kind of, I was going to say herding cats, but sounds a little ... I think you're heading incredibly creative people, who each have their own style and ideas, but they're all incredibly wanting to make this film work as a whole, and do what I want.

But the technique is open to interpretation. A lot of, because each shot is like a performance, you start at the beginning and you animate. You don't have the same opportunities to keep adjusting and conform everything. So there's a kind of a wild element to the whole thing, even though it's slow, and laborious technique.

Plus, we're shooting on a 100th set, whatever it is, 40. Is it 35, 40 sets at the same time? Keeping everything, but an animator might have an idea. One of my animating directors might contribute an idea, and we might find that halfway through a shot something isn't working or there might be a better way through. So it's constantly changing.

Or, I might get a shot into edit, and find it's great, but it sparks another idea. So we say, "Well, that's not it, can we just do a close up? We need a reaction shot," that kind of thing. So it's very 'as it goes' really.

early-man-nick-park-interview
Image via Aardman, Lionsgate

Where do you draw inspiration for all of these characters, because there are a lot of them?

PARK: Yeah, well I like to, I keep sketchbooks all the time, and I'm sketching. Then you find out new things when you make it into a 3D actual model. Find that something, "Oh, it's funnier to have the eyes close ... ". Oh, sorry, all my characters have their eyes close together. Or, you might find something else, just distances on the face, different proportions work better.

Do you get attached to maybe one or two, more in particular than others?

PARK: Yeah, yeah you do. Obviously, I've got the main characters up, but the villain is what lured me, I think, and Dino is getting a lot of response as well. His model is kind of a side-kick, and he's a referee in the match. Yeah, I love him as well, the way he's working, but Dug and Hognob are my favorites.

Do you ever get sick of your own characters after a while?

PARK: No, I don't really. I think that's the what the test's really. I don't get sick of them at all. I think it's rather they offer possibility all the time, and make ... I miss Wallace and Gromit.

Is there going to be more of them?

PARK: I hope so, yeah. Yeah, I do. Obviously it's difficult with the loss of Peter Sallis recently. The actor who played Wallace, Peter Sallis passed away. So that makes that more difficult, but I think Peter would've liked them to carry on. So yeah, so we'll find someone. We have got someone who has been his understudy as well, so yeah.