who we are

The most recent and best description comes from an article written by Tina Paas for the Ottawa Film Festival.

In an industry where the best bet is a safe bet, bolexbrothers studio is an anomaly. Flourishing in the shadow of so many sanitized conglomerates, the Bristol based studio is passing up the tried and and true techniques for the chance to test out new styles and bizarre concepts. Their subject matter, like their techniques, verge on scientific experiments; every film has the effect of peeling back the skin and exposing the guts of life, leaving the viewer both enlightened and a little queasy.

The studio emerged out of a desire to be different, a pirate enclave outside the boundaries of the world of film and animation. Founded by Dave Borthwick in 1983, the bolexbrothers began as a small group of freelancers who honed their skills working primarily in the live action industry. Borthwick, then working as a cameraman for the BBC, teamed up with fellow cameraman Dave Riddett and Nick Upton, a ‘natural all rounder’ with a penchant for pixilation. The trio were brought together by a nagging dissatisfaction with the terms and conditions that went along with the industry. “Our shared interest wasn’t in animation per se,” says Borthwick, “ it was more a frustration of having to work as specialists in film-making when in fact our interests were much more in the whole process from the conceptual through to directing, shooting and editing. The fact that I’ve ended up working in animation is due more to an unfailing fascination with the way film works.” Animation would have the most appeal for in it one could dissect and manipulate the minutiae in action, costume and set and each individual frame of film.

Armed with a little more than intent, a pioneering spirit and naturally, a Bolex camera, Borthwick and his company began experimenting with various animation techniques in the form of “ very low budget short films” set to music. Out of these early films came a keen interest in combining live action with stop motion. ” Live action and stop frame animation seem to lie at opposite ends of a pretty broad spectrum and I’ve always been fascinated by that ‘no man’s land’ in between the two.” A friend of Borthwick’s at the BBC heard about the techniques that they had been using and approached Borthwick to do a 10-minute piece for network television. The short came in the form of Tom Thumb, a dark little number loosely based on the 400-year old fairy tale. The story was a perfect vehicle for their burgeoning style, in that it contained both fiction and fantasy and loads of eccentricities. Appropriated throughout the centuries, the tale could at once contain wizards, fairies, kings and queens and had wee Tom sporting girdles & big hats, falling into lakes and puddings, being swallowed by cows, maimed by spiders and ingested by snakes. While there was no end to the scenarios, each tale was unified by a strong message - it was tough being a tiny guy in a big mean world. Keeping this in mind , Borthwick gave his rendition a more modern twist; little Tom is helpless against an ugly, far less pastoral, far more industrial world, where shifty bureaucratic misters, in a quest to leave no rock unturned , swallow Tom whole and spit him out. Unfortunately, the short didn’t do so well on television, due to the fact that it was a “ little too grotesque ” for the slot they assigned it (Christmas). However, it did put the studio on the map in terms of garnering interest from the animation community and the festival circuit. A year later the BBC approached them to remake Tom Thumb as a feature length: The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb.

So how does a relatively unknown studio, with only a few short films under it’s belt, deal with the prospect of creating a large film within a much larger time frame? Ordinarily, this would seem like a daunting feat, where noble artistic intentions are sacrificed to those intimidating high powers and big bucks. But Borthwick and his team hold on to their relatively unorthodox beliefs and the organic manner of film making that fueled their earlier projects. While the need for equipment necessitated the need for a larger studio the staff only increased by a handful. Borthwick continued to hire on people who were extremely interested in numerous , if not all aspects of film making. “It’s an exciting way of working because it creates an environment in which ideas are stimulated and drawn from all quarters, making for a a much richer end result, something that is greater than the idea that you started with.” As director of
the project he sought to provide inspiration to his crew rather than becoming a taskmaster. cont:
“ Creative energy and expertise need to be reciprocal and mutually inspiring on all levels of production. It seems pretty obvious that any director who’s entirely dependent on the crew to realize the film is seriously compromising the eventual vision they might have had.”

This free and easy manner of working with very little interference was aided by the fact that funding came from many companies, thus breaking it up into less worrisome amounts. After the initial start up funds provided by the BBC, the studio found it easier to attract other funding bodies. Support came from Manga Entertainment and La Sept TV in France as well as more unconventional sources such as John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame who “just liked the project” and fellow business partner Richard Hutchison. The crew worked for 18 months and squeezed out a most bizarre film, which combined pixilated live actors with stop motion - a twisted trick where the inanimate was coaxed to life while the living were reduced to freezing their movements frame by frame. As in the initial short, the film explored the plight of the underdog and the shady, sweaty,sourly decaying side of life.

The film was weird. It commanded attention. It became, and remains, the studio’s calling card. However the interest it gathered from a particular part of the industry was wholly unexpected. Shortly after the film was completed Borthwick was approached by a slew of ad agencies interested in using the studio’s gritty style to entice the masses. With the commercial work, the studio was able to access a larger audience , one that was initially turned off by the failure of the Tom Thumb Christmas short. It also started a snowball effect; the commercials attracted new talent who joined the studio to make short films, which were completely funded by the income from commercials. It was a very productive couple of years, where, in between commercials for Nestea, Coca Cola and Budweiser, they produced such award winning-films as Mike Booth’s The Saint Inspector (1996), Martin Davies’ Keep in a Dry Place and Away From Children (1998), and Paul Davies’ How Do You Feel. These short films portray a world filled with both cacophony and monotony, where the characters struggle with various forms of confinement, be it sexual, social or physical. The animation is treated with reverence; highly detailed, almost graceful movement and precise timing characterize the films.

The quality of the films produced during this period raised the profile of the studio; suddenly they were being mentioned in the same breath as fellow Bristol based company Aardman Animation. However, while their mediums were similar, their styles were so vastly different that there were no competitive worries. In fact the two studios have formed a a somewhat interesting arrangement out of their proximity in style and locale. The bolexbrothers perennially interested in uncharted waters grant new directors the chance to try out their various skills ( and produce some beautifully complex films) before settling in to a more specialised role at the much larger Aardman (if they so choose) On the flip side , many freelancers have been known to return to the studio after a stint at Aardman to work on their own projects.

And what’s the future? Advertising is a fickle market and the studio is currently experiencing a bit of a slump in that area, However, the time has been spent putting together ideas for more short and feature length films. The studio is currently working on a project with a company in France; a feature based on the cult puppet film series Magic Roundabout, originally created in the 60’s by Serge Danot. Always creatively flexible, they are also exploring the realm of interactive film and CGI. Styles may change, but the focus remains the same: “ I think good ideas shine through, even if production values are a little rough around the edges, whereas a weak idea can have as much money as you like thrown at it to tart it up, but it’s still a weak idea, and won’t really engage the imagination”. Rising from their humble beginnings, the studio is now recognised for their resourcefulness and their sincere attempts to push the boundaries of animation. The quality of their films and their innovative outlook will ensure a prosperous future and will no doubt influence a whole new generation of filmmakers