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The Studio System
"The strength of any studio lies in the artistry and skill of its technical departments [...] Animation, like all film production, needs the expert collaboration of many artists and technicians." - 21 Years Halas & Batchelor Cartoons Films Ltd. London 1961 (no pagination) This citation from a promotional booklet published to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the studio reflects upon the internal structures of the Halas & Batchelor studio. Throughout its history, the studio constantly emphasised and promoted its creative and technical expertise. In particular the importance of new equipment and the appointment of new staff were promoted in studio press releases and in articles in trade and specialist magazines, as was their creative output. The studio's anniversary also provided a great opportunity for them to promote technological developments and to describe upcoming productions. It also enabled the studio to present a clear and coherent structural breakdown of the studio units.
Both John Halas and Joy Batchelor were previously engaged in contract work for other companies, which included commercial artwork, illustration and design. After the move from the Bush House office, the formal setup of Halas & Batchelor in 1940 was less that of an animation studio than a commercial design studio. This in part reflected the need for business, and the lack of funding and sponsorship for animation productions. According to Joy Batchelor, it was not until much later that they were able to get back to working with film (draft manuscript held in the archive). The studio was unable to develop its own projects during most of the 1940's. This was due to the lack of finance and their dependence on sponsored and corporate production funding. Their first self-financed film was the experimental production Magic Canvas (1948).
A significant shift in the history of the company occurred in 1947 with the production of the Charley series for the Central Office of Information. It confirmed that the company could produce a series developed around a central character. This level of production value remained a key signature of the studio. John Halas was later to comment in 1955 that the key to good animated commercials was strong narrative and characterisation (untitled newspaper interview, held in collection). Of equal importance for the company was the commission for The Shoemaker and The Hatter for the Marshal Plan. The film was one of the films later used by Lother Wolff to convince Louis de Rochemont that Halas & Batchelor were capable of producing Animal Farm.
During the production of Animal Farm Halas & Batchelor employed over seventy people based in different offices in London, including a studio in Stroud. In texts held in the archive, the number of staff employed during the production series varies from author to author: figures range between 70 to 100. At the time of starting the production of Animal Farm in 1951, the studio experienced a large increase in personnel: some of these were former employees from Anson Dyer's studio. To support the production of Animal Farm, Halas & Batchelor established Animation Stroud Ltd. formed in 1951 under the management of Harold Whitaker. The Stroud department became an established part of Halas & Batchelor and became the training base for new staff and new generations of animators. In order to sustain its high level of output and development, the studio was proactive and flexible in identifying and exploiting new markets. It achieved this by recruiting talented staff and advisors whose skills and knowledge helped to achieve these results. The company actively promoted this aspect of its work in promotional leaflets and in the trade press.
Due to the high demands that making these films put on the studio, they were forced to divide the studio space into different units on different production areas. This also extended to setting up divisions dedicated to key commercial areas of the studio. These divisions are highlighted in the studios promotional leaflet celebrating their 21st anniversary. A further indication of the studio units and staffing structures are provided in a financial report from 1967. Much of the structure had not changed from that of 1950, except the creation of additional units aligned to different commercial areas that the studio competing in. The most notable change by the 1960's was the number of educational and training related films developed and produced by Halas & Batchelor.
Creative Processes and Techniques
During its long period of creative output Halas & Batchelor used a wide range of animation techniques and equipment. Some examples:
Widescreen: Cinerama
Halas & Batchelor's working relationship with De Rochemont initiated in 1951 lead to a number of different film projects that in part resulted in the company setting up an office in New York. Another film that the studio worked on with De Rochemont was the production of Cinerama Holiday (1953). The film exploited the new Widescreen technique. Halas & Batchelor's contribution to the film's production was to create continuity sequences that linked the different travelogue segments. Technically, these non-animated continuity segments required that both John Halas and Joy Batchelor produce artwork large enough and in the correct proportions for it to work with the new aspect ratio. John Halas provides a description of the process and the design problems faced with this project in The Technique of Film Animation (1968:306-308).
The engineer and designer (name unknown at present) involved in producing the Cinerama camera also worked with Halas & Batchelor in constructing the camera for the stereoscopic film The Owl and the Pussycat (1952). John Halas and Joy Batchelor produced the artwork for Cinerama Holiday in New York and, in a different capacity, also redesigned the De Rochemont offices while working on the continuities. There are indications that Halas & Batchelor also worked on two draft synopses of story ideas (The Tunnel of Love, A Fishing Story) to be produced in Cinerama (scripts held in Archive).
Stereoscopic
Following the launch of new cinematic gauges and screen sizes, Halas & Batchelor began to take advantage of these new developments. Their decision to produce The Owl and The Pussycat as a stereoscopic film reflected this positive outlook. It could also be argued that their relationship with De Rochemont and their interest in producing work that would do well in the American market contributed to their decision to produce The Owl and The Pussycat in this format. A non-stereoscopic version was also released and it is this version that most people would have seen. At the time of the film's release it was promoted as the first stereoscopic animated film.
Paper Sculpture
Prior to the release of the Snip and Snap series in 1961, the studio promoted the unique production as a new process and technique, an excursion from 2D into 3D object animation. The paper sculptures were done by Thok (Thoki Yenn) a Danish artist working in origami and kirigami, who prior to his contract with the studio had been experimenting with animating paper cut and folded animals. To increase awareness for the series, the studio produced sets of flat model sheets that the public could make into figures from the series - a canny stab at merchandising (examples held in the archive). This creative technique seems to have been used only in the production of this series - however, it is possible that it was used for commercials. The characters' figures were made from folded card similar to origami and the figures were animated using single frame shooting. The settings for the stories were often compositions of origami backgrounds and everyday objects.
HABA Cellgraph system
It should be clear that commercial television had a profound effect on the production methods of the studio. In particular, like many others, Halas & Batchelor realised that in order to be competitive they needed to produce films quicker and at lower costs. The need for new processes can be understood in the way they actively promoted this one.
A new process of cartoon animation was developed, reducing both the time and cost of production without the loss of artistic quality.
—21 Years Halas & Batchelor Cartoons Films Ltd. (London 1961 no pagination, author unknown)
Halas & Batchelor's innovative method was to draw directly onto the cel rather than produce a large number of line drawings. The studio emphasised the technique in interviews and showcased the process through the marketing of their first major animated series Foo Foo which was first broadcast on ITV in 1959. The series was bought for syndication in the USA and became the first British animated series to be screened on American television.
Another example to this creative process is the HabaTales series, which was a series of five distinct narratives. Although the studio advertised that they drew directly on the cel, examples of the extended storyboard of The Insolent Matador (1959-60) reveal that the story was segmented. The detailed breakdown of the storyboard insured that the animators remained tightly controlled in the parameters of the drawing. The Flash version of two sections of the storyboard on the resource page gives a good example of how the films was broken up into distinct segments .
The HABA Cellgraph system was developed further for their production of animated commercials. An insightful example of this is mentioned in a newspaper review that discussed the possible record for the quickest animated commercial. The commercial was designed to promote a play staged in London (The Brides of March, 1960) written by John Chapman. The commercial's script and storyboard were developed by John Halas and the artwork done directly onto the cels. An article in Television Mail reported on the commercial:
This unusual performance was accomplished by the act of three technical allies: the Halas-method of direct animation upon cel; the Oxberry camera, which has revolutionised optical and animating printing, and the possession by Halas & Batchelor of its recording facilities.
—'Storyboard to Cartoon Spot in one week', Television News, 12 July, 1960, p.22
3D Model/Puppet animation
Halas & Batchelor used this animation technique for only a few films. Their first production using the technique was The Figurehead. As noted in other sections of this site, this technique was not their original choice, but it was selected because of the studio's commitments to the production of Animal Farm. Halas & Batchelor had previously worked on productions that used models - the best example is Handling Ships (1944/45). 3D model animation remained one of the studio's palette of techniques over the years but by 1980 there was less emphasis on it. The last puppet animation the studio produced was King Rubic: The King's Cold (1983). Unfortunately, much of the animation was not done in the UK, but was contracted out to Pannonia Film Studios in Hungary. Ferenc Cakó was responsible for puppets, design, animation and direction. There was one other case in which the studio considered using model/puppet animation in a production. In their script development for E.B. White's Charlotte's Web they proposed that model animation be used for the characters of Charlotte and Templeton. From material held in the Archive, it would seem that the proposed production was also to include a mixture of photography, film and model animation. Unfortunately, the film was never completed.
Computer Animation
The studio was actively involved in exploring new technologies, no doubt inspired by John Halas' early interest in the use of computers in animation. In 1967 the studio produced Modern Mathematics, the first computer-generated film in Britain, and in 1979 experimented with a combination of video, computer and hand drawn techniques the film Autobahn (cat ref. 9905) which used the sound track by the German minimalist pop group Kraftwerk. The completed film was also released in video discs format. The studio went on to use computer-generated images in the production of Dilemma (1981). In contrast to the production of Autobahn, the film was fully digitised. John Halas's interest in computer animation is also evident in a number of books and articles he authored. Another film that also intended to utilise computer animation work was The Big Sneeze (date unknown).
Studio units
We have seen in other sections of this text how the departments and units reflected the production and commercial needs of the studio. The division of the studio followed that of most traditional studios, with dedicated areas for Tracing and Painting, background artists and Camera.
As indicated in the company's 21st anniversary publication in 1961, the department heads and titles were:
Jack King, Head of Sound and Editing
John Cooper, Head of Storyboarding
Harold Whitaker, Head of Animation
Bernard Gitter, Head of Advertising films
Vic Hotchkiss, Head of Model Camera Department
Vic Bevis, Key Animator
Bill Traylor, Chief Cameraman
Charles Green, Head of Sound Effects
After 1961 the structure of the studio remained in principle the same. However those changes that did occur reflect the changes in commercial advertising, promotional and education films market in the United Kingdom. The one unit that was changed by 1967 was the Model Camera Department this partly reflected the in the studio's reorientation towards to television and educational production. Another major shift was the formation of the Science Unit to support development of educational science films for the Concept Loops series (1961-69). This is evident in the 1968 report on personnel structure prior to the sale of shares in the studio to Tynes Television. While there are distinct unit breakdowns between commercial areas of production that distinguish between educational from commercial animation, the animation and filming would have been done at the same animation studio.
The 1968 report listed the personnel working in different sections of the studio at the time, indicating the departmental heading, titles and responsibilities of some of the staff employed by Halas & Batchelor. They are in keeping with other major studios, in that women were mostly employed for tracing and painting or administrative jobs. It diverges, on the other hand, in the Science Unit, where all the assistant animators were women. Joy Batchelor was one of the few women in the UK (and abroad, for that matter) that were involved in directing and producing.
Administration | |
Managing Director: | John Halas |
Consultant: | Leslie Oliver |
Secretary and Accountant: | Robert Salmon |
Manager of Studios and Personnel: | Bernard Gitter |
Manager of Science and Education: | Alan Burke |
Secretary to John Halas: | Patricia Gray |
Receptionist: | Joanna Lowe |
Trainee Artist and Manager: | Geoffrey Short |
Science Unit | |
Head of Department: | Brian Borthwick |
Key Animator: | Vic Nevis |
Key Animator: | Stuart Wynn Jones |
Assistant Animator: | Ann Goodwin |
Assistant Animator: | Valerie Pearce |
Assistant Animator: | Leslie Manner |
Assistant Animator: | Josie Roxburgh |
Services |
Art Camera Tracing and Painting Editing Research and Development Scripts and Storyboards Advisor It should be obvious from the amount of staff that the studio was a major international player in animation production at the time. However, the list does not reflected the ever-shifting nature of employment and the use of freelancers that animation studios often used. Some of the personnel continued to work in the industry and became involved in major animated shorts and feature films. Most notably is Tony Guy who was on Watership Down (1978) and Stan Hayward who has played an important role in British animation with his scripts for Godfrey's Henry's Cat (1982-84). Hayward's work thus indicates the interrelationship between Halas & Batchelor and Bob Godfrey Studios. Bibliography
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