shots – Do something, Gromit! The beauty of sculpting a project frame-by-frame

Joseph Boyle, Head of Post

With the upcoming release of a new Wallace & Gromit film this Christmas, Wonderhatch Head of Post, Joseph Boyle looks at why more traditional filmmaking techniques still offer something special, despite the advancement of creative technologies.

Joe makes a powerful case for slower, more tactile methods of filmmaking — the kind built not with prompts and presets, but with hands, patience, and love.

Prompted by the upcoming release of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, he celebrates the timelessness of stop-motion and practical effects — techniques that embrace imperfection, and in doing so, spark unexpected moments of creative magic.

“We shouldn’t lose sight of the value of traditional techniques of storytelling,” he urges. “Building something piece-by-piece, frame-by-frame, still has a place.”

This passion reached new heights with the music video Tell Me Where To Go, a collaboration between Joe and musician Peter Beatty. Created using Disney-era multiplane animation (a painstaking method involving layered glass and frame-by-frame shooting), the project took two years to complete. And yet, the result — a surreal, star-scattered journey through a Kandinsky-inspired cosmos — has already earned a British Animation Awards nomination.

“Each second of action consists of 24 still shots, each with infinitesimal adjustments,” Boyle writes.

“It’s a process in which you need to embrace all the imperfections that come with doing things by hand. But there’s nothing quite like hitting play and watching the world you’ve created come to life.”

Ultimately, Boyle’s article is a love letter to traditional storytelling — not as nostalgia, but as a deliberate, emotionally rich counterpoint to today’s often frictionless creative tools. As the industry continues to evolve, he reminds us that slowness can be its own kind of innovation — one that invites deeper feeling, more meaningful collaboration, and unexpected brilliance.

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