Aardman Turn to the Dark Side for Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 commissioned Aardman Animations to create a three minute film to accompany an original new radio play, written by Sir Tom Stoppard celebrating the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s album, The Dark Side Of The Moon.

Dark Side, which will air on the August bank holiday, is a fantastical and psychedelic radio drama based on themes from the seminal album and stars a stellar cast which includes Bill Nighy, Rufus Sewell, and Adrian Scarborough. The lead roles will be played by Olivier Award-winning Iwan Rheon (Misfits) and stage actress Amaka Okafor (The Garbage King).

Aardman were given the opportunity to create two films to support the radio drama - a three minute promotional film for the event and an extended film loop to compliment the audio experience online and on the red button.

 

Watch the film here.

Aardman director, Darren Dubicki saw the piece working as a film trailer and the team spent time absorbing the rich detail from both Pink Floyd’s music and Sir Tom Stoppard’s play. In doing so they developed a striking visual concept where images juxtapose with carefully considered lyrics and dialogue from the play encompassing the underlying themes of greed, conflict, consumption, humanity and the descent into madness...

Dubicki, who was delighted to be given the opportunity to direct the film, says: “What was fundamentally important to us was that we retained a consistent visual tone that echoed the imagery created over the years for the band. The intensely surreal and powerful artwork created by Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis has always had a strong distortion on reality. Their sense of space and twisted context make for some uncomfortably beautiful art. This tone has been consistent for decades and we wanted to honour this with our contemporary digital (and analogue) slant on the style.”

Created using a collage of digital imaging, CGI, studio-based effects and hand crafted elements the films were produced with depth and richness that reflects the classic tone of Pink Floyd’s art. 

 

Credits

Title: Darkside

Client/Agency: BBC Radio 2

Producers: Rhian Roberts/ Rowan Collinson

Production Company: Aardman
Director: Darren Dubicki
Executive Producer: Heather Wright
Producer: Helen Argo                             
Production Assistant: Danny Gallagher
Production Co-ordinator: Louise Johnson

DOP: Mark Chamberlain    
Camera Assistant: Joe Maxwell            
Gaffer: Nat Sale
CG Modelling: Olly Skillman-Wilson
CG Modelling: David Klein
CG Modelling: Saul Freed
CG Animation: Mathew Rees
CG Animation: Rich Spence
CG Lighter: Andrew Lavery
Supervising Senior Compositor: Jim Lewis
Compositor: Spencer Cross
Compositor: Paule Quinton
After Effects artist: Tom Readdy
Editor: Dan Hembury
Special Thanks: Nathan Guttridge, Philip Child, Bram Ttwheam, Spencer Drayton, Will Norie, Jess McKillop, Sian Campbell