Scene on Screen: A new exhibition from the Cosgrove Hall Films Archive at Waterside

New exhibition, ‘Scene on Screen’, goes behind the scenes of BAFTA and RTS Award-winning Cosgrove Hall Films.

The exhibition will feature set pieces from stop motion favourites such as Postman Pat © Waterside

This new exhibition from the Cosgrove Hall Films Archive will explore animated worlds, sharing recent acquisitions to the archive, including original design drawings and concept artwork from The Reluctant Dragon, Count Duckula and The BFG.

The show will also feature props and set pieces from stop motion favourites such as Postman Pat and Wind in the Willows.

Audiences will escape to Postman Pat’s Village Green and have a unique opportunity to view original hand drawn artwork by founder Mark Hall, loaned from Bridget Appleby, one of Cosgrove Hall Films Art Directors.

Within animation, a location could feature for a split second and yet designers, writers and art directors work tirelessly before production begins, laying out, developing back stories and building out whole worlds to accompany and rationalise design decisions. This is a practical tool to stage and frame their shots, but it also creates more convincing stories for audiences to get lost in. Animated worlds are an escape, and these story worlds are the stage for the performances to play out.

A designer’s role is to visualise a writer’s story and bring that to life, translating it into a convincing story world for audiences. In the initial stages of building an animated world, a designer might sketch out their ideas and keep reworking these: drawing and redrawing the terrain, picking out different formations of rocks, house styles, trees, evaluating what works and what doesn’t.

This process of experimenting and evaluating determines the overall appearance of the world and sets the tone of the animation. These dreamlike scenes are not shown in the final animation but help build believable relatable worlds.

The exhibition has been created with specialist insider interviews from two of children’s television’s most talented Art Directors Bridget Appleby and Barbara Biddulph, who both worked at Cosgrove Hall Films as Production Designers and Art Directors.

The Gallery 74 space will be displaying work from Cosgrove Hall Films Art Director Bridget Appleby including recent loans from Pied Piper of Hamelin, plus character designs by Bridget’s own hand, set within the worlds of Oakie Doke, Andy Pandy and BAFTA award-winning The Reluctant Dragon.

Curator and archivist, Rosy Whittemore says: “This exhibition will lift the lid on some of the detailed processes behind building worlds in animation, this is a rare opportunity for people to see drawings and artwork that have never be seen before from timeless classics such as The BFG and award-winning The Reluctant Dragon. People will be able to see different stages of the process giving a scarcely explored insight into the finer details of production design and art direction.”

Brian Cosgrove, The Cosgrove Hall Story says: “This is fine artwork. To have the imagination to visualise these viewpoints on a subject, to have the skill and control to translate that imagined vision down into a drawing, to have created for himself a linear language that is pleasing to the eye and draws you in, to have a store of accurate, memorised details to elaborate and decorate the design.”

The Scene on Screen exhibition runs from Saturday 23 September 2023 to Saturday 06 January 2024 in the Lauriston Gallery at Waterside and is free entry.

🕙 Open Monday – Saturday 10:00 – 17:00.

📍 1 Waterside, Sale M33 7ZF.