Q&A With Steve Cox (Merchandise
Illustrator)
The following is an e-mail received from Steve Cox on the 13th
April 2008. Also specific interest should be paid to the two
screenshots beneath the article. The first is the front cover
from the Stick 'N' Glow book, while the second is a truly unique
scan from his own portfolio of the very same book. |
Thanks for your email. I didn't
know there was such a hard-core following for the show?! It's
great to see somebody archiving this stuff, such an underrated
show that deserved much more success than it got. Great site by
the way...so much stuff!
I'll try and answer your questions as best I can but we are
talking over twenty years ago so my memory is going to be
tested...
On your site you happened to mention that you
visited the show's studios on several occasions, is there
anything you particularly remember, such as the animation that
was going on or the size of the sets?
I visited the CMTB studios a few times between 1985 and 1988. I
remember going to two different locations, both in Kingswood,
Bristol. , My main impression was of quite a dark studio area
where they were doing the filming. The actual main set of
Trapdoor was pretty small but you can imagine there were lumps
of plasticine and that expanding foam all over the place I
remember being particularly impressed with a large lump of pink
plasticine which turned out to be 'Rog'. Was it Rog? There was a
very ancient looking editing machine where they did all the
syncing and splicing. they had tapes of Willie Rushton's voice
that they were filming the stories to. I think it was the first
time I realised that The voices were recorded first and the
animation was done to that as Aardman and Nick park have
perfected over the years. I vaguely knew Rob Copeland who was
editing there at the time as he went to college with a best mate
of mine in Bristol.
Next to the main filming area was another office where I was
introduced to a very young Steve Box. He was basically employed
on the then called YTS - Youth Training Scheme which was a
scheme set up by the government to get young people off the dole
and into work by contributing to their wages or something like
that.
Steve was doing a mixture of model-making and storyboarding.
Once I was there he was working on a proposed follow-up to
something called 'Stop it! Tidy up!' or something similar. I
don't think it got got off the ground. It looked like a pretty
crazy but fun environment to work though.
We are aware that you worked on the Stick 'N'
Glow book, but what other merchandise did you happen to work on
related to The Trap Door and do you have any further examples we
could see?
I basically got involved with Trapdoor when I was asked to do
some small Trapdoor Books for (what was then called) Collins
Publishers in Grafton Street in London. Collins seemed to be
doing all the Trapdoor books at the time and they had already
published one book illustrated by somebody else. I was asked to
do a small series of 'mini' books first and these seemed to find
favour with Charlie Mills and Terry Brain so I was asked to do
more. I did the Stick n' Glow Book and another which contained
press-out figures and a fold out background featuring a swamp
with the castle in the distance. I have these books boxed up
somewhere in storage but I can't put my hands on them right now.
I'm due a big clear out in the next few months so if anything
comes to light I'll let you know. I also have one of the
original storyboards for the show drawn by Charlie I think, they
gave it to me as a present. If that comes to light I'll do some
scans and send you.
Through working on these books I came into contact with a
company called Link Licensing who looked after the merchandising
deals and may have raised the finance to get the series going in
the first place. I got more involved with them as time went on,
most notably with the Cosgrove Hall series Count Duckula.
The only other bits of merchandising I remember being directly
involve with was for a couple of toy products for a now defunct
company called Merit (they are probably best well-known for
their game 'Magic Robot'. I did a child's 'ride-on' vehicle
called The Trapdoor Bus and another boxed game which had
something to do with mirrors but I don't remember much else. I
don't think there was a huge amount of merchandise for the show
as it wasn't a big hit and due to it being a short programme
didn't get the exposure it should have done. The only other
thing I can remember was some stationery stuff by Berol, Tins of
felt tips and the like
Finally did you ever enjoy watching the show and
were there any particular characters that you would class as
being your favourite?
Yes, I loved the show and watched all of the episodes. I have an
early production video so I saw some of the episodes before they
aired.
Difficult to name a favourite. I did think Rog was
brilliant...and the big red angry one whatever he was called. I
remember something large and yellow too...I'll have to get the
DVD and watch them again. |
I hope that's of some interest
anyway...good luck with the website.
Have you tried getting in contact with either Charlie Mills or
Terry Brain? I know Charlie works at Aardman and Terry does from
time to time but the last time I saw them was about seven years
ago, just before Chicken run was released.
All the best
Steve Cox |
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Letter from Nigel Davies (Eyes
In The Dark)
The following is a letter received from Nigel Davies on the 31st
March 2008. It highlights just what he had to go through when
putting together the opening credits and where the initial
inspiration came from for such an idea. Unfortunately he doesn't
seem to think there would be much hope in bringing back the
show, due to declining budgets for children's shows and import
of USA creations, but he does state that he would love to work
on the show once again.
Dear Chris
Many thanks for your letter - it's just landed on my desk!
Congratulations on your website, it's great to see a series like
'Trapdoor' still inspires such interest. Working in animation,
projects tend to be short-lived, it's always a pleasant surprise
when something you have worked on has a resonance.
I shall always be grateful to Charlie and Terry for giving me my
first job in animation! I had just graduated from art school at
Bristol Polytechnic (as it was then). They were looking for a
junior assistant to help with some animated business training
films they were making for Terry Wogan; and luckily they asked
at the art school if they could recommend anybody. The rest, as
they say, is history!
Charlie and Terry were developing 'Trapdoor' at the same time,
and needed a title sequence. As I remember they didn't have the
time or money to shoot a '3-D' sequence incorporating the
characters - so the idea came along to just animate their eyes!
It seemed to fit in with the concept of the show that they were
in the dark (under the trap-door) hence the 'eyes in the dark'
sequence was born.
The sequence was all animated traditionally in 2D: drawn on
paper then linked and painted on acetate cel and filmed on a
rostrum camera on, I think, 16mm. I can remember starting work
with CMTB in Charlie's flat, but luckily they had just moved to
bigger premises where I had room to lay the cels out to dry.
It would be great to see some new episodes, I always thought
that Charlie and Terry had some really lovely original ideas - I
suspect that money would be a problem. Budgets for children's
animated series are proportionately less these days and the
number of potential funding broadcasters fewer, and more
USA-centric. And of course a suitable replacement would need to
be found for the late, great Willy Rushton.
Best of luck with the site! |
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Q&A with Steve Box (Thing Doer)
After writing to Steve Box on the 18 February 2007, I just couldn't believe the
effort he'd taken to reply to me only four days later. One of
the key figures behind the success of Wallace & Gromit, the
response he gave to the questions below are really worth
a read, including the excellent drawing of Drutt.
What ever happened to the clay animation models of Berk,
Boni, and Drutt?
Berk was the only plastacine model and so far as I know none of
the originals exist. Clay has a very limited shelf-life and
tends to dry out and crack over time - his eyes were resin
though, so they might still be rolling around somewhere.
I'm not sure what Terry and Charlie have still got in the way of
puppets but I myself am lucky enough to have an original Boni.
He's standing (if that's what a head does?), on a shelf next to
my bed alongside Feathers McGraw from The Wrong Trousers. They
seem to get along just just fine!
How large was the actually set you were working on?
The main set with The Trap Door in it was about four metres
square - not very big - and was made from chipboard, cardboard
and insulation foam (which supported the cardboard walls.)
Charlie invented an amazing system of lighting set ups for Trap
Door whereby you choose your set from the set store (some where
very small) and placed it straight onto a table between the
appropriate marks - so it was immediately lit! - All we had to
do was load the Bolex, wind it up and shoot!
Where did you come up with the idea of a Trap Door that
unleashed such bizarre monsters and creatures all the time?
The idea of the Trap Door came from Terry and Charlie - they had
made a crude short piece of animation for a competition while
they were at school, in which creatures popped out of a Trap
Door. I'm not sure but I think they may have won a prize for it
- it may even have been on 'Screen Test'.
Is there any amusing hidden references behind Berk’s
sayings such as “Its Bonking Time”, and “Bonk That!”?
'It's Bonking Time', 'Bonk That' and all those 'Berky' sayings
were really a result of our first meeting with Willie Rushton.
For some bizarre reason he came all the way down to Bristol from
London to see us - we took him to the local pub of lunch and not
only did he sup up the beer he also soaked up the local accent
and it's colloquial phrases. I remember Willie leaving us,
wandering off mimicking out Bristolian voices - it was like Berk
waddling away. Terry and I used to write the scripts so,
following from Willies lead, we just added more and more of our
own local phrases - I'm sure you know what the 'Bonking' meant!
Out of all the characters you created do you have a
favourite?
My favourite character in Trap Door is definitely Boni. I still
think it's amazing how comical and expressive he is - and he has
no moving facial features at all! - this definitely gave me
confidence in dealing with penguin in The Wrong Trousers. You
can do so much with so little. Boni is made of resin and is in
two parts, you just stuck him in a lump of Blu-tack with a piece
of aluminium wire to support the top of his head and away you
went. Incidentally, all the voices were recorded after the
filming (unlike Wallace and Gromit), so we guessed at the
duration of words and Willie just did his best to fit his
dialogue to it.
Did you get any ideas for how Berk, Boni, or Drut should
be from friends, family, or even your own personalities?
This is very simple and fun to answer; Berk is Terry , Boni is
me and him upstairs was Charlie! - They typified all our
characters. Any trouble and I would start complaining, moaning
nagging and saying that, ' I had headache', while Terry would
say, 'Oh, you don't wanna' worry about that - just stuff a worm
in it! (or the like). While Charlie, Terry and I would just have
mucked about all day - although come to think of it, that is
pretty much what we did.
Drutt was based on a dung Beetle - hence his name if you spell
it backwards!
When I wrote to Terry back in 2004 he mentioned a possible
series/movie being in their early stages. Do you ever plan to
bring the show back even for a short time?
I spoke to Charlie recently about the notion of a possible Trap
Door movie. I think it would be great idea and I would love to
have some kind of involvement. Unfortunately I believe the
rights are very much tied up and difficult to get a hold of.
Finally could you tell me how you each got into working in
model animation. Did you go to university etc?
I really did fall into animating by chance. I met Terry and
Charlie after applying for job at CMTB as a cartoonists. I
didn't get that position but kept in touch and when they started
work on The Trap Door pilot they took me on - It was a model
animation and I took to it like a duck to water. I still love it
now - it's spontaneity and the fact that the characters really
do exist in three dimensions.
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Letter From Terry Brain
(Animator, Director)
This is a letter I received from Terry Brain around
November/December of 2004. What you might specifically notice
about it is the mention of a possible series or movie being in
their early stages, however, since Terry Brain left Aardman
Animation as of 2006 it seems this may be in doubt.
Dear Chris
Load've thanks for your letter, and sorry I've taken so long to
get back to you.
It's great to know that there are people that still enjoy a show
that's 20 years old! An Internet site would be great, so if you
need any specific questions answered then please contact me via
Aardman, which is where I work at present.
There may be some new Trap Door stuff appearing (series/movie?)
but things are still in their early stages.
Thanks again for writing and sorry for the quick squabbled
letter, but with Christmas coming and work becoming more intense
they're ain't much time in the day!
Cheers
Terry Brain |
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