Dedicated to uncovering the astonishing craft and technical skills employed in the production of ground-breaking stop motion animation, this talk and screening introduces Mackinnon & Saunders, world leaders in character development for stop-motion puppets. The talk will shed light on the processes behind their design, construction and production.
Mackinnon & Saunders offers a full production service for stop motion and 2D digital animation projects from concept to final delivery and they can also help with individual elements of production: from concept and script development to character design, budgeting, scheduling, talent hire, shooting and post production.
Ian Mackinnon is a co-founder of Mackinnon & Saunders. His UK-based team are award-winning puppet makers and animation producers, specialising in IP development and creation of characters for commercials, TV series and stop motion feature production.
With over 30 years’ experience in the animation industry, credits include feature films Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!, Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox and TV series Postman Pat, Clangers, Bob the Builder, Raa Raa the Noisy Lion, Twirlywoos and most recently Andrew Davenport’s Moon And Me and Dwarf Studio’s upcoming Netflix series Rilakkuma and Kaoru.
Clients and collaborators around the world include Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, Warner Bros., NBCUniversal/DreamWorks, Disney, BlinkInk, Laika Studios and ShadowMachine, and characters made in the M&S workshop feature in MoMA’s blockbuster World of Tim Burton exhibition which continues to tour the world.
In 2006 Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders were honoured with an ASIFA Hollywood Ub Iwerks Award for the sophisticated head mechanisms developed for Corpse Bride and in 2015 Ian was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts by Staffordshire University.
