David Sproxton
Shooting Stars > Authors > David Sproxton
Together with co-founder Peter Lord, David has overseen the
development of the company from a two-man partnership to one of
the pre-eminent animation houses in the industry. David has served as
a producer, director or cinematographer on a number of animated
projects at Aardman.
Sproxton and Lord met at school and in 1970 made their first animated film. It was a crude piece yet showed enough talent for a BBC Children’s Television producer to offer the pair a chance to make short animated films for his programme Vision On. After graduating from Durham University, David decided to pursue filmmaking full-time. In 1972, Sproxton and Lord formed Aardman. Their first professional creation was the character Morph, who went on to star in the BBC series The Amazing Adventures of Morph.
During this period, the duo made two short animated films, Down and Out and Confessions of a Foyer Girl, to which they applied the groundbreaking technique of using recorded conversations of real people as the basis for the script. Later, five more films called Conversation Pieces, using the same ‘vox pop’ technique, were commissioned by Channel 4. Vox pop was also utilised in Aardman’s Lip Synch series for Channel 4 which included Nick Park’s Oscar®-winning short Creature Comforts. In addition to Nick, the studio is known for discovering and nurturing new filmmakers.
David co-produced Aardman’s first feature film Chicken Run, made in association with DreamWorks, which was released in June 2000, and he also co-produced the Wallace and Gromit feature, The Curse of the Wererabbit in association with DreamWorks which was released in October 2005. He is involved in the many TV projects the studio is developing including Angry Kid, Shaun the Sheep and Chop Socky Chooks.
David spent nine years on the board of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Trust. He is also a Board Director of Encounters Festivals which oversees Brief Encounters (Bristol’s celebration of the short film) and Animated Encounters, its sister animation festival. He is also on the Board of the UK Film Council and the National Film Television School. In Aardman’s 30th year, David and Peter Lord are celebrating being awarded CBEs in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Sproxton and Lord met at school and in 1970 made their first animated film. It was a crude piece yet showed enough talent for a BBC Children’s Television producer to offer the pair a chance to make short animated films for his programme Vision On. After graduating from Durham University, David decided to pursue filmmaking full-time. In 1972, Sproxton and Lord formed Aardman. Their first professional creation was the character Morph, who went on to star in the BBC series The Amazing Adventures of Morph.
During this period, the duo made two short animated films, Down and Out and Confessions of a Foyer Girl, to which they applied the groundbreaking technique of using recorded conversations of real people as the basis for the script. Later, five more films called Conversation Pieces, using the same ‘vox pop’ technique, were commissioned by Channel 4. Vox pop was also utilised in Aardman’s Lip Synch series for Channel 4 which included Nick Park’s Oscar®-winning short Creature Comforts. In addition to Nick, the studio is known for discovering and nurturing new filmmakers.
David co-produced Aardman’s first feature film Chicken Run, made in association with DreamWorks, which was released in June 2000, and he also co-produced the Wallace and Gromit feature, The Curse of the Wererabbit in association with DreamWorks which was released in October 2005. He is involved in the many TV projects the studio is developing including Angry Kid, Shaun the Sheep and Chop Socky Chooks.
David spent nine years on the board of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Trust. He is also a Board Director of Encounters Festivals which oversees Brief Encounters (Bristol’s celebration of the short film) and Animated Encounters, its sister animation festival. He is also on the Board of the UK Film Council and the National Film Television School. In Aardman’s 30th year, David and Peter Lord are celebrating being awarded CBEs in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
