Lozenge

At the start of the project I decided we needed to come up with an appropriately chunky 1970s style wallpaper design for our taste-challenged character Wally. In order to research this I ended up with co-animator and layout artist Mark Naisbitt in the vaults of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Tucked away inside this labyrinthine building are endless examples of material, clothes, decor and assorted design from across the centuries, including massive tomes of wallpaper samples through which we were allowed to leaf with gloved hands, as if they were ancient religious texts. More and more volumes were brought up from the bowels of the building and wheeled towards us on trolleys. We spent a whole afternoon poring over this stuff - thousands and thousands of designs lovingly stored for history. Mark sketched several ideas based on the 'feel' of the period we had chosen, and finally we agreed on a new design. Mark christened the design 'Lozenge'.


This is 'Lozenge'...

...and here it is multiplied up.

Back at the studio Mark spent some time hand-drawing the design - with a little help from a photocopier - into a variety of perspectives so that we could 'wallpaper' the various angles of shot needed.

With subtle perspective...

...and more extreme.

Here's the final shot: a drunk's-eye-view of the wall clock.

Researching stuff like this is one of my favourite parts of the film making process - it takes you to places you probably wouldn't otherwise go, and introduces you to people you might not otherwise meet; and it's a chance to get away from the usual - sitting in a slightly darkened room staring into a monitor or a lightbox.