Temple Church Tales

Working in partnership with the Aardman Academy (Yes, the Chicken Run Aardman), and with Creative Youth Network, we explored Temple Church in Bristol and used animation to tell some of its stories.

Young people from Creative Youth Network joined us to take part in this exciting animation project.

In July 2023, we visited Temple Church with Louise Bartlett, Senior Properties Curator at English Heritage, to explore and learn about the stories of the site. Whilst exploring the site, everyone considered what was most interesting to them and what story they would like to tell inspired by Temple Church.

Then we visited the Aardman Studios in Bristol where we got to go behind the scenes, meet the staff, and learn more about animation and storytelling.

With guidance and support from the incredible Aardman team, we planned our animations, considering the story, materials and sound effects. We then filmed our animations at the Aardman Studios, using the techniques and knowledge we’d learnt during the project. Our completed short films tell different stories of Temple Church from our own perspectives.

Stop Motion Animation

The animation technique we used is called Stop Motion Animation. This is what Aardman are famous for and have used for Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and many many more.

Stop Motion is a technique that brings static objects to life on screen. This is done by moving the object or character one bit at a time by taking a picture or filming one frame at a time. You do this for the whole of your film.

Once you are finished, you compile all of your photos and play them in order at a high speed so it creates the illusion of movement!

We used a variety of different materials we could use to make our animations from plasticine models (like Wallace and Gromit or Shaun the Sheep!) to using paper collages, or drawings.

Watch the animations below!

Tom's Animation

Tom’s animation was inspired by the bombing of Temple Church during the Second World War.

Tom wanted to explore not just the bombing but life after war. The animation shows ‘life coming back after destruction’, illustrating how plants and trees took over Temple Church until English Heritage arrives to look after the site.

During the storytelling skills workshop with Aardman, Tom discovered the use of charcoal drawings as a way to create animations. Tom wanted to draw their whole animation using charcoal, taking a picture every time they added something new!

Watch on YouTube here

Freya and Iris' Animation

Freya and Iris were inspired by a sprial staircase they saw behind a locked door whilst exploring Temple Church.

They thought about what secret place could be hidden at the top of these stairs. Using their imagination and creative skills, their animation follows a curious mouse who discovers the sprial staircase which leads to a secret magical library!

Freya and Iris drew the background, selected all of the sound effects, and modelled the mouse using plasticine.

Watch on YouTube here

Ollie's Animation

Ollie’s animation was inspired by the tombstones at Temple Church.

Ollie imagined that the tombstones belonged to the same family.

Their animation is about a family of ghosts who creep out from the tombstones at night and play in the ruins of the church.

Ollie used plasticine to create the ghosts, designing and modelling each ghost themselves.

Watch on YouTube here

Ben's Animation

Ben’s animation is inspired by the historic bomb that hit Temple Church in the Second World War.

Ben created the bomb out of plasticine and used string to create the effect of it falling.

Ben’s animation tells a story of how a man discovers the ruin of the church after the bombing and sees the sun shining through the now roofless church.

Ben told us that the light shining through represents hope.

Watch on YouTube here

Scarlett's Animation

Scarlett was inspired by the different cultures and religions that could have existed at Temple Church over time. In Scarlett’s animation, a white angel represents religion and the other characters represent fairies that Scarlett imagined could have been at the site before Temple Church was built.

Scarlett’s animation shows the fairies and the angel meeting after the bombing during the Second World War, representing conflict between the two cultures.

Due to limited time after impressively handmaking all the puppets, Scarlett’s finished animation is instead a representation of their idea and the imaginative world they wanted to create.

Watch on YouTube here

“I enjoyed the small history talk to spark our imagination.” – Temple Church Tales project participant

Temple Church Tales Gallery

“I have loved my experience, gaining my skills in art and design, grown in confidence when talking to adults.” – Temple Church Tales project participant