Down and Out (1977 film)

Down and Out is a 1977 short film created by Aardman Animations. It is part of the Animated Conversations series. In this short, creators David Sproxton and Peter Lord applied the groundbreaking technique of using recorded conversations of real people as the basis for the script.

Peter and David had always thought there was an adult audience for animated films, and in 1978 made two short films using reallife soundtracks, for BBC Bristol under the guidance of Colin Thomas. Although these two films Down and Out and Confessions of a Foyer Girl were disregarded by the BBC until they were seen a couple of years later by Jeremy Isaacs who was creating the shape of the newly formed Channel Four. This led directly to the commissioning of five similarly constructed films Conversation PiecesThis was the first film to use the technique developed by Sproxton and Lordan of animating puppet characters to spontaneous, realistic conversations, rather than prepared scripts...It impressed producer Jeremy Isaacs, who commissioned five fiveminute films entitled Conversation Pieces for the newly established Channelin London. Animated Documentary explains Confessions of a Foyer Girl and Down and Out were based on eavesdropped conversations and pair documentary sound with stop motion animation of Plasticine figures. ........

Source: Wikipedia