FilmFair was a British
production company
A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...
and
animation studio
An animation studio is a company producing animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales or rentals ...
that produced
children's television series
Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...
,
animated cartoon
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
s,
educational film
An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.
History
Determining which videos should count as the first educational fil ...
s, and
television advertisement
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
s. The company made numerous
stop motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
films using
puppets,
clay animation
Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Tra ...
, and
cutout animation
Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's e ...
.
History
Foundation
FilmFair was founded in 1959 by American animator Gus Jekel in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. After working with
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...
and other
Hollywood animation studios in the 1930s, Jekel incorporated FilmFair because he wanted the freedom to create
live action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...
work as well. The studio was in Animation Alley, a stretch of
Cahuenga Boulevard
Cahuenga Boulevard () is a major boulevard of northern Los Angeles, California, US. The “Cahuenga” name is a Spanish, phonetic derivative with no actual Spanish language meaning that is attributed to the Tongva village of Kawengna, meaning "p ...
that runs through
Studio City
Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1927, ...
in northern Los Angeles.
Jekel's company produced television advertisements—some animated, others live action—and was extremely successful; even Disney was a client.
In the late 1960s, Jekel asked an English colleague, Graham Clutterbuck, to start a European office for FilmFair. Clutterbuck had been producing and coordinating television ads for European
advertising agencies
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...
and had just lost his job as director general of Les Cinéastes Associés in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. Although he was not well-acquainted with animation, Clutterbuck accepted the job offer. Clutterbuck established FilmFair's European office in Paris. It was there that he met
Serge Danot
Serge Danot (7 February 1931 – 23 December 1990) was a French animator and former advertising executive. He is best known for creating the animated series, ''Le Manège enchanté'' in 1964, which became known in its 1965 English-language ver ...
, who pitched his ideas for a children's series, but Clutterbuck turned him down. Soon after, Danot signed a contract with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''. He invited Clutterbuck to watch them film. While there, Clutterbuck met the series' co-creator,
.
Later, the two men agreed that Wood would make animated films for FilmFair. The success of ''The Magic Roundabout'' paved the way for more stop-motion animation at the BBC. Soon, Wood came up with the idea for ''
in 1968.
had made England a cultural hotspot. Clutterbuck found it too difficult to attract English talent to France, so he moved the office to
.
There, Barry Leith joined the company as director of animation. Wood and Leith collaborated on ''
. Bond was enthusiastic about Wood's artistic vision and began scripting the first series.
'' in 1976 to great acclaim. FilmFair produced new episodes of the programme for three years, and it expanded into a considerable
.
FilmFair continued to produce successful stop motion programmes through the mid-1970s. The company's first
'', premiered in 1976. It was adapted from a series of children's books written and illustrated by Edward McLachlan. The company's first series not directed by Wood was ''
'', a classically animated series directed by Dick Horn.
As FilmFair London continued to produce animated television series for the
...