Interview with James Wilkinson, Writer and Director of Stop Motion Short Film "Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel"

Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel title card. Source: Vimeo.

“I think it must have been early Aardman stuff that first got me interested in stop motion,” filmmaker and animator James Wilkinson tells Stop Motion Geek, identifying the traits of his influences in animation that fashioned his own cinematic sensibilities, and were, at least in some small way, part of the genesis of his latest film—the charming, funny, and gorgeously realized noir spoof, Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel. “The gentle English ambiance and humour were so appealing to me as a kid and I just wanted to try and replicate it!”

First seen as a youth, Wilkinson’s stop motion inspirations made a lasting impression on him, giving him a passion for the medium that initially took shape as a hobby. As an adult, that passion stayed with him, fueling his studies of film production at university. After graduation, it blossomed into a fully-fledged career as the Managing Director of Tentacle Media—a Staffordshire-based animation studio he co-founded with two members of his graduating class.

A still from Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel. Source: Vimeo.

Wilkinson and Tentacle Media have since remained dedicated to producing high-quality, animated content of all varieties—from children-oriented television and films to media created to advertise businesses and brands—for a worldwide client base.

In the nine years proceeding co-founding Tentacle Media, Wilkinson began to toy with disparate ideas for projects, geared more towards being personal rather than professional pieces. The origins of one such idea began in his sketchbook as a few drawings of a scruffy cat with big, bulging eyes, a wily grin, and dark, matted fur, clad only in a striped tie hanging loosely round his neck.

James Wilkinson's initial sketch for the character of Billy Whiskers. Source: http://www.billywhiskers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/sketches-comp-1.jpg

This image quickly captured Wilkinson’s imagination, as well as his thirst to innovate techniques used to bring stop motion films to life, and his vision for the story this character would tell soon became a rollicking, mystery noir, featuring a hard-boiled, rough-and-ready detective, who just so happens to be an anthropomorphic cat named Billy Whiskers.

Filling the margins of the paper featuring the first sketches of what would become the character of Billy Whiskers can be found detailed blueprints for several dozen designs of mouth-mechanisms for stop motion puppets—a strong hint towards which technique Wilkinson found himself concocting ways to improve upon.

A still from Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel. Source: Vimeo.

“After finishing uni and my graduation film I immediately started planning my next short film,” says Wilkinson. “I knew I wanted to have talking characters, but had no idea how lip syncing worked. I mulled on this problem and tried and tested various ideas and methods over a number of years, eventually deciding that a method of animating the mouth electronically could be a viable option.”

This question—how to most efficiently approach lip-syncing dialogue to puppet’s mouth beyond the traditional, time-consuming methods of replacement animation and frame-by-frame facial animation—drove Wilkinson on in his spare time during late nights and weekends to find an answer. And, after much trial and error, he devised a feasible system.

A still from Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel. Source: Vimeo.

With this new technique on his mind, Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel curiously enough became to Wilkinson something of an experimental project with the goal being to perfect such a system for lip-sync. It does so to great effect, with the vast majority of its nine-plus-minute runtime dedicated to a captivating monologue given by Billy as he puzzles through the film’s whodunit. The end result of Wilkinson’s electronic, primarily arduino and servo motor powered solution is a performance that’s entirely believable, and a film that, even apart from the technical wizardry, is something truly extraordinary in its own right.

Storyboard for Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel by James Wilkinson. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

In our interview, Wilkinson gives us an in-depth look at the making of Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel—his experiential labor of love—from start to finish, covering nearly every facet of the production, and shares with us the lessons he learned from the experience, including what, in retrospect, he wishes he’d done differently. He also discusses his approach to drawing inspiration from his influences, as well as his next big projects, and his plan to getting them made.

You can read our interview below in full.

A.H. Uriah: Hello there, James! Thank you so very much for doing this interview! It’s an absolute pleasure to feature you and Billy Whiskers on the blog!
I’d like to start by asking one of my favorite questions: How and when did stop motion first pique your interest and become something you wanted to pursue as a career, and how has your journey into the craft thus far led you to where you are today—the director of your first, professional stop motion short film, Billy Whiskers - The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel?

James Wilkinson: Hey! I think it must have been early Aardman stuff that first got me interested in stop motion. The gentle English ambiance and humour were so appealing to me as a kid and I just wanted to try and replicate it! Stop motion was also pretty accessible, I could do it on a camcorder by pressing stop and start really quickly.

A finalized storyboard for Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced trowel created by James Wilkinson. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

I’ve also always been keen on making things, so stop motion seems like the perfect synergy of crafting and film making.

As well as stop motion films I made a bunch of live action films and flash animations when I was young. I went to uni and studied film production, but quickly realised my heart was in animation so carried on doing little bits of animation and we managed to persuade our tutor to let us do a stop motion animation as our graduation film.

A sketch of the toolshed set for Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel by James Wilkinson. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

I also set up a small business whilst I was at uni, along with two other guys, and we’ve been building that up for the last 9 years producing mostly digital 2d animation. That ate up most of my time but I always had plans for stop motion shorts in the back of my head and any time I didn’t spend working on corporate projects was spent working on my stop motion ideas.

A.H.: Could you tell us a bit about the beginnings of Billy Whiskers—from the inception of the idea to your first steps in making the film a reality?

JW: After finishing uni and my graduation film I immediately started planning my next short film. I knew I wanted to have talking characters, but had no idea how lip syncing worked. I mulled on this problem and tried and tested various ideas and methods over a number of years, eventually deciding that a method of animating the mouth electronically could be a viable option.

The first version of the armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

Around 5 years ago I was also getting into 3D Printing and fiddling around with arduinos. I scaled up my designs for the mouth mechanism so they could be printed on a 3d printer. This started about a 3 year project of research, re-designs and tests. Once I thought there might be something workable I immediately wanted to make a film so designed a character around a big mouth. At the same time I started putting ideas together for the story of Billy Whiskers.

The first version of the head armature built for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

I carried on producing the film in my spare time for about another year or so, writing the script, storyboarding, planning the set etc. late into the night most nights. Eventually it got to a point where I was ready to start production and things got real when I ordered all of the wood to build the set.

Original armature for Billy Whiskers's hand. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

Original head armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

A.H.: On your blog, you mention that you were on a very tight budget while making Billy Whiskers—a place almost every single filmmaker finds themselves in when they start out. This led you to build almost everything yourself, and to perform practically every job on the film except for a select few.
Can you give us an idea of the budgetary restrictions on this film, and the best methods you found to stretch a small budget to go as far as it can?

JW: Yeah the budget was very small for Billy. If you take my time out of the equation the total spent was about £2000 (~$2500). I think there were a couple of key things that kept the cost down. As you say I did most things myself, including spending most evenings for several years beforehand researching different parts of production and working on the pre-production. Having detailed and well developed pre-production was also super important. If you play the animatic next to the final film it almost matches exactly, so there was no wasted time animating things that weren’t in the film. I planned the set precisely in CAD beforehand so I knew exactly what materials I would need and how much they’d cost. A lot of the props and bits in the set were scavenged, that was the advantage of making a full scale stop motion film!

Finalized head armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

Finalized head armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

Having one character and one set also kept the cost down a lot. The original screenplay I wrote had more characters and locations and I decided to pare it back to make it more manageable. Getting the rest made in budget just relied on lots of favours and persistence and planning!

With my time and all the time other people spent helping out on the film the budget is much higher and it was a huge commitment for our small studio to dedicate the time to the project.

Finalized head armature for the character of Billy Whiskers. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

The armature for Billy Whiskers's head compared with the fully fabricated puppet. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

A.H.: One of the things you mention on your blog—in the posts “Building the rest of Billy” and “Head Mk II”—is that you created a fully functional head for Billy, a 3D-printed armature and mouth mechanism you fully fabricated, which you actually ended up throwing out completely and redesigning from scratch to create the head we see in the film.
Can you tell us a bit about the history of the “Mk I” and “Mk II” versions of Billy’s head—how you created each, what materials you used, and what you taught yourself along the way? Furthermore, can you tell us about the thought process behind ultimately making the decision to scrap the first design in favor of creating an entirely new version?

JW: The first head worked pretty well. But I just wasn’t happy with the overall look of Billy. He looked a bit creepy! The position of his features was informed by the practical design of the head. So the second head gave me a chance to say, “I want the eyes closer together, the forehead bigger, etc.” It was a big decision though as the first head took so long to develop. I didn’t actually throw it out either. It’s still around somewhere.

The original version of Billy Whisker's fabricated head (right) compared with the finalized version of Billy Whiskers's fully fabricated head (left). Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

The re-design also gave me a chance to iron out a few issues in the design and change the servos for stronger ones. The 2nd head was still entirely 3d printed though. The 3d printed armature saved me a lot of time and money as it is so cheap to design and build. It’s not as strong as a steel one, but easy to re-print and replace parts.

A still from Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel. Source: Vimeo.

The set for the film. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

A.H.: On your blog, one of the elements of the production you barely touch on is the actual process of animating—which, by the way, was of a highly professional grade, and I laud you for you work!
How much expertise did you have going into the animation process, how long did the animating take in total, and what techniques and resources did you find the most useful to you while animating?

JW: Thanks! I haven’t done a heap of stop motion animation, so it took a while to get used to how the puppet moved, its strengths and weaknesses. The whole animation process took about 4 months, averaging about 8 seconds a day. The lip syncing technique saved a lot of time as I could pre-programme the mouth movement and didn’t have to think about it too much while I was animating.

The set for the film, in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

I do a lot of digital 2d animation and I think this helped. I normally animate in twos and the whole of Billy was shot at 12fps. I used Dragon as I think most stop motion animators do! Its motion control features and compatibility was really helpful as it allowed me to build my own motion control rig and get some great camera movement on a budget.

A scene from the set of the film in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

Billy was held up with a rig most of the time, I did try to avoid it or hide it where possible to cut down on post production. But I built a really big walking rig on a slider so I could get a consistent and smooth walk. Billy’s not the most poseable character, he’s overweight with short limbs so his range of movements aren’t great (He can’t even touch his own hands together). I had to employ some stop motion “sleight of hand” occasionally to pull off certain shots.

I don’t go to the extent of filming myself, but I do act a lot of the shots out before I film them. Making notes at what frames certain actions should happen.

A scene from set of the film in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

A.H.: Perhaps it’s just me—and please let me know if it is—but at 1:31 into Billy Whiskers, I thought I spied Billy giving a little, subtle gesture with his fingers that to my eyes looks very reminiscent of a gesture Gromit makes throughout Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out—which, if a nod to Nick Park, was very well done!
What were your biggest inspirations for Billy Whiskers within the medium of stop motion, and did you emulate them consciously or unconsciously while working on the film?

JW: The finger movement was definitely a nod to A Grand Day Out! I think it’s impossible to be a stop motion animator, particularly British, and not be influenced by Aardman. The characters were so familiar yet absurd. The worlds they create are friendly and welcoming and the humour has always struck a chord with me. Hamilton Mattress, Harvie Krumpet and Flatworld were all super inspirational for me as well.

The set of the film during the process of animation. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

A.H.: Another element of Billy Whiskers I found to be extremely professional and magnificent in all respects was the sound design—in everything from the music to the voice acting to the lip-sync.
Can you talk a bit about the sound design of this film, and the solutions you engineered to address the film’s use of lip-sync?

JW: The lip syncing, as I’ve mentioned, drove the whole project. Basically the mouth and lips are controlled by servos, that are controlled through an arduino, connected to a computer. So that the lip syncing can be pre-programmed. This was just my answer to the problem of lip syncing and I think it worked well. I’m a pretty lazy animator so the thought of animating the lips as I was animating everything else just seemed absurdly complicated and too much like hard work!

A still from Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

I also hadn’t really seen anything like it done before so thought it would be interesting to try out something different.

The rest of the sound design was put together with the help of my really talented collaborator Mike Hayes. I gave him the vague brief of ‘British brass band meets film noir’ for the soundtrack and I think the score he produced was amazing and perfectly captured the atmosphere I wanted. The rest of the sound effects we recorded around the studio with whatever we could find. The chainsaw was actually a petrol strimmer mixed with an old lawnmower.

A scene from the film in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

A.H.: One of the things you mention on your blog that I find novel about the early days of Billy Whiskers is that it seems‚ in many ways, you consciously designed this film to be a vehicle to teach yourself everything it takes to make a stop motion film of this calibre—in everything from engineering Billy’s armature and mouth mechanism, to lip-syncing dialogue, to creating your own motion control system, to building sets and props, to the actual animating. In so doing, you seem to have intentionally given yourself the room to fail, and to do better—both of which I believe are great virtues in this medium.
Looking back on the film now, if you could do it over again, what do you wish you had done differently or had known going into it, now knowing what you do?

JW: I’m really happy with how the project and film turned out and I’ve learned loads from the process, as you do with any big project. There are of course lots of things I’d do differently. I’d animate it over summer for a start, the studio was freezing!

The camera setup for the film on-set. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

Although the idea behind the project was to test out the lip syncing system, I think there’s too much dialogue and exposition in the film. I feel like the film could be shorter but with better pacing.

As you say, I made the film for myself but looking back I wish I’d thought a bit more about a purpose or target audience for the film. I made the film as something I’d like to watch without thinking at all about what I’d do with it afterwards. Now I have finished, it I’m still not sure what to do with it! So I wish I’d have put a bit more thought into that from the start.

I’ve had some great response on Instagram from showing lots of the making of process and I wish I’d have shared the production more as I was making it.

James Wilkinson animating on the set of the film. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

A.H.: Now that you’ve completed Billy Whiskers, what do you aspire to do in the stop motion medium and industry now, and how do you see yourself proceeding towards those goals?

JW: I’d love to make more films and tell more stories. I have a bunch of ideas for a longer format, around 20-30 minutes, the sort of length where you can get fully engrossed in a world and its characters. I have plans to shrink the the mechanism down for the mouth and improve the workflow so I can be more ambitious with the scale of future projects. Having spent time getting this system to work I’d love the opportunity to develop it further.

A still from Billy Whiskers: The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel. Source: Vimeo.

I’m hoping Billy Whiskers will show enough potential that I will be able to keep making films. I’d love to have got more people involved in the production of Billy and make it more of a collaborative process so hopefully this is something I can do on larger projects in the future.

James Wilkinson animating on the set of the film. Photo courtesy of James Wilkinson.

To explore more of James Wilkinson’s work for Tentacle Media—at which he’s the Managing Director, as well Head of Animation—you can visit their website, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Dribble, Instagram, Facebook, as well as his personal LinkedIn and Twitter.

You can watch Billy Whiskers – The Mystery of the Misplaced Trowel by going here.

You can learn more about the film and find Wilkinson’s in-depth production diaries transcribing the making of the film, from pre-production to post—a fascinating and insightful look at the creative process—by visiting its website here.

Stay tuned for upcoming interview articles by subscribing to the Stop Motion Geek email newsletter via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our homepage, by following us on Facebook @StopMotionGeek, or by following us on Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog.