Wildseed – “Peter’s Place” creator Nicholas Bowe Q&A
Skwigly
Following a spate of live-action comedy webseries released online over the last several months, Wildseed Studios – the brainchild of duo Jesse Cleverly and Miles Bullough – have launched their animation strand with Nicholas Bowe’s Peter’s Place. Since June of 2013 Wildseed have solicited show pitches to invest in from new and emerging creative talent, with an eye toward character-driven comedy. Bowe’s work, having previously won prizes including the Comedy Central Industry Choice Award, has proved a fit within Wildseed’s ‘Animation For Adults’ remit, with its first episodes having gone up this week. We talked to Bowe to learn more about the show.
How did you learn about Wildseed originally?
I think I was passed a link from a friend who said Wildseed would be up my street. I’d been making this Peter’s Place project for a while and won a few awards with it. I was looking for funding and Wildseed came up with £10,000 funding as they liked it, and that was it, really.
How has the process been? Has the show stayed true to the original vision as it’s developed?
Yeah, it’s been really good actually because they’re quite hands-off unless I need it, in which case they’ll dip in. Because I was working on my own I’d never gotten advice before, so Jesse and Miles, with their background, are able to give really good feedback.
Can you tell us a bit about the premise of the show?
Well, Peter’s Place is a 2D cutout animation, probably aimed at a more adult audience because it’s just swearing; Lots and lots of foul-mouthed characters in it. It’s an anarchic kind of cartoon comedy, very basic animation – I wouldn’t even refer to myself as an animator! It’s daft, it’s silly and it focuses around the lives of several characters who hang out in a pub
Were the characters drawn from any real-life experience?
It’s weird, I think with the characters I’ve just kind of picked them up over the years. The funny thing is I’ve just kind of taken them out of my subconscious, and as I’ve met more and more people from my past I’ve realised Oh, that’s where that comes from. Naming no names!
Can you talk through your approach to animation production?
Obviously this is for an animation website, which is why I stress I’m not an animator compared to people who’ve done this for years and would go “This isn’t animation!” It’s cut-out, like South Park, I think someone said it was ‘naïve’ animation in a way, so I’m just having a stab at it with no real training in it whatsoever. I wanted to give it a hand-drawn feel so I drew it into Photoshop, to kind of give it the sense that it’s been drawn on paper, cut out and then manipulated, kind of in the vein of something like Mr. Benn back in the day.
Keep your eyes on Wildseed Comedy’s YouTube channel for more upcoming content in the coming weeks and months. To learn more about the studio check out our interviews with Managing Director Miles Bullough and Creative Director Jesse Cleverly respectively.