The Production Team

News

March, 2008 - 26 episodes of Summerton Mill are being transmitted throughout the Middle East and in Iceland. We're actively looking for a UK broadcaster.

January, 2008 - 26 episodes of Summerton Mill are being transmitted twice-daily throughout the Middle East on the Aljazeera children's channel, JCC

December, 2007 - A Summerton Mill episode is pre-loaded onto the iTeddy, 100,000 of which are on the shelves in Argos this Christmas

01 September, 2007 - Series 2 filming is complete, and eight episodes out of thirteen are complete. Sound edits and picture editing continues on the remaining five episodes

August, 2007 - Our distributor, VGI Entertainment, secure a deal with iTeddy. The Dragon's Den-sponsored cuddly media player will be sold through Argos, pre-loaded with an episode of Summerton Mill

31 July, 2007 - Filming is complete for most of Series 2. Assistant animators, Hannah and Abi, move on to other things as their contract with Summerton Mill comes to an end. Director of Animation, James Cleland and animator Dan Stirrup stay on to the end of production

03 March, 2007 - International interest builds, with more sales coming through. VGI are busy preparing for MIP (the world's audiovisual content market, held in Cannes) in April. James, Dan, Abi and Hannah continue to produce stunning animation at the Summerton Mill studio in Oxfordshire

02 February, 2007 - Production of Series 2 is well underway, and it's all looking fantastic. There's talk of having a commercial DVD available in the middle of the summer, and the first international sales are starting to trickle in. How many languages will Summerton Mill have been be translated into for TV broadcast by 2010? Answers in an email to languagescompetition@summertonmill.com - closing date January 31st, 2008. Winner will be notified by January 31st, 2011

28 November, 2006 - Shooting started for Series 2

November, 2006 - James Cleland who worked with us as Animator in Series 1 has returned for Series 2 as Director of Animation. Animator Dan Stirrup and Assistant Animators, Abi Mendoza and Hannah Watkins complete the animation team

October, 2006 - Summerton Mill was well-received at Mipcom Junior and the first international sales are clearly on the horizon

27 September, 2006 - An international distribution agreement was signed today
with VGI Entertainment. VGI will be launching Summerton Mill at MIP Junior in Cannes in October, 2006

Articles about Summerton Mill:

The Daily Telegraph - by Cassandra Jardine

www.toonhound.co.uk - by Frazer Diamond

Older News

It's a wrap!

Trumpton animator, Pas Ferrari, visits Summerton Mill studio

Production stills

BBC buys Summerton Mill/press articles

GO TO: CBeebies Tikkabilla website featuring an interactive Summerton Mill page and an episode for you to watch

GO TO: CBeebies Tikkabilla website and send a Summerton Mill Ecard to someone special

FEEDBACK: click here to send an email to us at the Summerton Mill Studios

We want to hear from you!

June, 2005

Series 1 filming was completed and the 13 episodes were
delivered to the BBC, to great acclaim.

Then we had a little party.

Pas Ferrari

On Saturday 30th October, 2004, we were very proud to welcome Pas Ferrari and his wife, Eileen, to our studio. Pas was one of four assistant animators on Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley in the late 1960s. In those days, stop frame animations were shot onto film. Pas explained that each week's work was processed the following weekend. If something hadn't worked out, the only option was to re-shoot. However, virtually everything that was shot for the classic Trumptonshire trilogy was used in the 39 episodes. Only 39? Yes, 13 of Camberwick Green, 13 of Trumpton and 13 of Chigley - figures that often surprise people. Our two hours with Pas, listening to his stories about life in the Trumptonshire studio with John Hardwick and Bob Bura was a wonderful spine-tingling experience that we'll always remember. Thanks Pas!

Nowadays, we are spoilt by modern technology. Each frame that we shoot is captured onto a computer and can be viewed immediately, on its own, or as a sequence including previous frames.

Dan shows Windy Miller the waterwheel at Summerton Mill
(click image to enlarge)

BBC buys Summerton Mill

On 13th May, 2004, we signed a contract with the BBC to produce 13 x 4 minute episodes of Summerton Mill. They were first screened within the BBC's flagship pre-school programme, Tikkabilla - in 2005, and then the series was given its own time slot. Since then, Summerton Mill has been screened many times, within Tikkabilla and repeats of Tikkabilla on CBeebies and BBC2, and as a stand-alone on CBeebies and on BBC2

The contract being signed by the river at Somerton Mill,
witnessed by the cast of Summerton Mill

The story is covered on various websites:

http://www.parents.org.uk/index.html?news_summerton-mill.htm&2

http://www.oxmedianet.net/news/summertonmill.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/08/31/bvchild31.xml

http://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=687&ArticleID=852411

A big thank you to ScaryCat Studio in Bristol for making the puppets and props.

And a big thank you to James Cleland who joined the animation team throughout production of Series 1.

GO TO: CBeebies Tikkabilla website featuring an interactive Summerton Mill page and an episode for you to watch

GO TO: CBeebies Tikkabilla website and send a Summerton Mill Ecard to someone special

FEEDBACK: click here to send an email to us at the Summerton Mill Studios

We want to hear from you!