Freewheel (1966)

Concept and creative process

‘Freewheel’ was an experimental stopframe animation film using cut-outs made by designer Bernard Lodge. It was never broadcast, merely designed to show for the benefit of colleagues what it was possible to achieve with simple direct cut-out animation under the rostrum camera. The ‘actor’ was fellow designer, John Aston. This animation technique was later used to great effect on ‘Monty Python's Flying Circus’ (1969-74) by Terry Gilliam, one of the original Python team.