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Feature46 TheCholmeleian Winter 2011

STUDENT EDITORS SORCHA BRADLEY AND PELUMI AKINYEMI MEET ANDREW RUHEMANN (HG 1976), FOUNDER OF PASSION PICTURES

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Andrew Ruhemann (HG 1976), the co-founder and managing director of Passion Pictures, is the man behind many of the most beloved animated characters who inhabit our TV screens today; from Aleksandr ‘Simples’ Orlav (from the Compare The Market commercials) to the ever-popular animations that give a face to the voices of the multi-million-record-selling Gorillaz. Most recently, and perhaps most exciting for Andrew, is his recent win at the Academy Awards, for his work on the short animation film, The Lost Thing, on which he worked alongside Shaun Tan, the author of the original children’s book.

Before the end of the summer term, Andrew came back to Highgate to speak to students about his exciting work and creative processes, as well as to give us an up-close and personal view of his Oscar (which he bravely brought in a bag on the underground) but also to reflect on his days spent at Highgate; ‘I was very happy here, that’s the truth, I was very encouraged…I got a real love of the arts and of French literature too, and quite a romantic sense of the world, that was all pretty much formed here I think…is that glowing enough or should I say something horrible?’ He asks this with the touch of humour that he has brought to many of his

I was very happy at Highgate, I got a real love of the arts and of French literature too, and quite a romantic sense of the world, that was all pretty much formed here I think...

Noodle in a still from the video for the Gorillaz track, El Manana off the Demon Days album

A still from the award-winning animation The Lost Thing . The Lost Thing is a combination between an industrial boiler, an octopus and a crab

TheCholmeleian Winter 2011

TheCholmeleian Winter 2011

Gorillaz characters Murdoc, Russel and 2D in the recent video On Melancholy Hill

Aleksandr Orlav has acquired a cult following with the success of the ‘Compare the Market’ commercials

works, and yet, he is also the producer of many critically-acclaimed and hard-hitting documentaries, including the Academy Award winning One Day in September, which examines the 5 September 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

By his own admission, Andrew’s career was kick-started by a lucky break. His first job was in Richard Williams’ production studio, in which he began as a trainee producer. It was less than a week into the job before the head producer left, and he himself was promoted to this position – he was suddenly in charge of fifty people, at Williams’ studios in Soho Square. ‘So I immediately went to all the fifty people and said, ‘Look, I don’t have a clue about this business, I don’t know anything about animation, I know a little bit about film, you’re going to have to help me, and they were great.’ But the surprises were not to end there – only two days later his receptionist rang up to his office to inform him that, in fact, Steven Spielberg was in the reception. ‘I said, ‘Yeah, that’s really funny’, and put the phone down and carried on, because I thought they were playing a joke on me. The phone goes again, ‘No, Andrew, Andrew, it really is, I’ve got Steven Spielberg in reception.’ Spielberg was there to ask him if he would work on the ground-breaking live-action/animation film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

It was after this successful venture that Andrew decided, aged 27, to set up Passion Pictures. ‘Because what do you do when you’ve worked at the top level on something…[when] you’ve worked with the best in the business? I thought, ‘hell, I’m going to set up on my own.’ From there, his company has expanded, now with offices in New York, Paris and Melbourne, as well as

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The receptionist rang Andrew’s office to inform him that Steven Spielberg was in the reception. ‘I said, ‘Yeah, that’s really funny’, and put the phone down and carried on.’

TheCholmeleian Winter 2011

Andrew ‘thinking of opening one in Berlin.’ Since then, his company has gone on to make and produce countless commericals for companies such as Sony Bravia, Vodaphone, Specsavers and Channel 4, as well as music videos for the likes of Gorillaz and Cornershop, and he has produced many documentaries including One Day in September and Stones in Exile, which followed the Rolling Stones during the recording of the controversial and seminal album, Exile on Mainstreet. For Andrew, he finds that the most important aspect of his work is that he can contribute to the telling of a story, whether it is through a commercial, or a documentary. ‘The most important thing about story telling is about what connects us as human beings, because I think what I find in the media and everything you read and see, is about what separates us, what religion we are and what colour we are and how much money we’ve got and if you can afford this… telling stories is where I can actually find some common ground, where none of that actually matters, where in fact what matters is what we share.’

It was this love of story telling that led him to direct The Lost Thing, his first animated film, alongside Shaun Tan, the author of the original children’s book by the same title. ‘I wear a lot of different hats. I decided to switch from my producer’s hat

to my director’s. So I went looking for a story that I really wanted

to tell and I found at the

Bologna Children’s Book Fair this book, called The Lost Thing. I was drawn by the title. If there’s anything lost in it, it’s got some kind of draw from for me, there’s instantly a potential drama in there’. The film was a labour of love, made entirely out of Andrew and Shaun’s own money, and they worked with a small team of four people over two years to create the film. Set in the near future, in a dystopian Perth, Australia, it follows a young boy, and his attempts to find a place for the ‘Lost Thing’ (a combination

between an industrial boiler, an octopus and a crab) he finds on a beach. Even with Andrew’s years of experience working on films, the creation of The Lost Thing was not all plain sailing: ‘When I first finished that film, I took it to some of my most trusted people at the office, and not one of them had a nice thing to say about it, not one. They were unmoved, underwhelmed. I came out and thought, I need to treat it as a learning experience and start again. And it was a very, very good lesson.’ The film of course, in its finished form, turned out to be a huge success, winning Andrew and Shaun an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. ‘I got given it by Justin Timberlake and Mila Cunis, not bad!’ Andrew proudly adds.

Andrew is now working on the production of a film adaptation of Meg Rossoff’s novel How I Live Now, with Kevin MacDonald. ‘I hope what maybe distinguishes us from all the other people in this kind of work, is that we put a lot of soul in what we are trying to do’ he reflects. Anyone who’s seen The Lost Thing is sure to agree, and we wish him every success with his new venture.

Andrew with his second Oscar. The first was for a documentary, One Day in September. On the left is Pelumi Akinyemi, and on the right is Sorcha Bradley.

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‘When I first finished The Lost Thing, I took it to some of my most trusted people at the office, and not one of them had a nice thing to say about it, not one.’