The Incredible Journey

AHRC-funded animated short documentary about the salvage of the SS Great Britain

  • Role: animation director, production manager
  • Stakeholder: SS Great Britain Trust, University of the West of England, AHRC (funder)
  • Sectors: charity (heritage)
  • Deliverables: short animated video

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the salvage and homecoming of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's famous ship, the SS Great Britain, the SS Great Britain Trust and the University of the West of England worked together to bring the Trust's archive to life in form of an animated documentary.

  • Animation direction
  • Production management

The project started under the working title Visualising Voices, as the museum began collecting interviews with people involved in the salvage as well as inviting local communities to share their memories of the ship coming back to Bristol.

Because of the scale and complexity of the ship's homecoming we decided to divide the story into three parts: the salvage operation in the Falkland Islands, the tow back across the Atlantic and the ship's arrival back in Bristol.

Each part was produced by a different group of students from the Creative Arts faculty, with a team of sound design and editing students working with a composer on combining the interview snippets with an immersive soundscape.

In my role as animation director I reviewed the oral history archive, as well as museum artefacts, original blueprints and photographs. I prepared the mood board and pre-selected the material for each team to work with, before planning project milestones, deliverables and production schedules. Once production started I held regular production meetings with each team and worked on the final edit.

Part 1: The Salvage is all about the salvage operation in the Falkland Isles. Produced in 3D/CGI, the ss Great Britain was modelled based on original archive blueprints and combined with digitally painted backgrounds of the Falklands landscape.

Part 2: The Journey is all about the 8000 mile tow from the Falkland Islands to Southwest England. Produced in a combination of 2D & 3D graphics, 3D images of the flotilla were combined with 2D textures, graphics and archive material.

Part 3: The Homecoming is all about the return of the ss Great Britain to its birthplace, the Bristol docks. Produced in 2D digital, rendered images of the ss Great Britain were animated alongside archive text, drawn characters and backgrounds.

The short film was featured on BBC Bristol and encounters film festival, and is still running at the museum as part of the permanent interpretation about the ship's salvage operation.

  • Filmstill from part 1: The Salvage showing a 3D rendered model of the SS Great Britain as a shipwreck in an illustration of Sparrow Cove Falkland Islands
  • Filmstill from part 2: The Journey showing a drawn map of Port Stanley Falkland Islands overlaid with archive photographs from the launch of the salvage flotilla
  • Filmstill from part 3: The Homecoming showing a 2D newspaper-style rendering of the SS Great Britain floating on top of newspaper clippings under an illustration of the Clifton Suspension Bridge
  • Filmstill using 2D wireframe renders of the ship with archive photographs of teh salvage operation
  • Filmstill showing the restored ship in drydock with newspaper clippings in the background saying Home at last
  • Production diary with focus on script and audio review, log of material and assessment of quality
  • Production diary with script excerpt and concept art mockup
  • Production diary with archive material log, crew production schedule and scene status