Loose Moose / About

what we do

We're an innovative independent production company and animation studio based in the heart of Soho (London, UK). We feature a broad mix of international award winning directors, designers and animators, combining youth with experience.

We specialise in developing and producing television commercials, short films, promos and idents, using 2D , stop-motion & CGI animation, puppetry, mixed media along with live action and comedy.

With our facilities, we can take your project from conception right through to delivery. From CGI and compositing to shooting with our film and digital cameras & motion control.

We like to work closely with both agencies & clients producing advertising that performs better than the average and stands out from the rest. We pride ourselves on the relationships we build and believe that's a big part of why clients come back again and again.

Our talented core team guarantees a high level of continuity and quality of service.

the story so far

In 1994, Glenn Holberton started LOOSE MOOSE LTD with BAFTA award winning director Ken Lidster. Ange Palethorpe soon joined the team and completed the directing roster. Together they established themselves as a specialist Stop Motion animation company.

In the '90s and noughties, they produced UK campaigns for 'Peperami', 'Monster Munch' and 'Windy Miller - Quaker Oats'.

Worldwide they originated campaigns for Energizer, Pepsi-Lipton BRISK, Oscar Mayer, Chips Ahoy! and Kellogg's Apple Jacks, amongst others.

The Loose Moose Ltd team also produced two award-winning shorts: 'Interrogating Ernie' written and directed by Ken Lidster and 'Thunder Pig' directed by Ange Palethorpe. And 'Being Bradford Dillman', written and directed by Loose Moosers - Emma Burch and Pete Williamson - is soon to go into production.

Glenn re-launched the company as Loose Moose Productions Ltd in September 2008 when Ken Lidster relocated to America. Glenn added to the original team and built on the strengths of the existing company by re-forging links with established award winning directors, as well as introducing a variety of new talents.

Loose Moose Productions now look forward to producing many more television commercials, short films, promos and idents, using traditional 2D / stop-motion / CGI animation, puppetry and mixed media techniques along with live action and comedy.

meet the team

Glenn Holberton

Executive Producer

After several years working on the live action/special effects side of the film industry, Glenn started Bare Boards with model-animation director Barry Purves in 1989. He also started a five year collaboration with Spitting Image, the satirical live-action puppet production company.

At Bare Boards, Glenn produced several longer films, 'Screen Play', 'I Pagliacci', 'Rigoletto', and 'Achilles'. Between them, they won awards at Film Festivals around the world including San Francisco, Shanghai, Ottawa, Oberhausen, Annecy, Chicago and London, also gaining nominations for the Cartoon d'Or, for a BAFTA and for an OSCAR.

In 1994, he started Loose Moose with BAFTA award winning director Ken Lidster. Amongst other commercials in the UK they were responsible for the award winning 'Peperami' and 'Monster Munch' campaigns. Worldwide they originated the well-known ‘Mr Energizer’ character and campaign, and in the USA they produced the acclaimed Pepsi-Lipton BRISK films from 'Sinatra - Backstage', through 'Rocky' with Sylvester Stallone, 'Babe Ruth', 'Planet Hollywood" with Bruce Willis and 'Dojo' with Bruce Lee, to 'Elvis' and 'Devito'. Other North American productions include the popular Chips Ahoy! and Kellogg’s AppleJacks campaigns.

Glenn has also produced two award-winning shorts 'Interrogating Ernie' written and directed by Ken Lidster and 'Thunder Pig' directed by Ange Palethorpe. He has several other films and series in development.

Glenn started Loose Moose Productions in summer 2008 when Ken Lidster relocated to America. Loose Moose Productions has enabled Glenn to build on the strength of the existing company by introducing a variety of new talents, as well as re-forging links with established directors, including his old business partner Barry Purves.

For Glenn's Imdb profile click here

Ange Palethorpe

Director

ANIMATION / PUPPETRY / LIVE ACTION

Ange specialises in animation direction and has fantastic flair for directing puppetry and live action as well.

She began her creative career not in animation or film, but in painting at Sheffield Polytechnic as a Fine Art degree student. Frustrated by the communication limitations of painting she moved into animation, which lead to offers of post graduate places at both the Royal College of Art, London and the National Film and TV School, Beaconsfield.

Ange graduated from the N.F.T.S in 1994 with ALTERED EGO, a 10 minute short film which combines live action, model and drawn animation. Her film won amongst other prizes, a Gold Hugo for best student animated film at the Chicago International Film Festival, and Best First Film at the Ottawa International Film Festival.

Ange has been directing commercials for over 15 years. Amongst other productions, she directed & animated BARELY THERE, a viral showing the effects ill fitting bras can have on a woman’s shape, for The Martin Agency, Virginia; Heinz Tomato Ketchup BIG SQUEEZE for DDB Needham, Chicago which combined the techniques of puppetry and stop-motion animation and animated folded paper for the COI origami inspired production.

In 2000 Ange directed and animated a 5-minute pilot for Nickelodeon, New York, THUNDER PIG combines stop-motion puppets with computer generated backgrounds and effects and is based on characters created by illustrator Keith Graves. Thunder Pig won "Best Television Pilot" at the World Animation Celebration in Los Angeles.

She has also dipped her finger in SWISS SUGAR for NeueLGK, Zurich and worked with talking CHIPS AHOY! cookies for DRAFT FCB, New York.

While more recently Ange has directed and animated CG characters, Apple & Cinna-mon for Kellogg's APPLE JACKS.

Andy de Emmony

Director

COMEDY / LIVE ACTION / PUPPETRY

Andy is an award winning director in all formats. From commercials to TV series, and comedy to drama.

He started his career on Spitting Image, directing ten series of the BAFTA nominated satirical show. And has directed many sitcoms including RED DWARF (Winning an Emmy) and FATHER TED (Winning a BAFTA).

After moving across to drama, he was BAFTA nominated for the first series of Cutting It and The Wife Of Bath one of two Canterbury Tales he directed, and again for Fantabulosa! starring Michael Sheen and based on the Kenneth Williams Diaries.

Other notable credits include Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, the three-part adaptation of the novel by Meera Syal, and the series At Home with the Braithwaites, A Thing Called Love and 55 Degrees North.

Andy recently directed the single drama Recovery (starring David Tenant and Sarah Parish) and Filth, The Mary Whitehouse Story, starring Julie Walters. His last completed film, God on Trial, set in Auschwitz was broadcast in Autumn 2008. He is now working on The Galapagos Affair, due to be completed in 2010.

There’s a strong puppet theme in Andy’s commercial work. He’s worked with famous characters from Honey Monster for Sugar Puffs to Kermit the Frog for MacDonalds and the more recently establish Italian family for Dolmio.

For a full filmography and to view Andy's IMDb profile click here

Barry Purves

Director

STOP MOTION ANIMATION / THEATRICAL

Barry is the theatrical member of our team. He has an amazing attention to detail and technical skill. We can safely say his work is mesmerizing and totally unforgettable!

Barry's early career was in stage management as well as some time as an actor, working in many theatres around the UK. Recently, he has directed and designed several productions for The Garrick Theatre in Altrincham, Manchester.

Since 1986, Barry has directed and animated some 70 commercials, title sequences, animation inserts for films and promos.

He has also done numerous TV interviews, animation training courses, documentaries and regular articles for magazines, books and the Internet and is widely respected as a Stop Motion master. He has held workshops about animation, and particularly acting for animation, in colleges around the world, and in all the major American studios including Dreamworks, PDI, Pixar, and Will Vintons. He is a regular jury member and advisor for many festivals.

Barry's six films (Next, Screenplay, Rigoletto, Achilles, Gilbert and Sullivan, Hamilton Matress) have won over sixty major international awards, including Grand Prix, Best Director, Best Film, and OSCAR and BAFTA nominations.

His book Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance was published in 2007 by Focal Press and his six films with commentaries and interviews were issued on DVD as Barry Purves: His Intimate Lives in 2008 by Potemkin.

For a full filmography and to view Barry's IMDb profile click here

Carl Warner

Director

FOODSCAPES DIRECTOR / DESIGNER / PHOTOGRAPHER

Born in Liverpool, England in 1963, he moved to Kent at the age of seven where as an only child he spent hours in his room drawing and creating worlds from his imagination having been inspired by artists such as Salvador Dali, Patrick Woodroofe and record sleeve artists such as Roger Dean and the work of Hipgnosis. Carl began his career by going to art college with a view to becoming an illustrator as he had a talent for drawing yet quickly discovered that his ideas and creative eye was better suited to photography as a faster and more exciting medium in which to work. After a year’s foundation course at Maidstone Art College he moved to the London College of Printing in 1982 to do a three year degree course in photography, film and television. In 1985 he left to assist various photographers in the world of advertising for a year, after which he became one himself.

Although a very keen landscape photographer he initially established himself as a successful still life photographer, and then began to branch out into other areas of photography in the advertising world, shooting people and landscapes for a wide variety of products and brands. Over the past ten years he has been developing a body of work making landscapes out of food, and has been commissioned by many advertising agencies throughout the world to produce these for clients in the food industry.

In January of 2008 this work was featured in the Sunday Times, after which the flood gates opened to a host of media attention from magazines and newspapers all over the world to television reports, documentaries and interviews including an appearance on the Richard and Judy Show. The publishing of the images on many TV and newspaper websites led to the creation of many pdf format viral emails which are still to this day being passed around the globe.

These virals have led to a recognition of his work throughout the world which has resulted in a book deal with a major U.S. publisher, the licensing of images for many merchandising opportunities as well as advertising campaigns and commissions from some of the biggest brand names in the food world. Some of these campaigns have led Carl to expand his work into the moving image where he has begun to direct television and internet commercials.

Having completed work on his first book which will be released in October 2010, Carl has begun work on his second book as well as plans for an animated children’s television series which will promote healthy eating and tackle some of the issues of diet and nutrition. Carl has a busy year ahead of him with more advertising commissions and further television opportunities which he is very much looking forward to.

Pete Williamson

Designer

DESIGNER / ILLUSTRATOR

Pete has been Loose Moose's lead designer for over twelves years. During that time he originated many characters which have been used in Loose Moose's long running advertising campaigns including the 18 strong cast for NABISCO CHIPS AHOY!, highly successful Apple & Cinna-mon for KELLOGG'S APPLE JACKS and Dillon & Family for OSCAR MAYER LUNCHABLES.

In contrast to his commercial work, his personal monochrome water colours can both charm and unsettle in equal measure.

Along side Pete’s animation design work, he has illustrated various adult short stories, children’s books as well as having twelve of his own stories published.

Pete also co-wrote and is co-directing the short animated film, BEING BRADFORD DILLMAN with Loose Moose's Emma Burch.

www.petewilliamson.co.uk

Peter Truckel

Director

LIVE ACTION / ANIMATION / SPECIAL EFFECTS / ANIMALS

Peter studied film and photography at the London College of Printing. Following his graduation he remained at the college - taking a one year post-graduate course in animation and film production.

After leaving college, he worked for three years at FilmFex in London, where he was a special effects cameraman - filming VFX sequences for several feature films, including Bladerunner, Aliens and Plague Dogs.

Whilst at FilmFex Peter operated a computer controlled camera system, and when The Moving Picture Company developed their own sophisticated motion control camera he was asked to run it.

He was in charge of the Moving Picture Company’s motion control camera for 4 years, often taking responsibility for the lighting as well as the programming. During this time he worked on many award winning commercials, movies and television title sequences.

In 1987 Peter began to direct commercials through The Moving Picture Company, and that same year Jane Gershfield joined the company to produce for him. They stayed at MPC as a producer/director team for another two years, working on many successful projects for both Europe and the USA.

In order to increase their profile in the USA, Peter and Jane left MPC in 1989, working out of the production company Jennie and Co in both London and New York. After two years they opened up their own production company; Big Bang Productions, and at the same time began to work through Colossal Pictures in New York. During this time Peter developed a reputation for making humorous, visually stimulating films, often working with children, animals and animatronics, and combing these disciplines with sophisticated computer animation and complicated digital post production.

In August 2006 Jane and Peter closed Big Bang, and Peter recently joined Loose Moose after collaborating with their animation director Ange Palethorpe on a commercial for Kellogg’s Apple Jacks, through Leo Burnett, Chicago.

After directing for over twenty years Peter’s passion is still commercials, and in that time he has filmed in China, Russia, North and South America, South Africa, Canada and throughout Europe.

Peter’s work bridges the gap between performance/ comedy and special effects, and he’s won many awards for his films, including: Clio’s, The New York Festival, BTAA, D&AD, Creative Circle and a Cannes Silver Lion.

Sandy Johnson

Director

COMEDY / LIVE ACTION

Loose Moose Productions is pleased to be representing award winning comedy director Sandy Johnson for commercial work.

Sandy is best known for his recent Comedy TV series work including Love Soup (starring Tamsin Grieg), Supernova (with Rob Brydon), BENIDORM (with Steve Pemberton) and the more recent series of HARRY & PAUL (Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse)

Sandy can now add a National Television Award to his collection for his second series of Benidorm.

He was also a Knight of Ni in Monty Python’s - The Holy Grail – a little known fact that impressed us all no end!

Sandy's full filmography and IMDb profile can be viewed here

Tommy Nagle

Director

MOTION GRAPHICS / MIXED MEDIA / DOCUMENTARY

Tommy's a young talent who came to our attention after dropping in his reel, along with his personal statement - "Ambitious London-based M with GSOH WLTM like-minded employers for funtimes and frolicks. Highly proficient in many aspects of production:

Graphic Design // Animation // Editing (Final Cut) // Camera operating // Stills photography // Writing // Directing small crew shoots.

With a Full Driving Licence, I can spell, I make a damn fine hot chocolate and will probably lose to you at Wii Tennis. I like prawn sandwiches. But not as payment. Actually, that’s a lie. It depends how many.

Go on, have a butcher's at my showreel, and when you've finished that, you could watch some videos I’ve made.

I'm always happy to chat about projects, scripts, ideas, how ridiculously expensieve the cinema is... "

We liked his approach and work so much we invited him to join the team. Since he's helped out with our, ahem, 'lower budget' projects but made them look like they cost a fortune. He's looking for his break and to work on more of the unusual projects that come through our door.

Daniella Orsini

Director

As soon as Daniella was old enough to hold a crayon she was entering colouring competitions and drawing all over her bedroom walls, so she always had an inkling she wanted to do something creative when she grew up. Daniella made her first animation in 2003 using a Sony Mavika Floppy Disk camera, taped to a pile of books. Thankfully she has progressed a bit over the years and no longer use floppy disks. From there Daniella went on to study Multimedia Arts at University in Liverpool. It was at University that Daniella developed a paper obsession and decided that all she wanted to do was be an animator.

Daniella continued animating after finishing University and made a short animation which was selected as a Finalist for the BAFTA '60 seconds of Fame' Award. Daniella then moved to Oslo, Norway for a few months where she worked on creating cut-out animated backgrounds for a touring theatre production. Working in Norway is where Daniella was exposed to animating using multi-plane and fell in love with it, so as soon as she got home, saw in hand, she set about making her own table.

On a sunny day in May 2010, clutching her showreel and CV, Daniella came to the Loose Moose office. Two months later in a lovely Soho basement she began animating the cut-out stop motion short film 'Being Bradford Dillman'. One year on and 'Being Bradford Dillman' is being entered and accepted into Film Festivals around the World.

Since completing 'Being Bradford Dillman', Daniella has worked on short films as well as a number of commercial and corporate shoots for clients including McDonalds, Vodafone, Microsoft and Deloitte. Click here to view Daniella's blog.

Andreas de Ridder

Director

Andreas specialises in stop-motion animation and is equally happy animating, clay, paper or puppets.