Description
Halas and Batchelor were approached by the Admiralty to create an instructional film for Royal Navy navigation trainees; according to Halas, the intent was to "stop young people from driving a ship like it was a car." The film was not intended as a propaganda work, instead serving as a precise guide to manoeuvring and navigating ships, along with aspects of general ship handling and control.
For Handling Ships, Halas and Batchelor used stop motion animation of three-dimensional ship models, along with schematic designs, to simplify the intricacies and vagaries of ship movement and educate the viewer. The film was shot in 35 mm and Technicolor. Unlike previous animations by the company, Handling Ships was feature length, running at 70 minutes: at the time, the longest stop motion production made in the UK. The film was never released to cinema chains, as Halas and Batchelor felt it was too specialised for and of limited appeal to general audiences, and it had no propaganda value.
Read more about this topic: Handling Ships
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