Chris Shepherd (born 11 December 1967) is a double BAFTA nominated television/film writer and director. Born in Anfield, Liverpool, Lancashire, in 1967. He is mainly known for combining live action with animation. His work fuses comedy with commentary on the darker side of human nature.
Early years
Shepherd's first animation was made in 1989 and it was called Safari. He wanted to make a drama but didn't know any actors, so he made his cast out of plasticine. Using this film he won a place at University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. His first job in the industry was as production manager at Speedy Films which was the creative vehicle for director Paul Vester. His writing and commissioned directorial debut came in 1997 with a Channel 4 film called The Broken Jaw. This animated comedy illustrated the plight of a public house after it has been transformed into a fun pub. During the same year he animated the world stare-out championship for BBC comedy sketch show Big Train.
As well as being the producer on the Channel 4/MOMI scheme, he also worked as producer with Cramp Twins creator, Brian Wood, on his Channel 4 film School Disco and "Bunny Schendler" on her BAFTA nominated "World of Interiors".
Slinky
In 2000 Shepherd set up Slinky Pictures and until its closure in 2010, the company produced many award-winning films and adverts. His 2003 Dad's Dead, commissioned by animate!, featured Ian Hart as its narrator. This was the first collaboration of many with producer and Slinky Pictures co-founder Maria Manton. The film groundbreakingly combined animation with live action in a unique style which led the film to win 25 international awards including Best Short Film at the British Independent Film Awards and BAFTA nomination. He directed and co-wrote a spoof general election series with Peter Holmes called People's Britain for Channel 4 in 2001.
Other credits include animation on Channel 4 sitcom Nathan Barley and Channel 4 documentary Bollocks to Cancer. 2005 saw him co-write and co-direct with artist David Shrigley on a second animate! commission called Who I Am And What I Want. The year after Silence Is Golden won the TCM Classic Shorts Award at the 2006 London Film Festival.
It was during this period that Shepherd wrote several feature films including: Up in Heaven, Directed by Shepherd, produced by Nira Park and Maria Manton for Film4, Big Talk Productions; and 50% Off, directed by Shepherd from an idea by him and David Shrigley for Warp Films. After being caught for five years in the development of Up in Heaven, he vowed to make as many films as he could, regardless of length. There's still a lot of speculation about the progress of his feature film projects which, according to several websites, are still in development.
His last Slinky film, Bad Night for the Blues, won the International Canal+ Award at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and was transmitted on BBC HD on 27 February 2011. This is the first film in which Shepherd adopted an autobiographical approach without hiding characters involved.
Post Slinky and Random Acts 2011 to 2016
Shepherd's first work after Slinky was a pop promo, Falling into Pieces, for Black Casino and the Ghost. From 2011 saw Shepherd being a guest curator on Channel 4's late night arts strand Random Acts. Commissioned by Lupus films he's worked with the likes of David Shrigley, Phil Mulloy and Fred Deakin. As well as curating and producing sixty films for the strand he's also directed two. A recreation of a childhood visits to the dentist called "Drillerfiller" and a pop promo for protest singer Grace Petrie called "Grace Petrie: Rise". Both look at Shepherd's childhood landscape, the first as a memory and the second as a documentary. "Rise" was shot in Anfield in Liverpool just as Shepherd's childhood neighbourhood was being demolished. The film was later included in 2012's Anfield Home Tours as part of the 2up2down project. He also produced a documentary project with Tim Brunsden called Home Sweet Home which documented events after a major fire at Shepherd's family home.