Interview with Rachel Tunnard one of the screenwriters of Chicken Run -Dawn of the Nugget

I recently chatted with Rachel Tunnard, one of the writers of the new Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget film. She was open and engaging, and we had a fantastic discussion on animation, live-action writing, and many other things.

Live Action & Animation Script Writing

Rachel first pointed out a big difference between animation writing and live-action writing. In live action, you can write a script, which would get changed and edited right up to the last minute and beyond as actors work in real-time, so the script can be rewritten after the original scene has been filmed. In animation, the script needs to be nailed down so that the actors can do the voices first; there is no flexibility, and audio comes first.  You can’t properly develop the characters' look and feel before using the audio.

“I remember writing a scene with 1000 chickens and being told there should be four…maximum.”

Throughout our chat, Rachel was keen to point out that the process of working on a project like this is not CGI. It’s intricate and very labour intensive, so costly. Chicken Run had to be exactly 82 minutes; there was no wriggle room, so the focus on the script became more intense. 

It’s all about when this part happens; then this bit happens; that’s the sequence, minute by minute, an extremely structured approach. Ultimately, this would all impact the funding for the film to occur.

Claymation 

Rachel highlighted that the sequel to Chicken Run had been proposed for a while but hadn’t gotten off the ground. She had a three-day session with the producer and director at the Aardman Studios in Bristol. She quickly mentioned that the studio was a real eye-opener where they would start using index cards on the wall, sequencing each part of the film to the minute, identifying which specific part and when this would happen. She explained that they would change, edit and revise as they went, and the script went through the same process.

“There was a wall filled with clay eyebrows for every expression that could be used for the film.”

Character Traits & Humour

Finally, in our discussions, Rachel mentioned how challenging it is to write a script that used characters from the original film, which meant researching their sentence structures so that what she wrote matched the character's cadence and writing in a similar style to the original movie but with a modern-day touch.

When a film like this comes along, it is about striking a balance for the family watching on the sofa where you want to make the children laugh and simultaneously engage the adults with the humour.

Rachel was wonderfully open about the process, making the interview engaging and easy. You can enjoy Chicken Run on Netflix starting on 15 December 2023.