London’s iconic Battersea Power Station is decorated with a sort of enormous Christmas card starring the beloved characters Wallace & Gromit.
The short animation of the man, his dog, and their Christmas trees was filmed on an iPhone 16 Pro Max and then projected onto the 101-meter (330 foot) chimneys that rise above the River Thames.
Wallace & Gromit tower over Battersea Power Station this Christmas
Battersea Power Station is huge and sits right on the bank of the Thames in London. Despite the name, it’s now a mixed-use community with an upscale mall containing an Apple Store. Plus, it’s the Mac-maker’s U.K. headquarters, so it’s no surprise that Apple is somewhat involved in decorating the building for the holidays.
The theme this year is Wallace & Gromit, the slightly dotty inventor and his clever dog, who are the stars of such classics as A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers from the geniuses at Aardman Animations. And it surely helps that they have a movie coming this Christmas: Vengeance Most Fowl.
Their enormous animation on the front of the Battersea Power Station shows the two characters decorating a pair of Christmas trees in their own inimitable styles, despite the intervention of the wicked Feathers McGraw. It’s projected from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day from now until New Year’s Eve.
“Wallace & Gromit are a much-loved and iconic duo, and we’re delighted that they will be lighting up Battersea Power Station for Londoners this year,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Marketing. “It’s great to see the skill and ingenuity of Aardman, and how they’ve used the most advanced iPhone we’ve ever made to produce something so joyful.”
Thank you to the brilliant Aardman for creating this amazing Wallace & Gromit animation on London’s Battersea Power Station! The stop-motion animation was #ShotOniPhone and will surely get people into the holiday spirit. pic.twitter.com/VC6hTN2WEi
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) December 1, 2024
Shot on iPhone
Photo: Apple
Aardman created the short film with traditional stop-motion animation.
iPhone 16 Pro Max was mounted on motorised heads on set to capture two angles of the Christmas trees, shooting a total of 6,000 frames. Eight iPhone 16 Pro Max devices used their 5x Telephoto camera to shoot super-high-resolution images in ProRAW, which were then assembled frame by frame to produce a 6K video.
“This project has been a dream to direct — a cinematic fusion of tech and art,” said Gavin Strange, Aardman’s director and graphic design lead. “Shooting stop-motion animation on iPhone 16 Pro Max with the legendary Wallace & Gromit, to then be projected onto the iconic Battersea Power Station, makes this unique in so many ways. I hope that this Christmas, everyone feels inspired to start shooting their own stop-motion masterpieces with iPhone, and I’m excited and proud of what we’ve all created.”
If this sounds somewhat familiar, a video named “Bigger Christmas Trees” created by artist David Hockney on an iPad decorated Battersea Power Station this time last year.
