About Us
Compost Creative is a multi-Emmy award-winning studio founded by Colin Thornton and Neil Wilson in 2007, who first collaborated at the BBC in 2005.
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A viral hit on Youtube called 'Bloody Omaha' (back when 4 million views was a lot) was the pivotal moment when Compost Creative was formed. We continue to approach every new project with the same commitment and enthusiasm as we showed in that gruelling viral.
We have carefully built up a strong team of directors, designers, and artists who are ready to collaborate with clients on projects ranging from documentaries and feature films to title sequences and game cinematics.
Our experience means we understand the importance of context — how the visuals we're creating fit into the film, where to introduce humour, and where to stay restrained and subtle. We're familiar with the complexities of running a production and will work with clients to ensure our collaboration workflow is smooth sailing and tailored to the production's specific needs.
We keep Compost Creative relatively small so that we can stay in touch with all of our ongoing projects. Over the years, we have found that honesty and direct communication is vital. Our team operates with that in mind, and as a result, the budget ends up on the screen.
What our clients are saying...
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“From the very start the Compost team were ambitious, creative, and flexible. They quickly understood what film we were trying to make and developed slick work which matched the tone and style, whilst navigating compliance notes, budget, and time pressures. I really enjoyed collaborating with them and would absolutely do so again!”
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Hannah Poulter, producer and co-director of Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy
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“Neil and Colin, and the entire Compost Creative team, have made my career possible. The films and series I have made in the last decade would not have been possible without their creativity, talent, skills, humor, and collaborative worth ethos. I know this may sound a tad hyperbolic, but it's true. And they deliver on time, on budget, and in any style of animation you can imagine. Their character creation and mood boards are spectacular. They created 'living' characters out of a few words. No AI can create characters as ingenious.”
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John Halperin, executive producer of Headspace, A Trip to Infinity, and Unknown: Cave of Bones
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"I first worked with Compost when they designed the title sequence for my series Lockerbie. It was so good I used it as the trailer instead of the one Sky Docs cut. They did the same for my BBC Arts film The Man Who Definitely Didn't Steal Hollywood, in which the stylish and irreverent title sequence helps set the tone for the whole film. On my last Disney project, Flintoff, they went even further by helping to realise an idea I had that eventually took the place of recon (which is great as I hate using recon in docs!). They are brilliant to work with, take direction so well, and always go beyond the call of duty."
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John Dower, director
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“I have been lucky enough to work with Compost on a number of high-end projects for Netflix which have required all kinds of GFX from basic info-graphics to bespoke animation to the most complex CGI. At their best, they produce creative content at the highest level. As with any artistic enterprise, there is a degree of personal taste involved but I love the distinctive character of their work - a sophisticated, layered, and textured aesthetic with great originality, personality and where needed, a wonderful sense of humour. I think it is a deliberate policy of Compost not to get too big and I’ve always felt that we’ve had the personal focus of the creative team.”
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