Action ! Children create their own cinematic drama
04/08/14 08:17
Film buffs from Manor Park First School in Dorchester who watch and review movies in their after school Film Club, have made a short film of their own.
With support from national charity Into Film, the 30 eight and nine year olds have created an atmospheric five minute drama called The Stone - under the professional guidance of filmmakers Sharon Hayden and Alastair Nisbet from ScreenPLAY. The film - premiered at the club's end of year celebration - was screened throughout the summer on the big screen in Dorchester’s Brewery Square.
"Because it was quite a big group and our time was limited, we focussed on the movement rather than dialog," explained Sharon. “They have created some wonderful dramatic tension and beautiful movement."
“We all did a drama warm up and then decided who was going to be an actor and who was going to do the filming,” said Susie, 9.
“We wanted to make it feel like we were on a journey through the forest - and were all a bit scared,” added Archie, 9.
“I was one of the actors - it was epic !” said Mary, 9.
“The film made me feel like a proper movie star,” said Grace, 9. “The story is about a strange stone - if you touch it you go to crazy land !”
Headteacher Melanie Cridland said the children had gained a huge amount from the experience. “It’s been about team work and developing communication, as well as learning to use the equipment and creating some wonderful movement and drama.”
How to make animated characters swim
12/07/13 15:55 Filed in: Animation
People have been asking how to make an animated character swim.
Like the walk cycle, the ‘swim cycle’ can be broken down into about six frames, but - as we have discovered - it can be surprisingly tricky to make your swimming movement look realistic. One effective way to achieve realistic movement is to film the movement in live action - and then pick out and print the key frames to use as a basis for the drawing.
In real life, you don’t actually see very much of a swimmer’s body, but if you try to emulate that in 2D animation, it can look terrible.
In our workshop film Splash, we simply put the swimmer on top of a wave background, and it looked sort of OK, but in The Big Splash, one of our films for the Cultural Olympiad last summer made by younger children, we added a translucent layer to slightly obscure the swimmer’s bodies below the water. Did it work ? You be the judge.
Our next movement challenge: how to make a character curtsey !
Like the walk cycle, the ‘swim cycle’ can be broken down into about six frames, but - as we have discovered - it can be surprisingly tricky to make your swimming movement look realistic. One effective way to achieve realistic movement is to film the movement in live action - and then pick out and print the key frames to use as a basis for the drawing.
In real life, you don’t actually see very much of a swimmer’s body, but if you try to emulate that in 2D animation, it can look terrible.
In our workshop film Splash, we simply put the swimmer on top of a wave background, and it looked sort of OK, but in The Big Splash, one of our films for the Cultural Olympiad last summer made by younger children, we added a translucent layer to slightly obscure the swimmer’s bodies below the water. Did it work ? You be the judge.
Our next movement challenge: how to make a character curtsey !
Legacy banner project underway...
25/04/13 10:01
Children at five schools in Weymouth and Portland are working with artists from ScreenPLAY on a new set of brightly coloured banners for Weymouth seafront and harbourside.
The legacy project in partnership with Weymouth and Portland Borough Council started this week with two day residencies by artists Heidi Steller and Sharon Hayden at Westfield Arts College and St John’s Primary School in Weymouth.
Sharon explained: “The banners are all about activity - swimming, cycling, sailing, canoeing, riding donkeys on the beach, as well as some of the sports at the Weymouth beach sports arena which thousands of people took part in last summer.”
“The year six group at Westfield took part in these activities last summer and have included their photographs in a wonderful series of seaside collages. They have loved making their banners and we’re really pleased with the way they have worked together on them.”
The legacy project in partnership with Weymouth and Portland Borough Council started this week with two day residencies by artists Heidi Steller and Sharon Hayden at Westfield Arts College and St John’s Primary School in Weymouth.
Sharon explained: “The banners are all about activity - swimming, cycling, sailing, canoeing, riding donkeys on the beach, as well as some of the sports at the Weymouth beach sports arena which thousands of people took part in last summer.”
“The year six group at Westfield took part in these activities last summer and have included their photographs in a wonderful series of seaside collages. They have loved making their banners and we’re really pleased with the way they have worked together on them.”
Children to design new seafront banners for Weymouth
24/03/13 23:01
Schoolchildren in Weymouth and Portland will be designing a new set of banners for the seafront and harbourside as part of an Olympic legacy project delivered by ScreenPLAY in partnership with the Borough Council.
“We’ll be working in five schools during the first half of the Summer term, supporting the children in creating vivid new banner designs which will be in place for the start of this year’s summer season,” explained project leader Sharon Hayden.
“They will be all about the activity that people see and do when they come to the seaside and the wonderful Dorset coast.”
Head of Olympic Legacy and Operations at the Council, Simon Williams said the banners were one of 66 projects which would help keep the Olympic feelgood factor alive.
“Last summer’s events were an extraordinary once in a lifetime experience for more than 550,000 who came to Weymouth and Portland. We hope these new banners - designed by children in our schools - will help people remember and be inspired by the Olympic experience.”
Workshop film to be screened in Sydney
21/03/13 12:21
Work by young filmmakers in Dorchester is being screened at the historic Sydney Observatory in Australia.
The Willow Pattern Story - a short animation from a workshop with Alastair Nisbet and Sharon Hayden - is being used to support a new archaeology programme at the Observatory, one of the city’s oldest buildings.
“A lot of old Willow Pattern plates have been found on our site which dates back to 1804,” explained Observatory manager Toner Stephenson. “We will use the children’s film as a way of introducing the story behind the plates.”
She said children on school visits will dig, inspect real artefacts and examine the original 1804 Fort and 1848 cottage.
“The Willow pattern is very dominant in the finds and we ask them to put together a willow pattern plate from pieces excavated.
They then make their own plate but we want them to understand that the plates have a story, and that the Willow Pattern story was appealing to British colony settlers. Your film will inspire them to create their own design for their plate”.
The Willow Pattern Story - a short animation from a workshop with Alastair Nisbet and Sharon Hayden - is being used to support a new archaeology programme at the Observatory, one of the city’s oldest buildings.
“A lot of old Willow Pattern plates have been found on our site which dates back to 1804,” explained Observatory manager Toner Stephenson. “We will use the children’s film as a way of introducing the story behind the plates.”
She said children on school visits will dig, inspect real artefacts and examine the original 1804 Fort and 1848 cottage.
“The Willow pattern is very dominant in the finds and we ask them to put together a willow pattern plate from pieces excavated.
They then make their own plate but we want them to understand that the plates have a story, and that the Willow Pattern story was appealing to British colony settlers. Your film will inspire them to create their own design for their plate”.
Old Irish Furniture wins at Sundance
Animation, old furniture, wonderful Irish voices - this delightful film by Tony Donoghue appeals on so many levels… which is obviously why it has just won the short film jury award for animation at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
To call it an animated documentary about repair and recycling in rural Ireland just does not do it justice.
I don’t know how long they will keep it on YouTube so watch and enjoy!
To call it an animated documentary about repair and recycling in rural Ireland just does not do it justice.
I don’t know how long they will keep it on YouTube so watch and enjoy!
The Helpful Dead - the real people behind the story
02/12/12 08:37 Filed in: Film
The first draft of the script for the Helpful Dead included skeletons of long dead seamen coming back to life to save an Olympic yachtsmen but it was only in the latter stage of script development with mentor Peter Snelling that he asked the key question: “Why would they ?”. Why let generations of sailors die and then choose to save one in particular ? There had to be a link with the past.
Then in November 1872 he writes “Monday in this week, a very wet day - in the evening an emigrant ship was wrecked on the beach. School open but no roll call as so few were present.” The Royal Adelaide, carrying families to a new life in Australia had foundered on Chesil beach. Most passengers were saved but six, including a young girl drowned.
In The Helpful Dead a Victorian mother sees her boy drown as a ship sinks off the Chesil - and we cut to 2012 to find a Olympic sailor in trouble who looks the image of the Victorian mother. The long-dead boy looks up from his watery grave and thinks she is his mother. He summons the Helpful Dead back to life with the words - “It happened to us, don’t let it happen to them”.
We studied Ford Maddox Brown’s famous painting Last of England in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. A young family are leaving England for a new life on an 1860’s emigrant ship. The mother, holding the hand of a baby under her cloak is strikingly beautiful. The model for the picture was the artist’s wife Emma and our Year Five artists were able to use Maddox Brown’s sketches of her as their inspiration for both Joseph’s mother and our Olympic sailor Serena.
Best Film for Helpful Dead
Four of the filmmaking team from Wyke Regis Junior school joined facilitators Sharon Hayden and Alastair Nisbet from ScreenPLAY to receive the award at Bristol's Watershed - and a bag of film goodies from sponsor Aardman Animation.
Project producer Sharon Hayden said it was a wonderful achievement for the ten year old filmmakers.
Best Comedy went to Taking Out Tim by Tiverton High School with My Pockets, and Best documentary to Adrenaline Junky, a moving film about a motorcyclist regaining his action packed lifestyle after an accident.
All the Electric December films are on the website electricdecember.org - including The Big Splash, one of the other Dorchester Arts Olympic films by St John’s Primary School in Weymouth.
The Helpful Dead was based on a real life tragedy and characters were inspired by Victorian works of art in Birmingham and Cambridge. Read about the real people behind the story.
The Helpful Dead was funded by the Lottery's First Light initiative with additional support from b-side, Departure Arts and the school itself.
Electric December for Children’s Olympic films
Animated films by children at two Weymouth primary schools have been selected for an international showcase of young filmmaking talent.
The Big Splash and the Helpful Dead, made for the Olympics by pupils at St John’s Primary and Wyke Regis Junior schools will be part of Electric December, a countdown calendar featuring the best of young people’s short films from across Europe.
The films, seen by thousands on big screens during the summer, will now bring Weymouth and Portland - as seen through the eyes of ten year olds - to an international audience.
Over the course of a month in each school the young filmmakers worked with a group of six artists from Dorchester Arts, led by Sharon Hayden of digital arts organisation ScreenPLAY.
She said the children gave both films a strong sense of place and local identity.
“In the Big Splash they wanted to capture the feel of the torch relay on Weymouth seafront and the determination and courage of a group of young people swimming across the bay.
In researching Helpful Dead, the children found a head teacher’s diary from 1872 with descriptions of a shipwreck off the Chesil. This gave them the idea to link a Victorian tragedy with the 2012 Olympics,” she explained.
The films, plus the third in the trilogy the Portland Race, were funded by the lottery through the BFI’s First Light initiative.
The films, seen by thousands on big screens during the summer, will now bring Weymouth and Portland - as seen through the eyes of ten year olds - to an international audience.
Over the course of a month in each school the young filmmakers worked with a group of six artists from Dorchester Arts, led by Sharon Hayden of digital arts organisation ScreenPLAY.
She said the children gave both films a strong sense of place and local identity.
“In the Big Splash they wanted to capture the feel of the torch relay on Weymouth seafront and the determination and courage of a group of young people swimming across the bay.
In researching Helpful Dead, the children found a head teacher’s diary from 1872 with descriptions of a shipwreck off the Chesil. This gave them the idea to link a Victorian tragedy with the 2012 Olympics,” she explained.
The films, plus the third in the trilogy the Portland Race, were funded by the lottery through the BFI’s First Light initiative.
The Willow Pattern Story
I’ve just noticed that our short animation of the the Willow Pattern Story from a half term workshop a few years ago has topped 17,000 views on You Tube ! Seemed like a good excuse to tell people about it again.
The young people who took part should feel really proud of their work !
Watch out for the not very subtle comedy moment.
Paper Cinema's Odyssey
14/10/12 07:52 Filed in: Things we like
We were blown away by Paper Cinema’s stunning new feature-length show at Bournemouth last night - Odyssey.
As the show starts you watch Nic Rawling draw the main characters live, while the credits flicker around them - and at that point you know it’s going to be an extraordinary evening.
It’s Greek myth as you’ve never seen before - complete with hitchhiker, motorbike, speedboat - wonderful drawing by Nic and a fabulous soundtrack by his band. People are saying it’s the best thing they have ever seen - wow !
The tour continues until the end of November - don’t miss it !
The Renter
20/09/12 12:02 Filed in: Things we like | Film
The Renter from Jason Carpenter on Vimeo.
Brilliant but unsettling film about daycare - and chickens - by Jason Carpenter.
Scary and compelling viewing.
Moving Tides - Weymouth’s closing celebration
11/09/12 11:09 Filed in: News
Hundreds of schoolchildren in extraordinary Jurassic-inspired costumes created a pulsating carnival of colour, dance, noise and excitement for Weymouth and Portland’s closing Olympic and Paralympic celebration - the Moving Tides procession.
The children, from Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester were transformed into iridescent sea creatures as they danced their way along the esplanade, accompanied by junk bands and huge carnival dinosaurs.
Moving Tides was originally scheduled for the day the Olympic torch arrived in Weymouth - but after extreme weather forced postponement, it was rescheduled - in an inspired move by organisers - to the final day of London 2012, September 9th.
Take a Walk on the Wild side
An animated Peregrine Falcon leads you along The Legacy Trail - a 13 mile trail through Weymouth to Portland Bill along the stunning Jurassic coast.
The trail is one of the Dorset town’s London 2012 Olympic legacies, offering visitors and local people a chance to explore the wild side of this stunning part of the country. The Peregrine, drawn by Nic Rawling of the Paper Cinema specially for the project, guides viewers through reedbeds, along Weymouth’s bucket and spade seafront to a hidden trail on the old railway line to Portland Harbour and the extraordinary Chesil beach.
From Underhill, it goes up the Merchants’ Incline, the track of a historic horse drawn tramway used to move Portland stone to the dock in the 19th century and into a fascinating maze of of old quarry workings, complete with 150 year old tunnels - and, if you can spot it, a fine example of a fossilised tree.
From the Quarries, the trail moves on to the Engine shed, where steam locos on the Portland line were refuelled and maintained, before moving down to the East Weares, a spectacular coastal section - complete with its own herd of wild native goats. Here you could easily see a pair of the island’s resident Peregrines with their young, calling to them from the clifftop.
The trail goes on, past cliffs of roped up climbers honing their skills for greater heights, to Church Ope cove where locals enjoy a dip in the sea or try their luck spear fishing for sea bass.
On flies the Peregrine, past long disused cranes used for loading the valuable stone onto waiting barges, until finally it reaches the Bill. Time for a visit to the lighthouse, a welcome bite to eat and a look round the visitor centre.
Have you explored the wild side yet ?
Dinosaur leads Festival 2012's Jurassic procession
03/06/12 08:36 Filed in: News
The Jaipur brass band and a huge processional dinosaur led Dorchester Festival 2012's extraordinary procession through the town to the Borough Gardens yesterday.
Dozens of children dressed as Jurassic sea creatures, seagulls and even ice creams, carried brightly coloured ammonite flags or played in an amazing drumming band of junk instruments.
Olympic films to inspire school assemblies
With support from Departure Arts and b-side Multimedia Arts Festival, a team of artists and filmmakers from Dorchester ARTS spent last term working with more than 130 children at Underhill Junior School on Portland, Wyke Regis Junior School and St John’s Primary School.
Project producer Sharon Hayden said she hoped other schools would use them as a stimulus for discussion in their work on London 2012.
“These films will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people during the Olympics later in the summer. The year four and five children who made them have produced three wonderful stories with terrific drama, beautiful drawing and extraordinary soundtracks, and we know from what others have already told us that they offer a useful starting point for assemblies and class discussions.”
The films, lottery funded by the BFI’s First Light initiative, are being distributed by Departure Arts. You can also view and request copies on the website at www.dorchesterarts.org.uk/projects . The films are: The Helpful Dead by year five at Wyke Regis Junior School A majestic tall ship sunk off Dead Man’s Cove, Portland in 1872 has a dramatic emotional link with the 2012 sailing events.
The Big Splash by Year Five at St John’s Primary When the Olympic torch is sensationally stolen amid crowds on Weymouth seafront, four best friends make a splash in more ways then one as they try to get it back.
Love is making its way back home
07/05/12 08:53 Filed in: Things we like | Film
12000 is a lot of pieces of paper - wonderful piece of work
Angel Exit Theatre's The Secret Garden
16/01/12 22:45 Filed in: News | Things we like
Angel Exit unearth the dark heart of The Secret Garden, which sees spoilt Mary Lennox plucked from the bright vibrancy of India and transplanted to a big old house full of secrets on the grey Yorkshire moors.
As Mary battles loneliness she encounters locked doors, a curious robin, hidden keys, and strange cries ringing down the corridor…
Presented in Angel Exit's rich visual style and blending storytelling with striking physicality, beautiful puppets, live singing and an original soundtrack, The Secret Garden is performed by an ensemble of five.
This show for all the family is has been co-produced by Dorchester ARTS and Bridport Arts Centre, and co-commissioned by Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts, and Activate.
The Secret Garden is touring from January until the end of March 2012 and is funded by Arts Council England and West Dorset Leisure fund. This is Angel Exit's third show created at their base at Dorchester ARTS.
angelexit.co.uk
Animated Jellybeans !
07/11/11 08:57 Filed in: Things we like | Film
It’s amazing what you can do with 288,000 jellybeans !
The Invention of love
16/08/11 17:01 Filed in: Things we like | Film
The Invention of Love - Andrey Shushkov’s beautiful animation in a silhouette style reminiscent of Lotte Reiniger. Just watch - it speaks for itself!