The showcase

Wendy and I had our last trip to Tilbury Town to help the filmmakers to finish their animations and do a little bit of editing.   We also squeezed in a screening of the finished works with a special guest Iluska, from Creative Partnerships.  The group still have a little bit of work to do on their soundtracks.  The films were great, with some very informative and imaginative narrative themes and the students were so fast to pick up the technology.  I'm sure there will be more animating at Gateway.  I hope so.

Animation Day.

The class had a very productive day animating and gathering sounds for their stories.

Here are the animated sequences so far. Next we will be reviewing the footage and editing.

Some links to good animated documentary films

Arthur Lipsetts film Very Nice Very Nice  from 1961.  This film was made 50 years ago, but it seems very current.  It is made from still frames that were rejected by other filmmakers.  Do you think the message of the film is still true today?
A is for Autism by Tim Webb from 1992.  The film gives a very good impression of the life of a person living with autism through clever use of both the images and the sound.
I met the Walrus by Josh Raskin from 2009.  Based on a recording of John Lennon from 1969.  The unaltered recording provides the structure for the animated documentary.

Storyboards and Artwork

The students had been working hard on their stories and storyboards with the help of Lucy and Phil from Pixelwork.  Yesterday I went in to help them create the artwork so that they'll be ready to animate next week with Wendy.

The animation day - the set up

Wednesday 2nd March part 1

Here are the animations made using cutout paper puppets:

Wednesday 2nd March

Here are some of the very good Coalhouse fort inspired animations from today, we didn't get the chance to try rotoscoping this time, here are the drawn animations:

Tomorrow we are trying out a few different types of animation together.  We could post the results here. We will have a go at rotoscoping, pixilation, cutout animation and traditional drawn animation.

Here are some links to examples of the techniques that we will try:


Rotoscoping
Out of The Inkwell - Modelling by Max Fleischer (1921) Watch Koko the clown in this film, the Fleischer's invented the technique of rotoscoping.
Take On Me by A-HA music video (1985)


Pixilation - with people
Neighbours by Norman Mclaren (1952)

Pixilation - with objects
The Cameraman's Revenge by Ladislaw Starewicz (1912)
Meat Love by Jan Swankmajer (1989)


Cutout Animation
Jack and the Beanstalk by Lotte Reiniger (1955)
La Merle by Norman McLaren (1958)
Fox and Rabbit by Yuri Norstein (1973)



Traditional Drawn Animation
The Nature of Bow by Elizabeth Hobbs and Bow Age Concern (2003)

Here are links to a few other videos that we have seen together:
Just The Way You Are, Bruno Mars Music Video directed by Ethan Lader.  This has been made using a mixture of live action, pixilation and perhaps a little digital animation too.
Strawberry Swing, Coldplay Music Video directed by Shynola (2009).  This has been made using pixilation and a straight-ahead drawn animation technique.

Research trip to Coalhouse Fort

On the 9th February we went on a research visit to Coalhouse Fort in Tilbury, where we were lucky to have a very interesting tour with Ken Levy.  The fort is to be the springboard and inspiration for the animated film.

At the end of the tour, a small group worked hard trying to find the most interesting points of the visit.  The fact that the prison scene from Batman Begins was filmed there was obviously high up there, but there was some really brilliant facts about guns that I for one didn't expect to find so fascinating.