Eimhin's secret blog: 06.12

29.6.12

PURE Animation 2012!

Participant Sasha Lorrigan with An Cathaoirleach Councillor Tom Joyce.

Hi all!

I recently had the pleasure of hosting the first ever PURE Animation Environmental Film School, produced in co-operation with the PURE Project and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
The workshop took place over two sessions in April and May, one at Mounttown Community Facility and the other at Cabinteely Community School. We had 23 participants overall, aged from 10-17 years old.

Before I go on too long, here are the four films:

Struck ill by polluted water, Bob must come to terms with what seems an uncertain future...

created by
Eimear O’Connell, Sarah O’Neill, Megan Taite, Ben Callahan, Adam Doyle, Oriane Eymery

Project supervisor
Pádraig Fagan

Strange little green men have come up with a novel solution to their rubbish problem
- Dump it on Earth!

created by
Adam Cantwell-Xenopoulos, Sasha Lorigan, Philippe Lorigan, Sean McInerney, April Mooney, Amber Mooney and Ruby McAlister

Project supervisor
Eimhin McNamara

One man’s careless actions cause a global catastrophe.
Is there any hope of a second chance?

created by

Derek Wall, Ryan Palmer, Michael Andrews, James Hornillios, Anthony Whelan, Sarah O'Neill

Project supervisor
Pádraig Fagan

A ship dumps its cargo of nuclear waste in the Arctic, stirring something strange up from from the depths...

created by:Megan Taite, Jefferson Tolentino, Erwin Bonifacio, Robert Mullally, Shane Donohue, Jack Travers

Project supervisor
Eimhin McNamara

The films were facilitated by myself and Pádraig Fagan with the assistance of Carol Freeman and featured all-original music by the multi-talented Chris McLoughlin, all three of which have hosted their own workshops to boot!

With the assistance of Donal Mangan we also did some filming of the students at work and I have put together a little behind the scenes video to show how we approached the animation on A Bob from the Past and Rubbish Express, and also to give an idea of how much patience and concentration the students exhibited.

Here is a little slideshow of photos taken during the workshop:

Ian Davis of the PURE Project introducing the programme

Last week the films were premièred in the Kingston Hotel in Dún Laoghaire, presented by Ian Davis of the PURE Project and An Cathaoirleach Councillor Tom Joyce.

A captive audience in (L-R) Philippe Lorigan, Adam Cantwell-Xenopolous and Sasha Lorrigan.

Shane Donohue of Cabinteely Community School being presented with his award by Councillor Tom Joyce

Megan Taite with her award, her film Nuclear Winter is visible in the background.

After the screening, each student was awarded a certificate, presented to them by An Cathaoirleach.

(L-R) Sarah O'Neill, Adam Cantwell-Xenopoulous, Philippe Lorigan, Sasha Lorigan, Eimear O'Connell and Councillor Tom Joyce.

I hope you enjoy all the students' work!

Regards
Eimhin McNamara

special thanks go out to:Ian Davis @ the PURE Project
Kate Hynes & Dean Eaton @ Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
Emily Keogh & James Moloney @ Cabinteely Community School
All the Staff @ Mounttown Community Facility
Deirdre Foran @ dforandesign
and of course all of the participating students!

PURE ANIMATION is an initiative of:
the PURE (Protecting Uplands and Rural Environments) Project
and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council

Photography from the première is courtesy of Jason Clarke Photography

18.6.12

The rumours of his demise were greatly...

Goose.

Here's Goose laying nice and quiet in my hand.

Hey look! Turns out Leroy is cat safe...

If I was any way smart I would have painted the top bit of the neck black for this angle...

The only reason that there are rocks here are cause his arm stretches forward and needed something to rest on. Cop out.

*SNIKT*

I used fishing line for the whiskers, being bereft of invisible thread.

The fishing line is quite a bit thicker than the thread would have been, so it looks a bit weird.

And here he is in his new home, about to fall over.

Here is a birthday present for a friend of mine. This guy mysteriously disappeared for nearly three weeks, but no less mysteriously turned up again yesterday.

14.6.12

PURE Animation Showcase Evening

Hi all!

Here is the flyer for next Wednesday's showcase evening which starts at 1930 in the Kingston Hotel, Dún Laoghaire:

Here is a ltttle bit of background on the project:

The short animated films were created over the two week Pure Animation training

programme where participants developed and created animations based on

environmental themes related to the Pure Project, – illegal dumping, recycling, pollution,

climate change, etc.

Commenting on the completed shorts, Ian Davis of PURE stated:

‘Pure Animation has been a great success and all credit is due to the students and the
facilitators who were involved. They have created four really inspiring animations in
such a short space of time. Each one has an important environmental message but
they are also very funny, clever and inspiring shorts. Education and awareness is an
important element of PURE. We previously distributed a Primary School Teachers’ Pack
to all schools in the Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown area, but we always wanted to engage
with secondary schools and teenagers. Pure Animation is the perfect type of project
that provides students with information on important environment issues, but more
importantly, it gives students an opportunity to develop and explore their own ideas on
environmental issues and also learn about animation technology.’

During the two week training programme students created their own storylines and

characters under the guidance of experienced and professional animators and tutors.

Not only do the four films focus on environmental issues, the characters and landscapes

that feature in the animations were also created from recycled materials, from plasticine,

cardboard, plastic, tinfoil, fabric, old sandpaper, bin bags and lots of other recycled

material.

I look forward to seeing you there!

All the best

Eimhin McNamara