Hi all!
First of all here are the Films:
Monster Problem!
A truck dumps some rubbish in the woodlands, but this rubbish is different and now we have a... Monster Problem!
Made using a combination of bin bags cardboard tinfoil and fabric, this films tells the story of how illegal dumping can adversely affect nature.
Created by:
Katie Sherlock, Anna Farnan, Saoirse Heffernan, Tom Furlong, Laura Kenny
The Smalls
The Smalls is an experimental short film dealing with the environmental themes of littering and its contribution to air pollution.
The methods used are a mix of pixelation (used to illustrate the hand of man and its impact on the environment) and cut-out animation with recycled materials.
Created by:
Kismet Hamilton, Méabh O'Shea, Aoife Lalor, Amelia Nelson- Sisinni, Conor Ryan
Something Fishy
A tale of a little hermit crab.
A crab thinks he's found a novel way to improve his shell... recycling!
The main characters are made out of plasticine and scraps of fabric. The backgrounds are composed of different materials including paper, cardboard, bubble-wrap and fabric.
Created by:
Orla Cleary, Rory Downes, Aaron Doyle, Sinéad O'Loughlin
Bindeavour
Bindeavor deals with our expanding pollution problem, set in the future it shows outer space as a potential new environment for people to pollute, and its possible affect on our own planet.
This film is animated using recycled materials in a flat cut-out style.
Created by:
Joseph Bulmer, Sadhbh Wilcoxson, Keadi Adams, Eli Cahn, Robbie Boland
Sheep and Wolf
All is peaceful in Sheep’s meadow, until Wolf arrives and everything changes...
Made using fabric pipe cleaners and a variety of recycled materials, this story deals with the issue of pollution and contamination of the water and how it affects the ecology.
Created by:
Tom O'Connor, Christopher Whyte, Oisin Sloan-Starr, Aysha Griffin, Chloe Potts
Welcome to Earth
Three aliens who visited earth for their holidays in the past return to find that not is all as
it was. The earth has changed since they've been away.
The aliens are all made out of plascticine and their spaceship in made out of cardboard, plastic, tinfoil and fabric. The environments where created by used sandpaper, cardboard and lots of recycled material.
Created by:
Ellen Walsh, Lorna McMahon, Joshua Hanrahan, Pilar de Alvear
And finally a bonus animation that the second week's students put together:
Playing in Pixelation
Here we have several fun experiments the young film-makers created using a camera, some props and themselves!
Starring:
Tom O'Connor, Christopher Whyte, Oisin Sloan-Starr, Aysha Griffin, Chloe Potts, Ellen Walsh, Lorna McMahon, Joshua Hanrahan, Pilar de Alvear, Joseph Bulmer, Sadhbh Wilcoxson, Keadi Adams, Eli Cahn, Robbie Boland
And, now, a little bit of background on the project:
So, as I'm sure you're aware, for the last year or so I have been organising stop-motion workshops across Ireland, after first getting a start with
Christian Robinson, when I assisted him in his classes with the
IFI, from which this clip was created:
link
Fast forward a little bit to last May, when I got a phone call to see if I would be available to organise a workshop event, in partnership with Ian Davis of
the PURE (Protecting Uplands & Rural Environments) Project and Deryn O'Callaghan at
the Tinahely Courthouse, both of whom are located in Co. Wicklow.
Previously PURE had organised a live-action film workshop entitled PURE Wicked, but Ian felt that they were somewhat limited in the type of stories they could tell this way, and thought that animation may offer grander scope, so thus enter me into the scenario for PURE Wicked 2011.
From the get go the one thing about this workshop is that it would be big and ambitious. It would take place over two weeks, with 30 students working together to create a selection of films on the theme of the environment, and man's affect on it.. The age group we were planning to work with was older too, from 12 up, and with them we aimed to create 6 distinct stories and tell them in an interesting and fun way, using a selection of medium and animation techniques.
Right off the bat I knew that I'd need some solid backup, so I managed to wrangle
Louise Bagnall and
Carol Freeman as my wingwomen for the duration of the workshop. Having worked with Louise on her short
Donkey I knew that it'd be great to have her story and design sensibility on board and with her just back from the
Animation Workshop in Denmark, I was lucky enough to snap her up before she ended up gainfully employed. Carol also had recently finished a term teaching animation at Hartstown (the results of which you can see here:
link) and had quite a lot of workshop experience over the last few years so likewise was tailored perfectly for this. I would also need someone to help out with the music after the two weeks wrap up and I had just the man,
Chris McLoughlin, a very talented musician, model-maker and animator. Thankfully for a number of days over the two weeks we were also able to avail of the help of Richard Duffy, who managed to keep the students occupied with all manner of diversions.
Within a few weeks I had a lesson plan and schedule for the two weeks planned out, with guidelines for storyboards, designing/building and animation, as well presentations on storyboarding, animation techniques and some inspirational screenings of some of my favourite animations, to help get them in the right frame of mind. We would have two groups of 15 students in each week, and from that we would make 3 groups of 5, with 6 groups over the full two week period.
For day 1, we began with an induction into the idea behind the workshop, that we can help promote the responsible use and treatment of our environment, from the big to the small, this was put together by Ian of PURE, and involved a slide presentation and some very shocking figures on the illegal dumping rates in the picturesque Uplands region of Wicklow.
We followed this up with an induction into animation, where we showed them a wide range of films, concentrating mainly on camera-based animation rather than digital or hand drawn created works.
Here's a full list of the films we screened:
link
After the introductions we split the students into groups and we started working with them on their stories. Once they had figured out an outline and the characters we got each group to pitch their idea to the room. We got started on the storyboards at this point, which we continued with on day 2.
Day 2 was all about wrapping up the storyboards and figuring out the character designs. Louise presented her film Donkey, and showed the students her original storyboard, to help them visualise the jump from page to screen. We planned out the elements and figured out what we were going to make the backgrounds and characters out of, as well as how many and much of each.
They started building the elements in the second half of the day, and continued making the last few character pieces and props while animation was starting on day 3
Day 3 was the beginning of the animation process.
We had a smaller room where the three cameras were set up (one generously donated by
Adrien Merigeau).
The animation went from day 3 all the way to day 5, and it was pretty intense.
As each group was made up of about 5 students, and we could only really have 2 or so from each group animating at one time in the room.
Everyone got to animate by cycling through the team members.
Each student would animate for a chunk and then recuperate until they're up next.
This helped to keep them fresh.
Here they are playing an impromptu version of Xs & Os during one of their recuperation periods.
Finally at the end of Friday we cleaned the place up, an appropriate way to end the week I believe.
STAFF CREDITS
