The reel

1. Tate, Aardman And Fallon Let Kids Tell The Story

   19/07/2010 0 Commentsadd comment

   

   Now THIS is exciting, and kinda makes us want to be 10-year-olds again!

   Tate has just announced the launch of the interactive website and national roadshow of the Tate Movie Project, in which kids from across the country are invited to take part in creating the Tate Movie - an animation film made by and for children (the first of its kind, so we hear).

   The Tate Movie Project truck takes to the road this weekend (17th July) on a national three month tour of production workshops. The truck will travel to 55 locations across the UK, visiting primary schools, family events and festivals in every region of the UK. The truck folds out into a state of the art creative learning studio, complete with sound studio space, computers and a screening facility, all of which can be cleared away for workshops and activities. The children will work with artists and film-makers in the truck who will deliver hundreds of production workshops, using great artworks as a source of inspiration.

   

   At the heart of the Tate Movie Project is the website - www.tatemovie.co.uk – in which little-uns will be able to be involved in the whole movie making process online, from the hand-drawn characters and plot twists, down to costumes and sound effects. When children enter the website they are welcomed by Ronnie, the animated “Movie Director”, alongside a host of other cartoon characters who will guide them through the process. The website has been designed to appeal to children aged 5-13 (Ed: just our level) and will enable them to explore animation, scripting, editing and sound effects. Their fabbo creations and contributions to the movie are uploaded directly onto the website where they can interact with all the activities and resources it provides.

   After all that, Tate, Aardman and Fallon get their hands on the vast bank of material, and bring it together in the most impressive way possible using the latest animation technology. Exciting stuff!!

   But that’s not the end of it.

   The next stage of group activities will be workshops that take place from October 2010 – March 2011 at a network of partner galleries across the UK. To get involved, dress up like a 12-year-old and find out the deets of the the Tate Movie truck’s tour at www.tatemovie.co.uk.

   The finished film will be broadcast on BBC TV in mid-2011. Meanwhile, CBBC’s Blue Peter will be following the real-life production process and encouraging kids to get involved.

   It is hoped that up to a million children will be involved in the project as a whole. Blimey.

   

   We caught up with Aardman director Sarah Cox to get the inside info:

   What is your involvement with the project?
   We at Aardman have created the website and will direct and produce the resulting 20 minute film. The website acts as a conduit between the creative crew at Aardman (myself, the director, the composer, the script editor, the writer, and the art director) and the children who are contributing the assets. The children can also use the website as a forum to comment and vote on each other’s work.
   The film will be generated from content created entirely by children, with the editing, animation, compositing and sound design done at Aardman by professionals. We are also working with an experienced composer John Browne who will work with children to create the soundtrack. The script will be written by Dave Ingham (an experienced children’s TV writer) but using only content generated by the children and this process will be managed by Lucy Murphy who is script editing.

   What do you think children will bring to the table that adults might miss?
   From the workshops we have attended so far the thing that strikes me is the inventive logic of the children’s stories. They seem to have an instinctive sense of beginning, middle and end but blithely travel to an adventure on Planet Jimmy by taking the number 73 Bus. It’s the combination of imaginative surrealism with the detail of their real lives which really strikes me. In design terms there is obviously nothing that can compare with children’s drawings... they have a bold and direct charm that cannot be replicated. Drawings by adults that have sneaked on to the site are instantly recognised and rejected from the film.

   What do you think the kids are going to get out of taking part?
   What we have heard back from the first children that have taken part is that they have most enjoyed ‘being allowed to use their imagination’. I think it’s the fact that we are taking their ideas seriously that they are most delighted by. We are very happy to listen to the complex stories that flow, almost completely fully formed from their minds. They will also love the workshops on the Truck, and just seeing all their contributions almost instantly on the website.

   We know the project’s just started, but have there been any highlights so far? What’s the response been like?
   Yes already we have had some amazing story ideas... my favourite is the Hero with ten hearts (to hold all his goodness) he is also allowed to be naughty for 10 minutes a week.
   We have had some great drawings too, some brilliant birds and underwater break dancers. Literally so much good stuff already.
   
   What sort of creative freedom do the kids have in their contributions? Tiny minds can be pretty crazy – will you rule out anything too leftfield.
   Well you can see above that the ideas are quite out there, but we are committed to making the film a true reflection of their ideas as unfettered as possible so there are no limits on the bounds of imagination at all.

   Animation can lend itself well to the mind of a child, do you think this is key to the process? (i.e. would it be impossible to do in live-action?)
   I think animation is the perfect medium for this film as the ideas would either be impossible or extremely costly to portray in live action. Scale is a big theme in many of the ideas we have seen so far, tiny heroes, giant monsters, hair that grows 5 meters a day. Fantasy also features quite a lot ( dragons, monsters and aliens) and transformative characters; like Stretchy McStretch and the Star Horse. Animation also is the most direct way of preserving the charm of the original drawings into the final film.

   

   Is this the first crowd source project that you have undertaken?
   It is of this scale but I have just finished an archive film project that uses people’s individual footage to create collective memories of certain locations in Bristol; www.atimetravellersguide.com

   How’s the piecing together of the final film going to work?
   BIG QUESTION! How much space do you have for an answer? The simple response is that after we have a ‘nearly finished’ working script we will select 1000’s of suitable drawings for each scene. We then build the scene like a theatre set so we can allow depth and camera movement through flat planes. The individual drawings will all be scanned and then things like trees, cars, clouds will be used in their original state. More complicated elements like characters, animals and monsters will be ‘animated’. This will involve an art director here creating additional assets and character parts in a very sympathetic way for each character; so we can see the back of their heads or different mouth shapes etc...We composite and add any necessary lighting or special effects. Then we will from the sound assets and the composers’ input we will build a soundtrack to the footage. Our concept is to apply the same high level production values to this as to any other Aardman film.

   How much input have Tate had?
   They have had a huge amount of input especially in terms of the infrastructure, the workshops, and the inspiration. They have hired a brilliant team of artists who will take the workshops on the amazing truck across the country this Summer. What’s great about the Tate’s involvement is the framing of the project in the context of an Art Project... this instantly steers the children’s expectations away from the received wisdom of drawing ‘cartoons’. Just because we are making an animated film we are not looking for copies of existing cartoon characters. I am surprised and delighted that we have hardly had any submissions at all like this.

   When will we get to see the whole shebang?
   Early Summer 2012

   We at The Reel cannot WAIT to see the finished product.

    

   0 Commentsadd comment

Post a comment

This feature is only accessible to subscribers of The Reel online. Click here to sign up.