Exposing first to third graders to the joy of stop-motion animation

 
 

Duration

5 days

Tools used

Anything lying around in the school

Skills

  1. Managing a group of twenty, 4-7 year old kids.
  2. Stop-motion animation
 
 

DISCLAIMER

All the shots in the film are shot by the children themselves on phone cameras given to them by their teachers for that day.

 

WHAT WAS THIS PROJECT?

This film was created as a part of a 5 day pro-bono workshop in Wood Whistler's International School, Dharmshala in India. The principle of the school wanted to conduct the workshop to help her students see animation and film making as a possible career option and to help them understand/ appreciate the art of film-making and storytelling.

 

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR ME?

I was really excited about this project because I love being around children and I teaching was something that I always wanted to try. Doing this project really helped me appreciate the amount of love and care a teacher has to put in to explain a concept and watch kids grow.

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MY ROLE

To assist the children in creating all the bits that are playing as gifs here.

I worked with the youngest children ( 4-7 year old) to create the title and end credits for the film. I assisted the children with drawing things and how to compose things on the blackboard. All the assets were created by them and we then used them to click frame by frame pictures and understand the stop-motion technique.

     

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    WHAT WE DID

    This was a pro-bono workshop that I conducted with another friend and film-maker Ninad Adawadkar. Ninad took care of making the film with the children which included making an film from scratch. We assisted the children to

    1. Shoot their own shots using phone camera
    2. choose a logical shot sequence
    3. Add a background score to the entire film
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    WILL I DO THIS AGAIN?

    YES! The joy on the faces of the children when they first saw the film after we put all the shots together was so heart warming that it's for that feeling that I will want to keep doing it again and again. Just 5 days spent with those children made me form a sort of special relation with them and I'll be so happy to know if this workshop helped spark a dream in even one of them.