Thunk of the Day is OFFICIALLY SELECTED for Broadway Cinema’s Short Stack Festival

Posted on by
Reply

Thunk of the Day “Favourite Year” has made the OFFICIAL SELECTION for Short Stack – Independent Short Film Night at Broadway Cinema This Sunday at 5:30pm!

This wonderful Thunk was one of a series commissioned by Small Steps Big Changes to celebrate chatting with our kids. It was dreamt up by Emily Taylor who is probably my biggest hero of creativity! I have been working with her now for a couple of years on a multitude of projects and have yet to meet her in person, so Sunday feels like a pretty big deal!

This is Emily! Her mum said, “This is the face of one excited little lady after reading your email! How bloody exciting!!”

PORTFOLIO

Posted on by
Reply

Work 1

Big Bad Wolf

Big Bad Wolf was created using the audio and artwork from a spontaneous one-to-one play session with a particularly talkative four year old. It is an unscripted, not so delightful tale about a wolf who desperately wants to let a little girl know that he’s a good wolf so he can get inside her house. Animated as part of my research on creating digital animation that upholds a message of ‘the importance of trusting and valuing a child’s creative impulse.’

Work 2

Word Wednesday

This animation was commissioned by The Spark and Leicester Libraries. “Word Wednesdays” was part of the Imaginative Spaces project at The BRITE Centre in Leicester. This brilliant story is written and read by Joseph.

Work 3

Thunk of the Day : My Favourite Year

This Thunk of the Day is one of a series of micro animations celebrating the spontaneous thoughts of children. ‘My Favourite Year’ presents the spontaneous thought, voice and artwork of 5 year old, Emily.

Small Steps Big Changes: The Moon

Posted on by
Reply

Check out the corker of a Small Steps Big Changes episode. I feel like I’ve put the dream team together with this one. I’m performing along side the immensely talented Kieran Hardcastle, who plays both the Orange Monster and Blue Monster and the awesome Emily Taylor, who has been providing voiceovers for me since she was 4 years old and never fails to delight me with the oomph she puts into each line.

You can find all of my videos for Small Steps Big Changes here.

The THANK YOU FISH CAMPAIGN for OWEN Open Water Education Network

Posted on by
Reply

I have been working with Nicola (Owen’s mum) from OWEN Open Water Education Network to develop an animation and picture book for the OWEN early years programme to help teach little ones about how to stay safe around open water. The THANK YOU FISH Campaign has been set up to fund the development and help get us into schools up and down the country.

Would you like to support us and buy a thank you fish?

More

Sojo @ Nottstopping Festival

Posted on by
Reply

Sojo invites you to dive into the imaginations of children through her world of animation. Learn some animation secrets and maybe even have a go yourself!

Big love to the whole of Notts for diving head first into this festival of awesomeness.

I mentioned a few organisations and people who are important to me in this film.

If you want to find out more about Small Steps Big Changes and  Open Water Education Network, here are their facebook pages.
You can also check out what Jayne Williams is up to at New Perspectives Theatre Company here.

Check out said awesomeness here:  
https://nottstoppingfestival.com/whats-on/

Donate to show some real love for the key workers in our community:
http://www.gofundme/nottstopping

Big ups to the organisations making this possible:
Creative Quarter, Nottingham, Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, It’s In Nottingham, Notts TV, Hockley Hustle, Inspire Arts and Culture

and Ben Welch for being some sort of festival ninja!

Sojo at Awen

Posted on by
Reply

Set up by Charlotte Church, Awen is a democratic school in Cardiff. When I heard her talking about her plans on the Adam Buxton Podcast I knew I had to get involved, either with my animation cap on or as an illustrator or to help the kids to develop fund raising campaigns.

Here’s a bit about my experience so far. Sorry about the choppy, grainy footage. It was a rushed job squashing this together before Christmas got in the way.

Stop Motion Animation Workshop

Posted on by
Reply

Join Sophie Johnson-Hill, creator of Sojo Animation
for a 2 Day Stop Motion Animation Workshop designed to leave your child with the knowledge and skill set to continue their stop motion journeys back at home.

£66
Includes both days,
their clay/wire model to take home,
plus a downloadable link
of their handy work.

10am – 1pm 7 yrs +

2pm – 5pm 11 yrs +

Location: The Crescent, 4 Cavendish Crescent North, The Park, Nottingham NG7 1AY

Please note that there is only space for 8 children per age group and we rarely run workshops outside of schools, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Sojo Animation at Barbican OpenFest: Art 50

Posted on by
Reply

I feel very excited to announce that “I Am From” an animation I created, commissioned by Sky Arts and funded by Art 50, is showing at the Barbican as part of the OpenFest: Art 50

“I Am From” is an animated version of a poem written by 15 year old Annie, who lives in Londonderry, and gives a little insight into her experience of the world. I was able to have a Skype chat with Annie and her teacher before I started the animation process and (in true Sojo style) I was able to ask for some kids drawings to pop into the film. Annie’s little sister, Beth, did a fantastic job and, hey presto, we have a lovely little collaborative film.


This project was created to explore the notion of British identity in the wake of Brexit.

‘The Grumpy Hamster’ Story telling and craft workshop @ Ranby House

Posted on by
Reply
Sojo reading ‘The Grumpy Hamster’ at Ranby House

What a brilliant morning of Sojo workshops for little ones at Ranby House in Worksop!

We read ‘The Grumpy Hamster’, tried a spot of yoga, stuffed ourselves with imaginary strawberries and helped out a baby polar by listening to him talk about his feelings and then made our own grumpy hamsters to take home.

I asked all the kids to think about what has made their hamster feel cross today. One little boy said his hamster was feeling cross because his big brother hamster told him to get out of his room. Boy, do we know how horrible that feels!

I also asked who they have in their lives that makes them feel better when they feel cross or sad. One little girl calmly replied “Jesus.” It turns out her father is a priest, so it all makes perfect sense.

All of the kids were a delight and the atmosphere at Ranby House was fabulous. Lovely sofas for big people and soft carpet for me and my little buddies, plus a great area for us to get super messy while we chatted away and made our grumpy hamsters. It was lovely to chat to some of the lovely Ranby House staff too.

Many of the hamsters morphed into hedgehogs. Hedgehogs are more fun to make!

The Grumpy Hamster

Posted on by
Reply

It seems ludicrous that I haven’t blogged about this yet but…

I’ve written a children’s book!
thegrumpyhamster28frontcover29

‘The Grumpy Hamster’ is my first ever published story book as both author and illustrator.

I wrote this as a little personal experiment on spontaneous storytelling. It was completely improvised. I used my iPhone voice recorder and spoke it line by line, whilst getting my niece to repeat each line as I dreamt it up so that I would have the audio for an animation ready to go.

I knew, once we’d finished recording, we’d found ourselves a real gem! A simple and hilarious story, focusing on what we can do when we are fed up with feeling angry.

So I made a book!

Published in 2018 by the freshest children’s publishing company in the UK, Sojo & Mouse, which as the name suggests, I co-founded.