Tag Archives: Lakeside arts

Lakeside Arts at Cantrell Primary School

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DCIM100MEDIA Last week I was invited to run a Sojo Animation workshop alongside the Lakeside Arts learning team at Cantrell Primary School in Bulwell.

cantrell-logo

The kids in year five have been thinking about ‘persuasive arguments’ and have been using the book ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ to explore their ideas.  What a cracking idea! Hats off to the teacher that thought of this. In the book the animals try to persuade a man not to cut down their tree. thegreatkapoktree Rachel from the Lakeside Arts learning team transformed the class room into a rain-forest the evening prior to the workshops, ready for the children to discover in the morning. When I arrived at the school even the reception staff were full of smiles and excitement about how fabulous the room looked. I was in a less rainforesty (made up word alert!) room, but armed with a projector.  The children animated their rain forest animals in ONLY 2 FRAMES (that’s extra tricky) and then handed over their freshly snapped jpeg files to me, to take away and compile into one, quite frankly, BRILLIANT animation. Well guys…I promised you that your characters would come alive in seven days so here you are. 🙂

You should all feel extremely proud of yourselves.  I was blown away by your creativity!   DCIM100MEDIA DCIM100MEDIA

The beautiful simplicity of a flip book.

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Not long ago I was invited along to Lakeside Arts to get involved with some research into learning how to better design and make sensory theatre experiences for young audiences.

The research was conducted by University of Nottingham PhD student, Roma Patel. You can follow her work here.

Anyhow, this is all by the by, the point of this blog post is this…

On Friday I walked into university and my tutor, Sean Myatt, handed me a fabric covered, cube shaped box with a lovely card from Roma, thanking me for my help with the research.

And this lovely cube was packed full of the most gorgeous flip books. I couldn’t believe it! I hadn’t expected a pressie at all, but as far as gifts go, this was pretty perfect for a Sophie.

There is something very special about seeing the raw line art, those very simplified early thoughts of the designers and animators, and being able to hold those still sketches in your hands and with a nifty move of your thumb suddenly make those sketches come alive.

It’s fascinating!  My kids agree.  I think it’s time we make a flip book of our own.

 
Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men is a beautiful tribute to Walt Disney’s original animators and their matchless skill. Though the animators were mostly in their 30s and 40s, Disney jokingly called them his “Nine Old Men” in reference to a 1937 book of the same name. These animators are acknowledged as Disney Legends and unparalleled contributors to the history animation. Now their work is being celebrated in a collectible box set comprised of nine flip books, each featuring a beloved classic Disney scene.

So thanks Roma, you are very lovely.

Sojo Animation and Lakeside Arts @ Woodlands School for a ‘World Book Day’ themed Workshop.

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enormous crocodile

Tomorrow Sojo Animation will be joining Lakeside Arts at Woodlands School to run a World Book Day themed workshop. We’ll be diving into the world of Roald Dahl and creating some of our own particularly horrible characters! I feel very proud to be involved. Thanks to the West 8 Education Improvement Partnership, which aims to: Raise standards of literacy. Increase parental involvement to improve school attendance and raise standards of achievement. Raise aspirations of children, young people, and their families in the community. Further develop the extended schools and and services in the area.

Update:

Wow! What a lovely day.  I met some wonderful kids this morning, who created some fantastic characters.  I wish I could share with you the presentations the children gave when sharing artwork with the group. Agh well… Here are a few pics…

This is a 35 year old lady who works with children and has 198 of her own children.   She has red eyes, but not because she’s evil.

These dogs were all drawn by the same child.  You wouldn’t believe how quickly he could create these sketches. I was completely blown away.

This was an evil platypus who was able to plug himself up to a conductor and harness the energy from lightening to do terrible things.

So it turns out that Woodlands School, a special needs school in Aspley, is full of the most incredibly brilliant children.

Thank you for having us.