Held at the Millbrook Firehouse, the one week intensive production course produced five animated films by 12 children that ran the gamut from Alien Vacations to Fruit Wars. And it was obvious that the children, ranging in age from 8 to 12-years-old, were having a great time.
According to CMP staff member Maureen Beck, the Children's Media Project sponsors workshops on animation, live action and media awareness.
"We're trying to make video accessible to the kids," said Beck. "The kids come in and conceive a story, make all the visuals and animate it."
The kids at the Animation Camp work on what Beck called "mixed media" animation, that is, using paint, cutouts and three-dimensional objects to tell a visual story.
The first day is spent brainstorming the story and doing the artwork. On the second day the children learn to animate and on the third day they start to create their story. On the fourth day they finish up animating and begin the editing process.
"We take them to the editing station," Beck said. "And, using G4 laptop computers and the I-movie program, they learn to put in sound effects, voice-overs and music on their films."
All of the music has to be their own. To accomplish this the children are encouraged to bring in whatever musical instruments they have at home, as well as using the native percussion instruments supplied by CMP.
"On the last day we do a premiere for the kids and their parents," said Beck. "Each of the children get to take copies of all five films home with them."
Some of the films were quite good. One group of kids had just finished animating "Alien Vacation," where aliens from another planet take a Las Vegas vacation. When the creatures return home at the end they used video-feedback to simulate the ship flying through space.
"For the ending all we did was point the camera at the monitor and zoom in," said nine-year-old Reed Whitmont of Rhinebeck. "This is a lot of fun."
Kate Dietrich of Millbrook was also there to help. She gives after- school, video workshop enrichment programs at Alden Place Elementary and Dutchess Day School and feels it is an excellent program.
"The children learn a lot," Dietrich said. "They have to work together in a cooperative effort and they have a lot of creativity. They come in with incredible ideas and it's great to see them bring those ideas to life."
|
|
