Youth Development

Stop Motion Animation Program

Under the guidance of Filmmaker Mentors (professional filmmakers/animators) and Production Assistants (film students) your students will be immersed in a fast-paced hands-on animation production environment. On the first day, students will rotate through live-action film production crew positions (Director, Director of Photography, 1st Assistant, Slate, Boom and Talent) learning on-set etiquette and developing their abilities to collaborate. As the weeks progress, students will work in Production Teams to tell stories via animation through self-contained projects including table top set-ups with miniature green screen backgrounds, larger scale ‘People Movers’ and projects against a 20’ X 12’ greenscreen. As students develop their projects, they will gain mastery over the equipment and strengthen their storytelling techniques. Because of the collaborative nature of film production, students may find themselves contributing to several projects, working in multiple production roles.

While most editing will be done off-site, periodically drives and computers will be brought into class so that students may contribute to editorial decisions. Periodically we will review the projects as works-in-progress to provide the production teams with valuable feedback on both content and technique. 

The residency will conclude with a screening of finished work that will feature student hosts, post screening Q&A’s and a red carpet with their own step and repeat for photo ops. Finished work will be supplied via downloadable links that may be viewed on handheld devices and computers and Movie files will also be supplied to the school. Either format can be emailed, posted or embedded in websites.

Staffing

A DOH and DOE fingerprinted Filmmaker Mentor will facilitate the programing while working with the classroom teacher to keep students engaged and maintain classroom discipline. Our Filmmaker Mentors have extensive youth development experience through their work in public schools and community based organizations. Our Production Assistants are film and media students and have often participated in our filmmaking programs as students.