Nothing quite speaks to kids and teens like animation. The thrill and joy of animation can only multiply when these young minds get to create some cool, top-quality animation with their own little hands.
Doha Film Institute (DFI) has come up with Youth Animation Workshop in which kids between the ages of eight and 14 years old will make one-minute animated films, inspired by a presentation of short stop-motion animated films, theoretical discussion of animation and practical exercises.
DFI has announced the dates — July 26, 28, and 30, and August 2, 4, 6, and 9 — for the workshop. It’s during the classroom period that the sessions will be held three days a week, from 5pm to 7pm. The workshop will be in both Arabic and English and the group size is 20 participants.
Applicants are required to submit an e-mail to [email protected] before July 26, and must commit to attending the full two weeks of the lab. The DFI Youth Animation Workshop is a hands-on introduction for young people to all the elements required for creating and producing a stop-motion animated film.
“All participants have the chance to experience the filmmaking process, depending on their interests and strengths. The final outcome is the production of four short animated films (one to two minutes in length) that every workshop participant has helped to produce,” DFI said, explaining what the workshop will be about, “The workshop starts with an introduction to animated films and different animation techniques, followed by a brainstorming and storywriting session, to allow the young talents to come up with their own stories. Participants will present their scripts to a selection committee. Four of these scripts will each become the basis of the four animated films to be produced over the course of the workshop.”
Based on their interests, participants are then divided into four groups to carry out various aspects of filmmaking such as model-making, set building, story-writing and development, and start and end credits. “This group structure helps to introduce all the components necessary for the creation of an animated film. With the assistance of the mentor, each group develops and completes their portion of the film. Screening breaks allow participants to watch a large number of animated shorts, each with a focus on the subject of the current session,” DFI said.
As for the materials and equipment that will be used, there’s camera and/or iPad, tripods, basic lighting equipment, modelling clay, cardboard and paper, scissors, cutters, cutting pad, glue, colouring pens and pencils, and acrylic paint.
The mentor helming the show is animation and comic artist Fadi Syriani. Born in Beirut and a holder of a Master’s degree in Architecture, Syriani’s work has been screened in several film festivals in Lebanon, Europe and Canada. He is currently working on a short animated film and has been recently awarded an AFAC grant for cinema.
The course schedule gives a fair idea of the range of subjects the kids can expect to learn from this workshop. The introduction on July 26 will cover animation and its techniques with a focus on stop-motion; creating a concept and writing a story (plot, protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters); brainstorming and story-writing exercise; filmmaking teams and their tasks; and screening break where different kinds of animated short films (stop-motion, 2D, 3D, etc.) will be show.
On July 28, the first session will feature an introduction to set-building, model-making and props; and proceeding with the filmmaking process by creation of characters, set creation and preparation for set building, story-writing/development, and preparing start and end credits in stop-motion.
The second session on July 30 will feature an introduction to storyboards and animatic and the filmmaking process will have the four groups work on four different things such as modelling characters, set building, preparing storyboards and presenting to all attendees, and preparing start and end credits in stop-motion.
On July 2, the third session will cover an introduction to lighting; lighting and preparation of sets for shooting; and participants will be split into four groups, one per film, and the animation and shooting will begin. In the screening break, the focus will be on proper lighting.
On August 4, the fourth session will go through an introduction to sound and music. Animation and shooting will continue. On August 6, the fifth session, the mentor will take the participants through an introduction to film editing, voiceover and final product.
The closing session on August 9 will be all about introducing the participants to film festivals and screenings (Ajyal, Qumra, animation film festivals, etc.), apart from screening of final films.
Wallace and Gromit, a British clay animation comedy series created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations, is a good instance of the animation possibilities that such a workshop can harness.
