Dear Zoo

This week I have been working with Leo who decided last week that he wanted to recreate his favourite book, 'Dear Zoo' by Rod Campbell, as an animation. He discussed with me his plans before I went to Christchurch last week so we planned to do it this week.
On Monday, he arrived ready to set to work with a huge smile. He quickly assembled his characters and was really pleased when I produced a copy of the book as a reference and he checked he had everything ready by reading through it after he had assembled his animals. Suddenly he realised we don't have a model camel at Kindergarten but came up with a solution to this by finding a zebra and deciding that it was too "runny".
We set to work and I showed Leo how the process works, and how he needed to move his model only a short space to create the impression of movement and after two sets of photos with his first model, the elephant, he took control and did the rest of the animation himself. Before each movement he planned where he would place the model carefully before moving it. He made the 'monkey' model do somersaults because "he was too naughty" and told me the frog would be doing big moves between photos because "he's very jumpy so has to do big jumps."
I was impressed with the forethought and planning Leo undertook in his animation and the way he quickly and successfully grasped the process and created his animation.
One thing that has become obvious through this work (and using a smaller table this time to make moving the models easier) was the need for a defined work area for the animator. It is very easy for the camera to be bumped and moved, or the models, by an over enthusiastic audience during the filming. To overcome this I taped off an area around the table and camera with masking tape and a number of children chose to sit behind this and offer their thoughts and own excitement in the process. Leo was much happier with this defined area to work in as well.
We only had enough time to complete filming (he took 632 frames) so the next morning a very excited Leo walked in the door - "we can finish my movie today and I can choose the music and talk."
When we sat down to edit and create the movie in iMovie Leo was so excited it took him some time to really stop and think about the choice of title music but he immediately wanted green for the background of his title page.
He just loved wearing the headphone/mic and after several takes the job was finished. He was so happy and proud of his work. At the end of the session he shared the movie with everyone (including his mum) at mat time, with immense and justifiable pride, and he took home a CD of his movie in Quicktime to share with the rest of his family.
I was impressed with the way Leo worked on his project, the understanding he had of the animation process and the forethought he put into every move he made of his models. I again learnt more about the process and am creating a green background as the blue is really not very successful. I have had a number of children helping me paint a piece of card flouro green to replace the blue screen and it will be interesting to see if it is easier to add the background picture next time.
I had a child approach me today to tell me he wants to make a movie and had brought a toy from home to do it with. He has even decided on a story about his toy to create with. it. I was surprised and delighted as he was not one of the children I anticipated would show an interest in this process and I am looking forward to seeing what he will create.