Introduction
ICT club
Getting Started
Simple set construction
Using a tripod
2-d animation
Silhouette Animation
Useful Links

FILM MAKING WITH THE DIGITAL BLUE CAMERA

Club Experience
The ICT club meets weekly for an hour after school. The actual useable time is more like 45 minutes. There are only two cameras, which limits the time each child gets to spend filming. We mostly do stop motion animation although sometimes we do a bit of live action, or we combine the two.

At first we tried plasticine animation (claymation), but found it difficult to store the models without them getting damaged. So, now we mostly use plastic toys for 3-d animation and paper shapes for 2-d animation. 2-d animation involves mounting the camera so that it is face down; we do this with a tripod but you may be able to do the same with some science lab clamps. Set constructions are very simple so that they can be stored away quickly and easily.

I usually get the children to work in pairs and suggest that they take it in turns at either working the camera or moving the models. This works well most of the time. For younger children or those that are new to the club, I concentrate mostly on the process rather than the end product. I usually set up a simple scene and provide them with a couple of models to animate. I show them how to use the camera and maybe give them a few ideas if they are not sure where to start. Then I let them get on with it. The results may appear chaotic, but if you combine several of these clips with a bit of music and some sound effects the end product can be surprisingly entertaining:

plastic dinosaur animation
toy farm animation

For older and more experienced children I try to encourage them to plan out their film, preferably with a storyboard. The results have been mixed. Some children enjoy the planning, others just want to get on with the filming. One of our most successful and talked about projects was one that I scripted myself. It was mostly filmed by Y5 and Y6 children. I planned it out carefully so that two pairs of children could complete a scene's worth of filming each week. The film took a half term to complete and I did have to do quite a lot of work fixing up and editing at the end:

Dr Who and the Beebots

When the children are not able to film they usually choose to do some other unrelated ICT project. But for those who wish to continue with their film project there are options other than filming. They can design backdrops for their sets using colour magic (or find appropriate photographs on the internet), they can design title pages and credit pages using colour magic, they can record sounds and voices using the microsoft sound recorder or they can improve their animation knowledge by using the free pivot stick animator program.