COMMONLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
How did you select the professional artists?
A colleague in school knew the work of Sister Tree, from their work with
other local schools and organisations, this then was an easy choice. Students
at Mayfield had just finished a more traditional animation with a company
called’ Moving Hands’. Unfortunately they were not available
to work with us again because of other commitments. I then turned to Maria
Balshaw at Creative Partnership who suggested we contact Hi8us.
How did you select the group?
The schools selected their groups independently, we had no common criteria.
At Mayfield, it was a mix of secondary aged pupils who were involved in
an afternoon of creative arts. Holte and Heathfield chose pupils of differing
abilities, backgrounds and experiences of bullying.
How did you select which schools were to become involved?
The idea originated at Mayfield. We work closely with Heathfield, which
is right next door and our pupils are used to being in each other’s
schools. Mayfield has growing links with Holte for example, we piloted
the MENCAP Transactive project together: Staff collaborated in a science
project at the Think Tank, both schools are working toward YALA accreditation
therefore staff are used to working together and again between the two
schools. Heathfield is one of Holtes' largest feeder schools; it all seemed
to slip into place.
What work did we do before making the animation?
The selected group of 30 pupils met for the first time in November 2002.
We had 12 weekly sessions in which we visited each other’s school;
these were led by Margaret and Shaz from Sister Tree. They used a selection
of games to ‘bond’ the pupils into a working group. Marg and
Shaz then used drama as a medium to explore pupil’s concepts and
experiences of bullying.
How was the story created?
After the first few sessions, Sister Tree introduced a storyteller into
the group. From this, different themes and lines began to appear that
were written up later in the project. We also used a unique enhanced chat
software engine called edrama. This had been developed by Hi8us, with
funding from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the
Arts). Edrama allows users to improvise a number of scenarios online (in
this case bullying and transition in schools). They do this through text-input
via their own Avatars (customisable online visual identities termed efits)
in a highly graphical environment. The different players are Actors (mostly
students), Director(s) (mostly Teachers) and Audience (anyone)
As a Director and among a range of controls, Teachers can assign particular
character parts to specific students, they can observe the improvisation
as it takes place, send prompts and props to all the Actors or to specific
individuals to push the story along and they can save the generated scripts
to use in the future.
Who chose the visual style?
Hi8us introduced the group to an illustrator. He showed us a variety of
styles in which the animation could be carried. The pupils eventually
chose the comic book style you can now see.
Who else was involved?
In addition to the three schools and the teachers who worked through the
project. We worked with Sister Tree, graphic artists, a storywriter, an
illustrator, Hi8us and staff at the North West Birmingham CLC at Broadway
School.
Of course we cannot forget Birmingham Childrens' Fund who funded the animation.
Their representative is Rita Adams.
Will there be more animation?
We all hope so; I have spoken with the Childrens' Fund and Creative Partnership
to develop more work in collaboration with our partner schools.