A two day plasticine animation holiday project for children held at Studio One. The finished work is here.
We shot a pilot for a local history project in the village of Whakatu, combining reminiscence and animations.
We ran a two day mixed media animation workshop for children at Studio One, Ponsonby.
We ran a two day plasticine animation workshop for children at Studio One, Ponsonby. The children combined live action and blue screen work to place themselves inside their own drawn backgrounds. See the finished work here.
We ran a three day drama and animation workshop for children at Studio One, Ponsonby. The children combined live action and blue screen work to place themselves inside their own drawn backgrounds. See the finished work here.
We delivered a three day animation workshop for children at Auckland Botanic Garden. The children chose flora and fauna from their immediate surroundings to inspire short 2D animated sketches. See the finished work here.
Vanishing Points, a portfolio of New Zealand landscape photography by Martin Sercombe was published. Further details here.
We ran a holiday workshop in 2D and 3D animation for teens and children at the Studio One Art Centre in Ponsonby. Find out more here.
Studio 1 - Toi Tu and Auckland Council commissioned this animation project for young people. Twelve young animators produced a series of short films about what makes a city fun, friendly and safe for children. The finished work will be shown widely as part of this international initiative supported by Unicef NZ. Visit the Child Friendly Cities web site for further information.
Unicef Child Friendly Cities Animations from Media Projects East on Vimeo.
We worked in partnership with AUT Art and Design students, Titirangi Private Kindergarden and the local community to help them rebuild their playground. Over three months we developed a series of design solutions which support imaginative self directed play and learning.
Tidelight is set on Cornwallis wharf near Auckland, New Zealand: a much favoured location for local fishermen. It is choreographed as an 'infinite' zoom along the wharf, exploring the changing light from dawn to midday and the observed activities of the fishermen. See the finished work here.
AUT Art and Design recently set up a 16mm B&W film resource. We worked with staff and students to help deliver the first of an ongoing series of production courses focusing on artists' film making practice and the history of structural materialist film.
The company moved to Titirangi in Auckland, New Zealand in July 2014. The move allowed Britta to take up a new post as Lecturer in Digital Design at Auckland University of Technology. We chose Titirangi as it has long been a centre for the arts in the region, with Te Uru Contemporary Art Gallery and two other art galleries on our doorstep. We plan to continue managing community arts projects from our new home in the Waitakeres.
The company changed its name to Media Projects to reflect its new location in West Auckland.
We worked in partnership with Stalham High School to run a 10 day festival of poetry, literature and animation at the school. Several leading poets ran creative writing workshops, and over 100 students developed their work into video poems and animations. A resource for teachers is now available here. The project was funded via an Arts Council of England Grants for the Arts award.
We worked with the London Metropolitan Police and a student video production team from Ravensbourne to produce a training video for bank staff to keep them informed about telephone based fraud.
The company worked closely with The Museum of the Broads and Stalham High School to develop a 50 minute film recording the stories of families living in Broadland from 1914 - 1919. To learn more about the project, please visit the web site here.
We worked with Norfok Disabled Parents to make a video training resource for Norfolk Social Services, exploring how best to support disabled parents. Learn more here.
We have received an All Our Stories Heritage Lottery grant to explore the history of Cawston village through reminiscence, animation and archive work. The finished work is now available to view on a dedicated web site here.
This film was commissioned by Norwich Castle Museum for screening as part of its long term exhibits. It explores how Norfolk's history is intimately bound up with its geography and landscapes. The script is by Helen Mitchell, direction, camera and editing by Martin Sercombe. It was funded via a grant from Arts Council England.
We ran a two day animation workshop for artists and teachers at a farmhouse residency called Gullkistan in Iceland. Over 20 short films were made by 12 artists from Iceland and around the world. The short film shown below is by Freyja Reynisdottir.
Photos of the journey around Iceland can be seen here.
Photos from the course and further information about Gullkistan can be seen here.
We worked in partnership with The Griffon Area Partnership to develop a smart phone guide to the heritage sites of North East Norfolk. It includes a series of one day guided trails and a dedicated web site containing contextual information and a gallery of panorama photos of key sites. Visit it here.
We were awarded a £10,000 All Our Stories grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to work with the villagers of Martham and Flegg High School on a local history project. Over six months the production team has created 75 mins of short films, using animation and archive photography to bring personal reminiscences alive. See the web site here.
Norfolk Disabled Parents received an Awards for All grant to produce a series of online video clips, in which disabled parents share their experiences of family life and discuss the types of support available to them. Media Projects East provided the video production support. You can see the films here.
We worked with the Metropolitan Police to produce a drama video and online quiz about bank fraud, working with MA students from Ravensbourne. The training pack has now been distributed to major banks worldwide.
The RSPB has received a Young Roots Heritage Lottery Fund grant to work with schools in the Acle area enhancing biodiversity in their school grounds. Media Projects East is training the student team in video production skills to enable them to make a record of the project.
The Home Group charity commissioned the company to produce a 45 minute film exploring key issues faced by transgender clients and customers. It begins with two case histories and concludes with a debate around frequently asked questions.
We worked with a group of MA students from Ravensbourne to research ways of using the latest digital technologies to enhance user experience at a gymnasium on the Greenwich Penninsula. The study explores interactive large screen displays, smart phone apps and holistic approaches to keeping fit.
This short animation, made with students from Stalham High School, won the Best Animation, 14-16 year olds, award at Film Nation Shorts Awards 2012, held at the BFI, London on July 4th. The film was shortlisted from over 400 entries made by young people all over the UK. It will be screened in a range of iconic London 2012 venues throughout the games. See further details here.
Coleridge Community College in Cambridge made a short film about an airline disaster, werewolves and a brave adventurer called Lilly. The students designed virtual sets and actors then shot the movie using Moviestorm. Further information about the project can be found here. The project is funded by First Light.
Martin Sercombe, Joc Mack and a team of young performers from Utrecht's Centrum voor de Kunsten and Norfolk worked together for an intensive weekend of improvisation, animation and video work on the theme of migration. The project has been nominated for a prestigious international award: Learn for Life, celebrating innovative work in adult education. Our contributions can be seen on the Changing Horizons Facebook page here.
As a final contribution to this Grundtvig funded partnership project, we returned in June to present an overview of our community based video and drama work to media students from Holland, Poland, Italy and Turkey.
On March 24th we moved to new premises in Thorpe Hamlet, Norwich. The base includes a stop frame animation studio, editing studio and a flexible production area for blue screen live action work.
We worked with Parkside Federation on a classroom based research project, teaching machinima style film making in schools. Using Moviestorm as the production tool, the first short film explores what happens when a games geek gets drawn into the world of Cleopatra's Egypt. The project is funded by First Light.
A Year 6 class from Bignold Primary School made an animation based on Hoffman's tale. See it here.
A team of young film makers from Stalham High School made a short film about a school bully, for Film Nation.
Another group from Stalham High made a short animation about a World War 2 air raid over Stalham.
Our animation resource for the classroom was published by Continuum on 3rd September in the UK, and one month later in the USA.
We received funding from Young Roots Heritage Lottery Fund for a follow up project to Mardling From Coast to Broad, called Seaside Memories. Lowestoft based young people explored the history of local seaside entertainment in the surrounding coastal area. The stories they gathered formed the inspiration for their own "end of the pier" film show, reflecting the changing styles of entertainment over the past two centuries. It's a mix of animations, documentary style reminiscences and dramatic sketches on video.
The Seaside Memories website is now online. See it here.
This partnership project with The Best Friend educational charity took place in Thailand, from the middle of August. We taught animation skills to Burmese refugee children at KM 42 Learning Center near Mae Sot and interviewed adult refugees about their lives in Thailand and reasons for fleeing Burma.
We taught film-making and animation to a group of students at the International Community School at Culford. Some explored folk tales from their home countries, others made sci-fi stories, a crime thrller and a documentary about the summer school. The students used the course to improve their English language skills. www.icschool.co.uk
We worked in partnership with The Shaw Trust to deliver a film production course for a group of school leavers from the Great Yarmouth area. The film is about making the transition from school to the world of work, and the steps needed to optimise one's career options.
It follows the fortunes of a 17 year old called Gazza, who falls out with his alcoholic father and takes the train to Yarmouth the crash with his older sister. After a few weeks of slumming it, his sister runs out of patience with him and kicks him out. He heads off to sleep rough on the beach. Sis has second thoughts, rescues him, and sends him to Social Services for support.
We completed a project with the Home Group housing charity. They needed a training video to assist their support team in person centred interview techniques with clients. We produced a series of clips demonstrating good, mediocre and bad practice, for use as discussion aids during their training days.
Year 9 students from Diss High School created a collection of short films and animations on the theme of identity. They span a wide range of subjects, including bullying, Facebook friendships, sport, cooking and scrapbook memories. The video will be sent to partner schools in Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Holland. The project was supported by Creative Partnerships.
The Teachers' Animation Toolkit Reviews
"This new book for teachers is grounded in two things: firstly, a belief in the inherent power of animation activities to transform the experience of learning across the curriculum and, secondly, a sense of the form itself, its history and development. Its authors clearly care about the medium and have provided a range of resources and support for teachers and learners to get started."
John Potter
Programme Leader
Centre for the Study of Children
Youth and Media
The London Knowledge Lab
University of London
"The Teachers' Animation Toolkit is an imaginative and invaluable resource, rich with exercises and information. It shows that animation can be a vital component in any child's education, enhancing skills and knowledge in all subject areas, while remaining creative and fun. From Disney to Desktop, it enables children to embrace a still undervalued form, so they might become the film-makers and animators of the future..."
Paul Wells
Director of the Animation Academy
Loughborough University