Opening Scene:
Two troublemakers die and ascend to heavenly clouds.
Before they can get there, minions from below intercept them and take them to hell.
The devil is waiting, flames and all.
Beelzebub hands them two sticks.
The new arrivals look at each other, terrified.
"Oh no, what is he going to make us do with these?" they wonder.
The devil laughs an evil laugh, "Ready for s’mores?"
They gather round a campfire amidst the other flames in hell.
Hell's big boss hands them a bag of marshmallows with an eager smile.
They put marshmallows on their sticks.
So does the devil.
He begins a scary story about an angel with a hook for a hand who has just escaped from heaven...
This story is an animation idea generated by a group of 4th graders recently.
3 boys, 2 girls.
They are very excited to turn it into a movie.
Our experience teaches us that when a group gets excited about story, the movie practically makes itself.
They used the story generation exercise from the Blue Hat section in Animating Kids!
They brainstormed 35 combinations of possible characters, settings, and problems.
After much negotiation and compromise, they hammered out the plot above on a storyboard.
In this case, the "devil" is literally in the details.
But they understood it perfectly now.
They can already see it in their mind's eye, and cannot wait to animate.
Next, they will:
• Design their characters
• Engineer scenes in cut paper
• Time out the action
• Animate the flying, the flames and everything else
• Do voice overs for their characters
• Edit
In about 8 sessions, they will be finished.
The final movie will be screened at a school assembly along with the 5 other movies being made in their class.
With a deadline like that, they'll get it done.
As a team, they'll drag it over the finish line, marshmallows and all.
They will have finally participated as media creators.
Their parents will Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube it.
Notice these brands are now verbs.
So are the kids. All action.
Not just viewers.
Doers.
Bon Animate!