Activity: Young Pasifika Animators will provide two separate two-day stop motion workshops for 40 year six Pasifika primary school students. The workshops will show students all the steps involved in making their own stop motion animation video, from the beginning of the story development process right through to narration, sound effects and video editing. The fun and engaging sessions delivered by creative industry experts are designed to teach practical skills that will open up young minds to the possibilities of animation or screen industry careers.

Outcome: Two cohorts of 20 students each participated in an engaging two-day workshop where they were introduced to the art of telling their stories through the medium of stop motion animation. Students learned about the elements of pre production, production and post production involved in making their own animation. They completed storyboards; developed characters and environments; experimented with making props using clay, lego, drawing, and our pre existing Pacific themed props; considered lighting; recorded narrations and added in sound effects, special effects and backing music. On the second day of the workshops students enjoyed sharing their end product animations with the rest of the class. Students learned from Pasifika animation industry experts, and heard about their career stories. They also received a bespoke course booklet developed especially for the programme, with instructions to remind them how to create stop motion animations at home and information on career pathways in digital screen production and animation.

“The funding received was instrumental in allowing PKL to spend time on course design and development, which we are now able to use for future rollouts of YPA sessions. Whilst these workshops were run as school holiday activities, some schools have expressed interest in having these workshops for their classes during term time, with a longer format. We will continue to develop YPA workshops and will also look to extend these workshops with additional skills in the future, for older participants.” – Tatiana Marich, Pacific Kids’ Learning