Students are Scream of the Crop for CBBC Animation Initiative
Skwigly
Five students from universities across the North of England will see their ideas for short animations based on CBBC’s hit new series ‘Scream Street’ come to life.
CBBC launched The Scream Street Shorts Initiative in October, in partnership with animation production company, Factory, and international media group and rights holders, Coolabi. Students from all disciplines were invited to take part in the creative development opportunity, to generate ideas for a short animation in the form of a storyboard and/or animatic, using two characters from CBBC’s new stop-motion animated show, Scream Street.
The students will each spend a week at Factory to bring their storyboard/animatic to life under the guidance of Jo Chalkley, a stop motion animator with over 25 years’ experience in the industry. Filming will commence on 18 January for five weeks and the shorts will launch on CBBC platforms next spring, the students can use the shorts as an example of their work and will be credited ‘created from an idea by’.
The submissions were judged on originality and creativity, character engagement, story and connection with CBBC’s target audience, by a panel of representatives from CBBC, Coolabi and Factory, including:
- Lucy Pryke, Development Producer at BBC Children’s
- Adrian Mills, General Manager at BBC North
- Zoe Bamsey, Director of Development and Production at Coolabi
- Phil Chalk, Managing Director of Factory
- Geoff Walker, Scream Street Director
- Giles Pilbrow, Scream Street Show Runner
The strongest ideas were selected from five students across four universities:
Nicola Markham – PG Diploma Media Production: Children’s Television at University of Salford
Declan Holgate – BA (Hons) Animation at University of Central Lancashire
Liam Springthorpe – BA (Hons)Animation at University of Central Lancashire
Hannah Potter – BA (Hons) Animation and Games Art at University of Sunderland
Kira Adams – BA (Hons) Stop-Motion Animation at Edge Hill University
Four of the five lucky students- Hannah Potter, Liam Springthorpe, Nicol…
Lucy Pryke said:
“We received a great response from the universities and colleges across the North of England, and were thoroughly impressed by the quality and creativity of the submissions.
We wanted to pilot a scheme that would offer students something tangible to help develop their conceptual and storyboarding skills and prepare them for potential careers working in animation or storytelling.”
Zoe Bamsey said:
“Scream Street is a very clever, fast-paced and funny property, and one that’s very close to our hearts, so it has been incredible to see how it has inspired students in their work and creativity. We’re extremely excited to see the next phase of their development.”
Phil Chalk said:
“We are delighted to be involved in an initiative that gives students an insight into the realm of stop frame animation to help inspire the next generation of scriptwriters, animators and producers.”
Following the success of this initiative CBBC will explore similar schemes to open this out wider and/or for other disciplines. The Scream Street Shorts Initiative precedes CBBC & BBC Worldwide’s first animation pilot scheme ‘Anim8’.