I dream

Last autumn I heard about a competition to make a short film on the topic of follow your dreams. I had the idea of making an animation about my wild dreams of swimming and flying in my wheelchair.

I go to Arrcc in Folkestone, a centre offering creative activities for disabled people. Last summer we made paper cut pictures inspired by the Matisse paper cut exhibition at Tate Modern. I looked at paper cuts of the circus and dancers, made with really simple shapes, and thought I could use that idea in a stop motion animation. That's a good style for me, because I can draw simple shapes with support. You can see how I designed the paper cuts on the wall display.

I've done cut-out animation before. The first time I tried animation was at a community project at the Tyneside cinema in Newcastle, to celebrate the Angel of the North's tenth birthday. I made a little paper cut sequence about passing the Angel every day in my school taxi, and that inspired me to look for more opportunities to do animation, on work experience and in other projects. In 2013 I went to a workshop at Canterbury Anifest, where Charlotte Firmin showed us how Small Films used cut-out animation to make children's programmes like Ivor the Engine. I bought some software and started trying to make little animations at home. When I started going to Arrcc last summer, I was really excited that I could do film making there, because I was looking for opportunities to do more film making.

The other exciting thing that happened in 2014 was getting Grid 2 software and my new computer. With Grid 2 I can access the computer with the switch I use for my communication aid. That's fantastic because I can do more things independently, and the thing I most wanted to do was film editing. When I've make films before I have directed someone to be my hands on the computer, but I really wanted to edit them myself. I shot I Dream and recorded the voice over at Arrcc, with help from Dom, the film maker who works at Arrcc, and my mum, but I edited it at home. I needed help with the sound and subtitles, because I'm deaf,  but I did all the video editing myself with my switch. I was so excited when it worked! It's very slow and hard work, but I'm really happy I can do that.

Now I want to make lots more films!

Learning Animation

Learning Animation I got a webcam for Christmas to use with my Zu3D animation software. My mum and I made a short animation with my little toy puppies to practise moving things just a little bit, adding sound and doing titles and credits. I think that’s good for first time, but we have lots more things to learn!

Canterbury Anifest

I went to animation festival on 4th and 5th October, in the university in Canterbury. There was a programme of masterclasses, film screening and talks. I went to a masterclass on cut-out animation with Charlotte Firmin. Her dad Peter and Oliver Postgate started Small Films in Canterbury in the 1960s, they made Ivor the engine, Bagpuss, Pingu and lots more animations for children's television. It was really interesting. I made a cut-out animation Ginger cat and animated and walking in a garden. There wasn't time to do much, I want to do more at home. I bought a Zu3d animation programme, it's easy to use but it can do lots of things. Later I went to a screening of short animations from around the world, by Students and independent film makers. I thought that was interesting because the films were all different. Some were funny, some sweet, some a little bit strange. On Saturday I went to a talk by Jim Parkin from Aardman about animating Shaun the sheep. Jim makes the models. He explained lots of things about how the programmes are made, with photos and clips. He was funny and interesting. He brought models of Shaun, little Timmy and other sheep, and after the talk we could take photos with the sheep models. I think Anifest was really good. I want to go again next year and go to more talks, films and maybe masterclasses.

My 1 Voice animation

In March I did my work experience at the Media Centre. I chose that because I really wanted to do more animation. Now I'm a teenage role model, I want to do things to help 1 Voice, so I decided to make an advertising animation for the Blackpool weekends. I hope that can go on the 1 Voice website.