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!

Harry Potter Studio Tour

I went to Harry Potter studios on my birthday. It’s at Leavesdon where the films were made.

I saw lots of sets from the films. I liked seeing the great hall, Gryffindor common room and Dumbledore’s office. In the set for the Burrow we saw Molly Weasley’s magic knitting, pan cleaning and chopping carrots and saw how they worked. Out-side we took photos of Privet Drive and the knight bus. We went up Diagon Alley and looked in the shop windows, that’s really magical!

 

 

I was interested in all the props from the film. There are lots of costumes, I like the invisibility cloak and Hermione’s dress from Yule ball. The wands are all different, and we saw the mirror of Erised, Harry’s photo album, the horcruxes and letters the owl brings to Harry at Privet Drive. We saw wigs and masks for goblins, and animatronic animals like Buckbeak and Aragog the giant spider.

 I’m interested in film making, so I liked seeing how they used green screen to film flying broomsticks and Mr Weasley’s flying car. We went in the flying car, we were filmed with green screen and we saw the car flying through the countryside on the monitor. They also used green screen for Harry’s invisibility cloak. It had green lining which made Harry disappear on green screen. At the end of the tour we saw the huge model of Hogwarts castle used to film all the different shots, like Harry on his broomstick with the dragon in the Goblet of Fire. The model castle is really magical and impressive.

 I think that was a really, really great day out. I loved seeing everything and I think it was brilliant  that we could book a British Sign Language interpreter and guide who explained and showed us everything. The butter beer was fizzy, creamy, sweet and delicious! I can’t wait to go again.

 

Inaccessible Unacceptable

This is film we made at college with living streets. I directed it. We want people to be aware of the streets in Jesmond and about the accessibility problems. We want people to know how bad it is parking on a dropped kerb. The Student council thought about what maybe happen if people park on dropped kerb and made a storyboard. We made a script and we think about where to film the different Scenes. Filming took a long time but it was fun. People were nervous in front of the video camera but they got used to it. I enjoyed saying Action! And Cut!. When we filmed in doors we had a problem with lighting, it was too dark. We needed to use a light from the disco lounge to light Tom when he was reading the news. The problem was that Tom could not see because the light was in his eyes. When we filmed outside we had to wait for good weather. Every time we made plans to film, it rained! We used a little H.D video camera with a tripod, I checked the scene through the cameras screen before we started filming each part. Some times I used a Gorillapod tripod and put it on top of my DynaVox. We also used the gorillapod on Jill's wheelchair so that people could see things from her view. I used Serif MoviePlus to put the film together. I think editing quite easy, I enjoyed it. The music for the film was made by our Students in the music technology group. We hope you enjoy the film.

Unspoken: My Voice

In this little film, different people who use communication aids talk about their voice and why it’s important to them. Lots of people I know are in the film. I’m in it, but you only see my Dynavox scanning, not my face.

The video was made by Kate Caryer and her friends, for a fundraising event to support a drama project about AAC. I think that’s an interesting idea. Kate is a 1 Voice role model.

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.

Me and my dream

Last weekend, Jemima volunteered to give a presentation at the One Voice family network day. One Voice supports families with children using Alternative and Augmentative Communication, particularly high tech communication aids, and the annual summer weekend is one of the highlights of Jemima's year. Role model presentations raise the aspirations of children and parents by showing them what AAC users can do, and now Jemima and her friends, the first generation of One Voice children, are themselves ready to act as role models. The teenagers' workshops the previous day had focused on transition, and Jemima chose to talk about herself and one of her current ambitions:

Hello! My name is Jemima. I am seventeen. My favourite TV show is Dr. Who and my favourite movies are the Harry Potter films, Narnia and Prince Caspian, High School Musical and the Japanese animated films made by Studio Ghibli. I also like some of my parents' old films like Four Weddings and a Funderal and Sleepless in Seattle.

I'm profoundly deaf. I understand sign language. I like talking with my voice but I can speak more clearly with my Dynavox. I use scanning with a voice switch. That is slow and hard work.

I will stay at my school for one of two more years. Then I think I'll go to Northern Counties College. I want to study ICT and I hope to do some courses in a local college. I want to learn about film making. I was first interested in film making when my dad videoed holidays and family events. My first experience of how a real film is made was at the One Voice weekend in Blackpool in 2002. I loved the video. Then I made two Video Nation films for the BBC with my dad. I thought that was fun and interesting. We planned what we wanted to film and recorded me talking with my Dynavox. The first film was about me and my life. It was in a series called Voices. Then they asked me to do another one about Christmas. Last year I really enjoyed doing the One Voice DVD project. I liked working with Silverfish and seeing how they organised the filming and edited the film. I showed the DVD to my class when we made a film about our school for our Duke of Edinburgh Award. I interviewed someone who went to my school when she was a girl and has worked there for a long time.

Last month I learned about animation at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. It was a workshop for teenagers to celebrate the tenth birthday of the Angel of the North. I see the Angel every day when I go to school. They showed us how to do animation with paint, sand, plasticene and cutting paper. I chose paper and talked about my idea with my Dynavox. Everyone's work was edited into one film for the Angel's birthday party. I am waiting to get my copy. I really want to do more animation.

I saved up my birthday money and last Monday I got a little video camera. Now I am going to learn to shoot and edit films. That is my dream for the future.