Week 5 CAICC: animation shoot 4

"CAICC - Help us finding our own house."

The final phrase for the animation, suggested by director Veronica.  At the moment CAICC rent the three buildings they use but they would really like the funding to buy either terrain to build, or a house where they can unite the nursery and the centre for older kids.  The hope is to use our video as a tool in a fundraising campaign.

This fourth day of our animation shoot at CAICC was brilliant, with the kids achieving a huge amount, Florrie filming a lot of the activity and our interviewing some of the kids, and in return a couple of them interviewing me:

1. More prop and puppet making.  Preparing for a scene involving all the puppets the kids put feet back on puppets, adjusted heads, made plasticine butterflies and insects, a wire bicycle, cut out letters and some little ones that haven't been involved in the workshop before even took the initiative to make new puppets from scratch.

2. Shooting the animation of two scenes: the final scene with all puppets on screen and the CAICC house and a scene with the famous CAICC bus picking up all the puppets.

3. Florrie filmed a lot of the activity of the day, the puppet and prop making, the animation process, the kids directing through the program Dragonframe and background activity of the swings, washing up and playing. 

4. Interviewing some of the kids about why CAICC is important for them, what we have been doing in the project and what they have enjoyed about the project.

5. Being interviewed by the kids: (this was one of my favourite parts of the day!) I was really impressed that the kids had the initiative and confidence to insist on writing their own questions for me, after they had seen the questions Florrie and I had written and thought they were 'too easy'! Their questions for me:
What do you like about CAICC?  I love the kids at CAICC - I love their energy, enthusiasm and affection.
What was your first impression of CAICC?  In our first session I was impressed by how engaged and imaginative the kids were, how they had stories pouring out of them!  I was also touched by how welcoming the staff were.
What were your objectives when you came to CAICC?  When I came to CAICC my hope was to create a workshop with the kids where they could tell their stories, and explore ways of communicating these stories through storyboards, puppet making and stop-motion animation.  My hope was that the workshop would be fun for the kids at the same time as introducing them to some new techniques.  It was also important for me that the process of the workshop would build their confidence in expressing their voices, and that the resulting short film would be a piece of work they could be really proud of and  share with their family and friends.
What have you learned from the kids at CAICC?  I have been hugely impressed by the kids imagination and creativity, and I think what I have been learning most from them is how to offer them a balance of creative freedom within enough structure to facilitate the clear communication of their stories.
What are your expectations for CAICC?  I really hope that the organisation of CAICC achieves its aim of getting a house of their own. Above all I hope that each of these individual kids follow their dreams as they grow up and that they have the opportunities to develop their skills and study and work in the areas that they want to - these are hugely talented kids!

Thanks to Viviana and Alejandro for interviewing me - your questions were thought provoking!

6. Being photographed by the kids!

Florrie and her puppet:

At the end of a brilliant week, and a really brilliant session...

big love!

:-)

Week 5 Infante: Canvases

More painting, sewing and gluing with the girls at Infante as they continue with their canvas collages, representing themselves as an individual through the patterns and colours chosen, leaving blank white corners where they will cross over into one another's paintings, so that when the canvases are hung together they represent their community.

Week 5 CAICC: animation shoot 3

Our third session of shooting the CAICC kid's stop-motion animation this Tuesday - introducing individual kids through their puppets.

René doing a great job in his 'director's hat' shooting the photos through stop-motion program Dragon-frame.

AVE Week 3: Animation Shoot 1

Week 3 at AVE and after talking through last week's group-agreed story with a more detailed storyboard, the group of educators started animating, photo-by-photo with stop-motion techniques.

Important steps in this week's process:

1. Storyboarding in more detail, planning how we will realise each step of the tale.
2. Securing the white-board so it doesn't move within the shoot - Cristobal got out his drill and sorted this out very professionally.
3. Securing the tripod with tape and barricading it with chairs to avoid it being knocked.
4. Controlling the light - using the AVE lights and closing the door against changes in daylight.

Full Moon Dance :-)

"Full Moon Dance" Yes, I like it!"

This graffiti says it all - spotted on a wall in Cochabamba a few weeks ago, now I can say yes 100% I agree after Lola, Florrie and me had one of the happiest festival experiences this weekend at Full Moon Dance.

Happy days!

:-)

Week 4 CAICC: animation shoot 2

Continuing with the animation shoot today the CAICC kids drew extra props and worked together to animate a few more of their scenes, taking turns to move the props frame-by-frame and to capture the images through Dragon-frame:

Florrie and I also had the luck to meet director Veronica for the first time to talk through the project and discuss how it could be used by the organisation.... keep an eye out for updates over the coming weeks as the kids' film develops.

Another brilliant session at CAICC!

:-)

murals murals murals :-)

Murals in the streets around one of the cultural centres here in Cochabamba, the Martadero.

(left) the words on this lamppost mural of a cholita read "Nobody can touch this body without my permission" / (right) a huge mural by Chilean artist Inti, who I was so struck by back in February in Chile. 

 ... and another mural moment this week - visiting MeXist painting in central Cochabamba:

:-)

Infante Week 4: continuing on canvas

The girls at Infante continued to paint their canvases yesterday afternoon, with two girls moving into collage techniques, sewing and glueing beads and sequins into their designs.  

In this project the girls are creating designs on their canvases that reflect themselves as individuals, and that will later on be painted onto the canvases of the other girls, as a visualisation of their community at Infante. 

CAICC Week 4: animation shoot 1

Our first stop-motion shoot at CAICC, this past Tuesday afternoon!

Setting up in the backyard of the centre we shot the opening scene of the kid's animation about how their experiences and likes and dislikes at CAICC.



Important points during the set-up were:
1. Barricading the camera from all sides to minimise the risk of it being knocked or nudged in the excitement of the shoot.
2. Running through the Dragon-frame interface with one of the older kids who did most of the camera control throughout the shoot.
3. Weighting all the puppets down with lots of plasticine around the feet, which also acts as a 'glue' to stick them to the table.
4. Providing each puppet with at least 3 mouth-shapes so that they can be swapped in and out in the moment of shooting to create the illusion of the puppet 'talking'.
5. Checking that some puppets have movable eyes that can look in different directions or blink.
6. Shooting a few 'test' frames as an introduction with the kids, so that they got a feel for how much to move their puppets.

One of the older kids, Deimar, brought along an extra set of characters and storyboard that he had created during the week: a conflict between Rey del Raquet (King of the Raquet) and Jalepeño, which results in Rey del Raquet's head exploding!

AVE Week 2: storyboarding & props

Ander's storyboard: in a dark forest a hungry girl tries to reach for an apple, which she can't reach until her friends arrive to help.  Working together she reaches the apple, eats and they are all happy: collaboration.

Today was the second session of the stop-motion workshops with the educators at AVE, and a successful day where we collaborated to create a single storyboard and prepared extra props needed for the shoot next week.

PROCESS: 

1. Introduction to animation theory and principles: introducing the three types, 3D computer, stop motion and 2D digital or hand-drawn. Introducing points for consideration including velocity, squash and stretch, anticipation and overshoot, boils and loops and mouth libraries.  Discussing frame rates and aspect ratios.

2. Clarifying our AIM: to create a short film animated with stop-motion techniques by the educators for children who are new to AVE, to act as an invitation for these children

3. Identifying our APPROACH: the group identified 2 options for the approach to the piece - 
           a. A traditional factual approach introducing AVE and its staff and their aims
           b. A more imaginative approach, telling a story that communicates the values and feel of AVE.
Our group opted for the second approach, the imaginative storytelling.

4.  Identifying the values which we want to communicate: solidarity, respect, integration, group, family model, diversity, no violence.

5. Individual storyboarding: based around a simple 4-part structure: 
           a. Introduction
           b. Action
           c. Consequence
           d. Ending

6. Sharing individual stories with the group.  Noting the key elements of each persons story in the corresponding panel of a large storyboard on the whiteboard.

7. Identifying shared elements between the different stories and agreeing on a single story and its key elements for the group animation.  Emphasising the importance of simplicity for a clear message.

8. Scene-by-scene identifying the props and characters required for the animation and planning how the scenes will be animated.

9. Preparing and gathering necessary props and characters (Today this stage was very quick because the educators made their characters in last weeks session).

Today's session was really successful in that the educators quickly agreed on a single group story that carries a lot of symbolism about the protective family model that AVE offers its participants.  For now I will leave you with their individual storyboards, which will give you an idea of where their thoughts are heading without giving away too much of the single story they have agreed on... keep an out out here next week for updates about their process!

Maricela's storyboard: waking up really early in the morning to go to work washing cars, a little boy is very sad when a customer pays him so little for his work.  His little dog growls angrily at the customer [ here we spoke interestingly of how a second character can express emotions that our primary character feels he or she cannot] The boy and his dog join a group of other child workers who hold balloons, and when the rain comes they open their umbrellas, which have smily faces painted on them.  I love this detail of the smiling umbrellas at the end, symbolising the protection that the group offers its members. 

Carolina's storyboard: a little girl is crying alone at first but is consoled one-by-one by different members of a group who invite her to play with them, cheering up as she joins in: solidarity.

Cristobal's storyboard: a child sits alone looking at the other children working in the cemetery, resistant at first to their calls to join in he is eventually persuaded to join them by their singing of a game song: respect.

Rodrigo's storyboard: A sad child sitting alone in the street at night is imagining playing football, when a ball rolls into him.  A child follows, extending his hand and inviting him to play with the group: integration. 

Thanks and well done to all the educators for their energy and creative thinking in today's workshop - I'll look forward to seeing where you take the story as we start to animate next week.

:-) 

Mercadito Pop: Cochalita Power

Mercadito Pop's flyer for the 2 day festival here in Cochabamba this weekend. The group describes their mission as promoting creative micro-economies and strengthening independent art and design and responsible consumption.  The fair was full of small creative businesses (reminding me of the vintage section of the Wilderness festical back home for some reason, with unusual and beautiful clothing and illustrated products).

Reflector Tropical:

"Como un ojo abriéndose ante si mismo, Reflector Tropical es una banda cuyo propósito es el de expandir nuestra consciencia al infinito."

"Like an eye opening unto itself, Reflector Tropical is a band whose purpose is to expand our awareness to infinity."

Reflector Tropical sound cloud

Thanks so much to the beautiful lads of Reflector Tropical Simon and Daniel, for the invite to draw alongside their set this Sunday at the mini festival Mercadito Pop: Cochalita Power.  This time the hope was to get as many folk as possible involved and drawing and happily they came, and drew!...starting from a group of tiny kids drawing alongside Florrie on the floor:



...then plently of folk helped out Olivia and I in our two characters facing one another across pillars, including fellow SB'ers, Olivia's wee daughter Amaya and plenty of eager or persuadable random passersby:

...with the end result of transforming these blank papered-pillars into two multi-coloured conversants and in the process MASSIVELY energising me - I left for a few beers after with markers and make-up covering my hands and an enormous grin on my face! 

Thanks to Simon and Daniel of Reflector Tropical for the invite to draw, and for their enlivening music! Thanks to artists Olivia and Florrie for being inspirational collaborators, and thanks to all those who got involved and drew with us tonight! And an especially big thanks to Cochabamba for being such a brilliant city full of so many vibrant, warm people!

Big love to you all! 

:-)

as a p.s. to this post - a drawing made after the event! :-)

CAICC week 3: puppets & storyboarding

Florrie and I had our second session with the Friday morning group at CAICC this week, and Kory came along with us again.  There are a few older lads in this group who drew up their storyboards about CAICC in this session and got started on their puppets.  Some of the younger kids from the Tuesday afternoon group also happened to be there and started to make props, like this brilliant plasticine and wire spider by René and these snakes, rings and heart shapes.

Alejandro got to know about CAICC 7 years ago through football.   He comes to CAICC to improve and to learn many things.  He likes the friends he has at CAICC and talking about girls and other things.   His hope for the future is to be a footballer and play in England.

 Deyvid got to know of CAICC through the prison 6 years ago.  He comes to CAICC to better himself and learn many things.   He likes everything that they do and learn at CAICC and the food.  He doesn't like those that behave badly with the little ones.  He hopes to study and be a professional, and loves hip hop.

 Limbar loves to play, he comes to CAICC every day and learns many things, the CAICC 'tias' (aunties - staff) are really great.   He likes to play and be happy because everything there is lovely, but he doesn't like to eat.  He wants to be a professional, perhaps a teacher or policeman, or something good.

Milton is a teenager who likes to dance.  He got to know CAICC accidentally when they passed by the prison and he saw the bus collecting the children and he realised it was a centre.  He comes to CAICC to play, enjoy himself, do his homework, go to the football pitch and other things.  He likes to play because there are children and teenagers and in his home it is boring.  He doesn't like the chores and sometimes the food.  He hopes that CAICC improves the food, that there are more girls and not to have to do chores.  He hopes to finish college and study industrial engineering and to live happily.

Rhilder has learnt to graffitti.  He comes to CACIC to receive a prize for being the best graffiti artist.  He loves the food that Maria cooks at CAICC.  He hopes to have a house with a car and swimming pool and a profession.

I absolutely love working with these kids, they are so full of warmth, energy and intelligence.  Each time when I leave there, however shattered from the intensity of the sessions, I come away with my heart full and a grin on my face! 

Thank you lovelies!

:-)

My Manuel E.Gandarillas journey

Centro de Rehabilitación para Ciegos

Manuel E. Gandarillas Octubre 2013

Based on a combination of an old piece of bone I found in the playground next to where I've been parking my bike each week, a bird feather from the witches market at La Cancha, a mural about global consciousness that I pass on route to the centre, the UV paints of our recent [metamorphosis] event, a strip of MacAlistair tartan ribbon and salt from the Uyuni salt flats.

A drawing I made this Thursday after my final 'day' at Manuel E.G - 'day' because actually when I went in for the session I found that for the second week running Maria was not in and I was not needed -  hence being able to come straight home and having the time to sit and draw all morning instead.   

This drawing is an impression of my time with Manuel E. Gandarillas, learning Braille and joining the march with the kids and staff, but also more importantly the reflective process of  realising that what I had to offer the organisation was perhaps more about the challenge for me as an artist rather than a response to a need of the centre and its clients.  Admitting this to myself, along with being aware of needing to not take on more than I have time for and seeing that my time and skills would be more usefully applied with the educators at AVE, I had decided to let the centre know this would be my last morning of volunteering.   Turning up to Maria not being there was a clear sign that this was the correct decision, I'm not needed there, although I was always welcomed and my copying the Braille  sheets for the students did seem to please Maria, who I imagine would otherwise have been doing it herself.    

On Wednesday night Joe Greco, one of the volunteers here at SB, did a brilliant talk about project management where he identified one of the key stages of initiating a project as identifying the 'stakeholders', meaning those involved and impacted by the proposed project.  This triggered an interesting comment by Ryan that often in NGO work stakeholders can become confused, with rich sponsors for example donating out of a need to 'feel good' or volunteers getting involved to boost their CV or have a good story for their blog without being motivated by a genuine desire for change.  

This comment resonated with me, and although it is not necessarily a comfortable thing to look at yourself and see your own motvations as more selfish than you thought, I think that in this case that could be said to be true.  In our initial meeting about the residency when Ryan was explaining what organisations SB works with he mentioned ManE.G. but in the same moment dismissed it, because of me being here as a visual artists and the centre working with visually imparied or blind clients.  In that moment my instant reaction was 'no, there should never be a client group that a visual artist 'can't' work with', that it should be possible to adapt any project to be inclusive.  So I spent time thinking about how to translate the storytelling processes I normally use in my workshops into Braille and texture-based storyboards and character design:

With Maria I had helped prepare posters for visually impaired or blink clients, which are made using Braille and contour and texture-based images.

A project like this would certainly be possible and interesting and would be something I would be interested in returning to in the right circumstances.  In thinking how we could potentially mirror the short-film part of the process I imagined recording the children's voices and setting this to images of their Braille-written descriptions of the scenes that would accompany the words. However, to realise a project like this it would require a group of participants who would attend over a regular period as the project developed.  Over the course of my month at the centre it became apparent that this wouldn't be possible, purely because the centre works in a more one-on-one basis with its clients and with very specific goals and aims.  

So my time with the centre has naturally come to an end, and in this case you could definitely say I have been the primary beneficiary, in that I have learned to write in Braille by hand and my machine and have had this opportunity for reflection about motivation.  In the 3 projects that I  remain involved with: CAICC, AVE and Infante, I am much more confident in saying that the projects are a balanced exchange where the groups are really getting something out of the process.   

Looking forward to the point of a group exhibition I can also see that this is a sensible decision.  To translate all the work of even just CAICC into Braille to make the exhibition inclusive for visually impaired visitors would be an enormous job that in this instance I just wouldn't have time for.  Ryan also had another thought provoking comment when I first mentioned the idea of a group exhibition to him, if it would be 'of the kids work' or 'for the kids' and if one for the kids at ManE.G might involve a physical, texture and sound space to explore.  This comment left me thinking that the idea of a group exhibition is perhaps also more about we adult volunteers and artists involved in the projects reflecting on and sharing our intentions and outcomes of the problems with fellow volunteers and local educators and artists who may be interested.  Perhaps each group will prefer a different ending to their projects.  For example at Infante an exhibition at the centre for themselves and staff, with a mini party, and at CAICC, at the suggestion of Jaime, an exhibition of their work for their parents in the prison.  Let's see what we decide on over the next couple of weeks.

So for now, a big thank you to Maria and Brigitta for welcoming into the Manuel E. Gandarillas centre and for teaching me Braille. 

:-)

Infante week 3: moving onto canvas

Following on from last week’s design work the girls at Infante moved onto canvases this week, starting with painting acrylic base colours, learning from Maddie about how to mix secondary colours from primary.

 

Emphasising the theme of community, we looked at images of the Meninadança Pink House Respect Puzzle as reference, and marked up the canvases in such a way that each canvas will be connected to its two neighbours by continuing its pattern onto them and having their patterns continue onto its surface.    Once this idea was clear the girls were happy to begin painting onto their canvases.  One pair actually worked together on one canvas, seeming to have more confidence in painting together than separately.

 

Emma Romana and I marking up the canvases – this is Emma who is on placement with ICYE here in Cochabamba that I bumped into in the boarding queue for Heathrow back in September.  It is also Emma who originally introduced me to Infante and who is my collaborator with this group along with SB volunteer Maddie – thanks for the introduction Em!

:-)