Organised Mess animation

Promoting and facilitating animation workshops for the local community in and around the West midlands. For more information, contact me (Darren) at [email protected]

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It seems that I am only doing one post a year, I want to do better and make monthly posts, I started making notes and plans of posts, hopefully that'll give me the incentive.

Anyhoo, I put together a little show reel from a workshop earlier this year, I worked with an organisation called ATHAC. Based in Birmingham, ATHAC organises art based events for young adults with learning and physical needs.

We did a four hour session, with a lunch in between, focusing on character/ story design, character/ set building and animating. For a lot of the group, it was their first time animating and they did a brilliant job. Would be more than happy to work with ATHAC again.

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This was another collaborative film between Liz and myself during the height of lockdown. Liz was tasked with writing a poem based on her experience of said lockdown, and she asked me to animate. I created the film on my tablet, took me a couple of weeks to complete it, with plenty of breaks for my eyes to refocus.

With Liz’s permission, I entered the film into a small art competition ran by the Birmingham museum trust 2020, we won in the +20 category.

Like with works I have done with Liz, I did not really include a central figure (unless you count the bike) instead relying on the surroundings to accompany the words.

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Well its been a while since I’ve said I was going to update this blog! After a year its about time I start updating it.

A film I made was submitted to a site called Ink, Sweat and Tears, an organisation celebrating independent poetry. The film was in collaboration with celebrated poet Liz Lefroy. I wanted to something a little more abstract than I was normally used to, this lead to to think creatively when visualising Liz’s words. A very enjoyable project.

Stay tuned for more long awaited updates!

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Getting back into the swing of things.

Well it's certainly been over a year since I've posted anything, so best start blowing away the cobwebs. Like the vast majority of folks during this time, I found myself in a spell of unproductivity and brushing aside creative endeavours. Adding a job change and moving house, this has ended in me neglecting to update my posts. However, I recently found a drive to give myself a kick and get back into the swing of things, particularly as a couple of opportunities have been resurfacing. I'll be posting these at a later date.

I've been doing more lino printing and woodcutting, as well as the odd animation, so looking forward to sharing my work and getting back into workshops!

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The sneak cycle to accompany the previous post. It started off well but got a bit jittery near the end, plus only realised afterwards the camera was a bit lopsided, doh! Still, got a fair bit of time to work on them. 

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Firstly I hope everyone is well and staying safe in these rather uncertain times. I have been rather inactive doing anything creative, so I decided it was best to start working on my own practice and do a bit of animating.

To begin with I made my own armature using bits of aluminium wire, brass tubes, copper and steel plate. I certainly haven’t got the facility to make anything professional looking, but with a bit of sawing, epoxying and filing out came this chap. 

With a make shift animation table, I started on a walk cycle (I’ve also done a sneak cycle for the next post) The armature held really, just need to brush up on my own animating.

I feel I might as well use this lockdown time as a means to practice my own (and quite frankly limited) skillset, along the way I can use the time to think of ideas and plans for participants once everything is back up and running.

Till next time!

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This summer I have been tasked to do a two day workshop about making a zoetrope. I spent this half term making a few zoetropes that would work fairly well and was simple enough to make. 

I've following a few YouTube vids that were quite helpful and so far this is the third attempt and I felt it hasn't turned out that bad. Still got a few months to go before the workshops so I've got a bit of time to work on it.

What I like about this project is that I've mainly been using household items to put it together, making it accessible for participants to do at home as well as at the workshops.

looking forward to working more on the above design.

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Happy belated 2020! Hoping this will be a good year for creativity. Before the holidays I was running an animation club once a week as part of extra curricular activities.

Due to the time frame, we only managed to create a few short films. Ideally it would be better to work on one film over multiple sessions, however we were not always able to do a session on that day.

So the name of the game was just exploring different methods of animation such as stopmotion, smudge and click and cut out. Overall the sessions were great and the group enjoyed themselves. With the finished films, we presented them on the large screen in the classroom for the rest of the class to watch. As well as exploring and developing skills in animation, the group were also developing skills in other areas:

hand eye coordination

dexterity

teamwork

problem solving

confidence building

presentation skills

I felt the group did a great job and I’ll be looking forward to the next club.

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Earlier this month (well, last now we are in December) I have been offered a position at the mac (midlands art centre) as a sessional tutor for the young animators club. 

The mac is an organisation that gathers artists from different specialisms to work with the wider community in order to make art an integral piece of everyone’s life. 

The role fits well around my current job and I am looking forward to getting started in January. A great way to start the new year! 

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I’ve added a reel of the films made during the Fun Palace event. The kids (and grown ups) worked really hard on the films and seemed to pick up the gist of animation fairly quickly. I’ve removed titles and trimmed down some of the longer films. Enjoy.

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Earlier this month I volunteered in a community art event called the Fun palace at the Newhampton art centre, Wolverhampton.

The purpose was for families to engage in a variety of activities such as craft,dance, wildlife activities and of course animation. As well as the activities, there were also different performances happening in the theatre. 

The atmosphere was fantastic, the centre was heaving with families and the stalls were constantly busy. I came in around 11 to start setting up, I initially stated I was going to stay from till 2.30. From the doors opening at 12, I found myself having a steady stream of families coming to do some animating and I ended up staying till 5 (I wish I took pictures of what the tables looked like after the workshops ended, at that point I was just looking forward to packing up and heading home). It was great seeing the parents getting stuck in with the kids, everyone , both young and well refined, seemed to have enjoyed themselves. Business cards were handed out, so there may be future workshops down the pipeline. 

Overall working the Fun Palace was a great experience and something I would happily partake in again. I think it highlighted the importance of art bringing communities together and engaging families in new and creative pursuits. 

Till next time. 

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Short film no.3 The main project film is still being edited so watch this space to see the finished film.

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Short film no. 2 from the project.

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Day one of the project, I decided the students and Outside In split into a smaller group to work on a short film before we worked on the main project. The aim was to explore the equipment and materials we would be using for the week. The result were some nicely done shorts I’ll be posting the two other films as well.

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Its been a fair while since I’ve posted anything (really need to get that sorted!). These few photos were from an animation project at Glyndwr University involving social work students and members of Outside In, an organisation made up of individuals who use services that share their life experiences with students. 

These projects were similar to ones I worked on with the University many years back under Big bear animation. The differences were the group was smaller and rather than said group splintering off to work on individual films, we worked on one film. The film was based on a poem written by a member of Outside In, focusing on his social worker ‘Andrew’ and how he helped to improve his lot in life.

Overall the project was a success, if at times hectic (which they normally are). One of the best parts of the project was not just the satisfaction of a final film but the process involved making it. The project requires both students and Outside In to work together and communicate with one another to get the job done. I gave them the basics and it was up to them to work together to fill in the creative gaps. I feel this contributed to a lot of positive wellbeing, If we look at the five actions of mental wellbeing laid out by the New Economics Foundation, then here’s how I would place the project:

Connect- The project allowed both students and Outside In to communicate and work with one another, it also allowed both parties to socialise outside the usual constraints of class time.

Be Active- The project involved everyone getting out of the house to meet up for some animated antics

Take notice- As with all the Outside In projects, the aims are for students to take note that there is more to an individual who use services than just a statistic. In turn members of Outside In had a chance of getting to know the students and their life experiences.

Give- The author of the poem shared his story and experiences to the group, allowing us to see another layer to this remarkable chap.

Keep Learning- For the project we used mobiles to film the sequences. This was to show the students you don’t need fancy equipment to create an animated film. At the end of the project, the students left with copies of the app used to film the animation for their own extra curricula activity.

Another great experience and I look forward to the next project. Bit of a lengthy post, guess it makes up for my lack of blogging. Until next time! 

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Welcome!

Hi and thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Darren Mason and I'm here to promote animation workshops in schools and local communities in and around the West midlands. My availability will be weekends, evenings and term time holidays (west midlands term time) I have both a BA (HONS) and a Masters in Animation and have previously facilitated animation workshops in Wales many moons ago (big bear animation). Why animation workshops? There are numerous reasons why animation workshops would be beneficial to both children and adults. Here are some (not limited to) reasons: Workshops can be done either 1:1 or in groups Group work promotes teamwork which involves communicating, problem solving and decision Developing skills in English, Maths and ICT (check out future blogs to see how) Allow individuals to tap into their own creativity and take ownership of responsibilities. The workshops can also be for therapeutic purposes (a future blog will look more into this area. And importantly, they are just really fun! Why me? Okay, I've highlighted some of the benefits of animation, now why hire me to run a workshop? Well I'm glad you've asked, again here are some reasons: I have experience of running animation workshops I have an enhanced dbs I have access to equipment and materials (currently allow for up to 12 individuals), all I need is a room with tables and plug sockets. Qualifications in animation as well as certificates in Makaton and Mental Health First Aid. I am health and safety conscious and aim to carry out risk assessments before commencing workshops. In my current full time role and previous work history, I have experience working with children and adults that have SEN. I have a laid back nature and aim to ensure workshops are fun and everyone develop skills in confidence and making their own choices in a safe environment. So if this sounds like your cup of tea, feel free to email me ([email protected]) to discuss workshops. Thanks for taking the time to read this blog and I hope to hear from you soon. Darren

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Showcasing past workshops.