Introduction | Task | Rubric | Background | Roles | Group | Conclusion | Outcomes
The Oscars! Every February Oscar Fever hits the entertainment community and film fans around the world, building to the crescendo of the annual Academy Awards Presentation a month later, when hundreds of millions of cinema lovers glue themselves to their television sets to learn who will receive the little golden statuette. Now it's time to introduce to the world the level of talent available from animated movies.
When Walt Disney started out on his own to create his first animated feature length movie he faced so many hurdles. One of them was a closing deadline, just like the producers and directors of today's big budget movies do. This term we've decided to show off to our whole school with our Film Festival and present the awards on the day. You are about to join a team of like-minded animators who'd like to win the coveted QBS Oscar for best animated short film.
Check here soon to see the nominated films for 2002, and also see the winners' trophies.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have a long history when it comes to recognising top class animation at the annual Academy Awards (Oscars). It seems to be fairly rare that an animated feature can take out the top award: Best motion picture of the year.
The awards being presented at Quinns Beach this term will showcase the talent of our young animation teams. And who knows, maybe we can convince the Academy judges that an animated feature film is worthy of the top award.
Specifically, your task is:
By completing this WebQuest you should achieve the following goals:
Understand the process behind creating a movie
Use the power of the internet to explore animation
Produce a short animation that tells a story
Work with your team-mates to problem solve your task
Take a look at the Treasure Hunt (specifically the Big Question) and see what tools you might need to collect. If you haven't seen the Subject Sampler or the Topic Hotlist, now might be a good time to find some cool info.
Now that you've refreshed your memory with some good background knowledge we should return to our main task for the WebQuest. It's not a big task, but it does take a few people to work as a team to organise everything. There are four main roles to get the group going. Maybe you should get into groups of 4 so you can all work together as a team to help each other produce your final film?
| Role | Goal |
| Chief Animator | to help the team animate characters according to the director's wishes |
| Director | to keep the team on track from the script writer's script |
| Producer | to organise the whole team and collect resources |
| Script Writer | to collect ideas from the team to create the story |
Now that you have chosen which roles you and your team-mates will take, you're ready to become an expert. Below is the information package for each member of your team:
Chief Animator (find specific info here for your role)
You'll need to understand all the different types of animation that the team may like to try. Remember though that you are on a tight production schedule so must organise with the producer to see if you have the right equipment to do everything you want. Check out some of these links to help you understand different forms of animation.
Director (find specific info here for your role)
You'll need to keep everyone on task and on schedule. Remember, when the team makes the movie your name will be first on the credits! Check out what some directors do when organising their movies and maybe you can learn from the experts. You might like to work with the script writer to let them know what things will work for a film and what may not.
Producer (find specific info here for your role)
You'll need to work closely with all three members of the team and make sure they have available to them all required equipment. Do you need a specific camera for a time? Your job is to book it and make sure it gets returned on time (if not your team could be fined late fees!)
Script Writer (find specific info here for your role)
You'll need to help others in the team think up the ideas and collect them all. The script is the central part to the animation, if there was no script then the animation would just be stuff moving around the screen. Go for a short, interesting story that will keep everyone entertained. You might like to help everyone stay with the story by helping with sketches for scenes and letting the director know if everyone's moving away from your original idea.
Now that everyone knows their roles and has read all the background information, it's time to put it all together and start creating your masterpiece.
Start with the script, give your ideas to the script writer either as a list of ideas, a short story or a short comic strip (this is much easier for the director later).
Once the script is done, discuss how to make the film (the Chief Animator can fill you in) and then create your characters and/or settings.
The producer and director should then get the filming started.
Once filming is complete, produce your animation as video.
Show the world!
If your team is really stuck for ideas. check below for tips on creating each of the animations:
Web Animation | Cel/Still Animation | Claymation
Well, the time has come to show off to the world! When your animation is complete, you'll be presenting it at this year's Film Festival.
From this presentation, you should be able to get immediate feedback from parents and other members of the community. Make sure you get out there and find out what they thought. Was there something you did really well? Was there something that you could improve on? If you find this information out now, and work on it, you could be in Los Angeles accepting the next Best Motion Picture Oscar!
Update: See 2002's Winning entries here!
By Steve Hardingham & Larni Retallack
qbstheme@lycos.com
Last updated
February 26, 2003
https://qbstheme.tripod.com/
Have a read of this website by Tom March. He has some great research telling you all about the different activities we are doing here.