The Fairy Tale Ending

The final day was just brilliant everything went surprisingly to plan. The viewing of the animations was entertaining even for the student as we hadn’t seen them all completed. The patients were happy with the animations with their drawings and all the students had couple seconds of self consciousness as their introduction clip came up. I do not think the day could have gone any better! If I had more time i would take the time to put the music transition together better. And i would have taken more clips and put a quicker time frame between each picture so that it run through more quickly and smoothly. I would have also done the whole shoot again because i was not happy how the whole image would move some times. I also think i would have benefited with a light controlled room so it could be a bit more realistic. Apart from those minor things there is nothing i would have changed!

Final day at ST Christiphors

Yesterday was the final day working at the hospice , it was a really great day . The main point of the day was to showcase our animations that we had been working on over the past few weeks, consisting of the patient's stories and the drawings of our stories. I think they enjoyed the animations and watching the drawings turn into animations through the weeks . We also put the blog on show so they could check out our feedback to the project, we also showed our sketchbooks, the posters we were working on last week and some display boards explaining what we have been doing in much more detail with pictures, print screens and a few words about it. I think the project has been a great sucess and we have produced some really great work with the patients.

Celebration day!

It was the day to celebrate all of the animations we had made and work we have done with the patients. The weather was hot and sunny which allowed us to open up the exhibit outside, we displayed all of our work on the project on presentation boards outside on tables or hanging under the marquee. Once everyone had looked around we played the final show of our animations inside the pavilion. The short film had all of the animations joint together with different introductions talking about each animation from either students or patients. The day had a great turn out so many people came to watch and everyone who came seemed really impressed with the work.

FINAL DAY

Today was the final showing of all the animations. We arrived at the hospice at 9 o'clock and began setting up the bunting, displaying the presentation boards and putting up the marquees, not to forget the balloons and some cakes Alice made. We then went inside to watch the animations that were projected off the lap top. All of the animations had been fully finished and finally cut. Everyone seemed to enjoy the animations and everyone felt proud of all the hard work they had put into the project.
With special thanks to the community artist Roberto, who has been working along side us with the project from the beginning and our teachers Zoe and Alice, and of course the residents, who we will miss.

Celebration & Evaluation!

On Wednesday 1st July we had our celebration day at St. Christopher's Hospice. It was a hectic morning trying to get everything done in time for everybody arriving: Boards and bunting had to be hung, pictures needed to be displayed, gazebos had to be raised, balloons needed to be blown up and the animations, the slideshow and display of the blog needed to be set up.

We worked through any setbacks and we were ready in time for everybody arriving. We showed people and patients around the display, explaining the project and our work, before going to view the animations inside. After a cheesy introduction of the group waving, it was great to see everyone's reaction to the animations. The introductions to the animations by the patient's were brilliant. Their brief summarys reinforced the narrative of the animations when the story was sometimes hard to tell. Everyone had a great time watching the animations, (despite looking away when seeing ourselves speaking on camera) they were all successful in their own way. We had great feedback from everyone watching which was great to hear as it meant all our hard work was worth it.

The project as a whole has been a fantastic experience. It has been fun creating animations which is something we hadn't done before. At first it was hard to get my head round the process of animation and how to create one, but through the workshops I have understood the processes and I now love creating art through animation. It has been great working with great tutors, a great group and great patients, each one of them individual, each bringing something different to our time at St. Christopher's. For me it has been a very humbling experience, working with people who are in fact nearing the end of their lives, and I shall take from my time there a greater respect for all the hard work the team at St. Christopher's do. I hope also the patients benefited from the time we spent with them, as we had fun meeting and working with them.

Goodbye St. Christopher's!

Last Blog Post!

The 1st of July was our celebration day, rounding off the whole project, where we showed our animations and all of the other work we'd been doing with the patients. The weather was brilliant, which is a good thing for us as our presentation was mainly outside, the garden was strung up with balloons and marquees and looked like a village fayre. People began to filter in at around 11am, and it was lovely to see that people who weren't involved still came to see our work. We gave tours of all our work to the day patients and they seemed really pleased with every thing we, and they, had done. However, I think it got a little too hot for all of us and I had to break out the sunscreen!

We got such amazing feedback from everyone about our animations, everyone laughed in the right places and were really complimentary, which felt good considering the amount of effort we put into them! It's nice when you overhear people talking about your work in a positive way and realise they're not just saying it to be polite! I think that if I could do this project again I would like to work with a wider range of ages to gain stories from each generation. Also, I would love to have had longer to create my animations and perhaps try out some new techniques!

Overall I really enjoyed this project, its been a really humbling and emotional experience and I'm really looking forward to going back to St Christopher's for my work experience!

The perfect ending...

Today went so well! We arrived at St.Christopher's, nervous but excited about showing all the work we produced. 2 hours, some beautifully iced cup cakes, and a few metres of bunting later... we were good to go! The balloons may have burst, the markees may have been slightly on the short side, but everything fell in to place and displayed the work to its best potential!

The showing of the animations was even better than i expected, and the audience reactions felt amazing. It was lovely to see the amazement in the patients faces as they watched their life stories displayed in animation. For me, that was the perfect ending to our time at St Christopher's, and also summed up the reason for being there in the first place.

To be honest, i'm really sad that our work with the hospice has come to an end, however i don't think the celebration day could have gone better! Furthermore, it was emotional saying goodbye to the patients that we worked with, as we all built up bonds and friendships in such a short time. However, i know we have all benefitted from this project, and developed as artists, students and most importantly, as people!

Thankyou for an amazing time, Patients, Roberto, Zoe, Alice, and everyone involved!

Wow - What an amazing Day!!!

We would like to thank everyone involved in this project. We had such an amazing time and it was so great to meet all the new faces. Check out the rest of the pics here.