POPtalk

As part of our Making Movies Spotlight, we asked you to Make a Tim & Moby movie. We provided a short guide to making movies and a little incentive too.

Amid all of the snow disasters and travel chaos of December you guys certainly worked your socks off to get some top class submissions in before the festive break.

We could only pick two winners however – one in the 7-11 category and another for the 12-16 category – for the [hypothetical] Making Movies cup!

The winners of the 7-11 category were – *drum roll* – Year 5 at Staining Primary. Mr Maloney (@mister_jim) and his class weaved a ghostly tale where Tim & Moby investigated strange happenings at school. It was Most Haunted meets BrainPOP UK – morbid stuff! We particularly liked the masks, face paint, and it may just be the cutest Moby we’ve ever seen.

The winners of the 12-16 category were – *more drum rolling* – Class 2P6 at Calderglen High School. Mrs Healy (@TheeMrsHealy) and her class also chose a horror theme – what can we say? We’re suckers for a scary movie – with Tim & Moby getting lost in some creepy woods. We were particularly impressed with their fact-packed script and colourful storyboards.

We’d like to thank everyone for their submissions and we’re really sorry you didn’t win this time. We’ll run more competitions throughout the year – just watch this space.

Happy prize winners, Jim Maloney and Mhairi Healy

Related Posts:

• Movie Competition Prizes
• And…action! Make a Tim & Moby movie competition
• Spotlight on Earth Awareness
• Bonus Spotlight on Information Literacy
• Get Cubed Competition

Spotlight on…Making Movies. Attention fledgling movie producers and directors! Here’s a spotlight to help hone your skills.

On the Spotlight homepage you’ll find a Film Making Quiz, Digital Animation Activity and Traditional Animation FYI.

We’ve included the following topics in the Making Movies Spotlight too:

• Analogue & Digital
• Digital Animation
• Drama
• Drawing
• Filmmaking
• Graphic Design
• Imagination
• Photography
• Television
• Traditional Animation
• Writing Dialogue
• Writing in Sequence

Extra activities you’ll find on POP Spot include:

Make a Tim & Moby movie competition – The closing date for entries is midnight on 16th December so you’ve only got two weeks now to pull off some movie magic!

Movie competition prizes – A little more info on just what you could win for your movie making efforts.

Tim & Moby’s Guide to Making a Movie – Handy links and top tips from our movie making pair.

Green screen fun and short, short stories – Roger Hurn weaved some magic tales for us a few weeks ago. Then we had some fun with Oxford scenes.

Related Posts:

• Movie Competition Prizes
• Green screen fun and short, short stories
• And…action! Make a Tim & Moby movie competition
• Teachers as Storytellers
• 12 Top Tips for Telling a Story

We thought we’d give you a little preview of exactly what you could win when you enter our Making Movies competition.

Both Primary and Secondary winners will receive a Flip Mino HD 3rd Generation video camera with 60 minutes recording and 4GB storage.

In addition to the camera, the winner or the 7-11 category will receive the Top 10 Family movies of all time on DVD (as voted by Radio Times readers in August 2010).

• E.T.
• The Jungle Book
• Back to the Future
• Shrek
• The Wizard of Oz
• Toy Story
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Mary Poppins
• The Sound of Music

As well as the camera, the winner of the 12-16 category will receive the BFI’s Top 10 British films on DVD. We’re also throwing in the book, screenplay or play. These include:

• Great Expectations
• The Red Shoes
• Kes
• The Third Man
• Brief Encounter
• The 39 Steps
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Don’t Look Now (We know this could be slightly controversial as a prize but we’ll leave that up to your discretion – if your entry wins, you can opt out of receiving the DVD and book and pick another film from the BFI Top 100 instead.)

Good luck!

Competition Terms & Conditions

Related Posts:

• Spotlight on…Making Movies
• Movie Makers in the Making
• And…action! Make a Tim & Moby movie competition
• Spotlight on Weaving Tales
• Green screen fun and short, short stories

Roger Hurn visited the BrainPOP UK office recently to weave a tale or two for us. Inspired by ideas for our Tim & Moby movie competition, we decided to try out green screening for the first time.

Luckily, we have a Mac in the office with iMovie and iMovie has a green screen function included. And, also luckily, it’s perfect for beginners. We hot-footed it out to the wilds of Summertown, acquired a green tablecloth, threw it over our Whiteboard, and we were set.

So, here are the fruits of our labour [Roger's] for you to enjoy. We hope these short, short stories and story starters inspire some of you to get movie making!

Story starter – It’s behind you!

Story starter – I thought I was right…

Story starter – The Door

Story starter – The Last Man Left Alive

Story starter – The Wise Guy

Story starter – The Holiday

Short, short story – The Skillful Tailor

Short, short story – The Skeleton

Short, short story – Hard Times

Short, short story – The Giant

Short, short story – Top Dog

Visit the Making Movies Spotlight >>>

Related Posts:

• Teachers as Storytellers
• Spotlight on…Making Movies
• What is your character like?
• Spotlight on Weaving Tales
• 12 Top Tips for Telling a Story

Attention fledgling writers and movie producers!

As part of our forthcoming Spotlights, Weaving Tales and Making Movies, we have a challenge for you. Weaving Tales is about storytelling, and the skills you need to create a good story and Making Movies is about the art of film making – whether it’s animation or a major Hollywood blockbuster.

The competition challenge: Make a short movie starring Tim & Moby using one of 3 scenarios.

To help you take you from script to screen we’ve written our own 3 step plan to help get you started: Tim & Moby’s guide to making movies .

• The winning entry in the 7-11 category will win a Flip Mino HD 3rd Generation camera and a collection of the Radio Times Top 10 family movies ever on DVD.
• The winning entry in the 12-16 category will win a Flip Mino HD 3rd Generation camera and a collection of the BFI’s Top 10 British films on DVD plus the book, play or screenplay.

Competition submission criteria:

• This competition is for children between 7-11 and 12-16.
• The winner will be chosen by the BrainPOP UK team. Editors’ decision is final.
• You must use one of the scenarios below as the starting point for your movie.
  
• The deadline is midnight 16th December 2010. Entries received after this point will not be considered.
• Finished movies must be under 3 mins and be all your own work.
• They must be in a digital format.
• The winners will be contacted by email in the new year.
• The winning entries will be showcased on this blog and shown at BETT 2011 on our stand.

You can read our full Terms and Conditions on our website.

Please download these three scenarios and pick JUST ONE to form the basis of your Tim & Moby script. Where you take it is up to you!

Script Option 1 – Adventure

“Tim and Moby stand in the Prime Minister’s secret underground office…“

Script Option 2 – Romance

“Tim stands alone in a shop browsing through a rack of t-shirts. Moby comes stomping into the shop accompanied by a stranger…“

Script Option 3 – Horror

“Tim and Moby are walking through a cold, dark forest…“

TOP TIP! Watch The Writing Process , Writing Dialogue & Filmmaking movies on BrainPOP UK to get advice from Tim & Moby.

You are welcome to submit your finished movie in any way you like, as long as it can be accessed online.

1. Live acting: You’re going to need a camcorder or phone with a camera function to record your movie, actors, a studio space and costumes. And find someone to shout “CUT!”
2. Green screen: You might also want to use chroma screen technology (here is a very useful and comprehensive step by step guide to using green screen in the classroom by Sheffield South Learning center).
3. Stop motion animation: You could use claymation like Wallace and Gromit, papercraft like “Star Wars in 2 minutes” or using physical objects like the amazing “Dot. The world’s smallest stop-motion animation“. Have a read of this wonderful guide to stop motion animation for beginners on Photojojo.
4. Audio play: If you don’t have access to a camera, you could just record your script as a podcast play with sound effects – a fun challenge on its own! Try Podium.
5. Digital animation: There are lots of amazing animation tools online. Try Anithings (animations), Zooburst (3D pop up ebooks), Xtranormal (you type and the characters talk) and Comic life (make a comic form your images) and many more. Or you may be a Flash guru.

You can submit your finished movie if it’s under 10MB using the form below. If it’s over 10MB or you host it online get in touch with info@brainpop.co.uk.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with. Good luck everyone.

Aaaand, ACTION!

Related Posts:

• Spotlight on…Making Movies
• Movie Competition Prizes
• Green screen fun and short, short stories
• Spotlight on Creative Writing
• Spotlight on Weaving Tales

Step 1. “WEAVE A TALE” AND CREATE YOUR STORY

First things first. Watch The Writing Process movie so Tim and Moby can take you through the process of writing, step by step.

Start to build your plot. Makes sure it has structure – a clear beginning, middle and end. Make sure your plot has a purpose and that your characters are interesting.

Watched that movie? Have an Oscar worthy story and plot? Good. Now onto Step 2.

Step 2. PUT THOSE WORDS INTO SOUND & MOTION – ADAPTATION

Next you need to adapt your story so it can be filmed by creating a script and storyboard.

Script writing

Writing convincing dialogue is one of the toughest aspects of script writing. We suggest you get some great script tips from the Writing Dialogue movie.

Remember: the script should include stage directions too. You should consider what you will need to bring your script to life – try to think of props, actors and settings. Don’t forget to include the time of day (midday and midnight are tonally two very different times!), set the location, and actions of the characters in the scene.

This is an excellent guide to creating a professional looking movie script: How to format a screenplay .

TOP TIP! You can learn about what it takes to make a movie from our Film making movie.

Storyboarding

When the script is ready, a storyboard can help you set out the main parts of the plot to record. We use storyboards when we make a new BrainPOP movie.

TOP TIP! Download and print this blank storyboard to get started: BrainPOP UK storyboard.

Step 3. EQUIP YOURSELF – TIME TO GET TO WORK

There are a few ways you could choose to approach this.

1. Live acting: You’re going to need a camcorder or phone with a camera function to record your movie, actors, a studio space and costumes. And find someone to shout “CUT!”
2. Green screen: You might also want to use chroma screen technology (here is a guide to using chroma key with Windows Movie Maker and a great blog post by Sheffield South Learning center).
3. Stop motion animation: You could use claymation like Wallace and Gromit, papercraft like “Star Wars in 2 minutes” or using physical objects like the amazing “Dot. The world’s smallest stop-motion animation“. Have a read of this wonderful guide to stop motion animation for beginners on Photojojo.
4. Audio play: If you don’t have access to a camera, you could just record your script as a podcast play – a fun challenge on its own! Try Podium.
5. Digital animation: There are lots of amazing animation tools online. Try Anithings (animations), Zooburst (3D pop up ebooks), Xtranormal (you type and the characters talk) and Comic life (make a comic form your images) and many more. Or you may be a Flash guru.

Do you have any tips for aspiring young Spielbergs?

Related Posts:

• Spotlight on…Making Movies
• Movie Competition Prizes
• Green screen fun and short, short stories
• And…action! Make a Tim & Moby movie competition
• Spotlight on Weaving Tales