Animation Project 2014

Animation Project screened at the Irish Film Institute

In June 2014 the Irish Film Institute hosted the premier of our animation project. This project is part of the Magic Chair documentary filmed over two years at St. Declan’s. 

There were over 200 children, teachers, parents, family and friends present in the main auditiorium for the show.  Each class got to explain how their animation fit in with the theme of friendship.  We were all very proud of how clear and confident the children were when giving their presentation.  And the animations were spectacular to see on the huge cinema screen.

The animations are part of a larger project called The Magic Chair which is a documentary that has been filmed over the last two years.  The ‘magic chair’ is a small chair in the secretary’s office where the children (and occasionally the adults) can sit if they are feeling a bit sick or in need some TLC.  As part of the documentary the children created short animations around the idea of how we can care for each other in St. Declan’s. 

{loadposition Animation IFI}

Here’s what one member of the audience wrote afterwards:

I want to say – very well done indeed to each and every one of the teachers and school helpers who played a part in making the St. Declan’s School Animations 2014.  I love animation.  What I especially enjoyed was the great variety of different styles of drawing and colouring, and the way of getting the characters to move, like the chairs and stick-people, and the different kinds of model-shaping, storytelling, and the great degree of teamwork involved in each class’s putting together their animation.

I loved too, the way each class got up and told us what their animation was about.  I was really interested in what they told us about how they made their animation.  They brought me behind the scenes and let us in on some of the secrets of how you make animation.

Thank all the children for their animations and tell them I was very struck by how mature, polite and well-mannered they were in the cinema.  Joe Mc Carroll

The staff of the IFI said that the St. Declan’s group were the best behaved children they have hosted in a long time.