“Stuff”, Stuffing and Japanese Craftmanship :: T Minus 7 Days

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With seven days to go until we fly out of the UK for the last time, I thought I would spend some time writing about the lead up to our departure. I suspect there will be some adventures when we arrive which might also merit a blog post or two.

I have been slowly tracking the departure date on my calendar as it looms closer. At first it wasn’t visible, months off. But slowly, week by week it has been approaching and now I see it, right there. Next Wednesday afternoon.

With some friends getting the ball rolling we have been slowly clearing any of our remaining possessions before we leave. You see in mid October we sent just about everything we own to Melbourne on a ship and so are currently living with our second string of “stuff”.

Actually it has been amazingly liberating to live without being surrounded by lots of “stuff”. Everything that we are using or is still in the house will be sold, given away or indeed part of many tip runs to come.

I suppose such a move to send our belongings to another country forces you to look around yourself, to say what does all this “stuff” really mean to us? We are currently living with the rejects. It is an awkward relationship. A temporary one at best. With many of the sad mixture of items who didn’t make the boat, earmarked for the charity shop. When you surround yourself with “stuff” that you no longer have any investment in, no monetary value of note, certainly no sentimentality involved, you see those whom you love with a lucid glow that is different. Not new, just different.

It all started when we sold our house and moved into a rental property back in September. I loved that house and didn’t see myself ever moving, why would I? But when faced with a new day, that brings about new opportunities, things simply change.

Christmas has been lovely as usual and although there has been some muted generosity, due to luggage weight allowances, we have had a lovely time together with family.

Admittedly carving the turkey was not with my usual knives with their “distinctive one piece, molybdenum/vanadium stainless steel design” or their Japanese heritage or indeed the striking balance and craftsmanship you register with every touch. In fact it was with a bread knife from Tesco’s – but you know the turkey still tasted the same. Maybe better.

Pic: Christmas 2012 by Mike_fleming (Attribution-ShareAlike License)

A new chapter down under

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There were two distinct moments when my mind was made up. The first was during a languid time spent walking along Manly beach in Sydney, looking down at my feet as the warm water rolled in and sucked out again. Watching my prints scrubbed free from the sand. I knew then.

Although in all truth I didn’t need much more convincing, I also remember being on the beach at Port Willunga just south of Adelaide. The sun seemed to be lingering on the Southern Ocean horizon, as it dipped and I watched the only surfer for miles, I clearly remember thinking that Australia was going to play a part in my future.

I have been lucky enough to travel back to Australia a handful of times over the last few years with Ewan for our NoTosh work. The trips have always been a great deal of fun and filled with laughter. We have worked in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Great memories.

And yet I still always remember those moments on the beaches of Sydney and Adelaide – all in all it is an easy decision.

On January 3rd we fly out of the UK to start a new chapter in our life in Melbourne. I would not be telling the truth if I didn’t say I was nervous and slightly anxious about it all. But I am also really excited, open minded and completely committed to what comes next for my family and for NoTosh.

No doubt we could have convinced ourselves it was not the right time, or that we will leave it a few years. But sometimes you just have to get on with it and step away from those who just say “wouldn’t it be nice if…”

I am looking forward to feeling the sand between my toes again.

Plot Device

This film was shared with me by Tony Richards on Google+ this morning before my first coffee. A great piece of work directed and co-written by Seth Worley for Red Giant Software.

I am always fascinated by good storytelling and narrative ingredients. Plot Device is both about storytelling and a great example of doing it well. In the classroom it would prove an interesting illustration of a range of genres and narrative structures as well as a story that could be unpicked. Lots to explore. I hope you enjoy it too – not much normally gets between me and the first coffee of the day!

Plot Device from Red Giant on Vimeo.

An Interview with Luiz Stockler – filmmaker, storyteller, people-watcher

Luiz Lafayette Stockler is a 25 year old award winning director and animator. I recently discovered his film Vovô on Vimeo and was immediately struck by the powerful simplicity and the beautiful way the story is told. I have been lucky enough to find some incredible work on Vimeo just recently and Luiz’s film is most certainly in that category.

 

Vovô from Luiz Lafayette Stockler on Vimeo.

 

I managed to track Luiz down and he was kind enough to answer some questions about his film and his own process of storytelling.

You say in your Twitter profile “North Wales via Brazil” – what’s the story there?

I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to a Brazilian father and a Welsh mother. My parents worked with horses and were professional showjumpers who competed at the highest level in south america. when I was 8 years old, my dad was offered a job in Scotland riding horses for a breeder, so we moved to the UK. my dad has since moved back to Brazil.

You are soon to start at the London Royal College of Art – what are you studying?

I am starting an MA in Animation at the Royal college of Art, it’s quite a prestigious school in the animation world so I was ecstatic when I was offered a place!

Your short animated film Vovô has caused quite a stir online, what do you enjoy most about your film?

I think the one thing I enjoy the most out of my film is that its such a personal story to me, but also something that I think anyone can relate to in some way or another. It has a universal theme that makes it accessible to people.

Vovô has quite a sad story to it, is the film something you have created out of personal experiences or is it purely fiction?

Vovô is the Portuguese word for grandfather. The film is about my childhood memories of my grandfather when I was growing up in Brazil, up until his untimely death during a summer holiday I spent back in Rio visiting my family when I was 19, I havent been back since.

What sort of time did you dedicate to the Vovô project? Does it take a long time to create something so polished?

It was made during my third year of my BA in Animation at the University of Wales, Newport. I had the whole year to work on it from development/pre-production/production/post production to finished piece….the script was the easiest part, I wrote that in a day and took about 5 drafts to get it right, I got a lot of help and feedback from my friends which helped a lot…the rest of the film went through so many changes and doubt/insecurities that I almost gave up and considered re-doing the year. Because of its personal element it became very easy to lose sight of what I was trying to make. I think as a filmmaker/artist/musician/writer etc… you can become quite precious of your idea and it can be quite hard to stand back and take a look at it with an open mind. I had all these storyboards and animatics that no longer made sense to me so in the end I had to become a bit ruthless with it all and I just let spontaneity take over and freestyled most of the film, animating it in six weeks. I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone though as I hardly slept, but I thrived on the pressure. luckily most of the scenes were fairly simple to animate, otherwise it would have taken a lot longer. the best thing I had throughout though was my friends/fellow classmates, without their help I dont think I would have made this film the way I did. I cant thank them enough.

 

Showreel 2010 from Luiz Lafayette Stockler on Vimeo.

 

How do you maintain a sense of self and originality when there is so much incredible work published these days? What advice would you give a young artist or illustrator about finding their own way of doing things?

I think I’ve always struggled with drawing things ‘well’, I’m terrible at proportion/perspective etc…so the only way I could put to paper what is in my mind is to simplify it by about a 100 times, I always say that my work is a bad version of what I saw in my head. I think the most important/useful advice I ever got given was to play to your strengths, I kept things simple because thats the way I’ve always worked in my sketchbooks. You can get excited by a new technique or visual style or even a software plug-in that you end up getting carried away with it and lose perspective on what you’re trying to do, you also lose that raw connection you had with your work in the first place. Keep it simple, play to your strengths and do what excites you.

Do you consciously strike a balance between the depth of the story and the way it is told?

When I was coming up with visuals, I was told by a friend that if something is being said then we dont need to see it everytime, it’s like we’re being told something twice. With this in mind, I tried to think less literal and more metaphorically and symbolically about what was on screen, I thought about how the viewer could learn so much more about the characters without being told, but rather shown. I also think it has something to do with songwriting, I’ve written songs since i was young so I’ve always been used to telling stories in a stripped down/brief way. The script of the film ended up being a progression of my songwriting.

Your film is centred around the relationships of two people and very focused on particular idiosyncrasies, what do you like about people-watching?

I’ve always been interested in people watching. I like how you can tell a lot about a person before you’ve even had a conversation with them. The way they walk, the way they dress, cross their legs, hold a cigarette etc… we show a lot of who we are using just body language and I think I have been good at mimicking that in people from a young age, I was always doing impressions of friends and family, copying their gestures and behavioural nuances – something which has definitely helped me when it comes to animating characters.

Do you have any projects you are currently working on that you can share?

I’m currently just saving money for my big move to London and the Royal College of Art. apart from that, I’m constantly doing illustrations and working on ideas for films, which you can see on my blog at http://luizstockler.wordpress.com

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Many thanks to Luiz for sharing his thoughts and taking the time to answer some questions. Working with children in school around the issues in Luiz’s film can be difficult and as teachers we are often a central part of the support that can be provided to children who are dealing with personal loss. Perhaps this film could be used to help an open discussion around these sensitive and difficult times.

Of course at the heart of the film is the story and such a narrative could be explored more widely in terms of the way it is told, un-picking the brevity of narration and how it is paired with visual metaphor and symbols as Luiz explained.

I hope you enjoyed the film and hearing from Luiz himself, perhaps you will see a place for it in your own curriculum or to support the work you are doing with children. I am sure you will join me in wishing Luiz every success when he joins the Royal College this September and in his future work.

Are Online Behaviours Affecting Reading Skills?

In my final weeks of school our class had our usual Tuesday afternoon guided reading session, where we get the opportunity to work on some reading text with a small group of children. One particular comment from a pupil has stuck in my mind, so I thought I would share some of my reflections with you.

Whilst exploring a text we came across a particular word that became the focus of our attention. Although the group had no problem reading and pronouncing it they didn’t know what it meant. I aimed to set the children off exploring the definition from the information we could acquire from the sentence and the text overall, we may have even cracked open a dictionary or two…

“We could just Google it!”

As you can see the comment from one of the group stuck in my mind for a number of reasons. Firstly it indicated to me how much web searching had become part of how these 9 and 10 years olds process the information they see in the world. The concept of search applies to so much around them and the need for a better understanding of how we instruct and guide our classes to filter what they find, has never been so more acute.

Equally the appropriateness of using different tools is a key part of navigating the learning landscape, indeed one of the most difficult aspects is helping young learners make better decisions regarding the tools they use.

Of course I was not surprised by this comment after all many of the children have Kindles and the latest model has a full Oxford English Dictionary available on it. The children simply have to move a cursor and the definition will be displayed on the screen at the bottom. I remember writing lists of words I didn’t know from texts during my English degree and finding out later.

The immediacy of information and indeed the expectation for it is all to clear. We expect results, definitions and answers faster nowadays and so do the children in our classes. The question is what are we doing about it?


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Within the browser too you have access to dictionary tools to help when you are reading online. I use Google Chrome’s extension which allows you to double-click a word and a little pop-up dictionary definition appears. I use this loads – no more written lists of vocabulary for me!

Another reason the comment struck a chord with me is how the decision to Google a word comes ahead of trying to establsish meaning from reading skills, such as reading into the context and exploring the sentence further. Of course, this one comment should not be over played. However in my opinion it does hint at the ways children are thinking about processing the information, from reading material or otherwise, we work with everyday.

I am of course an advocate for the appropriate use of technology, where it can transform learning and add value – and in this instance it is not a “this skill replaces that skill” scenario but an opportunity to reflect on the ways we can enhance what we do and take advantage of ideas children have.

To answer my own question in the title, yes they are in a broadly positive way, but especially children in primary school or elementary need support and guidance to help them filter the information they search. They need contextualised examples and ongoing references to the ways we search and use information tools – I think this is a pivotal aspect of teaching and can only become more acute in the coming years.