Oceania
Griffith Film School
Griffith Film School is the largest film school in Australia, and its animation program has been ranked in the top 10 globally for two years in a row. For this project, a team of seven 2nd year animation students worked under the supervision of three lecturers. The team did everything from developing ideas, designing environments and characters to animating the scenes, creating visual effects and compositing.
Here are some of their testimonies:
“One of the most prominent ecological concerns I’ve had was environmental degradation. Human’s persistent, unyielding craving to strip the world of its resources, to urbanise every available space and pollute those that remain; means that the disruption and loss of habitat has resulted globally, in the mass endangerment and extinction of many animal species.”
“I love that we gave animals a shared anger and a comradery with other species. It highlights their deeper connection with the natural world over our own. It shows the way that we’ve tried to separate ourselves from the land. I think we’ve taken the way humans inflict trauma on animals for our “progression” quite literally in the piece. And I think by showing our involvement in the problem there’s opportunity for discussion.”
“The amount of collaboration between each person here has been phenomenal, everyone felt very open and easy to reach out to if I ever needed help or advice! The sheer amount of research and study that needs to take place to properly understand the animal really intrigued me”
“I thought this project was a very good learning experience, and in the end I’m glad I agreed to be a part of it.”
“I have been much more observant when it comes to news, instead of skimming over news posts in places like my twitter feed I make it a point to read any posts that mention environmental issues. I have also found I have been researching more and more about Australian animals thanks to this project, such as how I can help, how they are currently being protected, how dire their situations are etc.”
“I believe using animation is a very effective method of conveying environmental themes and concerns. As it is a way to visually grab and capture the attention of audiences in a manner written or spoken material cannot. Either through explicit or stylistic telling animation can speak across a wide range of age groups as well as language and ethnic backgrounds as pictures can be understood almost anywhere in the world.”
“As someone who has consumed animation from a young age, it has 100% had an impact on my own views, so I would say without a doubt it could make a huge impact. Animation is naturally eye catching and a breath of fresh air from regular filmed awareness campaigns. It also has the ability to have a much larger target audience, and could encourage younger children to begin caring for the environment at a very early age.
“During the creation of this piece there have been disasters happening in closer and closer increments. It’s definitely more challenging to remain positive in a world on fire. But it’s possible, it’s just taking the time to have breaks, breathe that last bit of semi clean air and get back to work.”
CREDITS:
- School name – Griffith Film School
- Names, surnames of students: – Laura Adams, Filip Cieslar, Andrew Cotton, Skye Matheson, Ashlee Power, Courtney Spence, Samantha Summers.
- Names, surnames of tutors: – Zeynep Akcay, Leila Honari, Peter Moyes.
