I Give Credit Where It's Due

In the summer, I enjoyed working with a group of people involved in various ways in the degree I teach on to make a film of Graham Attenborough's poem, Andrew. We collaborated with animator Darren Mason, making a storyboard, then cut outs and models, and finally used stop frame animation techniques to create movement. The poem's colourful imagery lent itself to our enthusiastic but time-limited low budget endeavours - we had 10 sticks of plasticine, multi-coloured card, glue sticks, scissors and felt tip pens, along with our smart phones, animation apps, bouncy tripods and 5 short days to complete it.

Fortunately, Graham really likes the outcome, and it's been well-received by those who've seen it so far.  

The various makers are credited at the end of the film - well, most are. After we had tidied way the plasticine and scissors, work carried on after that original week - in particular, we had generous help which made the Welsh version possible. Graham had narrated the poem in its original English, but we knew we wanted a Welsh language version. We also knew, having watched the film without music, that this was needed at the end. Graham chose Handel, and we think it makes the film complete.

You can watch the Welsh language version of the film here: Andrew - Cymraeg
You can watch the English language version of the film here: Andrew - English

And here's the full list of credits:

Poem - Graham Attenborough, originally published in New Face in Hell, 2018, Bare Fiction, editor Rob Harper
Animator . Workshop Facilitator / Post Production - Darren Mason
Design, Animation and Technical Support - Tim Wynn, Jason Starr, Eluned Plack, Liz Lefroy, Fiona King, Laura Flannery, Nick Hoose, Lauren Evans, Jo Sefton, Georgia Hill
Narrator: English - Graham Attenborough
Narrator: Welsh - Iolo Madoc Jones
Translator: Huw Richards
Piano: Jonty Lefroy Watt (Handel - Hornpipe from Water Music Suite no. 1)
Post-post production: Mike Powell

And a big thank you to Pat Edwards who put us in touch with Huw Richards for the excellent translation - Graham says he prefers the Welsh version!