‘A Moveable Feast’ - Animation Project

‘A Moveable Feast’ - Animation project on Pearce Ward

Community Arts Coordinator, Clare Taylor and talented KS5 student, Meg worked with patients on Pearce Ward at Wythenshawe Hospital over three afternoons in October to produce a simple animated recipe. Pearce Ward is a recently refurbished and specially designed unit for inpatient Cystic Fibrosis patients. All patients are cared for in separate single rooms. The project was organised in conjunction with Helen Kitchen from Lime, one of Sale Grammar School’s Trust Partners.

We chose to focus on a quick and easy recipe, selecting fruit to work with as it is bright and vibrant. You may notice that the tray, plate and cutlery appear in every shot on the animation, this was to overcome the problem of continuity when we moved rooms to work with different patients. The photographs were then uploaded and edited back at school using Adobe Premiere Pro (thanks Mr W!).

Patients worked as animators on the stop motion film, painstakingly moving the plasticine fruit and magnetic letters for each section of the recipe. Meg, a budding animator, was hard at work behind the camera. I think it is fair to say that the sessions were a welcome break in patients’ treatment programmes. It was fantastic to see enthusiastic staff on the ward getting involved in the project by modelling fruit for the recipe. I was very impressed with the creativity of everyone that was involved. It seems that plasticine is irresistible to all age groups! You can see the completed animation ‘Fresh Fruit Salad’ here.

You might also wish to see ‘CrimeScene’ (scroll down page). The models were created by a patient who was in for a few weeks for treatment. Crime Scene is a gruesome yet imaginative animation where police (acted here by oranges) investigate the murder of the pineapple! Can you spot the villain?