Young filmmaker in motion

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This article was published 24/05/2016 (3416 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Balmoral Hall student Lucy Christopher had a lot of fun making her stop-motion film, but she also hopes it will make people think.

Currently in Grade 6, Christopher recently presented her film Everything Catches Up to You at the Balmoral Hall Film Festival on May 17.

“I used a figure who walks around and does different things, and from every activity she does, one item from that scene follows her around,” Christopher said. “I used the idea that everything catches up to you and I showed that literally, that when you do something the effects of that follow you.”

Christopher and other Balmoral Hall students had the chance to work with filmmaker Lasha Mowchun, who instructed them on stop-motion film, Super 8 cameras and pinhole photography, as part of the Manitoba Arts Council’s Artists in the Schools Residencies Program.

Students worked on films and photography projects in art class with the school’s visual arts specialist Kristina Karlsson and later took part in the selection process to decide which films would be shown in the two-hour festival.

“The students themselves were very involved in deciding what films were shown so there was that peer review aspect to it, which is neat for them to experience,” school communications specialist Jennifer Pawluk.

Christopher has taken a class in stop-motion in the past, but even with experience the process tends to be a slow one.

“It took a lot of perseverance because you had to move it and take the photo and move it again,” Christopher said. “My dad helped with the photos and the lighting and scenery to make it fit well in the camera… I did the editing and the sound effects.”

The three-minute film took Christopher about eight hours to complete. She was happy to get the chance to show her family and school up on the big screen at the film festival.

“It was exciting because I had only seen it on my own computer and on the smart board at school,” she said. “It’s a bit funny, there are some funny parts… it’s lighthearted.”

She is already working on a new film project in her art class and hopes to continue to learn about filmmaking in the future.

“I really like doing something and then having a finished project to show people.

“I want to say that I’m really grateful for the help I had from my art teacher (Karlsson) because she worked so hard all day Saturday and Sunday to help this come to life and she taught us how to make films even though she herself was new to film and I thought that was a really good project for us, and for her.”