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Wednesday, September 17, 2003 Middle schoolers’ claymation film a winnerBy Cindy F. Crawford | News-Journal Staff Writer NEW SMYRNA BEACH — After sharks bit a record number of swimmers in the summer of 2001, animators at Coronado Beach Elementary felt a spark of creativity. What if the toothy marine creatures were attacking people to protect their oceanic home? Using that concept, 13 fourth- and fifth-graders in the school’s animation club spent two years writing, directing and producing a five-minute claymation film, “Sharks Get Even.” In the flick, clay sharks emerge from the water and immerse into society. They munch on popcorn at the movies, push grocery carts at stores and purchase homes — with pools, of course. It took six images per second to shoot the film, or 1,800 separate takes to make up the production, said Steve Hardock, art teacher at Coronado Elementary. Their hard work paid off when the film won several local awards and most recently an international prize for best comedy video. Last week, the pupils, who now are sixth- and seventh-graders, celebrated their success during a movie premiere in front of several Volusia County Schools’ district dignitaries in the New Smyrna Beach Middle School media center. “I promised you all that if you stayed with me it would be worth it,” Hardock said. Some of the pupils haven’t seen the entire film in two years. So they laughed when they saw the opening segment with fake fishermen swinging poles into pretend water. Then the film’s narrator, Reanna Hardock, 12, whose dad is the art teacher, said, “The ocean is for everyone — or is it?” Surfers sitting on boards watched sharks take over the waters underneath them and said, “I think we’re gonna need a bigger board.” Looking back, seventh-grader Taylor Yancey said she was glad she participated. Through the club, the 12-year-old learned to operate a video recorder and make characters out of clay. But it wasn’t easy, she said. Moving the sharks’ mouths on a second-by-second basis was hard. One scene making a shark swim past coral on the bottom of the sea took three weeks, she recalled. “We had to do so many retakes,” she said. “We had to make sure there were no hands showing.” Since 1991, Hardock’s animation clubs have won 40 local, state, national and international awards for video films. But his Coronado team hasn’t placed in the International Student Media Festival competition since 1994. Hardock’s animation club at Burns-Oak Hill Elementary won the award in 2000. “This is a hard award to win,” Hardock told his sharks group. “This is a big deal.” Plaques and certificates will be given to winners during the festival Oct. 24. But because the ceremoney is in in Anaheim, Calif., Hardock said the club can’t afford to go. Instead, the awards will be mailed. Among the winners are Lauren Blanchette, Sidra Boyer, Carly Broadway, Jimmy Devine, Sarah Durrance, Peyton Gelineau, Elliott Hardock, Reanna Hardock, Brooke Hoover, Tanner Snow, Justin Watson, Kathryn White and Taylor Yancey. In the next few months, Steve Hardock plans to enter the film into HBO’s “30 by 30: Kid Flicks,” a half-hour show airing projects by children. Before the Coronado Beach crew left for sixth grade, the animation club completed another film — this time an action video using high-tech equipment that superimposed monsters on the screen chasing pupils. “Filming the monster movie was a lot easier than working with clay,” sixth-grader Sarah Durrance said. |
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