The Straad Players

Part One

Part Two

See also THE MAKING OF:

Picture by Mikko Lipiainen

The collaborative community animations event in Saltburn last Thursday, (Animex Saltburn), was a resounding success. The matinee for schools was standing room only and the evening event presided over by the mayor of Redcar & Cleveland, Councillor Ray Goddard was close to capacity too.

Building up to the event a visiting arts group from Finland had provided workshops in Saltburn, Carling How & County Durham and then on the evening presented their own animated film. The Finnish visitors had participated in the filming of one of the Teesside films and had met many of the cast in second life but now were able to meet them in real life.

The event was web streamed and picked up by people across the UK and Europe, and you can watch all of the films presented and see images from the event at www.tvcm.co.uk/animex2011

There was a fourth visitor from Finland namely a coat who sadly did not make it home with his compatriots. You can read about the adventures of the Finnish coat by clicking here.

If you can’t make it to the event in Saltburn today  (Thurs 3rd March) you should still me able to enjoy it online. I say “should” because this is experimental. At http://tvcm.co.uk/animex2011 there is a tweetstream with the hashtag #tvcmanim11 – a chat stream, a live stream and a “blogcast” releasing each film at the same time as the audience sees it.

Today Destinations opened specially in order that we could shoot a crown scene for the new SL movie. Sunday was chosen because of the time zones involved. This was the scene where Inspector Bell leads the children to safety in the mine in order to shelter from a Zeppelin. It was quite an International cast. The street urchins are played by role players from the UK, Canada and the USA, the miners were played by people from Finland and the rest of the cast was played by members of the Community Media Club (see previous posts). Just like the real thing being on a virtual film set also contains moments of hanging around and waiting. Peter and Joan occupied themselves by taking picture of the set (see below)

Members of the Community Media Club in Saltburn have been hard at work in the Destinations Media suite shooting and editing scenes for the virtual animated movie “Tommy and Barry Go Back”

Click to Enlarge

Steven Thompsonberg and his crack team of machinima artists shooting a scene from the forthcoming production “Tommy and Barry Go Back”. This is the scene where they travel back to 1941 to find Fatty Smith guarding the British nation against invasion whilst four sheets to the wind. All this effort goes to produce a simple shot of two characters looking surprised.

Production has begun again after the Christmas break on “Tommy and Barry Go Back”. We lost a lot of production days before Chistmas to weather condition and ill health so we have postponed the world premiere to March 3rd. It’s the same venue, Saltburn Community Theatre at 7.30pm. We moved our production location to Destintations in Saltburn as a more convenient location. Yesterday we got some very trick shots in the can including Zeppelin flying and Chilean rescue pod manouvering!

Next production day is Friday 21st (Destinations Again) when we hope to finish the 1945 Jetty scene. Below are some stills from scene 6.

Smith and Bluster

Tommy and Barry in 1945

The 3 characters for a shoot tomorrow in which the children take shelter in the mine from a Zeppelin.

Click to enlarge

Here’s a sight not seen in Skinningrove for quite some years. Inspector Charlie Bell as you’ve never seen him before. He’s one of his ancestors as he appears in the new movie “Tommy and Barry Go Back”. Eric Bloodaxe will be handing out Viking ASBO’s.

Acually this is Arthhur Vador’s ancestor Geordie Valhalla limbering up for his part in the new movie “Tommy and Barry Go Back“

On Thursday 18th November children at Whitcliffe Primary School will re-enact a famous event from their Schools history. Actually the story relates to Skinningrove school but both schools have been amalgamated and children of Skinningrove and Carlin How all attend Whitecliffe. Whitecliffe has the logbooks of both schools going back over 140 years and one entry states; “school evacuated on the occasion of a Zeppelin sighted overhead. The children will re-enact this momentous event and Inspector Charlie Bell of Cleveland Police will play the part of the calm voice of authority leading the children to shelter in the mines (this actually took place too – many Skinningrovers took shelter in the mines during both world wars.  This will form the audio track of an animated film  “Tommy and Barry Go Back” to be premiered at Saltburn Community Theatre, Animex Fringe on February 10th 2011.                                                                                         

Straad Kirk has been cast in the role of the captain of the Zeppelin that will fly over Skinningrove School re-enacting an event that took place nearly 100 years ago. Unlike the actual Zeppelin of 1915 the one Kirk will be flying has a fully stocked bar. Clearly the cast will be frequenting this craft regularly.

Work has started on the new movie for Animex Fringe 2011 which will take place on Feb 10 2011 at Saltburn theatre. Work began in destinations with the script conference for “Tommy and Barry Go Back” (below)

Click to Enlarge

[edit]

NB – Due to the terrible weather in December and various lurgies which played havoc with production the date has been postponed to March 3rd 2011.

Tommy and Barry go Back (Click to Enlarge)

Production on this movie should start soon.

Barry Hunt Suggested that the two white lightning troupers could have slunk aboard and have become unwitting stowaways to the past. This gives scope to some story lines and a reason for Inspector Bell to travel back and save Tommy and Barry. Slight complication is the voice artists for these characters reside in Finland and Lithuania respectively but I have some ideas on how to get around that.

I’m meeting with Skinningrove history group soon to discuss story-lines. One piece came up in an oral history session. Fatty Smith was in the home guard stood during WW2 and stood armed at the end of the Jetty. Four sheets to the wind, he bravely protected the community from possible German invaders whilst in danger of himself toppling over into the sea. John Lawson added the story that apparently a sergeant arrived on the scene to complain that the Skinningrove Home Guard were shooting at British planes! – That’s the kind of stuff that makes history fun.  View all posts on this project.