FILMS
OF FANTASY - YEARS 3,4 & 5
The children began by doing lots of literacy work. We talked about what
fantasy stories were and how different authors and poets took the reader
from our ordinary world into a fantasy land, where anything can happen!
Reading
a poem entitled "Listen" by John Cotton evoked the possibility
of magical things that could happen in our ordinary world. We wrote
our own poems trying to convey that same element of wonder and possibility.
Listen
Silence
is when you can hear things
Listen;
The breathing of bees,
A moth's football,
Or the mist easing its way
Across a field,
The light shifting at dawn
Or the stars clicking into place
At evening.
We
read extracts from :
The
Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis - when Lucy goes through
the back of the wardrobe to Narnia.
Harry
Potter & The Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling - when Harry runs
through the wall of King's Cross Station to get to platform 9¾,
which will take him to Hogwart's School.
Alice
in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - when Alice falls down the tunnel after
the talking white rabbit.
Every
child wrote a poem of their imagined experience called The Tunnel.
Having
passed through into their own fantasy world the children drew 'mind
maps' including words and pictures of what they encountered on the journey
into their imagined world. They were continuously encouraged to include
the unexpected.
The
children's mind maps were used as the basis for choosing the 3D models
they were to make.
The
children took their finished models to Hestercombe Gardens. Here we
explored the three beautiful but very different gardens. As we walked
the children decided where and how their sculptures were to be poisoned
for filming. They were encouraged to think of putting them in more out
of ordinary places, in order to enhance the element of fantasy.
When
the models were in situ, our film artist showed the children how to
set up the camera and how to use it correctly, counting the seconds
of filming and how to film close up and distance shots. With his help
the children then filmed their own models, reviewing what they had done
at each take.
Whilst
children were filming, a recording session was taking place, In Hestercombe
Organery, with the other children. All the children recorded their fantasy
poems that were later to become part of our exhibition of audio and
visual work.
We
were invited to display our work as an installation at the Philips Gallery
in The Brewhouse Theatre to run alongside the Christmas production of
'Alice in Wonderland'.
Enter
through a gauzy tunnel of sound, with the intermingling voices from
the Orangery. Pass through if your dare, to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party:
his table is upside down, his guests are waiting for you, and if you
lie on your back you can watch the Flims of Fantasy. The Brewhouse calls
it "Table Madness".