Very pleased to see the artwork and my blurb for the DVD for Ajani’s Great Ape Adventures. This was such a great project to work on.
Supported by a whole host of international conservation charities, the three films that make up Ajani’s Great Ape Adventures are designed to teach young people across Africa about our close relatives the apes and how important it is to keep them and their habitat safe: not just for the apes but for the young people and their real families too. With poverty so often the consequence as well as the cause of habitat loss and species extinction, it is vital that solutions that benefit people as well as animals are found.
That all sounds far too heavy to put on a young one’s shoulders. But these stories, like any good educational tool, are fun and exciting with a feel good factor that will encourage rather than condemn. And they offer simple, practical and doable solutions that will help, not hinder local people to thrive.
I was brought in to work on the narration. Originating with Dutch filmmakers, the English version needed colloquializing so that it felt more in keeping with the characters. It was great fun and because I was working off of the rough cuts rather than the script, it was perhaps more akin to editing than writing. I loved watching the children’s performances and the footage of the chimps and gorillas is wonderful. And there is a poop fight. Of which I wholeheartedly approve.
I wish the Dutch makers of the films, Nature for Kids, every success with this project and hope I can work with them again in the future.
…was this submission, on behalf of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children’s Media and the Arts, to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children. The APPG for Children is conducting a year long investigation around the question “Are Children Getting What They Want?”. Jocelyn Stevenson and I wrote this paper answering the question from a children’s media and arts perspective.
The results of the inquiry will be published later in the spring and you can read the whole of our report on the Children’s Media Foundation website. But to briefly summarise… Are children getting what they ‘want’ in terms of arts and media?
No.
With little more than 1% of public funding for the arts directed at the children’s audience, despite the under-18s comprising 15% of the UK population, with fewer and fewer courses training specialist arts teachers, with current Education policy devaluing art, with libraries closing, the answer is NO. In terms of media, despite so many hours of dedicated children’s viewing, only 1% is brand spanking new UK content. And of that 1% very little editorial diversity or opportunity to reflect the rich variety of childhood experience. So no: children are not getting the opportunities they want, need or deserve to participate fully in cultural and artistic life.
Of course we say it a lot more eloquently than that in the paper and quote Nelson Mandela and Horton the Elephant. Which of course fills me with great pleasure and hope that the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children will not only continue to support our campaigns, but increase the pressure for change.
Which means more time to put the Christ back into Christmas. And drink the whisky left by the hearth.
So may your Christmas be full of love, joy and peace. And don’t let Santa Claus eat all the pies.
For the first time in several years, the world of children’s media have things to celebrate this Christmas.
– The Animation and Games tax relief which will help our production sector compete with the rest of the world and ensure more home grown content for our children.
– Ofcom and the ASA’s swift implementation of the Bailey review’s recommendations, which will help put the brakes on the sexualisation and commercialisation of our children
– www.parentport.org.uk, which offers parents one-stop access to all the UK’s media regulators.
However, there are still many challenges in 2013, especially for Children’s theatre, fine arts, music and dance which have been endangered by changes in Education and cuts to public arts funding.
So whether you and your family settle down to watch the BBC’s Christmas Doctor Who, or C4’s The Snowman and The Snowdog, or watch a performance of The Nutcracker, or your local pantomime, please remember that Children’s Arts and Media are not just for Christmas….
With all good wishes for a peaceful and prosperous New Year,
Me.
I have long held a theory that there are two types of people: those that do things and those that take the photo of the thing being done. I’m now extending that theory to blogs and news feeds. If you have time to write one, you can’t really have any news. Which is, I think, an excellent reason why I’ve not written anything here since July. There have been too many things to be done. Everytime I think “I must do a bit of that self publicity”, something else far more exciting comes along and I think, “I must take a photo” but end up getting stuck into the something instead. Some of the somethings have been important as well as exciting and as we’ve reached the time of year for traditional smug reviews, I’ll do my best to catch up. In the meantime, there’s something I have to do.
We went to the theatre yesterday, my auntie Jayne and me. I was a bit scared because Mummy had said it’s like the pictures but they’re alive and that sounded weird. So we took Oma because she knows what to do.
We had to wait while Auntie Jayne got the tickets and that was boring but then this boy came up to me with his mum and she said she liked my school hoodie and that the boy was starting at my school in September. So I’ll be in the next class up and she said that would be nice for him and Oma said so too and so did Auntie Jayne so I suppose it will but I just thought I’ll be bigger than him. And that will be nice.
And then we went in through these big doors and there were two girls with books all about Grandpa In My Pocket because that’s what we had come to see and Oma bought two and the room was dark and I had to find the letter E on the seats and some numbers. It was very big and dark except for the front which was all bright and looked like a seaside with beach huts and Oma said it was The Stage.
Then all the lights went out and some people came onto The Stage and they danced and looked very happy. They didn’t look like Jason Mason or Grandpa much but they said they were going to pretend and I like pretending and they had a great big dressing up box and then they did look like Jason Mason and the man looked like Grandpa and then he did the shrinking thing!
I could see the other man moving Grandpa’s legs but then he just disappeared and all I saw was Grandpa running across The Stage and hiding and it was fun and then the Bank Manager got to be a pirate afterall and they all sang songs.
We had ice creams in tubs at half time. Mine was chocolate and Auntie Jayne had blueberry and Oma had mini chedders. That is not an ice cream. And Oma bought me some planes to build but I didn’t have time to build them because then they were all on the island and there were some big birds and Grandpa had to go back to get help with a message that Mr Liker Biker found so he rowed in his boat all the way round our seats to get to the island and rescued everyone and they found all the things that had been lost.
My best bits were the pirate and when they all ran round the seats and I liked Grandpa flying in his plane. It was very funny and we all sang along and clapped when everyone danced. Even Oma. But Auntie Jayne sings too loudly.
When we got home, Auntie Jayne said it was very well written and a great show for children and their grown ups. Mummy said I had to say thank you to Auntie Jayne and give her a kiss but I didn’t want to because her chin is spiky. But I was glad she took me because I loved it. I told Oma that even before we had our ice creams. I did say thank you because I did like the theatre and I like Grandpa In My Pocket. I like it on telly but I loved it on The Stage because it wasn’t just on The Stage but all around me and it made me laugh a lot and Grandpa was really clever.
Grandpa In My Pocket is at Nottingham Playhouse until 11 August 2012. Auntie Jayne says take some children and have some fun. She thinks it would be a great trip for Beavers or Rainbows and much more fun than sitting in the rain.
And it came to pass that all from the world of children’s media were invited to go unto the city of Sheffield to the Children’s Media Conference. And they gathered unto themselves the brightest and best from the firmament of ‘kids’ to listen and ask questions, to increase in wisdom and stature and find favour and commissions.
And lo! there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth as they gazed upon the financial abyss before them and ate pizzas.
But there was also great rejoicing for the pizzas were washed down with wine. And some brought glad tidings of transmedia opportunities.
And it came to pass that after three days, many who had slept too little and eaten too much stumbled out of the Showroom Cinema’s darkness into the light with visions of a media landscape filled with the milk and honey of highly valued, well funded children’s content. For surely miracles do happen.
And yea, verily I say unto thee, there will be epistles from Sheffield http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com/blog/2012/ . Thus spake the seraph who forthwith is off to pack her wings before she trips over them and further dints her halo.
Been doing a spot of Morpurgoing recently. Sat in on Michael Parkinson’s Sky Arts masterclass with the lovely man a few weeks ago, for which there was much raiding of daughter’s bookshelf for stories like Kensuke’s Kingdom, War Horse, The Butterfly Lion, and being inspired by his autobiography.
Then last week Mr Morpurgo spoke at the Action For Children’s Arts Conference at the Unicorn Theatre. Such an inspirational, entertaining man. And impassioned. He spoke up for literacy. But not just simplistic, measurable reading and writing: “20% of children leave school unable to read. And of the 80% that can, few are theatre goers, book readers etc. So most are denied Freedom of Expression and the unfettered seeking of truth that awakens our creativity.”
The ACA’s paper, “Putting Children First” states that despite childen under 12 comprising 15% of the population only 1% of public funding for the arts is directed to their needs. 600 libraries have had to close. As Michael Morpurgo said, “The oxygen of freedom of thought and expression that children could access is being denied.”
How can that be fulfilling articles 17, 29 or 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?
Three great meetings, one excellent film, several new lovely people and one brilliant cross cultural moment…
Firstly thank you to the Children’s Media Conference and UKTI for inviting me to meet with the China Animation Association Delegation. It was good to learn about the Chinese animation industry, meet some of its key players and begin to explore ways that we can work together in the future. I was particularly touched when the Ordos Dongsheng Skywind Animation Film Co., Ltd gave me The Big Horn, the delightful character from the Go Calf! animation series. I thought we were just going to have our photos taken together so it was a lovely surprise when I came away from the morning with The Big Horn under my arm.
Qiuli Shi, me and The Big Horn at the BIS Conference Centre
And so onto the Annual General Meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children’s Media and the Arts. I added The Big Horn to the guest list. He was particularly impressed by the Grand Committee Room. So was I.
I was even more impressed by the meeting though. With Baroness Floella Benjamin re-elected as chair, and MPs Tom Watson and Damian Hinds as vice chairs, the meeting got down to the real business: reviewing the Bailey Review. One year after Reg Bailey’s report on the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood “Letting Children Be Children” was published, we were able to bring together the regulators, broadcasters and other stake holders to discuss how they had implemented Reg’s recommendations and consider the successes and challenges. I remember when I read the report being somewhat cynical that any of the recommendations would be seriously followed through – it’s easy to pay lip service and equally easy to come up with excuses when nothing is done. But hats off to Ofcom, the Advertising Standards Authority, ITV, UKCISS and others as well for the changes that have been made – making it easier for parents to voice their concerns on www.parentport.org.uk, removing innappropriate advertising from inappropriate places to name the obvious. Good job to everyone who has signed up to better self regulation and the general good will and desire to protect young people from inappropriate… stuff. I’m generalising as I need to write a more detailed report for the parliamentarians that were unable to attend. I will also post something on the Children’s Media Foundation website. AND Reg Bailey will be speaking at the Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield at the beginning of July. Besides, I’d rather post more photos of my day with The Big Horn.
Westminster Hall with The Big Horn
I said Three Meetings… The third was the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s Children’s Committee. We met at BAFTA to discuss… things. Things to do with those that write for children. Things like contractual issues, intellectual property, the BFI plans for UK film, e-publishing: things like that. I think all of us on the committee would rather spend our time messing about with The Big Horn but we have to support ourselves if we are to provide good quality content for young people.
The film? Jeff Who Lives At Home. Loved it. So did The Big Horn although he did have to ask me what a bong was.
The Big Horn at Bafta
So a busy day. Oh what was the brilliant cross-cultural moment? I’m sure you’ll have guessed that during the Chinese Delegation meeting there was a certain amount of stifled tittering amongst the British participants every time The Big Horn was mentioned: nobody dared to catch anyone else’s eye and there was much chewing of lips, especially when the Chinese-English translator talked about the “happy growth of the Big Horn”. Then when one of the English contingent began to speak, I saw a pair of Chinese shoulders begin to heave, I saw others stifling their titters, desperately not looking at each others, chewing their lips. I can only imagine what the translation was and hope it gave my new friends as much pleasure as The Big Horn gave me.
I’ve just come back from six days in Munich at the 2012 Prix Jeunesse International Children’s Television Festival. Fantastic. A biennial festival and competition bringing together children’s programming from over seventy countries with the intention of improving the quality of children’s television world wide, deepening understanding and promoting communication between cultures. I read the brochure.
To be fair, if you were there I think you’d agree that the festival achieved all that. This year’s theme was ‘watch, learn and grow with children’s TV. And I did. The watching was extreme: 85 shows in competition, plus about 400 available to screen outside. The learning was extensive: from what it’s like to have or live with autism, to how to wash a willy, to how to make mohitos, to what challenges programme makers face in places like Bhutan (not saying where I learned what or from whom). And the growing was, perhaps too much growing: Kartoffelsalat how I love thee. So…
Jayne’s best bits:
Jayne’s Worst bits:
If you were there, I’d be interested to know what your best and worst bits were.
The range of shows from across the world was fascinating – seeing how different cultures respond to our stuff, learning what they enjoy, or don’t. I admit I felt a little disappointed though: I went expecting to be overwhelmed by brilliant new content and style. But nothing seemed truly innovative or daring. In fact too much seemed to use the bells and whistles of commercial American shows. However, without the tight construction of a well crafted script, such imitations were poor.
Oh one other thing I learned watching all this stuff: we are so lucky in the UK. Our content makers are among the best in the world. Companies like The Foundation, Kindle Entertainment, Darrall and MacQueen, Plug-In Media… the inhouse productions from CBBC and CBeebies… they are beacons of brilliance. I hope I wasn’t the only person to notice this and that rather than aping commercial American stuff, overseas broadcasters get inspired by UK storytelling and production values and so buy our programmes AS WELL AS finding their own ways of telling stories that will feed back and inspire me.