Art with kids: A small stop motion film

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d705b3_3d21ba4c85724a48bbe7628989ca75e4/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

This week, we created a small stop motion film with a group of five children aged between 4 and 12.

We started with a short text that we invented together. Once the story was there, we listed everything we would need to draw in order to show it: the animals, the elements of the setting, and the different actions.

We then created a storyboard so we could know exactly what each sequence would show. This helped us transform our small story into a sequence of images.

The set was first imagined and then drawn. We installed it on the table and fixed it with a bit of putty so it would stay stable during the whole shooting process.

After that, we thought about the movement of the animals. The children had to imagine the different positions their characters would appear in, in order to know where to cut the silhouettes so they could create the illusion of movement.

The animals were then drawn and cut out. For each picture, they were simply moved very slightly on the set before taking the next photo.

Using a stop motion app, we took all the necessary images: first for the title, then for the different scenes, and finally for the credits.

Once all the images were taken, we edited the film and added sound and a few effects to bring everything to life.

Projects like this allow children to discover in a very concrete way how an image becomes movement, and how a story can be told frame by frame.

But above all, it is an artistic project. We start with an idea, we transform it into images, and those images eventually become a film. The children experiment with visual storytelling, building a set, thinking about the movement of characters, and working together.

And there is always that very special moment when everything finally comes alive. When the images start flowing and the characters begin to move, the magic of cinema appears.