This was quite an exciting year for The Rotoball Project. By popular demand, we opened the project to any kind of animation at all- and that is what we got. In addition to rotoscoping, Rotoball 2010 features 3D animation, tweened animations, frame by frame animations, pixilations, brick films (animations made with legos), and even some live video integrated with animation. However, what I really love about this year's contributions are how much the cultures of the school art department communities came out in the final videos. For example, our collective group effort now includes the brick films that Kris Fontes' class is famous for (speaking of brick films...) , a mini art advocacyfugelflick, and some great rotoball/famous movie mashups from Heather Swan's class (hi Huntington!). I could go on. Each school took their own spin on the project, and within those differences, each student created their own unique response.

I'm proud to present our third annual installment, Rotoball 2010:

Been a while since i blogged from Taipei. Here is a thought-provoking video. See it to the end and you'll get it.

-cr

This year's Shanghai Student Film Festival was a great success. The students spent the morning learning about the process from Marvel Studio's C.B. Cebulski, storytelling from UCLA's Joe Janeti, and Stephanie Auerbach, a set dresser from Merchant Ivory productions.

In the evening, students watched some amazing student made films. For me, one of the highlights was Madison Boll's My Brother, a touching and complex documentary on her autistic brother; an impressive feat for a middle school student. The middle school students also impressed with Revenge a creepy ghost story from Maria Memede. Dr. Joy and Mr. Sad showed off the music talents of The Lycee Francais de Shangahi's own band The Broken Picks.

Of course, I'm also especially proud of the work of my own students. Cailin and Meg's Ambrosian Flagrato is the first IB Year 2 film we've produced at SAS (we'll post that after the assessments), and they did a phenomenal job. Great script, great acting, great directing, camera, and editing. Finally, I'm proud of Hearin's The Box, the winner of the 2010 Shanghai Student Film Festival!



I couldn't be prouder of all the student work- each year the students set the bar higher and higher for themselves. I know the judges must have had a difficult time culling out some of the fantastic work.