The kids and I had a blast doing this one. The story of encountering your own insecurities and finding the strength to push past them to create something cool is one that resonates, I think, with people of all ages. Especially since my Little Fish is such a perfectionist — and a very sensitive kid, too — I saw a lot of recognition in J. Felix’s story that she had.
The kids designed the Fears, they designed, directed, and assisted with the construction of the set (though I took it upon myself to add some dressing and kick things up a notch or two). They operated the camera and acted as line producers. They counted frames and did the multiplication and division necessary to figure out how long certain actions should take.
The result is imperfect, to be sure (it’s hard to get precise motion when your armature is just wrapped floral wire instead of friction hinges and ball-and-socket joints) but I think we got out of it a product that we can be satisfied with.
What other things might J. Felix encounter? Let me know in the comments and we’ll look at doing some more shorts down the road!
Paddle your own canoe, folks.
Trevor
