LORD GUNDERMILL Pirate Extraordinaire!
I didn’t have a story. Or a plot. Or the foggiest idea how I was going to arrange all the assorted parts into something cohesive. I went in with a simple idea: ships of Pictou Harbour. Cause’, you know, we live by a harbour. Seemed right. But my task wasn’t going to be easy. Within a 2.5hr window, we (yes, me and others) needed to create, stage, and shoot, an original 1-2 minute stop motion movie. At a choppy 12 frames per second, that’s about 720 photos! No small feat. Impossible, actually. Even in the best of circumstances stop motion is a tedious task. Requiring patience. Dedication. And a steady hand. I possess none of these qualities, naturally. Naturally, I was worried how me and 11 random kids from the March Break Stop Motion Workshop would make it all happen.
But we did. And the results are incredible.
By the end of the workshop I had a collection of random photos. As many as I could take in the given hour window with some 22 hands shuffling tiny paper boats across a makeshift travelling light box studio set. Sequences, mostly. Of the kid’s boats shimmying along the water. Rather, aimlessly. Without a purpose or point. The images were great. Their boats were creative and unique. Brilliant, in their own rite. But they needed a story to unite them. A reason for their rigging. Then, through the corner of my eye, I saw him. That flimsy little stick-man pirate. Eager and stoic. Staring at me with beady little eyes. Lord Gundermill, his name came to me. Pirate extraordinaire. Pillager of Pictou. Seeking gems and treasure from our infamous harbour. Gundermill was the villain. And the rest of the story came rather quickly. I shot several more sequences on the kid’s behalf. Showcasing their boats. Highlighting their captains. And voila! We did it. We made a movie. With a running time of OVER 3 minutes!
Moral of the story: never, ever, ever underestimate the creativity and imagination of children. Ever. For any reason. No matter what. No matter where. Or who. Or who you are with. Never underestimate kids. They’ve got magic in their bones.
