BATESVILLE — With a blue marker, Reginald
Davis wrote out a story line on a white board as a
group of boys who were attending the eighth annual
T Tauri Movie Camp in Batesville worked on mak
ing clay figures for their public-service announce
ment for libraries.
As part of the movie camp this year, claymation
was a big hit for the kids attending the camp. Clay
mation is a form of stop-motion animation.
Davis is a programmer for the Arkansas Edu
cational Television Network in Little Rock, and he
said he loves teaching the kids the ins and outs of
filmmaking.
“It’s harder and more fun,” Skylar Green of Hot
Springs said as he pressed clay on a wire armature.
“If you mess up, the whole picture is ruined.” The plot of the PSA the group was making en
tailed Mr. Mann, who walked into a library and
was approached by Evil Snail and Book Worm. Mr.
Mann had a decision to make: Would he choose
books or video games? He ultimately chose books.
The boys made all of their clay figures and devel
oped the story line as Davis offered guidance. Once
the figures and props were constructed, a digital
camera was used to snap still frames of each move
ment. Those frames were then put together, making
a film.
“We’re going to make pretty big eyes so they can
make expressions and stuff,” Skylar told one of his
film-making buddies, Spencer Hendricks of Har
rison.
Mr. Mann even had a “stunt-double” just in case
something went horribly wrong during the movie
making process.
There were two other groups making PSAs: one
for the Batesville Area Arts Council and the other
for the T Tauri Movie Camp.
“It gives them a sense of doing something for thecommunity, and it’s also fun,” said Bob Pest, co-director of the Ozark Foothills FilmFest.
Filmmaker Juli Jackson of Paragould was in another room working with one of the other groups of kids.
“It teaches them to think more critically and how the objects move,” Jackson said.
Her group was working on how to incrementally suspend and drop an object. With some fishingline attached to a clamp, which was on a shelf above the claymation set, the campgoers attached a yellow ball of clay and snapped the shutter with each small movement downward until the ball “splatted” at the end of the line.
“It is critical problem solving,” she said with a smile, “and a lot of fun, but also frustrating.”
The T Tauri Film Festival and Movie Camp in Batesville was formed eight years ago and became a shining star among young filmmakers from across Arkansas. It is the youth division of the Ozark Foothills Filmfest, a nonprofit educational corporation formed in 2001 by Bob and Judy Pest.
The two-week camp is designed to take high school students through the process of screenwriting, directing, editing and producing a 10-minute film.
Short films and PSAs created in the movie camp will be shown at 7 p.m. Saturday at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville’sIndependence Hall.
For more information on the movie camp, visit www.ttauri.org. For more information on the Ozark Foothills FilmFest, visit www.ozarkfoothillsfilmfest.org.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.
Three Rivers, Pages 47 on 07/26/2012