I can't imagine trying to go about teaching
without creativity.
Storytelling to kids is hugely important.
It's a life skill that maybe doesn't get as much credit
as it should.
We all know people who tell a great story,
and we know people who don't tell such a great story.
And who do you want to have dinner with?
From an arts education standpoint,
stop motion can't be beat.
I'm Joe Vena, and I am a teaching artist.
NARRATOR: This episode is funded by The Glick Fund,
and the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation,
who inspire philanthropy and creativity.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My name is Jack.
I like to fly.
I eat trees, and I eat trolls.
I'm a dragon, and my best friend is Gage.
So I've always been a habitual sculptor and illustrator
since I was a kid.
My family took school for theater and acting.
I then came to New York and did theater here and there,
but sort of fell out of that.
You have to really love it, I don't think I loved it enough.
And started doing a little teaching jobs
at Children's Museum of the Arts.
The stop motion animation part of it
came out of one of those first things that I did at CMA.
I worked with someone in a class there,
and that was my introduction to it.
Being into theater and acting, it all came together nicely
with stop motion.
I get along well with my friend Marlie,
because she has a funny personality,
and she loves chocolate, and she understands my feelings,
by the way.
I don't have any formal training as a filmmaker.
I learned to stop motion animation through teaching it.
The art form itself is so classic.
You can think about Ray Harryhausen and the "King Kong"
film, or those Rankin and Bass, "Rudolph
the Red-nosed Reindeer."
Stop motion is recognizable to most people.
Most kids have seen something that's stop motion.
My name is David.
I'm a friend of Miles.
I'm three meters tall.
And I'm always after people, by the way.
What stop motion does that computer animation doesn't
necessarily do is give kids a chance
to really use their hands.
Everything you see in a stop motion
animated film has been built, it's been wrought somehow.
And kids are putting their hands in there.
They're making that move.
They're taking a picture.
They're making that move, they're taking a picture.
So the focus and the patience that it requires is huge.
And to be able to be teaching kids that lesson is wonderful.
My name is Tutu.
I'm about the size of a giraffe.
I like to eat [INAUDIBLE] just like my friend, Sebastian.
I also eat delicious crocodiles.
JOE VENA: In many cases, these kids,
they've never felt clay before, so it's just
introductory to see what the material feels like.
Because there is a set of mechanics to it,
it's not magic.
It's magical, but it isn't magic.
[RUMBLING]
[MUSIC - "STAR WARS CANTINA THEME"]
There are so many different applications
and software for stop motion.
Kids can start just by taking a bunch of digital pictures
and then sort of scrolling through them,
seeing that's the basic idea.
You're doing this thing, you're moving it,
you're taking a picture, you're moving it,
you're taking a picture.
You play it back and you see it move.
That excitement sort of never goes away.
I've been doing this for a long time,
and I still-- when I play back, it's just so cool.
To be able to teach art in a space
where there's this sense of wonder--
almost from the moment they walk in, they're like, whoa!
That wow factor--
I think that's hugely, hugely important.