A GROUP of Worcester schoolchildren and professional film makers have created a ‘shadventure’ animation about endangered fish on the Severn.
River conservation project Unlocking The Severn worked with professional film makers and animators to harness the creativity of Cherry Orchard Primary School pupils, close to the historic new fish pass that the project has built to help endangered shad fish.
The children’s drawings, voices, and stop-motion animations have been used to create a charming animated short film that will spread awareness even further.
The children’s vivid illustrations tell the story of two young twaite shad (an endangered species of fish) that migrate into the Severn from the sea, and face challenges on their journey to reach their historic spawning grounds.
The seven-minute animation explains the problems that weirs cause as a barrier to fish, and how a fish pass can be the solution to get them back upriver to spawn.
Cherry Orchard pupils with some of their work
The film was produced with the very creative input of the children of Worcester together with project staff from Unlocking the Severn and professional film makers and animations from biggerhouse films.
Over the course of four days, more than 180 Year Five and Year Six children took part in the workshops, and the whole school of more than 600 children were involved in colouring pictures of the shad fish and contributing sound effects.
Tom Stubbs, Film Maker, biggerhouse films explains the process: “The children were a powerhouse of energy. At the end of each session, we carried away a heavy box of precious art treasure.
“It was amazing to then compress this energy by curating the drawings and voices we’d recorded into this collaborative film.”
Mark Miles, teacher at Cherry Orchard, said: “There has been such a buzz in school about joining up with this conservation project. Every day since the animation workshops children have been asking when they can watch the finished film!
“Now they’ve seen it, they think it’s amazing and are so excited to spot their own artwork. Best of all, the film really effectively tells the story of this rare fish migrating on their local river, and how these fish are finally being helped past barriers built way back in Victorian times.”
The new film – “Up River! A Shadventure on the River Severn” is available to view on UnlockingtheSevern.co.uk and the Unlocking the Severn YouTube channel.
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