Bringing Music to Life

This summer I taught stop motion camp for teens at Arizona State University School of Art where the campers learned to bring music to life through the art of cut paper, each creating their very own animated music video.

Students worked with their own hand cut paper crafts.

Teaching what I know :)

Teach what you know, right? Personally, I prefer to begin with the sound for a project. The ideas come flowing out of my mind like an avalanche if I hear the music or narrative, thus listening is an essential part of the creative process for this project. To gear them toward using this technique, I had them do a listening exercise.

I chose the song Three Flights Up by Yellowcard, a favorite of mine, and it is short which makes it perfect for a class domonstratrion. It has many layers to the song that you can tune into. Click here to listen.

After guiding them through the exercise, they selected music from a library of options to plan their visual story. Working together, campers used colored paper and cut out drawings to make music into a visual experience.

Students built their set on a stop motion stage with a camera in a down- shoot position. They also learned how to light the stage. Then they used Dragonframe to transform them digitally and bring everything together.

They were encouraged to explore self expression and provided a an opportunity to build their teamwork skills.

Over the course of this four day camp at Arizona State University, their projects were conceived, planned and completed, culminating in a showcase on the final day. I’m so proud of all they accomplished!