Murmures

Africa Animated!
juin 2004 | | Cinéma/TV

Français

UNESCO Launches Initiative for Cartoons Production
Despite efforts by regional broadcasters and the audiovisual community in Africa, children’s programmes in Africa and in particular computer-animated cartoons are mostly imported from abroad. In order to address this lack of local content production, UNESCO launched Africa Animated!, an initiative that assembles resources and expertise for the production of children’s animated cartoons in Africa.

« This lack of local content is mainly caused by the absence of cost effective production, the lack of ICT equipment and facilities and the lack of people with skills in computer animation » says Alonso Aznar from UNESCO’s Office in Nairobi.

The initiative was started in collaboration with specialized partners such as the SABC, Union of National Radio & Television Organisations of Africa (URTNA), the National Film and Television Institute of Ghana (NAFTI), the Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA) and Canal France International (CFI). This project is based in a co-production and items exchange model, to build capacities and at the same time produce affordable local content in a series of regional hands-on training workshops.

The initiative will start with a series of regional training and production workshops. At a later stage it will establish a regional centre for animation training and production to address the absence of a formal training institution in this field.

UNESCO has teamed up with international training institutions, which, in collaboration with regional animators, visual and performing artists, producers, children’s programming experts and African broadcasters are developing specialized training curricula.

Within this perspective, UNESCO organised a first meeting from 17 to 19 March 2004 in Nairobi and brought together a group of experts to share experiences and finalize curricula guidelines and training methodology.

The first training and production workshop will take place in the summer of 2004 and will be taught by animation experts from Canada, USA, UK and Ghana. It will take place in Zanzibar as part of the Zanzibar International Film Festival’s (ZIFF) animation sidebar and in Nairobi. The workshop’s scope includes introduction to animation, drawing techniques, scriptwriting for animation and storyboarding and the practical realization of an animation project leading to the production of a short, original animation pieces. This pilot project evaluation and feedback will serve as a basis for the preparation of the next project phase, recurrent hands-on training and production cycles, and the establishment of a permanent centre planned by end of next year.

The workshop will be open to 15 regional participants with a focus on Eastern Africa and Southern Africa for the first workshop.

Participants will be selected through a competitive on-line vetting process that will evaluate their portfolio. Minimum requirements for application for the first workshop are:

Artistic skills (drawing, comics, cartooning, sculpture and/or animation)
Basic computer skills
Excellent communicators and team players
Highly motivated individuals able to work under pressure
Command of the English language
For scriptwriters: Writing skills, to be determined from sample of written work


For further information about the program and the application process, please contact:
Julia Hagl Project Coordinator, UNESCO Office Nairobi [email protected] or Alonso Aznar UNESCO Regional Communication Adviser [email protected]

English

UNESCO Launches Initiative for Cartoons Production
Despite efforts by regional broadcasters and the audiovisual community in Africa, children’s programmes in Africa and in particular computer-animated cartoons are mostly imported from abroad. In order to address this lack of local content production, UNESCO launched Africa Animated!, an initiative that assembles resources and expertise for the production of children’s animated cartoons in Africa.

« This lack of local content is mainly caused by the absence of cost effective production, the lack of ICT equipment and facilities and the lack of people with skills in computer animation » says Alonso Aznar from UNESCO’s Office in Nairobi.

The initiative was started in collaboration with specialized partners such as the SABC, Union of National Radio & Television Organisations of Africa (URTNA), the National Film and Television Institute of Ghana (NAFTI), the Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA) and Canal France International (CFI). This project is based in a co-production and items exchange model, to build capacities and at the same time produce affordable local content in a series of regional hands-on training workshops.

The initiative will start with a series of regional training and production workshops. At a later stage it will establish a regional centre for animation training and production to address the absence of a formal training institution in this field.

UNESCO has teamed up with international training institutions, which, in collaboration with regional animators, visual and performing artists, producers, children’s programming experts and African broadcasters are developing specialized training curricula.

Within this perspective, UNESCO organised a first meeting from 17 to 19 March 2004 in Nairobi and brought together a group of experts to share experiences and finalize curricula guidelines and training methodology.

The first training and production workshop will take place in the summer of 2004 and will be taught by animation experts from Canada, USA, UK and Ghana. It will take place in Zanzibar as part of the Zanzibar International Film Festival’s (ZIFF) animation sidebar and in Nairobi. The workshop’s scope includes introduction to animation, drawing techniques, scriptwriting for animation and storyboarding and the practical realization of an animation project leading to the production of a short, original animation pieces. This pilot project evaluation and feedback will serve as a basis for the preparation of the next project phase, recurrent hands-on training and production cycles, and the establishment of a permanent centre planned by end of next year.

The workshop will be open to 15 regional participants with a focus on Eastern Africa and Southern Africa for the first workshop.

Participants will be selected through a competitive on-line vetting process that will evaluate their portfolio. Minimum requirements for application for the first workshop are:

Artistic skills (drawing, comics, cartooning, sculpture and/or animation)
Basic computer skills
Excellent communicators and team players
Highly motivated individuals able to work under pressure
Command of the English language
For scriptwriters: Writing skills, to be determined from sample of written work


For further information about the program and the application process, please contact:
Julia Hagl Project Coordinator, UNESCO Office Nairobi [email protected] or Alonso Aznar UNESCO Regional Communication Adviser [email protected]
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