One Step Closer As Students Record Voices For ‘Festival Of The Sea’ Cartoon

Hodan Abdi, (Production Coordinator for Illuminated Films) works with students at Cleethorpes Academy recording their voices in the Academy’s sound booth for a one-minute animation, which will be shown at ‘Festival Of The Sea.’  With them are Charlotte Bowen and Becky Darnell from The Culture House.

Cleethorpes Academy students are one step closer to creating an animated film which will be shown at this year’s ‘Festival Of The Sea’ in Grimsby.

Thirty students in Years 7-9 are working with creatives from London-based Illuminated Films, the company behind ‘The Rubbish World Of Dave Spud’ which airs on CITV, and has just won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Children’s Series. The cartoon is set in Grimsby.

The students have been drawing different types of boats, which will be included in the film, and recording their voice-overs for the cartoon. They took part in an icebreaker with Hodan Abdi, Production Coordinator for Illuminated Films, which had them all laughing and making fog horn noises before taking to the sound booth at Cleethorpes Academy to record.

Illuminated Fllms are working with ‘Festival of the Sea’ co-creators Walk The Plank and The Culture House, in Grimsby, to produce this latest animation entitled ‘Where Do All The Boats Go.’ It will focus on the traffic on the busy River Humber and the story behind the hundreds of ships seen on the horizon daily.

‘Festival of the Sea’ returns to Grimsby for its second year on July 16, in conjunction with Manchester-based organisation ‘Walk The Plank,’ who run Manchester Day and Green Space Dark Skies. The one-minute animation will be shown on repeat on a huge screen at the festival on July 16.

Illuminated Films’ Art Director Sue Tong said she was thrilled with the students’ boat pictures and it is hoped that they will all be included in the cartoon.

Year 9 student Oliver Rimmer said he was “very excited” to be taking part in creating the cartoon. “It is a good opportunity for us and great fun. We cannot wait to see it finished.” he said.

Charlotte Bowen, Festival of the Sea Co-Director and Director of The Culture House, said the students will have an exclusive screening of the animation before it is shown at the festival next month.

“This is a fantastic partnership for the students and for us and we are thrilled to have this animation for everyone to see at the festival on July 16. It widens the appeal of the area and reinforces the message of how Grimsby is connected to the rest of the world through the sea.”

Hodan Abdi, (Production Coordinator for Illuminated Films), Becky Darnell (The Culture House), Sue Tong (Art Director, Illuminated Films), and Charlotte Bowen, (Director of The Culture House) look through the artwork created by Cleethorpes Academy students for the cartoon, which will be shown at ‘Festival Of The Sea.’

Year 9 students Oliver Rimmer and Jad Amir Nicolson work on their drawings of boats for the ‘Festival Of The Sea’ animation.

Some of the students' work in progress.

Above and below  Cleethorpes Academy students take part in an icebreaking session before recording their voices for the animation. They are pictured with Becky Darnell from The Culture House.