Making Peach Blossom Land

A
Cardboard, masking tape and shoe polish were used to make wood.

B
This is the boat pattern.

C
Oil based clay was used to make food. Here a student is making Mandarin oranges.

D
Wooden people were painted flesh colored. When the paint was dry a permanent marker was used to draw on hair and faces.

E

F
Tree trunks were made using trunk tape, rubber cement, and paper towel tubes.

G
Peach blossoms were made from paper dyed. Colored water was dripped onto watercolor paper with a dropper.

H
Flowers were punched out with a die cutter. Smaller petals were punched out with a mini-hole punch.

I
Trunks were attached to blossom clouds.

J
The blossom clouds were painted with dots to add depth.

K
Red beads were glued to the center of the punched blossoms.

L
Wooden blocks were glued together to make houses.

M

To inform the production research of clothing, houses, boats, flowers, and food was done on the Internet.
The only purchase made for the production was the flower die cutter. All other materials were laying around waiting to be used. Nearly all of the materials were donated.

Peach Blossom Land

This short film was produced to demonstrate Movie maker to students as a fun way to inform an audience about their interests and learning.

I began by selecting a story which I could easily visualize in my head. I determined the number of scenery and characters I would need. Then began sketching out a story board. I decided to use 3D and 2D illustration, along with video. I didn't use stop action animation, rather I incorporated multiple scenes which provided more visual body for telling the story. Stop action would have been more appropriate if I was doing a short 30 second film.
The activity is a lesson in discipline and creative thinking. Creating the scenery and props took many hours (very fun work though), but the actual film is only four and a half minutes long. The process reminded me of preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

How I look at TV commercials changed during the process. I paid more attention to the "tricks" used for improving visual and content impact.

The film could be used to discuss: making short films using Movie maker, the meaning of the story, ethics in film making and more. Maybe I'll be able to teach this process to some willing students. I do need better filming equipment, however even with a rudimentary camera a charming film can be made.