The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

Music video history
Students were introduced to the history of music videos and shown 
examples, such as 
Madness, Aha, Peter Gabriel, Tom Tom Club, 
Gorillaz
and 
Nizlopi
. A critical discussion took place, exploring the 
intended audiences and markets for videos by 
Gorillaz
.
Why are 
Gorillaz
famous while others are less well-known?
Why is animation used?
What techniques of animation were used?
Which do you prefer and why?
Which would you be more prepared to spend money on?
Which cost more to make?
Write a list of other animated music videos you have seen. 
Which do you like and why?
Project brief
In small groups, students designed a virtual band, and considered 
how it will be marketed. They began by planning a 1-minute music 
video to promote the band. They selected an animation style from 
4.3 MUSIC VIDEOS

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The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
the following options: plasticine model animation, drawn animation, 
cut-out animation, live action and animation combined using blue 
screen.
Stage 1: Storyboarding and pre-production
Students prepared a storyboard for their 1-minute video. They 
considered how the action will relate to the lyrics and musical style 
of the song.
They considered the following questions:
Production:
How will your selected style infl uence the visual content, 
storyline and music?
How will you organize yourselves into a production team and 
delegate tasks?
Language:
What are the most effective ways of getting your message 
across?
Will you use well-known conventions or genres or subvert 
them in some way?
Representation:
What ideas or values are you trying to convey?
How do you want to represent the world?
Are you using stereotypes and, if so, what are the 
consequences of doing so?
Audience:
Who are you communicating to, and why?
What assumptions are you making about your audience?
How are you going to persuade them to watch the video and 
listen to, or buy the music?

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Schemes of Work