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PUTNAM NEWS
Putnam youth group creates short animated film using new technique
REDHOUSE, W.Va. -- A Scott Depot filmmaker encourages creativity in an area youth group through a teen animation project called "Meshullam: Hero of the Bible."
Jamie Cope is the services manager for the West Virginia Film Office during the normal 9-to-5 grind. He also is owner of Destiny Images, an animation company, and serves as youth director at Red House United Brethren Independent Church where he spent last week working with a youth group on an annual animation project as part of his church's vacation Bible school.
Seeing a need for an activity that would interest middle school to college-aged students, Cope said, "I thought I would use my animation background and work with this age group on something they would enjoy."
Under Cope's guidance, the group prepared a two-minute animated film based on a Biblical character and his accomplishments.
"The film was created with a technique I developed using an overhead projector where we use paper puppets on the projector," Cope said. The puppets are positioned and then a picture is taken with a digital camera. The process is repeated until the desired story length is obtained. Cope used special computer software to bring the film together with 767 pictures being used in the creation of this film. As a result of their efforts, the film will be screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival in the fall, where Cope also will provide demonstrations on the technique used in creating this film.
As a result of the students' enthusiasm during the project, Cope says he plans to oversee another project in August.
Cope is not new to this arena, having his work screened at such events as the East Lansing's Children's Film Festival in Michigan, as well as Chicago's Children's Film Festival.
"We had people in the class that had never thought about doing animation. We also had two people heading to college in the fall to study filmmaking. Both of those groups got good things out of this project. It was great to see these teenagers' excitement and accomplish something like this," Cope said.
To view the film or to find out more about Red House Church, visit www.redhouse church.com.
