A series of LEGO stop motion videos were made in partnership with Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and art Gallery and Year 4 of Caedraw Primary School, celebrating the diverse communities from around the world that made their home in Merthyr. 3 videos were made in total, each focusing on a different culture: Polish, Italian and Indian. In a climate where people are often heavily divided and told to fear differences, projects like these show what can happen when we celebrate those differences instead.
This was part of a wider project with Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery and Caedraw, where the school learned about the history and cultural traditions of different countries, as well as what led to those communities moving to South Wales.
William of Light On The Water Productions came to the school to teach the class all about stop motion and how to bring what they had learned to life by creating the sets, animating, creating the narration and sound effects for the films. The additional 2D segments were animated afterwards by William.
The 2D segments were animated using sheets of glass, shot with the camera directly above. The layers of glass were separated by platforms built out of LEGO, which were designed to allow the sheets to securely slot into different levels. There were some interesting challenges with the animation; particularly in the shot which featured a minifigure walking on a sheet of glass. Sticky tac was placed under his feet to keep him in place, but then all tac residue had to be removed every time he moved. The poor guy also fell over many times in the process (the minifigure, not the animator).