Chosen because Pacific Hills Christian School won Silver for Fun Video in the 2021 Brilliance Awards. Videographer Fiona King tells the story of the story.

“The story of Jesus’ birth is told by a sweet young girl who has a charming voice and sense of humor about Christmas presents that draw you in. But the original part of this oft-told story of the first Christmas is in the characters themselves. All are knitted!”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

First, Get InspirED By Your Mum’s Knitting

Fiona King is Pacific Hills Christian School’s videographer and her mum made the knitted nativity scene several years ago. Fiona thought that it would be fun to animate one day, so she challenged herself to learn stop-motion and create the winning video.

Create The Story

We all know the nativity story, but rarely has it been told with such utter charm and creativity. Stop motion was the technique used in two popular television series of my youth — Gumby in the 1950s and Davey and Goliath in the 1960s—and it still entertains me today.

But every great stop motion video needs a great script to go with it.

“Craig Hingston, Pacific Group Marketing Manager is an excellent writer,” says Fiona. “I came to him with just a very small story idea. After sketching up some visual ideas, Craig developed the script and trimmed it to keep it short and engaging.”

“Preproduction is so important. Storyboard your ideas and try to visualize each frame. This will save you a great deal of time when shooting. Also, do lots of research and watch reference videos. ”

— Fiona King, Videographer

Cast The Talent (But Know They Can’t Read Yet)

Due to their ages, both children couldn't read very well so Fiona said one short phrase, the children then practiced it and Fiona then recorded them copying her. “They did such a brilliant job,” says Fiona. “They even managed to say things with different intonations to see which worked best.”

Perfect COVID Project

When Sydney went into Covid lockdown in 2020, it was an ideal project for Fiona to undertake while working from home. She set up an animation space and blacked out windows so that the lighting could be controlled. She used a small table, black cardboard and a sand coloured sheet as the set and positioned her camera on a tripod to ensure a fixed frame. Fiona then used Dragonframe software to shoot the sequences and Adobe Premiere for the edit.

Creating a stop motion film with lots of subtle character movement is very physical work. Fiona was often repositioning characters, moving between the set, camera, and her tethered computer all within a very small space. “A longer cable would have made this easier and less risky,” notes Fiona. “Any accidental knocks of the cable moved the camera slightly, making it tricky to line up the next shot to match the camera position of the shot before.”

“The truth is, this video will knock you out with cuteness and humor. It puts an original spin on ‘the greatest story ever told’ with its knitted puppets. And did I mention the little girl’s voice? ”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Once Again, Small Budget Doesn’t Mean Limited

The total cost for the video was only a few hundred dollars. They purchased the music track, some stationery and the Christmas decorations. “Our largest expense was the Dragonframe software,” says Fiona, “which is an excellent tool for creating stop motion films.” The school already had in-house audio recording equipment, a camera and lighting set ups.

The cast of the video (minus a few animals)

Advice for a Small Shop

“Preproduction is so important,” Fiona says. “Storyboard your ideas and try to visualize each frame. This will save you a great deal of time when shooting. Also, do lots of research and watch reference videos.”

Congratulations, Pacific Hills Christian School! You are brilliant.

TEAM
Craig Hingston, Pacific Group Marketing Manager
Fiona King, Videographer

See All the 2021 Winners

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Liza Fisher Norman

Master Electrician, InspirED School Marketers

Master Electrician isn’t just a fun title for me. It’s how I feel about sparking school marketers to do their best work, connecting them to one another, and helping to make their jobs easier. After working with close to 100 schools in the firm I founded — Turnaround Marketing Communications — I realized that school marketers needed a place where they can find brilliant ideas and brain food to make their job easier and feel supported. InspirED School Marketers was born in 2013 to fill that void and with the help of my fabulous Best Boy, Rob, we are on a quest to make InspirED a resource you can't live without.

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