Students To Create Animation With Award-Winning Team For ‘Festival Of The Sea’

The creative team from Illuminated Films, who are behind ‘The Rubbish World Of Dave Spud’ which is set in Grimsby and has just won an RTS award for Best Children’s Series, meet children from Cleethorpes Academy. Pictured are: (l-r) Lucas Appleyard (Year 7); Sue Tong (Art Director, Illuminated Films); Hodan Abdi (Production Coordinator); Matthew Telford (Year 7); Iain Harvey (Producer); Freddie Coulbeck (Year 7); Edward Foster (Director); Natalia Krzyzamiak (Year 7); Dave Ingham (Writer); Becky Darnell (The Culture House) and Leienna Webster (Year 8).

Thirty students from Cleethorpes Academy will have the opportunity to work with award-winning animators to create a cartoon that will be shown at this year’s ‘Festival Of The Sea,’ at Alexandra Dock, in Grimsby. 

Creatives from London-based Illuminated Films are working with 'Festival of the Sea' co-creators Walk The Plank and The Culture House, in Grimsby, to produce an animation entitled ‘Where Do All The Boats Go.’ It will focus on the traffic on the busy River Humber and the story behind the hundreds of ships seen on the horizon daily.

Illuminated Films is the company behind ‘The Rubbish World Of Dave Spud’ which airs on CITV, and has just won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Children’s Series.  It is set in Grimsby and described by creator and director Edward Foster, who studied animation in Hull, as “a celebration of the everyday mundane with northern accents.”

A team from Illuminated Films, including Ed, visited Cleethorpes Academy along with Becky Darnell from The Culture House, who will be bringing the ‘Festival of the Sea’ back to Grimsby for its second year on July 16, in conjunction with Manchester-based organisation ‘Walk The Plank,’ who run Manchester Day and Green Space Dark Skies.

The visiting team included the producer, director, art director and writer of ‘Dave Spud’ who gave a presentation to Year 7, 8 and 9 students before offering them the opportunity to apply to take part in the Festival animation.

They explained the work that goes into creating an animation, and how a series of 52 11-minute episodes of ‘Dave Spud’ can take two years to  produce. Each episode contains 16,500 individual scenes of animation.

Becky Darnell, from The Culture House, who were also responsible for bringing the ‘Museum Of The Moon’ to Grimsby, said the ‘Festival Of The Sea’  will spotlight the area and help to change people’s perceptions of it by showcasing local arts and creativity.

The festival will again bring high-quality street theatre, interactive performances, music and hands-on workshops to the people of North East Lincolnshire to strengthen its cultural provision and support local creative talent. She said the animation project was a fantastic opportunity for the Cleethorpes Academy students.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the young people to get involved in something huge to create a special one-minute animation, which will then be shown outside on the big screen at the festival,” she said.

“’The Festival Of The Sea’ is a celebration of Grimsby’s connections to the sea and ‘Where Do All The Boats Go’ will tie in with Grimsby’s maritime heritage and illustrate just how important this port still is.”

Students at Cleethorpes Academy answered questions to win Dave Spud badges and stickers, and many said they would be thrilled to be chosen to be involved in creating the animation, which will take place after half-term.

Janice Hornby, Principal of the Academy, said the students would have to apply to be one of the 30 students chosen to take part in creating the cartoon, by stating the reasons why they think Grimsby should be given more positive publicity.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for them to work with some very creative and successful people. To have their animation shown at the ‘Festival Of The Sea’ will be a major achievement, and we are very excited to have been chosen to take part in this project." she said.

Edward Foster, director and creator of ‘The Rubbish World Of Dave Spud’, which is set in Grimsby, talks to Cleethorpes Academy students.

Cleethorpes Academy students watch an episode of ‘Dave Spud’ with the creative team behind it on stage.

Becky Darnell, from The Culture House in Grimsby, who are bringing the ‘Festival Of The Sea’ to Grimsby in conjunction with ‘Walk The Plank’ on July 16 2022. She is pictured addressing Cleethorpes Academy students about the project.