WRONG SIDE OF THE BED

Created by Patrick and Adam

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie: The main message of our film is don’t use your phone right before bed.

The film was shot using top down and horizontal views. The puppets were made of plasticine. The sets were made of paper. Other props such as the table, chair and bed were made of plasticine.

During the filming, we really enjoyed moving the puppets. Some challenging aspects of this project were making the characters jump and keeping the puppets’ shape.

We would like to thank Bill Allinson, Anna Vlassova, Tommy Truong, Nikole Hidalgo, Christina Pizzonia, James (Bruce T. Blob) Redekopp, Mitchell Jong and our parents.

STRESSED OUT

Created by Sarah and Elina

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie: The main message of our film: a lot of stress is bad but a little bit of stress is good for you.

We learned about the different ways stress affects the mind. The film was shot using: birds eye /top down view. The puppets were made of clay. The sets were made of paper. Other props such as benches were made of clay. During the filming, we really enjoyed making the puppets.

One challenging aspect of this project was finding the scientific information for the doctor character at the end of the video.

We would like to thank Firefly foundation, Bright lights in the lab ,TAIS, Miss. V and Christina.

OVERDOSE

Created by Sarjana and Chelsey

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie: The main message of our film is that although marijuana is legal in Canada for people over the age of 19, its use has consequences on one’s health.

The film was shot using top down view and the last scene was shot using horizontal view. The puppets were made of plasticine and the sets were made of paper. Other props such as the stick, mud, and jellybeans, were also made of plasticine.

During the filming, we really enjoyed creating the puppets, script, hallucination scene, and making the props. Some challenging aspects of this project were sculpting the puppets and making their movements life-like.

We would like to thank Ms. Vlassova, Mr. Truong, Mr. Allinson, Christina, and Ms. Hidalgo for being so supportive and helpful to us. In addition, we would like to thank our parents for giving us the opportunity to be in this program.

MUSIC AND THE BRAIN

Created by Marie and Grace

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie: The main message of our film is that playing music is a full brain workout and it strengthens the corpus callosum.

The film was shot using top down (bird’s eye view). The puppets were made of plasticine. The sets were made of paper. Other props such as the ukulele, the brain, the tests and the names were made of paper. During the filming, we really enjoyed working together and taking all the pictures, we also loved making the puppets.

Some challenging aspects of this project were getting the timing right and placing the characters in the right the right spots.

We would like to thank TAIS animation, Firefly Foundation, Bright lights in the lab, and all the animators, especially Nikole. Also we want to thank Anna Vlassova who helped us with our movie. Bright Lights in the Lab is a summer program offered through the partnership between Firefly Foundation, University of Toronto Schools, and the Toronto Animated Image Society.

"TWO PEOPLE ~ ONE WORLD"

Created by Chloe, Leela and Jane

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The main message of our film is to show how screens at night can affect our brains’ development and growth.

The film was shot using birds eye view as well as a vertical camera set up. The puppets were made of plasticine and pipe cleaners. The sets were made of cardboard papers and bristol board. Other props such as the quakson (croissant), and many more, were made out of plasticine, paper, pipe cleaners, and cotton balls.

During the filming, we really enjoyed building the props, exploring the software, and editing all of our soundtracks. Some challenging aspects of this project were the length of time it took, and the numerous photos we had to take.

We would like to thank the Firefly Foundation, TAIS, and Bright Lights. We also thank our animators Ms. Vela, Ms. T, Ms. B, and the scientist Ms. Dong. A thank you also goes to the homeroom teacher Ms. Vlassova and the assistants: Maliha and Christina, and lastly, our parents.

"SLEEP"

Created by Isabelle and Sabine

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The main message of this film is about how smartphone usage affects sleep and the brain: you should not go on your smartphone before you go to bed because it gives off blue light, making it harder to fall asleep.

Without sleep, you will be grumpy when you wake up. The majority of the film was shot using vertical view. The puppets were made of plasticine and pipe cleaners.

The sets were made of paper, plasticine and glitter glue. Other props such as the picture of the brain were hand drawn by Isabelle. 

During the filming, we really enjoyed learning how to use the camera, taking the photos and moving the puppets to make it look like the characters are moving. Some challenging aspects of this project involved focusing the camera, making the puppets stand, constructing the people and the animals, making the humans look realistic, changing the mouths of the characters, changing the sets and making the animals look cute!

We would like to thank Christina Pizzonia, Maliha Kollins, Ms.Vela, Ms.B, Ms.Vlassova, and Ms.T.

"THE EFFECTS OF NICOTINE"

Created by Miranda, Sahej and Liam

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The main purpose of our film is to educate people about the effects of Nicotine. The film was shot using birds eye view.

The puppets were made of plasticine and the sets were made of paper. Other props such as smoke were made of cotton and beads were used to represent the molecules of nicotine.

During the filming, we really enjoyed animating, creating the storyboard, and creating the props. Some challenging aspects of this project were finding the sound effects, creating the props and creating paper letters.

We would like to thank the Firefly Foundation, Bright Lights and T.A.I.S for providing us with the tools and for helping us create our film.

"THE STRESSFUL TALE OF SKIPPY"

Created by Trinity, Ally and Sabina

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The main message of our film is to educate the public about how stress affects the brain and how to deal with it. The film was shot using bird’s eye view and vertical view.

The puppets were made of plasticine. The sets were made from paper and cardboard. Other props such as the canvas, furniture, and the words were made from paper and cardstock.

During the filming, we really enjoyed moving the puppets and watching everything come together because we liked seeing our creations come to life. Some challenging aspects of this project were making some specific scenes, for example a scene where the main character’s boss was kicking her out of her work place.

We would like to thank the Firefly Foundation, TAIS and everyone that helped us with this film.

"MUSIC HELPS THE BRAIN"

Created by: Isabel, Nicole, and Dee Dee

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The main message of our film is that music affects the brain by strengthening the corpus callosum and helps restore some motor function.

The some scenes in the film were shot in vertical view and some in bird’s eye view. The puppets were made of pipe cleaners and plasticine. The sets were made of paper, clay and pom poms. Other props such as our trumpet, our memory lifting weight, our stools, our stethoscope, and our medical sign with a music note were made of plasticine.

During the filming, we really enjoyed making the props, animating, and working together. Some challenging aspects of this project were making the script shorter, animating the mouth, and editing.

We would like to thank Animators from TAIS, Bright Lights Animators, and Maliha for helping us build props and animate the movie.

"THE TEST"

Created by Simon, Blake and Spencer

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The main message of our film is that long term stress is bad for the brain The film was shot using vertical view.

The puppets were made of pipe cleaners and plasticine. The sets were made of paper and plasticine. Other props such as the entertainment system and the clock were also made of pipe cleaners and plasticine. During the filming, we really enjoyed breaks and watching the finished work, making the puppets and moving the characters.

Some challenging aspects of this project were working together at the end of the day, fixing the camera and keeping the characters intact.

We would like to thank both Ms. V’s, Ms.T, Ms. B, all our parents and each other.

"CANNABIS IN THE CONTROL CENTRE"

Created by Luke and Jeronimo

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The main message of our film is that long-term smoking marijuana can cause many bad side effects in the brain.

The film was shot using vertical view but the end credits were shot in bird’s eye view. The puppets were made mostly of plasticine. The sets were made of construction paper. Other props such as neurons and a bean bag chair were made of plasticine and cotton.

During the filming, we really enjoyed moving the characters, taking the pictures of the characters and building the set. Some challenging aspects of this project were making the props and communicating with each other.

We would like to thank Jeronimo, Luke, Ms V, Christina, Maliha, Ms Vela and Bill Gates for making Microsoft as well as Steve Jobs for the Apple products we used.

BRUCE THE BLOB'S BRAIN AND MUSIC

Created by James, Mitchell and Adam

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The main message of our film is to show the different ways that music can help you and your brain develop. The film was shot using mostly bird’s eye view, but one scene was shot at a diagonal angle. The puppets were made of plasticine. The sets were made of construction paper. Other props such as the guitar, computer were mostly made of plasticine but the report cards were made of construction paper. During the filming, we really enjoyed finishing the film, making props and characters, and writing the script. Some challenging aspects of this project were finishing on time, zooming in and out, and staying on task. We would like to thank the Firefly Foundation, Bright Lights, TAIS, our parents, and Christina Pizzonia for giving us this animation experience.

"WHY DO WE SLEEP"

Created by Keva, Bruce and Jeeya 

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The message of the film is to demonstrate how sleep affects our brain and the reasons why we should sleep. Our work is an informative film that is made with many different parts.

We started the process by researching our topics and then writing a storyboard which was the foundation for our movie. The materials used were clay for the puppets, paper, marker and other crafting materials for the sets and props.

All our shots were from birds eye view which was taken using a camera which transferred the photos to our computer. We also used sound effects to give the movie more realism and to increase the audience’s engagement.

Our teachers and mentors played a big role in the making of our movie. They inspired us and always went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable and happy with our animation.

Overall, the experience taught us many new things. Firstly, about how sleep affects the brain, then how to create an effective film, the long and tedious process of making a movie and most importantly, teamwork. 

“MUSIC ON THE BRAIN"

Created by Nandan, Henry and Simon

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The message of our film is to tell the audience about the benefits of learning to play a musical instrument. We presented our film by making it funny and informative so our audience could laugh and learn.

The special highlights of our film are when Mozart throws his cup and when “headphone girl” throws her headphones. Also, all the scenes with Yoda. The film was inspired by our teachers and helpers who gave the idea and people around the world who want to learn to play an instrument.

We used plasticine, inside-out wrapper, paper for the background, and a chalkboard eraser. The film turned out how we wanted it to be but we would change some aspects of filming because the white paper was shown when we were taking pictures.

Throughout the process, we learned to work together and to move back when the stop motion picture is taken. We would recommend that everyone plays a specific role on the project and works on separate things so to finish the film faster.

“OUT OF CONTROL”

Created by Leo, Dave and Serena

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

The message of our film is to communicate to people how stress can affect the brain. Everyone deals with stress on a daily basis. We wanted to explore the symptoms of stress and what it does to our bodies.

We are presenting our film as a stop motion animation that we worked on over the past week. It is an educational film that is presented in a narrative and a short story format. For the majority of our props we used plasticine to make them more realistic.

To create the title we used construction paper and markers provided by the teachers. The set was created with cardboard which was used to make 2 sets. Some highlights of our film are the scene of the diagram and the title page. The diagram was created with the help of our group and teachers. The title page has so many features from different people.

Each teacher has given us ideas to improve our animation in a different way: sound effects, props, format vocabulary, and some have even helped us focus throughout the week. Our group says THANK YOU to all the teachers. Our group wants to say that we have had one of the greatest experiences in the Bright Lights Animation Camp. 

“IT’S YOUR CHOICE”

Created by Anushka, Marco and Eshan

Here's what they had to say about creating this movie:

“It’s Your Choice” is a stop motion animation film about the pros and cons of smoking Marijuana. As marijuana is being legalized, we wanted to educate our viewers about the effects of Marijuana so they can make their own choices.

We started by researching facts and making citations for our sources. Then, we made our storyboard, script, and characters. Next, we sculpted our puppets with plasticine and designed our sets and searched for sounds.

After we finished our animation, we added the sounds, and edited our film. A problem we faced while animating was the puppets falling over and disassembling. The last scene was the hardest because the watermelon and sushi kept falling out of the sky way too fast.

We were happy with the final product because it was entertaining and informative. If we were to do this again, we would change the props and characters so they'd be to scale with the background. Overall, we had a lot of fun and learned a lot. We hope you enjoy our film!