A “mini movie” was commissioned by Bett and had its first playing this week at the opening of the annual trade exhibition, the world’s largest EdTech event attracting over 35,000 people from 130 countries around the world to inspire teachers to fall in love with teaching all over again.
The animation and music were created by artist James Rosamond, a former teacher with over 10 years-experience teaching in Primary schools in the west of England and London. James has recently taken up a new career as an artist specialising in short-form pieces with original music that draw inspiration from urban life. In a previous life James was a musician, releasing music on famed London label Output and working with New Order and Trevor Jackson.
The brief was to create a piece which celebrated the joy of learning and inspire the attendees at the show. It provides a moment in a hectic world that connects educators with the positive emotions that inspired them to fall in love with teaching. The animation was created using traditional stop-motion techniques which were manipulated in Photoshop and After Effects.
Speaking about the commission James Rosamond said “To be asked to create a piece for such a prestigious event which many of my peers from education aspire to attend is a dream come true. I tapped into the joyous parts of being a teacher, it’s a career full of unknowns and quirkiness and this really came through in the final animation.” He went on to say “everyone knows at the moment being a teacher is hard, so the philosophy of fun is an essential tool for any teacher to try and stay in the profession, so to be able to make people smile, even for a minute is amazing!”
Speaking on behalf of Bett, Fergal Kilroy, Head of Content for the Global Series said “over the last few years Bett has built a reputation for pushing at the boundaries by having a creative project to open the show. This year’s brief was more important than ever, our research has uncovered that 65% of classroom teachers believe they’ve spent over half their time dealing with policy change over the last three years. So, to be able to celebrate the work they do by reconnecting them to creativity will be hugely rewarding for all of us.”
The animation was directed by Graham Clayton-Chance and features original music by James Rosamond. The piece will be seen by representatives from over 10,000 schools in the UK and abroad, 100 ministries of education and a range of speakers which this year includes the creators of Alex Rider, How To Train Your Dragon, The Dot, Scratch Programming and organisations such as Adobe, Microsoft, Apple and Lenovo.
