With all the confidence and slight frown of a Hollywood director, 10-year-old Tayden Swank watched as her younger brother slowly adjusted a stuffed bunny.
It’s the second scene of Tayden and 9-year-old Reid’s stop-motion film, where a flying bunny will attack — and emerge victorious over — a plastic dinosaur.
“She’s going to have to walk and then maybe fly,” Tayden instructed her brother. “Move her a little more.”
Vancouver Community Library on Wednesday hosted a stop-motion movie making class for children, a creative break from the doldrums of a long holiday break. Tayden and Reid joined about a dozen children poking at stuffed animals, Legos and a Slinky to create short films. Wrapping paper, plastic animals and pipe cleaners were strewn over nearby tables, and children in the class stared at tablets, taking photos with every small movement of their subjects and stitching them together into a movie.
The library hosted a drop-in stop-motion class over the summer to great reception, said Elsbeth Casimir, who works in the children’s services department at the library. They’ve since heard more demand for the subject.
“The library’s the place where you get to decide what you want to learn,” Casimir said.
Sophie Giacchino, a 10-year-old in the class, may have put her finger on the reason why. As she and her friend, 9-year-old Laney Jones, watched their in-progress film, Sophie listed off all the movies in the popular Lego film franchise.
“I’ve seen all the Lego movies,” she said. “Lego Batman, Ninjago, the old Ninjago and the old, original Lego Movie.”
Prompted by the stop-motion style of the films, she and Laney brought their own Legos to the class, filming a short Christmas story about animals causing a ruckus while their owner is asleep.
“They all party,” Sophie said.
Meanwhile, as Tayden and Reid finished their film — which culminated in a victory celebration among their super hero bunnies — Tayden reflected on the creative process of filmmaking.
“We could really be imaginative with our characters,” Tayden said.
