Member Article

Bob the Builder creator lends a hand

North East animators are being given the opportunity to work alongside Bob the Builder creator Curtis Jobling as part of a new scheme aimed at developing animated versions of traditional nursery rhymes for a deaf audience.

Handy Rhymes is a new £10,000 scheme that will see North East animators producing original animated versions of nursery rhymes accompanied by text, voice and a British Sign Language translation.

The scheme is the result of a new partnership between regional screen agency Northern Film & Media and ITV’s SignPost team.

Curtis Jobling said: “I’m really looking forward to working with Northern Film & Media and ITV, an organisation which up until now I’ve never collaborated with. I feel Handy Rhymes has huge potential to reach an audience who can sometimes be neglected, and l’m excited by the prospect of helping to provide deaf children with access to animated entertainment.

“The North East is a hotbed of talent as far as animation goes with great studios such as Qurios Entertainment coming out of the region, as well as many young animators emerging from the University of Teesside. It’s a great personal opportunity to be working with these people. Furthermore it means I’m putting further roots down in a region that is very much my second home.”

The scheme is open to animators based in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County, Durham and Tees Valley. The deadline for completed film ideas is Monday 27 April. For full details, applicants should go to the Northern Film & Media website, www.northernmedia.org.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .