A bit of a background: CARAVAN

Caravan, the story, explores a range of themes including aging, relationships, personalities, trust, fantasy, adventure, the past, present and the future (all this, and more, in just five minutes). Because the animated story is dialogue free, and set to an emotionally-driven cinematic soundtrack it is open to interpretation and can be studied from the aspects of the narrative construction through to the physical construction of the animation.
When I first met Martin Davidson, I was impressed with his mix of talents. His ability to design and develop all aspects of an animated production reveals a new breed of story teller; one who has the new generation skills that enable a story to be conceived, developed, created and told as an engaging self-contained 3D animation. Digital authors like Martin will become more prevalent as students graduate with this mix of talents that combine engineering and scientific process thinking with artistic expression. Martin synthesises the talents of story writing, design, 3D CGI animation and sound track production into a cohesive, charming narrative.
While new generation self-publishers have ready avenues to screen their mini-productions through the ever-growing internet video sites where short home-made videos are submitted and watched by millions every day, most of these home baked productions reflect poorly conceived themes, few storylines and substandard production skills. Nevertheless they obviously amuse and certainly attract attention due to their novelty and the desire for young producers to “show and tell.” How long this fascination will hold is anyone’s guess. The sheer effort it takes to wade through the rubbish to find a glimmer of brilliance is definitely not for the time poor. More importantly is the fact that our youth are busily making these expressions which means that teachers need to take heed.
The challenge for educators who do exert some influence over new talent is to harness this evident love of production and provide the necessary learning foundations that will ultimately improve the output, starting with a focus on how to engage an audience and enable a message to move, educate and entertain. By arming students with good quality learning experiences, strong literacy foundations and critical skills their productions will reflect this increased knowledge and strength in storytelling.
Having worked closely with Martin Davidson, a man who many have described as the consummate story teller, I have experienced first-hand how one person can tell a simple story that is visually powerful, even without dialogue. The powerful soundtrack created for Caravan is being used by teachers to expose students to the role of sound in enhancing a narrative and connecting audiences.