An opportunity to view a short, enigmatic animation film, 'The Monk and the Fish', by Michael Dudok de Wit, and to hear from him how the story and the animation evolved. Michael explains that initially he explored the possibilities of using the monk's shape and experimented with lots of pencil drawings before coming up with a nice, simple, triangular blob. He then used ink and paint to give the drawings a strong individual style before developing a storyboard and painting a simple watercolour for the background. He explains some animation tricks to convey emotion and movement, how he worked closely with the composer, and how he animated the monk's movement to the timing of the music. For Michael his work is magical and great fun even though he might make fifty final drawings for each second of animated film.

Video Series: KS1/2 English
Release Date 2006