Of course it will fit, and when it does, we will add more people!

Our students laughed out loud when we asked them if we would fit in with all six of us, pointing at the dala dala (the public transport) in front of us. It was like a small pickup truck with a few benches put in it and some pieces of wood on top to make a roof. There were a lot of people in it and it seemed there was not a lot of room left for more people to sit in the very small bus. But soon we understood what taking the dala dala on Zanzibar was like; it was about getting to know the people next to you up close. “Yes, ofcourse it will fit,” they laughed, “and when it does, we will add even more people!”

While we were out in the streets and on the beach of Stonetown shooting video one group at a time, the others were preparing the drawings used in the animation that is going to be on top of the film footage. They drew all the characters that were used in their scripts and their storyboards and cut them out.

When we finished shooting the movies, we took the groups to the ‘animation room’ and explained them about the ‘blue screen’ we made (four blue A4 sheets glued together) and how we would animate the characters in a way that the film footage would blend with the animations. The iStopmotion software was able to import the video footage and therefore we could clearly see what was happening and the characters could have an interaction with the actors and the background.

This was the last step in creating the movies for the Zanzibits students. This Saturday they will be published on the blog for everyone to see!