An Educational children's documentary for 7 to 12 years old
( Working title ) "Dizzy Daisy". A 13 episode series.
A factual children's program, using a mix of animation and film, looking at the cultures of the world in a funny and entertaining way from a child's perspective.
Cinematic Techniqe
"Dizzy Daisy" is a children’s animation / film documentary series. A mix of fiction and fact, where an animation character will interact with real children in real life stories from around the world.Our animation character is painted onto real film sequences, by a Russian film studio that specializes in this very special technique.The base for each story is a real documentary about children of the world. Dizzy Daisy will be an active part of these documentaries. The films will be made in a way that our main character will be intermingling with children she meets around the world. She will compare the life style she has here in Norway to the lives of other children. We will have real children in each film that will interact with our animation character, i.e. holding Dizzy’s hand or playing with her or letting Dizzy try to do what is expected of them including, work (like the picture above in Sudan where the girls are expected to carry water many times a day. Dizzy will actually experience how hard and heavy some children have to work, unlike our own children that think life is just fun without the thought of actually working.Our film will begin in a real Irish classroom with real pupils, and our main character Dizzy will be a real living and breathing schoolgirl, then Dizzy will transform into an animation character in the class room. Then she will use the Geography book as her porthole to these wonderful “real magical worlds” that actually do exist.
Character
Our main character is "Dizzy Daisy " she is about 9 years old. She is a bit of a “Tom Boy” who has a problem with her concentration, she, like a lot of children shows the signs of hyperactivity, and Daisy is also accident prone, she just seems to break everything she touches to the amusement and disarray of others. Dizzy also just loves to daydream about adventures in far off lands, places that she would never have the chance to visit. Dizzy is not very fond of school, she is not so good at writing, puts letters in the wrong place, she gets frustrated and causes a lot of problems for her self to the amusement of her fellow class mates, but Dizzy has one thing that all her school mates love. Dizzy has the most fantastic imagination. The other children just love to hear about her adventures, but they do not know that her adventures are actually real.Dizzy has only one class that she really likes at school, the Geography class, the problem is that her teacher Miss B Boring, is just so boring. Every week they learn about a new country and culture. Dizzy, as always, starts dreaming, it is then that her adventures begin.
Motive
For the last 5 years I have been working with documentary films about children, mostly in Russia and Africa. This pilot concept is a new direction for me as a director, looking at children’s lives from their perspective. As a filmmaker, 4 out of my 6 projects are about children, recently I was nominated by the Norwegian Government for the 2006 Human Rights award and I received a special award from UNICEF for my work, I even held a children’s workshop for some children from Romania in Bucharest in November 2006. I was also nominated in 2006 by the American film institute for the best full-length documentary film, this was also a film about children.Racism is on the increase in the world, we have “those who have!” and “those who have not”.We should show our children what is wrong with racism and the prejudgments that us adults have. Dizzy Daisy aims to teach our children in an entertaining way to understand what is right and wrong in this world and have a better understanding of what is actually expected from children in other lands.If we can show our children that we all laugh and cry at the same things, then our children will have a different approach and outlook on life. This series will show from a child’s perspective the good and bad in this world. But even in the poorest parts of the world children will still play, even if they have to work hard all day.Our characterDizzyalways asks questions, so through her inquisitive nature she will question what is expected from the children of other nations compared to here in Ireland.
Countries Dizzy Daisy will visit
Sudan. meets Anyango South Sudan. Anyango’s sister is being sold for a large amount of cows.
Russia. Ballet school Perm meets the first year pupils that have to practice for 6 hours a day 6 days a week and are not allowed to eat cakes.
Alaska.We will meet a boy (same age as Dizzy) that is on his first Walrus hunting trip with his grandfather.
USA.Dizzy will meet one of the girls taking part in a Beauty pageant competition for children
Mongolia. The street children who study to be circus artists
Bolivia. The children’s silver mines
England. Public school, (a private boarding school for young ladies) they have to wear a school uniform.
Burma. The child divers finding pearls and sea cucumbers, to support their family. These children have eye sight that is twice as good as a European child.
Romania.The Romanian Gypsies who are persecuted throughout Europe.
Japan.The art of dressing, a girls first Kimono
Argentina.Being a “cowgirl” on a horse ranch. We show all the work that the children have to do, but at the same time they have fun.
Himalaya. The girl nuns devoting their lives to God
North Korea.Kim Jong II birthday celebrations, the children formation dancers.
Treatment for the first episode
This week, while listing to Miss B's boring lecture about Sudan, Dizzy starts as usual to day dream, nearly falling asleep, all of a sudden she feels herself being lifted of the chair. (Here we will have a real film sequence from the classroom with a real Dizzy and class mates, then with animation we draw an image like a ghost that comes out of her body, she starts to fly around the room and is then sucked down into the Sudan picture in her book) AHHHHHHHHHHHH! as she drops through the book into a long black void that feels like it will never end, a bit cool as well as being scary Dizzy thinks. Then all of a sudden, she lands with a big BANG! she is on a Savannah, it is so warm that she starts sweating and taking her sweater off, here she meets a young local girl called Anyango.Anyango has white cow dung and ash all over her head, Dizzy starts to laugh a little, Anyango starts to laugh, she has never seen any one with so many clothes in all her life. Dizzy asks why she is nearly naked. Anyango says that her Dinka tribe believe that they are as pure as the black spotted cows that they keep, and the cows have no clothes. Dizzy and the girl start on their little journey around the world of the Dinka nomads, learning about life in Sudanese culture, Dizzy is shown how to carry water on her head, of course she drops it straight on an irritating boy who was trying to be cool. Oops! says Dizzy, while all the other girls around them start to laugh with big smiles on her faces. Dizzy thinks it is totally not fair that all the girls do all the work, while all the boys just swim in the river all day. Anyango tells Dizzy that this is a very special day for her family. This day her sister Nyankor is being sold, the big day in a women's life in the Dinka culture. During this day Anyango shows Dizzy what the everyday life of a young girl is like in the Dinka world, full of a lot of hard work and some magic too.At the end of the episode, Dizzy Daisy returns to her class room, but this time she finds a necklace around her neck, was her adventure real or just a magic dream?
