Today We Are Watching….
……dirtgirlworld, the much vaunted new CBeebies show that is currently plugging the gap between Nina And The Neurons and the bizarrely titled Big Fun At Five (this has always bothered me. I can’t comment on what I’m usually doing at five o’clock but it usually involves rather frazzled tidying up of assorted mismatched Barbie doll shoes, trying to decide what on earth to have for dinner and, currently, lamenting the fact it is dark ALREADY. So precious little Big Fun. Unless you mean the 1980s Blame It On The Boogie hitmakers. I’m sure you don’t.)
But I digress. dirtgirlworld has been drafted in to plug that pesky little gap where CBeebies usually seems to run out of ideas and throws in something like Tommy Zoom or The Large Family – two of the dullest CBeebies shows I have ever seen (but I really think that is a whole other post).
I welcomed this idea, and the child was so excited about the show that she had already decided it was her favourite programme before it had even started, purely on the basis of the trailers. Of course small children have no concept of scheduling and it took a fair bit of explaining on my part at this stage that it hadn’t actually started yet. Either way, I was looking forward to having something new, possibly educational, in that ‘difficult’ slot for her to watch.
And then I actually saw it.
Now I don’t know what it is they put in programmes for very small children that makes them delightfully appealing for preschoolers and, quite frankly, terrifying for the grown-ups who have to watch them, but this show has it in spades.
The initial concept – cool young lady lives in garden, has best friend called Scrapboy, sings cute pop songs, hangs out with a grub (imaginatively called Grubby) and Hayman the talking scarecrow, a kind of Worzel Gummidge for the Internet generation…..you see what I’m getting at here? So far, so surreal, I could handle that (look, I can handle the weirdness of Waybuloo so I am clearly a pro), but Dirt Girl World uses the oddest animation I’ve ever seen – giant, clearly human faces superimposed on to tiny computer generated bodies, that jiggle about and pull all kinds of odd expressions. Dirt Girl herself seems to have a whole range of strange facial tics, and don’t even get me started on Grubby, who has a human face grafted on to a giant yellow grub’s body, and looks not unlike something you might see in performance art rather than on a children’s TV show. Kids seem to love it. Adults, by and large, appear to have been freaked out by it. I’m sure I’m not the only one who shrieked and made a swift exit from the room the first time Dirt Girl’s oversized jiggly head came honing into view on my screen.
There was none of this in my day of course. Anything that wobbled in such a fashion was generally a puppet and therefore not scary as you could see the strings. Dirt Girl, on the other hand, is just every so slightly unsettling. But of course the under-fives don’t see it that way. I have a feeling this one could run and run – all of which means I am off to find a better hiding place……
Thought you might like to know the history of dirtgirlworld.
KIDS’ TV GOES GREEN WITH dirtgirlworld
dirtgirlworld, a ground breaking new television series for children aged 4 – 7, will launch on ABC1 and ABC 2 from December 4 (11.45am ABC2 and 3.45pm ABC1 each day).
dirtgirlworld is an exuberant celebration of life in the big world outside. The musicentric series has a contemporary, underlying environmental message – to explore the natural world – inviting the audience to “go get grubby” with dirtgirl, a gumboot-wearing girl who grows awesome tomatoes, knows cloud names and drives a big orange tractor. Its motto – “from viewing to doing”.
The 52 x 11 minute episodes are exquisite, created using a distinctive blend of live action and animation with photomontage and illustration, giving a unique look and feel never seen before on children’s television. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8MsPk33yI for a sneak preview.
dirtgirlworld is created by writer/producer Cate McQuillen and composer/writer Hewey Eustace, who developed the series from their idyllic home near the ‘rainbow country’ of northern New South Wales in Australia.
This is the first production for Cate McQuillen and Hewey Eustace from mememe productions. “This is very much a story from our hearts. dirtgirlworld is entertainment with an environmental focus that invites children to be involved in a world where nature first is second nature,” Cate says.
“When dreaming about dirtgirlworld, Hewey and I always envisaged something truly beautiful.
A world that blends the real with the unreal, a world inhabited by characters who celebrate life outside and connect with children in a profound way.”
dirtgirlworld began life as a music album. It won the 2002 Dolphin Awards’ Album of the Year (and the hip-hop category) and was nominated for an ARIA (Australia Record Industry Award) in 2003. Cate and Hewey’s dream, however, was to adapt the concept for multiple platforms. Television quickly became a reality after they won pitching competitions locally, then at the Screen Producers Association of Australia annual Conference and at KidsScreen in New York just two years ago, where its immediate appeal prompted commission/acquisition by CBeebies (UK), ABC (Australia) and CBC (Canada).
The dirtgirlworld team is committed to pursuing the best possible environmental business practices to reduce dirtgirlworld’s eco-footprint. From producing the TV series to the manufacture and sale of consumer products, all partners are being asked to assess and acknowledge their environmental impact, and to set aside funds to support local projects that enable children to live more environmentally sustainable lives.
The animation technique is ground breaking. The most important consideration in designing the look of dirtgirlworld was to make sure she would be engaging, and able to touch the hearts of her young audience to deliver the environmental message successfully. Cate and Hewey decided that having live action eyes would maximise this captivating quality, and when they saw the work of Hackett Films for a music video for The Dissociatives, they realised this could be an interesting route to take. After approaching the Sydney based company, James Hackett and Jean Camden set to work on dirtgirl’s design, and the final result had dirtgirl composed of a live action body and live action eyes and mouth composited on to an illustrated head. Both Dirtgirl’s and scrapboy’s bodies were shot separately from their heads. The head shoots had to be done one character at a time, where the actor was strapped into a chair to minimise movement. For the body shoots, dirtgirl and scrapboy both wore oversized boots and gloves to keep the characters’ proportions looking cartoony. Any object that the characters needed to pick up or touch had to be built since it needed to be oversized to match their oversized hands. (For example, a normal apple would look more like a cherry in Dirtgirl’s giant hands.)
The mix of animation and live action means that all the props had to be built –they were created from recycled and scrap material in the mud brick shed on Cate and Hewey’s property. They built a giant scrap heap with bits and pieces found in their local area , gathered 8 artists and built all the 319 giant props at their home …just like scrapboy would do….it was like a scrapheap challenge camp over!
dirtgirlworld is a co-production between mememe productions and Canada’s DECODE entertainment.
Tracey Mair - November 13, 2009 at 12:36 am |