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Animation in action
But one woman wants to remind youngsters and adults about this forgotten art.
Passion is important when you are looking to inspire people with the work you do. And passion is something of which Joanna van der Meer has plenty.
She will be running The Animators club at the Gala Theatre in Durham once a month on a Saturday morning. It will coincide with the long-
running and popular Saturday Kids Club screenings.
"I'll be teaching parents and children lots of film and animation techniques," she said. "This weekend we focused on silhouette animation and clay. The clay is like Wallace and Gromit style figures."
Joanna, who is in her fifties, currently lives in London where she works for the British Film Institute (BFI) as what is called a family learning practitioner, but her roots are firmly in the North East.
Her dad was born and raised in South Shields and her mum, who is dutch, now lives in Ryton, near Gateshead.
Which is why she is so excited about bringing her film workshops to Durham.
"I love the North East," she said. "It's fantastic that I can bring these workshops here as the BFI is countrywide.
"It's not just for London which is why it's so important that everyone around the country can access what it has to offer.
"When I first started the workshops it was my own company, which I ran outside of my work for the BFI. I got funding to do projects myself which included film screenings.
"I set up a mobile cinema which I took to parks as a free service for communities. I also set up shows for old people in residential care homes.
"It was from there that I started making my own films and set up the animation workshops."
The BFI realised Joanna was onto a good thing and they created a role for her as a family learning practitioner, which allowed her to conduct her workshops as part of the BFI organisation.
She said: "I started doing the workshops for the BFI in 2008 and they are always packed out. The kids love it. They get very excited. It's one of the most popular events now.
"So I'm expecting everyone who attends in Durham to be just as excited. Hopefully they will really enjoy it.
"It's great for parents, too, as they get to interact with their child. They are not just sat passively watching a film."
Joanna teaches stop-motion animation, which uses Plasticine models.
"It has been sidelined by CGI technology (computer-generated imagery). It's something that not a lot of animators are using any more," she says.
"The children get to go back to an old style of animation and everybody loves it.
"They get to learn about all the different processes and hopefully they will be inspired to go and pursue an interest in films."
Joanna has been working in the film industry for about 30 years. She worked for the BFI archive for a number of years before moving into animation.
She began working for Film Fair, the creators of the Wombles, and spent her days creating miniature models for the sets of children's programmes.
"Model-making is really fascinating," she said. "It's a fun miniature world. But everything looks absolutely huge when you step back into the real world because you are spending all your time making tiny little cakes or curtains for example.
"This is where my passion for animation came from."
Participants at the first workshop watched Lotte Reiniger's The Frog and created paper cut-outs of princes and princesses to bring them to life in their own silhouette animation.
Tamara Anderson, Film Development Officer at the theatre, said: "We had the idea for The Animators club back in October last year when the workshops at our kids' film festival, Kids for Kids, proved so popular.
"Currently there is very little provision in Durham for children's filmmaking, and yet there clearly exists a real appetite for it among local kids. Now kids can come to the cinema, see a movie, but also have a go themselves."
"We were aware of Jo's work for the British Film Institute in London, where she has developed a similar series of monthly family filmmaking workshops.
"We are enormously lucky that she agreed to help us out, and that Northern Film and Media also were so supportive of the project.
"It is with their help we can provide these workshops free of charge.
"The hope is that kids will achieve a greater understanding of how their favourite movies are made, but also be inspired to experiment further themselves with the techniques they pick up at the workshops.
"Who knows, could the next Nick Park come from Durham?"
* The next workshop on Saturday, March 6 will be based around Alice in Wonderland through an exploration of "changing shapes and sizes" using all manner of film devices and exploring different techniques including some 3D filming.
They are aimed at children aged five to 11, run in The Studio between 10:30am and 12 noon. Entry is free with a valid ticket to a screening of Gala's Saturday Kids' Club for the same day.
*To book tickets for any Saturday Kids' Club film and The Animators!, call Gala Box Office on 0191 332 4041 or for further information visit the website at www.galadurham.co.uk
*Read more in today's Echo
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