We met with one of the Top Ten teams for this year’s N.E.mation! competition – “[Blank Space]” from Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School. Erin Tan reports.
[Blank Space]’s animation, “Our Five Fingers of Defence”, is now available for viewing and voting. You can find out the four methods of voting your three favourite clips here.
N.E.mation! 11 Team “[Blank Space]” from Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School. From left: Tan Jing Yi, Olivia Surrthi Ketheesan, Ng Hui Xin, and Nur Adilah Binte Jamaludin.
The team members are all from the same Secondary Two class.
They tell me they can never stop arguing with each other, yet they are able to work together in perfect harmony nonetheless.
Their team name arose from not knowing what to name themselves, and so they came up with this creative name.
They say it has nothing to do at all with Taylor Swift’s song “Blank Space”, which became immensely popular two years ago when it was released.
After these three weeks of production are over, they will be required to submit a 60-second animation, the plot of which they have refined and perfected over the course of the selection rounds.
[Blank Space]’s animation revolves around a the imagery of a hand with five fingers – with each finger representing one of the five pillars of Total Defence – Military, Civil, Economic, Social, and Psychological Defence.
Each finger wears a finger puppet to represent the aspect of Total Defence that it represents.
The group is exploiting multiple media to bring their animation to life – such as clay to decorate the hair of their finger models and clothes that they sewed themselves from scratch.
They have also modified clothes from Sylvanian Family toy sets to clothe some of their models, and when we went down to visit them, the clothes were done really well and looked very realistic.
At the moment, they are ahead of time, and were quite relaxed, engaging in casual banter with us and their instructor.
I found their work very impressive, since they were able to create many high-quality props for their finger models in a matter of days, and their storyboard seemed very innovative.
We wish this promising team all the best for N.E.mation! 11, and look forward to seeing how far they progress during the competition.
Check out their progress by following their Blog, Website, Twitter and Instagram accounts, where they post special teasers, clips of their animation, and other fun goodies.
N.E.mation! 11
N.E.mation! Is an annual inter-school digital animation competition organised by Nexus for youths (aged 13-17) to express their thoughts on Total Defence (TD).
More than 15,000 students from secondary schools, junior colleges and centralised institutes have participated in N.E.mation! since its inauguration in 2007.
This is the 11th iteration of the N.E.mation! series of animation competition in Singapore.
For N.E.mation! 11, students are asked to use their creativity and share stories centered on the theme “Together We Keep Singapore Strong”.
The animation clips produced by the top 10 finalist teams will be judged by a panel comprising industry professionals.
In addition, the public can show their support by voting for their three favourite clips come January 2017 via website (www.nemation.sg), Facebook or SMS.
The winning team will win a coveted trip to visit renowned animation studios in the USA.
Prior experience or knowledge in animation is not required as training and guidance in story creation and development, animation techniques and presentation skills will be provided for the shortlisted teams.
The clips will be of broadcast quality and will be viewed by more than 1.3 million audiences on both television and in cinemas across the island.
Some of these clips have gone on to win awards in prestigious international animation festivals.
Through the learning journey of the competition, student participants acquire TD knowledge and gain useful skills that they can apply to future endeavours.
Tags: Ahmad Ibrahim, animation, competition, MINDEF, N.E.mation!, N.E.mation! 11, ne11, NE11C01, nemation, Nexus, NYP, Singapore, [Blank Space]
[…] favourite is this finger puppet of a soldier sewn by [BlankSpace] (#NE11C01). Other finger puppets included civilian clothes like those worn by the Sylvanian family […]
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[…] C01 [Blank Space]: “Our Five Fingers of Defence” (Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School) […]