Pearson Longman
Publishing, Pre-primary English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
Phase 1: two months, Phase 2: one month
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Pearson Longman needed to create a pre-school EFL video series. They had three classic fairy tales incorporated in their books, Little Red Hen, Little Red Riding Hood, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Our challenge was to find an approach that would not only engage short attention spans, but also instruct in language acquisition.
Edge Media felt puppets would be a fitting and familiar approach for pre-schoolers. We worked with a talented troupe of puppeteers at the Columbia Marionette Theatre to bring these tales to life. Collaborating with an experienced scriptwriter, we adapted the tales to fit the pedagogy of the texts and consulted with the theatre director and client to create appropriate wardrobe, props, and backdrops.
The soundtrack was pre-recorded to ensure that the voices conveyed the correct inflection, pronunciation, enunciation and the proper emotion of the scene. And, just like working with human actors, the scenes and puppets were blocked and rehearsed before shooting began. Three cameras were used during production. From pre-light to wrap, the shoot was accomplished in three and a half days. All sound effects and music were added during post-production.
The final product was released as one DVD but proved so successful that Edge Media went back into production to produce an introduction to each tale with a host (a puppet journalist!), who set out to interview one of the characters from each of the tales. The resulting product was released as a 3-set DVD and is marketed primarily in México and Korea.
Edge Media found that shooting dramatics with hens, cats, wolves and bears was much the same as with human actors; performance, expression and pronunciation were still the keys to a successful language-learning program. However, temperamental actors took on a new definition and lunch was always an adventure.
Pockets won the 2007 Telly Awards Bronze in the fim/video category. The Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest film and video productions, and groundbreaking web commercials, videos and films.