BBC World Service has teamed up with the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) to animate select audio clips from the service. Students at UWE were presented with 10 one-minute narrations, and have delivered 10 unique shorts to illustrate these important personal stories. The series will launch on bbc.com/news, BBC World News and across social media on July 5.
Among the shorts can be found everything from a corrosive Soviet town, to a wine-loving bear, to the harrowing tale of a child soldier in Sudan — mainly personal experiences told in the protagonists’ own words. In addition to audio from programs like Outlook, Witness and The Conversation, another notable series highlight is an incredible Chinese tongue-twister poem, in which every syllable sounds like “shi.” The UWE animations bring a new dimension to these rich and complex narratives.
“Working with the BBC World Service on this exciting project has been a real highlight for the postgraduate animation students. The opportunity to work on such a wide variety of topics was a chance to explore and expand their practice and, given the deadline, a genuine creative challenge,” says Chris Webster, program leader for BA and MA Animation at the Bristol School of Animation.
“The stories drawn from around the world, not dissimilar to the students that created the films, were charming, funny and at times even harrowing. They resulted in a range of highly original and creative responses – exciting, funny, very dynamic and never quite what one would expect. I hope that this will lead to many more such collaborations.”
You can listen to the audio clips ahead of the series debut here.
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