NI social enterprise develops animation for children who have experienced loss.

Northern Irish social enterprise WayMaker Child Therapy completed a Future Screens NI R&D project A New Day for Little Bear. The animation was developed for children who have experienced loss written by professional play therapist Eileen Russell.  Eileen has worked with children and families for eighteen years and has the heart to help children and families hold hard things.  The funding helped bring a therapeutic story Eileen wrote to life through animation. 

Each night after his dinner of fresh fish, Little Bear loves to run past the blanket of green trees to the top of the mountain, where he watches his beloved stars each night.  It’s the thing that makes him feel alive, and he is a fun bear with all his bear friends.  One night he races to the mountain, flings back his head, and there is nothing.  Join Little Bear as he tries to figure life out without his beloved stars. 

WayMaker Child Therapy provides play therapy, parenting support and training for professionals in Northern Ireland. 

PhD research in music copyright and moral rights enhanced by Future Creatives

Ulster University PhD researcher Paul O’Hagan’s Future Screens NI Future Creatives award was used for mentoring experience with Peter Jenner in support of research. Drawn from Sincere Management, Jenner is a veteran music manager and activist for creators’ rights. Peter’s background working with artists and record labels over five decades presented a unique opportunity for a mentorship related to O’Hagan’s PhD topic examining music copyright and moral rights as a lived practice. 

Over a period of nine months, Sincere Management scheduled and supported a series of weekly phone calls with Peter Jenner. Each conversation lasted approximately 50 minutes and over the period a close rapport developed which opened many areas of interest. Peter’s role as a mentor has enhanced and enriched O’Hagan’s PhD research and has been invaluable in developing not just a sense of actuality, (i.e. how the Creative Sector works), but also of potentiality, (i.e. how the Creative Sector ‘ought’ to work, or might work better). 

Following PhD submission, Paul O’Hagan intends to continue working with Sincere Management, with an aim of publishing a joint paper on label services with Peter Jenner. 

The Future Creatives scheme was designed to enable participants to make a step change in their research and innovation by enhanced leadership and collaboration skills and developing new practices in the field of creativity and technology. Each awardee has been matched with an industry or academic mentor working at the cutting edge of new, emerging and immersive technologies. 

NI’s Makematic Team Up with World-Leading Producer DK to create 500 Educational Videos

The global publisher DK and world-leading producer of educational video content, and Future Screens NI R&D research awardee, Makematic, have announced that they will be working together to create 500 original videos based on DK’s uniquely informative and engaging book titles. 

The videos will target K-12 education, including informal learning, and are being developed to license to third party curriculum and content providers including education technology companies, select publishers, library services and children’s apps. 

This partnership dovetails with two of DK’s strategic goals: to increase their presence in the education market and reach a larger learning audience, and to work with partners to develop and distribute content in dynamic digital formats. 

The first 50 videos in the series have been co-produced with educational video platform ClickView, with funding from Future Screens NI funding partner Northern Ireland Screen, and will be available on the ClickView platform from February. 

The first videos in the series are available to license now via plus.makematic.com 

Oscar-nominated Northern Irish Short wins BAFTA

Oscar-nominated An Irish Goodbye, produced by Future Screens NI awardee Sean Murray has won the BAFTA Best British Short Film. Filmed entirely in Northern Ireland, with a production team featuring current Queen’s University Belfast students and Alumni, An Irish Goodbye is a black comedy about the reunion of estranged brothers Turlough and Lorcan following the untimely death of their mother. The film stars Seamus O’Hara (The Northman, Game of Thrones), James Martin (Marcella, Ups and Downs), Paddy Jenkins (Hunger) and Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones, Fortitude) and has been nominated for an Oscar in the Live Action Short Film category.

Ulster Touring Opera develop AR opera for young people

Ulster Touring Opera, a Future Screens NI Narrative Futures funding recipient, has worked with award winning composer Deirdre McKay and librettist Ruth Mariner to commission an augmented reality opera for young audiences. The pandemic heightened societies awareness of the vital wellbeing role of music for young people, as data from University College London suggests that people who spent 30 minutes or more each day during the pandemic on arts activities have lower reported rates of depression and anxiety and greater life satisfaction.  Introducing opera to young people through the medium of augmented reality is a key step in empowering the next generation to enjoy music in all of its forms, regardless of cultural stereotypes. 

For more information on Ulster Touring Opera and Teeny Tiny Operas follow the link.

Narrative Futures is an open call to the Northern Ireland creative industries challenging them to explore, in a visionary manner, how the changes we have witnessed can be used as the catalyst for genuinely new and original thinking about how creative work could best be designed and delivered in the coming years.