The Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies is pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 Children’s Script Writing Competition. The focus of the competition was on the theme of migration in the Roman Empire. We had a fantastic response with great scripts taking people from Briton to Syria or from Pompeii to Egypt, but the script which was ahead of all others in quality, imagination and humour was the account of the recruitment of a soldier from Africa into the Roman army by a triumvirate of writers from St Paul’s Way Trust School. Congratulations to: Ayies, Tahsin, and Zeeshan.
The winning script from the 2016 Children’s Script Writing Competition has now been made into an animation and is available to view on YouTube. ‘A Day in the Life of a Roman Client’ was written by Kien Powell (in Year 9 at Stow School at the time of entry into the competition). Ray Laurence, Professor of Roman History and Archaeology, edited Kien’s script and arranged for Malachi James, a student at the London College of Communication taking a BA in Animation, to make the film.
Ray wanted to gain, through this new project, the co-production of a film drawing on a modern teenager’s reaction to ideas expressed in his earlier films, such as A Glimpse of Teenage Life in Ancient Rome and Four Sisters in Ancient Rome – as well as knowledge gained at school from learning about the Roman world.
At the same time, working with Malachi James created a very different feel to this film from those Ray had worked on previously. As Malachi explained, he wanted to create a film that drew on the traditions of cartoons, such as those of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and had a strong emphasis on drawing by hand.
As part of the project, Malachi was interviewed about his experience of working on the project by Aylish Wood, Professor of Animation and Film Studies. Aylish was impressed by the importance Malachi placed on researching the project, and how he is inspired by the history of animation techniques.
On seeing the film Aylish commented: ‘What strikes me is Malachi’s lovely animation touch. This is clear in his deft use of humour, character design and timing of movement. Such lightness is hard to achieve, and Malachi does it really well.’
These projects were generously funded by the University of Kent’s Public Engagement Fund and by the School of European Culture and Languages.
The animation is available to view below or by the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJSZKNa_bgQ