The Frankenstein Effect: When their animation is played back for the first time.
“Okay,” Joe says. “We have two sessions left.”
“Today we’ll finish off the dialogue and sound effects—one group at a time—out in the hall.” “That way we won’t have the background noise of the classroom in our dialogue.”
The teacher pipes in. “Joe, you can use our coat room. I think it’s quieter than the hall.”
“Oh,” says Joe. “I didn’t know you had a coat room. All that padding hanging up will be a great sound proof!”
He pauses, then adds, as if he’s presenting peer-reviewed research: “It may also enhance the smell of fourth grade sound session.”
The teacher laughs. The kids laugh too, because adult laughter is basically a starter pistol.
“Great,” Joe says. “Here’s the plan.”
“While I work with groups one by one, the rest of you revisit your scripts.” “Read them out loud.”
“Fix anything that feels off.” “If it sounds fake or weird, it will sound bad in your movie. No pressure!”
He points to the class like a coach pointing at the scoreboard. “Remember, and this is the big secret, when we do voiceovers, if you think of something funnier or more clever…”
He leans in. “And often you will…”
“…let’s record that too. We can always cut and paste your mouth loops to synchronize anything we come up with today.”
Joe pauses. "Improvising is gold at this stage. Your mind will automatically link the meaning of the sounds to the animation,”
Joe continues. “Let's get your story living and breathing. Sound and your voices make your movie come alive.” He points to their iPads.
“We’ve been planning and writing and drawing and cutting and animating for a dozen sessions.”
The kids are rapt.
“We’ve earned the luxury of stepping into the coat room to finish off your masterpieces. I can’t wait to see what happens.”
They realize this is a moment of truth. Voicing their characters requires acting.
Tone. Inflection.
Pacing. Enunciation.
Things they’ve spent their whole lives trying to get right - or being corrected on - now applied to their fictional cut paper animations. Their story.
“One other thing,” Joe says. “We need sound effects too.”
“And we’re going to keep it as simple as possible.” “We only need two things.”
He holds up a finger. “Your mouth.”
He holds up another. “And a piece of paper.”
The kids have been told this before, but now that voiceover day is here, they lean in like it’s the secret menu. Joe smiles.
“The most powerful sound-effect library resides behind your lips, right?” Joe says.
“But you already know.” “You’ve been making silly sounds your whole life.”
“Who can do an elephant?” The entire class purses their lips and expels 'elephant'. Some go for the stomp.
Laughter.
“Who can make an explosion?” BOOMS ring out.
A few add “pew pew” because fourth grade believes in bonus features. More laughter.
“Who can sing?” Opera, hip-hop, and rock ring out.
One kid does something that might be a sea shanty, but could also be a lunch chant. Joe nods like a talent scout.
“Who can make a bell or an alarm sound?” Simulated recess bells ring.
One kid nails the exact pitch of the school bell, which is both impressive and vaguely unsettling. Joe claps once.
“Great,” he says. “Now watch this.”
He pulls out a piece of paper and crumples it. It’s just paper, but in his hands it becomes theatre.
“Close your eyes,” Joe says. “Imagine you’re sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows.”
The kids close their eyes, and a few smile instantly. Joe takes the crumpled paper and holds it like he’s making a snowball.
He turns it around and around in the hollow of his cupped hands. The paper whispers and crackles.
“Fire!” yells the kids. “Yes!” Joe says. “You got it.”
“Paper makes great fire.” He grins. “Now this—keep your eyes closed.”
Joe pats the wad of paper rhythmically. Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
“Footsteps!” the kids guess. “Yes,” Joe says. “One more.”
He slowly tears the paper. Riiiiip.
“Duct tape!” “Ripping an arm off!” “Opening an envelope!” “Taking wrapping off a new toy!”
Half a dozen guesses fly out like popcorn. Joe holds up the paper like it’s an Oscar.
“Paper can be fifty sounds.” He lets that hang for a beat.
“And here’s the important part,” he says. “Our audience’s eyes will be busy with our animations.”
“Their ears will be busy assigning meaning to your mouth sounds and the paper.” “And their brains will do the rest.”
“They’ll turn your still drawings into motion.” “And they’ll turn your simple sounds into a whole world.”
He spreads his hands. “This is crazy stuff, my friends.” “And by ‘crazy,’ I mean ‘Foley.’”
The kids look confused.
"When you watch the end credits to a movie, look for "Foley artists. That's what we are doing today. SFX is short for sound efffects in movie speak, and the Foley artist is that person. So let’s get to it.” He points at the first group.
“Bowling Ball group, come back to the coat room and bring your storyboard and iPad.” He pauses, searching for the line.
“Let’s… er… hum… get rolling.” He winces. “Pardon the pun.”
The kids groan in the way kids groan when they secretly love it. Joe turns back one more time.
“Oh and one other thing.” “We have poster boards here.”
“If you find yourself finished and waiting, start making your poster.” “We’ll put it up at the premiere.”
“Really dress it up. Use the rule of thirds there too.”
He points to the back of the room. “You guys have a ton of books back there.”
“Look at the book covers. They serve the same purpose as movie posters. They’re great inspiration.”
Then Joe disappears into the coat room with the Bowling Ball group. Inside, it feels like a recording studio - if a recording studio were built by children and filled with winter jackets and the faint smell of lost mittens and half eaten snacks stashed in the pockets.
“Okay,” Joe says. “What are you most concerned about?”
A kid answers immediately. “We don’t know what the bowling pins are going to chant at the bowling ball to make the bowling ball mad.”
Joe looks at their dialogue sheet. “I thought you guys had something.”
Another kid says, “The teacher says we can’t swear.” “But the bowling pins should say something bad so the ball can get back at them.”
Joe nods, “All right.” “Let’s look.”
He reads their line. “‘Hey, baldie, you can’t get us.’”
Joe looks up slowly. “I’m bald.” “I didn’t know that was a bad thing.”
The kids freeze. One kid, brave and sincere, says, “Mr. Joe… your head does kinda look like a bowling ball.”
Joe laughs. He sticks a finger in each nostril and his thumb in his mouth.
Muffled, he says, “You’d probably hold my bowling-ball head in these three holes too.” The kids explode laughing.
It’s gross. It’s ridiculous. It’s also exactly what fourth grade finds hilarious.
Joe wipes his hands dramatically on an invisible towel. “Okay.” “Come on.”
“We can do better than this.” He leans in.
“What are some other taunts?” “Any idioms, slang, or songs that would make a bowling ball mad?”
Everybody pauses. Nothing.
A beat. Then another beat.
Then one of the boys sings a phrase from a popular classic song. Softly at first, like he’s testing whether it’s allowed to exist.
The group stares at him. Then the realization hits them all at once.
“Yes!” they shout. “That’s it!”
They all start laughing, including Joe. Especially Joe.
It’s the laugh of a man who knows the genius moment this is.
“Okay,” Joe says, holding up a hand. “That! Let’s go with that.”
“But promise not to tell anyone until the premiere.” He lowers his voice. It’s our secret. You’ll get a great laugh. Why? Because it is perfect and it made us laugh and we've been living with this story for a long time. Brilliant”
The kids nod like they’ve just joined a secret society.
They record it. First take: too quiet.
Second take: too chaotic. Third take: perfect.
A chorus of bowling pins taunting their hero, the oft-guttered bowling ball. His revenge will be sweet.
When they’re done, the group emerges from the coat room with Cheshire-cat grins and giggles.
“Okay,” Joe calls out to the classroom. “Turtle group—your turn.”
One by one, he rotates each group into the “sound studio.” Sometimes the kids run the record button on the iPad. Sometimes Joe holds the microphone end of the iPad like a boom mic above the group for chorus voice overs. A real team effort.
And sure enough, each movie transforms when the sound is applied. It enters another universe. Nothing can prepare them for this moment. Because suddenly the characters aren’t just moving.
They’re speaking. Breathing. Existing.
When their inventive vocals are married to their handcrafted animated characters, they truly see their creations come to life. We call it the Frankenstein Effect. That even though they invented it, animated it, drew it, when it plays back they have the overwhelming feeling that…
…it’s alive.
It lives on the screen, over there, in another world, when up to this point they were the assemblers with hands on, stitching it all together.
The play button is the electricity that breathes life into their character.
This day is Joe’s favorite. All the blood, sweat and tears and tedium and organization and teamwork finally pay off.
They come in fully formed as hams. As actors. As clowns. As W.C. Fields once said, “'Child actor' is a redundant term.” In this coat room, it’s eternally true.
Little Lawrence Oliviers.
As the posters get designed and the vocals and sound effects get inserted, the kids feel something rise in them. A sense of competence.
A sense of ownership. A sense of, "Wait—this might actually work."
Joe steps back into the classroom between groups. He raises his voice.
“Let me remind you,” he says. “A local theater has donated their screen for your world premiere.”
“Next month we’ll be sending a stretch limo to pick you up.
The kids stop in their tracks with buldging eyes and gasps.
"So start thinking about what you might wear. Go down to the dollar store. Pick up a feathered boa. A fancy hat. Something. Dress up. Let’s have some fun with this.”
A young lady up front raises her hand. “A limo?” she asks. “A stretch limo?”
“Oh yes,” Joe says. “The longest stretch limo we can find. It’s long and yellow. It can fit the whole class.”
The kids lean forward, eyes wide. Joe waits half a beat, then the truth sinks in.
“A bus?”
The class groans and laughs. Joe offers a wicked smile. Because of course.
Joe calls out over his shoulder as he heads back toward the coat room: “But we WILL have a red carpet when we roll off that bus—so be ready for paparazzi!”
Stay tuned for more book excerpts and a digest of all previous chapters.
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"I am impressed by...these programs, providing young people with the skills to become creative and critical thinkers...this shares my dedication to nurturing the next generation of filmmakers and visual storytellers."— Steven Spielberg - Referencing the work of Joe Summerhays“
"Joe (Animating Kids Founder) has turned the art of movie making for kids into a science.” — Jonathan Demme - Academy Award-Winning Director
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