Well, Spring has well and truly sprung in the Fly High Garden - the daffodils are dancing in
the garden sunlight, the puppy is digging up everything in sight, and the children are throwing themselves around the trampoline at every available opportunity.
It’s not only the spring flowers which have been growing this month, the Fly High work slate has also pushed its head above the soil and is blinking in the sunshine. Read on for our spring flower bouquet of an update …
Co-production with Beakus - Our biggest news of the month is that we have entered into a rather exciting co-production with the awesome Beakus - a brilliant animation studio who have made such wonderful shows as Yakka Dee and Olobob Top. We’ve applied for a YAC fund grant and are currently in the early stages of development with a very exciting pre-school animation about two of our very favourite things! We’ll keep you posted on developments.
Creative UK - Accelerate Programme - continues to be a wealth of inspirational inspiration and we are soaking up every fact, figure and case study possible!
Kidscreen / CMC UK Delegation - this was a great week; made some super connections, pitched some of our shows to some major broadcasters, made a few new friends, and stayed up rather late as the conference was on Miami time. Being part of the CMC UK Delegation was an added bonus and has whetted our appetite for CMC in Sheffield in a few months time. We can’t wait!
Project Management - We are happy to share that both of the projects we are currently managing for two of our best Fly High Friends are currently working to time and to budget. Well done to Arran Glass and Sam Wilde for continuing to push ahead with their brilliant creativity in the face of new projects, new babies, and new cases of Covid. We feel so honoured to be supporting them both to achieve their aims.
Jemma - Riding high from her successful DYCP (Develop Your Creative Practice) application to Arts Council England to learn more about editing and graphic design, Jemma was equally delighted to be accepted on to the Royal Opera House Bridge Creative Learning Practice Programme to delve further into creating work with and for young audiences.
NT Connections - meanwhile Jemma is continuing her fabulous work for the National Theatre’s Connections scheme and is now zooming around the country visiting youth theatres and supporting them to create brilliant productions for the NT Connections Festival.
Rachel - Following the end of the brilliant ScreenSkills Writing for Animation course last month Rachel was bowled over (in a good way) to be invited on to the Magic Light Pictures trainee screenwriter scheme. Over the next 12 weeks she’ll be undertaking a deep dive into the beautiful and quirky world of Pip and Posy and hoping to get her first professional screen credit soon too.
Rachel was also delighted that one of her pieces of writing was published in the epic 100 Voices: 100 Women share their stories of achievement - available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Voices-women-stories-achievement-ebook/dp/B09G988TTT
Our Friends - We were beyond chuffed to see that Fly High Designer Sam Wilde and his buddy/collaborator Ian Nicholson received funding for their co-production with Little Angel Theatre of the I Want My Hat Back books (the filmed versions of which were a viral hit during the 2020 Lockdown). We can’t wait to catch it either on tour or at Little Angel from May to July of this year.
HMDT are on the road with an opera written by our very own Rachel (with beautiful music by another of our Fly High Friends Jenny Gould). Catch it at Little Angel from April 20 - May 1 http://www.hmdt.org.uk/hmdtmusic/stemsisters/
That’s all for us - except for this one last nugget. Jemma and Rachel often communicate over Facebook Messenger. After one particularly exciting bit of news the following was our (very professional) exchange … Enjoy …
We at Fly High Stories always love to chat about new projects and collaborations. Do please drop us a line HERE if you’ve got a project you’d like to chat to us about.