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Schools

Animator Seeks Funds To Create Digital Shakespeare

Havertown computer animator needs funding to complete Shakespeare DVD which will target high school students studying Shakespeare.

Ask most any teen about studying Shakespeare and you’re likely to get the same answer, “I don’t get it.”

Dan Gallagher was the exception. Gallagher holds a BA in Liberal Arts from Villanova University and is currently pursuing a masters degree in business at St. Joseph's University.

Gallagher says that while “my high school classmates found Shakespeare boring, I loved it. It's a power struggle, a political thriller, a morality tale, and a bloodbath.  It's got dark magic, and evil deeds.  It's got revenge, and battle, and twisting prophecies.”

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“That is why I am setting out to make a computer animated staging of MacBeth,” says Gallagher. “It will feature animated robots, set in a Cyber Scotland, and it will adhere faithfully to the text. 

Gallagher adds, “This is a staging not an adaptation, the text is sacrosanct. While the Shakespearian text remains the same, the visuals will be something that students can appreciate.”

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 “It will be a genuine hoot for fans of classic literature and animation.” says Gallagher

Gallagher, who lives in Havertown, is seeking funding to develop this project and has made a prototype with which he intends to seek investors through a site called Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is an online funding platform for people with creative projects around the world. Every month, individuals and organizations pledge money to fund projects in music, film, art, technology and other areas. Project creators get to keep 100 percent ownership and control over their work.

Kickstarter provides guidelines on what types of projects are accepted. Money pledged by donors is collected using Amazon Payments, Inc. and require a U.S. bank account. Amazon Payments, Inc is a subsidiary of Amazon.com. Both Kickstarter and Amazon Payments take a small percentage of the funds raised from each project that reaches their funding goal.

“The money raised will be used to purchase advanced computer equipment that can handle motion capture and animation programs. I will also need to pay for animators and 3D sculptors to do some part-time help, along with at least one physical actor to perform the motion capture.” His funding goal is set at $8,900 on the kickstarter site," Gallagher says.

The Kickstarter site sets a month-long time limit to secure investors or project creators have to re-apply to keep the funding option open for another thirty days. While investors pledge the money online, no money changes hands unless the posted funding goal is reached. Gallagher’s online funding deadline is Aug. 7.

As an informal test, Patch emailed the link of the animated short to six area high school students. Three students responded and had this to say about the feature.

Devin Lloyd, a recent graduate of Haverford High School, says “Having read Macbeth I thought that not using real people took away from the story and its appeal to me.  In the beginning, I could understand what they were saying but had trouble towards the end but the music made it interesting. Also, the blurbs of the short made it hard to follow a plot.” 

MacKenzie Ellis, a recent graduate of Upper Darby High School says, “I'm a sucker for robots, I think modern interpretations of Shakespeare are difficult, but they can also be really cool. I definitely liked this interpretation, but I think it would be more understandable if the robots could have some facial expressions. I love Shakespeare, but I personally can't always understand it and I had trouble hearing Lady Macbeth's lines in the feature.”

April Lillard, a sophomore at Cardinal O’Hara high school says, “I like the robot idea. It is a great way to show the story of Macbeth. The only thing that I did not like was that the robots were hard to understand. I think I could watch the video for about 15 minutes before I was tired of it. From watching the video clip, I learned a little bit about the plot and some important quotes.”

Gallagher plans to market the computer animated Shakespeare DVD to high school educators and distributors of secondary educational software.

To learn more about Gallagher, his project or kickstarter, visit the website at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1132615028/cgi-macbeth?ref=live. Gallagher can be reached via email at danfromff@yahoo.com.

(Editor's Note: Dan Gallagher is not related to Patch reporter Judy Gallagher.)

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