Scottish Supporters Network
Hosted by Supporters Direct Scotland
Hosted by Supporters Direct Scotland
Date: 20th October 2017
Schoolchildren have made their own animated film to tackle football fans’ match-day behaviour.
The children made history when their film premiered at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden on Tues 17 October.
A player slips on a banana skin on the pitch. A goal fills with litter, the ball bounces out of the net. A football lands in a puddle of pee.
The children have taken a humorous off-beat approach to their film – asking fans to imagine what it would be like if fans treated the pitch the same way they treat the streets on the way to the match.
Living near a stadium, the children are fed up with fans dropping litter and urinating on the streets where they play. Their film is an entertaining wake-up call for fans. Their message: ‘you wouldn’t litter or pee on the pitch, so please respect our streets on you way to the game’.
Young film-maker Ellie, 12, said “We thought if we make adults laugh, they’ll be more likely to listen to us”. Nathan, 14, said “It was my first time making a film. It was fun, but it took longer than I thought. We had to take 10 pictures for every second of animation”. Keira, 14, said “The best thing ever was doing all the sound effects ourselves. It’s so cool, the sounds you can make from everyday objects.”
Community Activist Angela Jamieson, who came up with the idea for the film, said “Living beside a football stadium I was fed up with fans leaving litter and worse in our streets where we live. I was worried for my grandkids. We had no way of getting through to fans, so I came up with the idea of a film made by local children. I got film-makers media co-op in to show the children how to make their own animation. I’m so proud of how well they did: they made the point and they made it funny too. I bet fans all over Scotland will listen to the kids.”
In a series of workshops over three months, the children, most of them with no experience of film-making, wrote the script themselves, and animated all the scenes, with help from Angela and the film-making co-operative media co-op.
The 90-second film, ‘Don’t Be Mean, Keep it Clean’ is a community project funded by the Big Lottery, led by community partners Parkhead Housing Association, Playbusters, Thriving Places Parkhead and the football fans’ co-operative Supporters Direct.
Andrew Jenkin of Supporters Direct Scotland said “Supporters Direct is all about giving a voice to football fans. This film is a great way to give a voice to local residents near stadiums. We’re proud to be part of it.”
James Strang, CEO of Parkhead Housing Association, said “It’s amazing the talent we have among our local children. You can see in the ‘behind the scenes’ film how hard the children worked. Their animation does them proud, and it made me laugh! Parkhead Housing Association is delighted to back this project. It’s great to see our local children speaking out in such a creative way on behalf of communities living near football stadiums all over Scotland, and beyond.”
Vilte Vaitkute of media co-op said “The children came up with such great ideas to get their message across in a way that’s cheeky, humorous and entertaining. They worked really hard with us at media co-op, creating their film one frame at a time.”
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