The club began when Chairman of S.T.A.R.T, Mike Harrington, was looking for ideas for art related clubs at the new ‘Studios2’ centre. Woodlands school student Jack Norris suggested to him an animation club after spending his summer making short films. Mike is now the co-ordinator of the animation club, and Jack is the project leader and director of the films. The club was created and launched in 2004, and is now a fully operating club that meets once a week. The group of young people, and many adults, completed their first fully funded film in February 2006.
 | | Nick getting slightly mad |
The film, called “Two Different Worlds,” was supported by the Lottery through the UK Film Council’s First Light initiative which gave £4,000 for the production of the film. Funding also came from Essex County Council, whose 'Challenge 2000' scheme gave £2,500 to pay for new equipment, and Basildon Council who purchased of the group’s first camera! The film was produced as a stop-motion animation similar to Nick Park’s ‘Wallace & Gromit.’ The story of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ was adapted for the animation, with one of the major alterations being that the whole film is set in Basildon! Changing the names of the main characters to a more typical Rob and Julie is not the only thing which is more ‘Basildonian.’ Instead of the Montagues and the Capulets, there are 'Chavs' and 'Grungers'! All the Chav characters work in the Westgate shopping park, whilst the Grunger characters work in the Eastgate shopping centre. In the story, we see two shops from the opposing districts making their plans for the ‘Golden Gate Award Annual Fancy Dress Ceremony', which is an event held by the local Council to judge who is the better of the ‘Gate’ centres in Basildon. Two shop owners are determined to win the prize…Nick, the owner of ‘DJ Sports’ in Westgate, arranges for his young employee Rob to attend the ceremony, whilst Jezzy, the owner of the ‘Pricks R Us’ tattoo parlour in Eastgate, asks his assistant Julie to go along.
 | | Filming the car park sequence |
Dressed as Batman and Catwoman, Rob and Julie meet each other at the fancy
dress party and arrange plans for the next day – not realising each other’s
true identity. The result of the Golden Gate award is announced, and all
hell breaks loose when Nick and Jezzy involve themselves in Rob and Julie’s
first date via a confrontation in the ‘Centralgate’ Car Park! The story, characters, settings and props were all created to be recognisable to local audiences. For example, Basildon's iconographic glass bell tower plays a small part in the film! The target audience of the film are young people in the area as they understand most of the jokes as well as the 'Chavs vs. Grungers' concept more than anyone else. The animation is being premiered at the UCI cinema at the Festival Leisure Park in April 2006, and is also being screened at various other locations in the area. A version suitable for screening at primary schools is currently being edited. There will be a limited amount of DVDs of the film, and later this year it will be available for worldwide viewing on the Internet! If you would like to join the Loco Motion Animation Club, have any questions, or would like to be a venue for a Two Different Worlds screening, please email us at theanimators@hotmail.co.uk | 
