Story at the centre at Jumpstart on 18 August

As Jumpstart, the annual event on children’s content, organised by German Book Office, New Delhi, returns this month (to be held on 18 August 2015 at India International Centre, New Delhi), get ready to ‘Get Storyfied!’. This is the theme of Jumpstart 2015 Delhi, and rightly so. What’s better way to start a conversation on content for children than stories!

04 Aug 2015 | By Dibyajyoti Sarma

Today, Jumpstart is the country’s only annual congress of children’s content creators, reaching out to hundreds of professionals, designers, artists, educators, publishers, booksellers and storytellers.
 
“We constantly strive to make this a platform that encourages and nurtures existing and new talent, innovations and ideas, said Prashasti Rastogi, director, GBO, New Delhi. “We are here to work with and for people who are in the business of creating content for children across media, people who will go on to create work that will influence new generations of children. It is critical to create a community of such practitioners so that pioneering and original ideas can be shared and debated in order to improve the quality of content being produced.”
 
Talking about this year’s theme, ‘Get Storyfied!’, Rastogi said storytelling boils down to sheer magic of communication. Yet, for children, it is so much more. It is through stories that children learn to create images; it is how they store information in their brains. An engaging narrative is all it takes to make a memory. Albert Einstein once said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’
 
“At Jumpstart, we truly believe in the power of imagination, in the power of communication, in the power of narrative … in short, we believe in the power of a great story,” Rastogi added. “We want to bring together experts from the publishing, media, education, digital and creative industries to create dialogue and explore the different facets of narrative creation through the intersections of storytelling, imagination, technology and reality that will translate into better content for children. We wish to explore the vibrant links between traditional storytelling practices, digital initiatives, visual arts and pedagogy.”
 
Among other things, this edition of Jumpstart will feature four masterclasses.
 
Writers’ Masterclass with Leonie Norrington
All successful writing needs character and all characters need to speak in a clear and accurate voice. Journalist, author and teacher, Leonie Norrington, will show a variety of practical writing techniques, cheeky tricks and devious sins. This masterclass uses the act of writing as instruction. The participants will explore the depths of their characters’ consciousness, learn to see the world through their characters’ eyes and speak clearly through their voice.
 
Illustration Masterclass with Nicki Greenberg
Great illustration is about telling stories visually. In this workshop, Nicki Greenberg, a writer and illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia, will look at a range of visual narrative techniques. The workshop will include character development exercises, tips about materials and media, and ideas for planning and creating an illustrated ‘world’ in books. Participants are encouraged to bring along their work in progress (at any stage - preliminary sketches are fine), along with paper, pencils and any other materials the participant would like to experiment with.
 
Storytelling Masterclass with Ameen Haque
Each of us has a story to tell. But how do we bring it alive in a performance for children? Storyteller Ameen Haque takes you from page to stage. Learn how to convert a written story into a performance. This masterclass will address storytelling fundamentals as well as advanced techniques and give you tips on how to start a storytelling session, how to add music and actions to a performance, voice modulation and body language for storytellers.
 
Screenwriting Masterclass with Motti Aviram
This masterclass is aimed at people who want to gain key skills that will help them develop and write film and television content for children. Screenwriter Motti Aviram will work with you and help you deal with topics such as the language of scriptwriting, understanding the basic cognitive needs of young viewers, principles in scriptwriting for children, children’s humour, writing for puppets and using television writing techniques in developing interactive books for children.
 
For details, please visit http://www.jumpstartfest.com