need guidance in launching a teacher led student production

hey folks:

As you may know, i'm a high school teacher of English and multimedia. I have no experience professionally in animation, but have pursued it on my own to get some of my ideas realized.

This past year a friend and colleague of mine tried to get my animation club to produce a PSA on tobacco in conjunction with the Tobaction club. The club format was too loose and nothing got done, really.

Our plan this year is to actually throw some money at kids and do the project outside the club format. I've got some idea how to guide and direct the production, but getting kids who are motivated and can draw is an important starting point.

Initially I need some ideas on how to screen and select students for the production. I'm thinking along the lines of having them bring a portfolio, letters of reference, an interview, a drawing test, an animation test (standard ball bounce) etc.

Once selection is done, I need to run some training on them with resources I got a few years ago from Nataha Lightfoot, and launch the project.

Any ideas and guidance would be appreciated. If someone would like to volunteer to trade email with me once in a while, answer some questions, etc, that would be terrific also.

Thanks for any help or beatings you may choose to administer.

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