Learning about life cycles of fish may sound mundane to a child, but bring in Kat Kelly Hayduk, Cam Hayduk and entertainers Bobs & Lolo and watch the spawning of new life in a lesson.
After getting a grant last week from the Creative BC Interactive Fund to create a book-based app, the power-packed combination of Bobs and Lolo, and the local production team will build a combination of book, music and video into software that schools can use to teach the lifecycle of salmon.
“We had this idea to combine music and song, this could be a sweet little app for school. It’s a storybook app with embedded music video,” says Kat. The basis of the product is a published book, Run Salmon Run, written by Robyn Hardy (Bobs) and Lorraine Pond (LoLo.)
Kat and Cam are the Producer and Director of Bowen-based Turtlebox Productions. The two have been creating innovative video content for non-profits and children for six years. With a focus on what Kat calls ”creating meaningful, positive media,” they have written and produced a series of pre-school music videos, Will’s Jams, currently airing on Kids’ CBC.
Since the inception of Turtlebox, a Bowen-based production company, Kat and Cam have produced 10 music videos for Bobs & LoLo, one of Canada’s favourite team of entertainers for children. Bobs and Lolo are stars of the preschool TV series, Sing, Dance and Play with Bobs & LoLo with a very large following.
Using the previously published book, Run Salmon Run by musician duo, Bobs & LoLo and “Combining art and song, we made a video, shot on Bowen with fish hatchery support, that ties into BC school curriculum,” says Kat.
“Tim Pardee, from the Fish and Wildlife Club, believed in it,” she says with gratitude. “We received generous donations from the Bowen Island Fish & Wildlife Club.” The production team also received funding on Indiegogo for the marketing, and software development of the project.
“The app connects with the DFO Stream to Sea program,” she says, which runs in 1200 schools in BC and the Yukon, “and with the Salmonids in Schools program.” Because of this, the Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans will include the app in their educational materials for schools.
Kat says she talked about her idea with a teacher at the Bowen Island Community School. Peggy Smith, who runs the salmonid program, liked the idea. Encouraged, Kat took the next step, applying to Creative BC for a grant. Her successful application got the team the funding they needed to take the next step and hire someone, in this case, Box of Frogs media, to build the app.
“Book apps are one of the safest bets for parents and our educational app will likely prove to be an easy purchase for parents who are already fans of Bobs & LoLo,”
The app will include animations, story, games, a karaoke-style sing-along game, complete with guitar chords for playing along.
Before Turtlebox, Kat worked at DreamWorks Animation as a Production Supervisor on The Prince of Egypt and Shrek and later, doing project management at Electronic Arts. Cam was behind the camera for two decades, working on features, documentaries, television and commercials but also gaining expertise in all aspect of media creation.
This is the first app Turtlebox Productions has done and “it’s exciting to break into another area of childrens’ media,” says Kat. “This is a great tool.”
The project goes into pre-production May 2 and will be out this summer.
