Rabbit Hole Labs
(Creative Production and Workshops)
We change the space to suit the needs of our various laboratories.
Our goal is to create a safe space where students feel comfortable enough to be creative together.
Whether it's a campfire in the woods (complete with a tent!) for Storytelling
or a circus-like theater space for Puppet-Making and Improv Performance,
we want to provide an escape from the typical class and mundane day
and an entrypoint into a world where anything is possible
and where kids can explore freely as themselves.
Animation
Through animation students create entire worlds--handcrafted stories and creatures straight out of their minds.
In animation workshops we emphasize personal growth, working collaboratively, and self-expression.
We developed this program to work with special populations including youth with mental health issues and those impacted by the juvenile justice system who may be unwilling or unable to appear in their own films. Animation allows students to share their stories and ideas out in the world while also protecting their privacy.
Puppet-Making and Improv
Box puppets are built with cardboard and tape, and decorated with anything from construction paper to furry fabric and pipe cleaners. They can be as elaborate or as simple as the maker desires them to be. Out of nothing quickly grows something with its own unique personality.
The puppets reflect their creators; through making, each student unveils a little more of their nature. And the puppets provide a new outlet for aspects of their creator that might not otherwise come to the surface.
Improvisation lets students speak their minds, and it demands a loose filter: you never know what will come out of the improviser’s mouth.
But you know it’s what’s at the forefront of their minds.
Picture Books
We prompted students to tell a story about themselves that isn’t true, with the guiding idea: “Our differences are our superpowers.”
Students created unique characters who they care about with a story they think the world should know. They used whatever medium best supported their tale--watercolor, markers, ink, acrylic paint, pencil, pure text.
The results are wonderful: an anthology titled "Treasures."
Five Senses
In Five Senses, students create visual poems – self-portraits, as told through the five senses: Smell, Hearing, Vision, Taste and Touch.
Every person has a unique lens to look through. In this program we help students take pause and reflect on their worlds, interior and exterior. Over the course of each written and filmed assignment, students focus more and more sharply on who they are at this time in their lives.
The filmmakers journey through their own personalities, reflecting on who they are now and who they dream to become.
Documentary
Our documentary program is collaborative, hands-on filmmaking in which the process of making the movie itself is transformative.
It's not just about the final piece, but also about working together, reaching beyond oneself and becoming aware of one's larger community.
We taught the Journalism class at Los Angeles High School the fundamentals of documentary film and the many possible routes that doc filmmaking can take. Their result was a 19-minute documentary film comprised of student and teacher interviews interwoven with scenes of life from around campus.
Mask Making
What would your face look like if not like your current face?
This class explored visualizing the interior self and acting through movement.
How have masks been used throughout the ages? Are masks a covering or a revealing? And what can we express through movement if our faces become fixed?
