Building – and filming – a great hobby

Brick by brick and frame by frame, Jordan Baxter, 16, brings Lego to life.

Jordan, son of Darren and Deborah Baxter, is a young film-maker who specialises in stop motion animation using LEGO.

The painstaking process can take Jordan hours just to create a few seconds of material.

Considering all of Jordan’s films are about four minutes long – that is a lot of time spent fiddling and filming.

Jordan is currently completing Year 11 at Narrabri High School and has been making these kinds of films for four years, beginning as a project for the school’s MADD night.

And it was from one of the MADD night films that Jordan’s hard work was recognised.

Jordan entered his 2018 film ‘What makes Australia great’ into the North West Film Festival after his Year 10 drama teacher and head teacher of English at Narrabri High School Annie Manchee encouraged him to show his piece to a larger audience.

Jordan Baxter’s ‘What makes Australia great’ film.

The film, based on the best aspects that Australia has to offer, won the first prize in secondary animation at the event held in Inverell.

Jordan’s passion for LEGO animation and film-making began when he was very young.

“I’ve loved LEGO since I was little,” said Jordan.

“Years later I watched a video of LEGO animation on YouTube.

“And I thought yeah, I could do that.

“It seemed interesting so I just became motivated from that.”

Jordan said ‘What makes Australia great’ is his finest film.

“It’s my best video that I’ve made,” he said.

“I grabbed a bunch of elements from Australia that I thought were good to animate and put them in a video.

“It highlights different parts of Australia, so for some of it I have music and other popular things like cricket or an Australian Day lunch.”

Patience is arguably the most important trait in a person creating a stop motion animation film.

Most of Jordan’s films are made over a 12-month period with each small movement being recorded to make the animations smooth and realistic.

It can take Jordan hours to produce a few seconds of footage for these films which is incredible considering Jordan’s films range from three to four minutes in length.

“It took a while,” said Jordan.

“The video after the Australia film took from one MADD night all the way up until the next year’s MADD night.

“So on and off about one year’s work.”

Ms Manchee came up with a simple analogy to describe how much patience Jordan possesses.

“I imagine it would be a little bit like being a kid on Christmas eve,” said Ms Manchee.

“The minutes would drag like hours and the hours would drag like days.

“He just gets so much enjoyment out of it and that’s great for everyone.”

Ms Manchee told The Courier that the ability Jordan possesses is extraordinary.

“I didn’t know that Jordan had this as a passion, as a hobby, until I saw the first one,” she said.

“And I was blown away.

“He is an exceptional young man.

“He is creative, he has a wonderful sense of humour, he’s a storyteller.

“It’s wonderful when he shares these videos with us and we can appreciate his skill, his humour and the remarkable patience that he shows to make these films.”

Ms Manchee said everyone looks forward to Jordan’s films during the year.

“It’s always a highlight of MADD night,” she said.

“It’s a continual process and he keeps getting better and better.

“People want to know what is going to be in there, what he is using and how he is doing it.

“And he doesn’t ever let spoilers out.”

The Courier tested Jordan soon after by asking what the plan was for this year’s MADD night film to which Jordan simply responded: “I can only tell you it will probably be shorter than last year.”

Jordan’s award-winning film can be found embedded above.