DO you know who Mister Maker is? Never mind if you do not know his real name, because Mister Maker is happy just to be known as the face of the children’s arts and crafts show that bears his moniker.
Mister Maker comes from generations of makers – his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him – and from as young as he can remember, has always loved art.
The British presenter was in town recently to promote Mister Maker, which is a TV series on BBC’s CBeebies, a preschool channel available on HyppTV, Telekom Malaysia’s pay-TV. At the Kuala Lumpur stop during his recent regional tour that also included Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong, Mister Maker met up with young Malaysians, especially HyppTV viewers.
From his magical studio filled with oversized art materials and colourful graphics, Mister Maker combines live action, graphics and animation to bring art to life on the programme that’s a hit with kids up to seven years old. His notable work on the series brought him a best presenter nomination at the British Academy Of Film And Television Arts (Bafta) Children’s Awards 2009.
When they first started, the Mister Maker team had targeted children aged between four and seven years. But they soon found that babies as well as kids older than seven were watching their show as well.
“We think the reason for that is art is something for everyone to enjoy; it is something that families and friends can do together,” said Mister Maker, dressed in his beige jacket and colourful button vest and sporting a prominent tuft of hair on his head.
“We see a family with a little girl, an older brother, their mother and grandmother making things together. The grandmother tells me that she loves making things with the kids. And that’s what we want the show to do, to tell people of all ages to have a go. You can copy what we do, or have a look and get ideas of your own,” he added.
The focus of the show is on having fun, creating art and being inspired from the world that’s around us. Recycling is also a very important theme on the show and the channel (CBeebies). It’s about the unexpected – making something great out of nothing. There are technical aspects to the show as well, all taught in a fun way.
“Every episode aims to show techniques to our viewers. We teach simple things to more difficult skills like stencilling or printing. The programme is fun and cartoonish and we use lots of graphics and humour. We always try to teach as well as entertain,” Mister Maker explained.
Every show features different segments:
- New Make is about new ideas being conceptualised and executed.
- Longer Make teaches techniques.
- Minute Make is where things are made in a minute.
- Frame It produces something the kids might like to frame up.
- 3D Make shows larger artworks using models and boxes.
Mister Maker feels children should approach art exactly in the way the show does it – to have a go. He wants kids to try and not be intimidated when they see something new.
“When kids just give it a go, they can see for themselves what they can make. They’ll be surprised and inspired to make more,” he encouraged.
There is a strong educational element to the show, according to Misty Maker producer Nic Ayling. The team goes out to schools and see what’s being taught, and use it as inspiration for their content. Helping them on the show and the script are education advisers.
“Often, our researchers go out and spend a day in the school to see what children can do and what they can achieve. If we see five-year-olds have problems cutting, we will not have cutting in the segment, or we would make sure the scissors are something they can handle,” Ayling pointed out.
Of course, they also go above and beyond what schools are doing. As most schools have limited resources, they try to do things that kids normally won’t get to do at school, but it’s things that are still age-appropriate and achievable.
Mister Maker, however, does attempt to cater to different skills levels. It may create something simple on the show, but also give its viewers the option of a more complicated version of the same thing.
Viewers can expect an exciting new addition to the show. Mister Maker whispers conspiratorially to us that a new show called Mister Maker Comes To Town is in the offing. Instead of being set in his art studio, the programme takes him around town visiting houses and schools and making life-size 3D art on his journeys.
“While we were filming the new show and visiting classrooms, we saw teachers using the CBeebies website (www.CBeebies.com) to teach the kids. On the website, the makes are broken down into stages, and there are video clips to show the steps.
“It’s really exciting to see things come full circle – we started with the educational aspect of the series, and we go into schools and do our job. Now, we see that people are enjoying it not just at home, but at school as well!
“Hopefully I can continue doing this for a long, long time. It’s a privilege!” said the chuffed
Mister Maker who, by the way, is named Phil Gallagher, also a theatre actor, writer and voiceover artiste. The guy who’s reticent about his age has helmed Mister Maker since 2007.
Mister Maker is on every day at 7.30am, 11.30am, 3.30pm and 7.30pm on CBeebies (HyppTV Channel 130). HyppTV is available to residential TM UniFi customers.
