Gary the Duck: A Collaboration Between a Teacher, Four Alums, & 100 Students

What does a Willows’ music teacher, one hundred Willows students, and four Willows’ alums have in common? A duck astronaut.

This piece is about collaboration and how one music teacher reached out to his school community and collaborated with four alums and one hundred students to create an animated music video called “Gary the Duck that has been submitted into many festivals and has already been awarded multiple accolades.

“Gary the Duck” is a musical and visual storytelling experience featuring a young aspiring duck astronaut who, with support of his friends and family, overcomes adversity and eventually achieves his dreams. The project was conceived by Willows Music Teacher Greg Blum and is a product of many years of hard work and collaboration of many artists including four Willows alums and 100 Willows students.

The inception of “Gary the Duck” started in 2016 and was inspired from an experience Greg had as a teacher and the passing of David Bowie. It first started out just like any other songs Greg had composed in the past but after completing the song, Greg knew that it needed animation. Greg knew he couldn’t do it by himself so he reached out to Ben Knight, an 8^th grader at the time, and eventually worked out a plan for him, along with his parents, to help with video animation. As the music video evolved, Greg reached out to other talented alums and artists to assist:

Isaac Willson (alum) – Piano 

Evie Knight (alum) – Character design  

Mahra Peterkin – Background painting

From character design to 3d modeling to background painting, more people became involved in the production of “Gary the Duck”. In the end, the finished music video, which consisted of digital 2d animation, 2d hand drawn sketching, and 3d animation, is a true Willows collaboration across all ages.

The experience for Greg was a memorable and enjoyable experience. “It was so fun. We got onto a schedule about a year ago where we would meet on Zoom twice a month. We would talk about what needs to happen, the direction, who is doing what, etc. Ben would animate the scenes, and then he would assign the three to do a clean-up of over each frame. It was gratifying. The team was just lovely.”

This project that took 3 years to finish is a prime example of how The Willows is a community. It is not by accident that the word “community” is included in the name of our school. It is an intentional and integral part of our identity. The impact and the relationships that are formed in the early years continue to thrive as students graduate from these walls and pursue their dreams just as “Gary the Duck” does in his dream of being an astronaut.

Learn about The Willows Music Program Here