I previously wrote about an exciting writing project we did at the end of the year, in which we integrated writing and multimedia to create some digital stories. I wrote about the planning and learning about movie making. Here I’d like to share just a few examples of the movies that students made.
We used iMovie on the iPads to create the short films, and focused on using camera techniques to show meaning. Thus, we used wide-angle shots to establish the scene, middle-range shots to show characters, and close-up shots during those moments of suspense, drama, or intense feelings.
While the idea of creating a movie with different shots was foreign at first, the classroom quickly got into the rhythm of “action!” “cut!” “action!” “cut!” (and now I see why you need so many cameras to shoot a movie or TV show).
The editing of the movies was easy using iMovie, and the kids could easily piece their clips together to make a coherent story. Some films were certainly more effective than others, but considering this was our first major movie project of the year, and they were trying to balance telling a clear story with the mechanics of film-making, I thought the results were successful. I certainly look forward to building off the project next year.
Here are a few examples of the films. I’ll share some of the finished books in an upcoming post. I’ve summarized the contents of the film, as you can’t yet see the text to understand the full story.
Film 1
In this film, Jake angrily walks into his mother’s room (yes, his “mom” is shorter than he is!) and questions her about her fight with Jake’s father. The results are rather entertaining! Nice job with the “over the shoulder” angle for a dialogue scene.
Film 2
In this film Eric saves the class pet from an avalanche that hits the school. This film successfully integrates some work from the Action Movie FX App.
Film 3
After having to use the bathroom at the end of the day, Elve discovers that she is the only one left at school. Upset, she heads back to her classroom … until disaster strikes!