Think Globally Act Locally | The Power Of R

The grade 6-7 students at Queneesh Elementary are an active and technologically savvy bunch. Every time I visit Jaki Braidwood's class there are a rotating handful of students that use ipods to tweet mental connections they make during my presentations. All of her students utilize technology in everything that they do and, to be honest, it makes me jealous of my own elementary education. I also get to play/fumble on their SmartBoard and the kids all look at me funny because I haven't used one very often. We taught each other and from that relationship, built on solid waste, water issues, pixels,  and personal exploration, we started a very complex video production task together.  The Eco-Movie Preview Project.

The most powerful way to retain a concept of anything you learn is to apply it and then teach it.  Teaching a concept you have just learned, moves that information into a different part of your brain and this shift makes that idea more memorable. The kids were inspired and excited about a video project that I did together with students from Mark R. Isfeld and Lost Boys Visual Effects School called Disposable - The Billion Cup Blood Bath, and they wanted to make their own movie previews in groups of four to apply the knowledge about the environment they've acquired during the year. I think these students now have a better appreciation and respect for film-making and storytelling because as this task unfolded it got bigger and bigger and bigger.

These project was big because before you make a movie preview, it's a good idea to have a movie and before you have a movie you need storyboards and a script and before you have those you need a story, a message, a concept, and most importantly, you need to have facts and a firm grip on what you're talking about. In short, making a movie preview, or "pre-production," is a huge and vital task before the camera even gets switched on.

"When do we get to use the cameras," a kid shouted out as groups filled in a plot summary graphs with action scenes, apocalyptic devastation, person meets person scenarios and  car chases? "What are you going to shoot," I asked? "I don't know, something I guess." "Sounds interesting," I replied, "but probably not a movie I'd want to watch." "Oh yeah, I guess not." There were a few exchanges like this and they were really important to me. I've never tried working with students in this age group on such a conceptual project before. It was challenging and frustrating but also rewarding to see kids laughing their heads off about people picking up garbage and being chased by monsters at the same time. I can't help but to think of the hundreds of issues those monsters symbolize and the kids, unknowingly, tell the story idea to me with huge smiles, big eyes and the excitement that only validated connections can bring. It's a beautiful thing - this storytelling business, on so many levels.

The whole project was about learning to connect imagination with knowledge of the environment and communicating with peers diplomatically. Nothing has ever been achieved peacefully without these skills and collectively the students worked out their creative differences, merged their concepts and eventually produced an idea to create a movie from. Every group dynamic was  unique and moved at different speeds. Some excelled at communicating and got flustered by creative sections, while others had ideas spilling over and no organization. One thing was for certain though, everyone had a skill to contribute and everyone was critically important in the process.

After a quick introduction to lighting, camera angles, composition and audio techniques for their ipods, the students were set lose to film their storyboards.  Chaos, lots of laughs and growth overwhelmed the students and their projects. After that point I left and the groups shot, edited and posted their concepts to YouTube (see them below). Who knew learning about solid waste and water issues could be so transformational, rewarding and fun?  Thanks for the great term Queneesh. ACTION!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working with Teacher Jackie Braidwood and Queneesh Elementary's grade 6-7 class to develop environmental movie trailers. The kids were inspired by the trailer I shot last year with Mark R. Isfeld Secondary's MITV called Disposable - The Billion Cup Blood Bath and wanted to make their own cool trailers.

In teams of the three the kids chose an environmental theme they wanted to base their movie on. They then chose a genre that would best suit their message. On a piece of paper with a storyline plot and climax chart, the teams proceeded to write a movie based on their theme. After they had figured out a movie plotline and the events that would happen they started storyboarding a movie trailer that would highlight the interesting tidbits in their plotline. As we created the cartoon storyboards we had discussions about composition and storytelling using a camera. Each team decided on camera angles, composition and sound effects that would work well with their finished pieces. Before we even held a camera the trailer was first "blocked" out on paper. The kids learned the planning process that is so critical to making a great film and some were overwhelmed by the effort.

The energy levels shot through the roof when the cameras came out. We are shot on a set of ipod touches. The kids had a blast trying to recreate their storyboards on camera. It wasn't easy to find perfect locations for all the shots so at one point I ended up hiking behind North Island College with a film crew looking for a stream. We found a swamp instead but that didn't work. It was definitely film-making - not glamorous but really fun.

The kids all learned by experience how much effort goes into creating a good visual story. We're still editing the pieces together and ironing out the kinks but I can't wait to see the finished products. I'll be sure to post them when they're done.