Making Our Movie

This week we started making our movie at the RRS Discovery. I have to admit that I wasn't excited about it. I am however aware that this task is important as film is an integral part of literacy. According to Bazalgette (2010)  “film alongside other textual forms helps children to understand the place of print literacy within the wider world of communications, and to understand the different kinds of texts." I believe that by allowing children to create their own film, their learning and understanding is deepened and it allows them to take their learning to the next level.   

We were prepared for filming by making props (a map, a boat and some informations cards), creating a basic script and developing a simple storyboard. Just like the animations we did in first year we kept our story simple to help us create a well put together, complete end product. The movie was to be a group effort, which in itself was a challenge as people were absent, or had to leave early while we were planning and filming so we did not have some of the information we needed on the day of filming.  If I were to do this with a class I would collect in all the work at the end of each lesson so that if someone was off nothing would be lost. 

Filming was quick and easy. as we had planned each scene before we arrived at the RRS Discovery. We did need to do a few takes of most of the scenes due to unforeseen noise at the ship or because we forgot our lines! We used digital camcorders to record the movie which were easy to use and the footage we got was good. I think using technology like this could also have negatives though. I know another group from the elective group had problems with the camera freezing. I think if I was to undertake a task like this in the classroom I would need to make sure I had a back up plan for situations like this. The group that this happened to from the elective used their iPods and iPhones instead, but this may not be possible in the classroom. 

The problem with using devices such as iPods save footage as an MP4 file which then needs to be converted into a WMP file. A website such as ZamZar can be used to do this, however, It takes time to convert multiple files and they can sometimes become corrupt after the conversion. A different program then needs to be found and downloaded to convert the files again. This sort of setback would show that as teachers we must be prepared and have the correct tools for the job. Although this would have been a fairly big setback for the other ICT group, it would be an even bigger problem in the primary classroom. Fortunately the group used a Mac laptop and iMovie to edit their movie.

We used Windows Movie Maker Live to edit our movie. I found this really easy and fast to use. I would have no worries using this in middle and upper stages of the primary but would stick to Digital Blue for the younger children. We were pleased with our edited images but did find it challenging to add music to our movie. We discovered that sound files need to be MP3's and could be added directly from the computer if they were in the correct format. I think we could use other formats if we used a program such as Audacity to convert them, however I will need to seek further advice on this. 

Although we didn't quite finish editing our movie, I feel that we are on the right path. It was simple to put the images in order and our group are very happy with what we have achieved so far. I have to admit, I am looking forward to seeing the finished product!

References

Bazalgette, C (2010) Teaching Media in the Primary School. London: Sage Publications Ltd