This week we started making our movie. I have to admit that I wasn't as excited about this as I had been about other tasks. I was however aware of the importance of this task as film is an integral part of literacy. Bazalgette (2010) states that “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 also feel that allowing children to create their own film will deepen this learning and understanding taking it one step further.
We were prepared for filming with our script and storyboard. Just like the animation we had kept our story simple to help us achieve an end product. The movie was to be a group effort where Tamar and I joined up with two others from the modern foreign language elective. I am unsure why we have had to do this as I cannot see benefits for either party. We have had to alter our themes to tie in with theirs' We had organised that Tamar and I would focus on filming while the other two would focus on recording the sound, as part of it was to be in French. On the day the person who wanted to write the script was off so we had to re-write it. We felt it would be unfair to leave one person to record the sound, especially as they were not part of the ICT elective. We lost time but still managed to complete the filing. 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 on our story board. Once back in the university it was time to check our script and record it. We used audacity to record it in lots of little sections as we thought this would make it easy to play around with.
The next session was meant to be for editing but unfortunately we were unable to get as much done as we had hoped. Before we could start editing the MP4 files needed to be converted into WMP files. We had been given the website ZamZar to do this. It took a while to convert all our file and when we played them through we realised all the files were corrupt. We then spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to download or find a different programme that would do this for us. This sort of setback only helps to remind us that as teachers we must be prepared and have the correct tools for the job. Although this was a fairly big setback for us it would be an even bigger problem in the primary classroom.
Once all our clips had been successfully converted we used Windows Movie Maker to edit. 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 and began to start working on our sound clips. I knew that the sound clips needed to be converted to MP3 files and that audacity would do this for us, however it did not seem to be working. Feeling a little fed up and with not much time left we decided to call it a day. We looked for advice later and found it must have been a problem with that particular computer and so feel ready and confident to try again on Monday. I will keep you informed.
2 comments:
Yes, Movie Making can be VERY frustrating when technology does not do what it is told. This is the most challenging area in ICT in classrooms as you require a lot of know-how and a lot of patience. It is not like conventional teaching where paper and pencils are the tools - nice and simple. It involves lots of hardware and software to get things right.
Now it could be said that children just record and watch. That is fine but we are going that step further and creating a movie not just capturing on video. You are right to say that this is for the Upper Stages but only if they have previous experience or are taken through each step with guidance.
I have written a post of my own reflections on the input that you might find useful.
A small tip - when referencing put a page number.
Where is your post related to having the iPad?
I look forward to seeing the movie next week.
You have reflected well on the use of movie making in schools. Movies are among the defintions for texts in CfE. Some schools are using this to improve literacy across the curriculum, paricularly in the early years of secondary education where different departments are working together.
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