Microsoft Education has a Digital Storytelling e-book that contains resources, project ideas, and information you may find useful for your classroom filmmaking activities.  Since it’s a Microsoft product, the editing software highlighted in the e-book is Windows Movie Maker and Photo Story. 

iDEA is excited to offer four Saturday workshops on aspects of filmmaking that can easily be brought into the classroom.  No matter your experience with filmmaking, you will leave each workshop with creative lessons and effective techniques to share with your students in the classroom.

The workshops are:

Not Your Average Book Trailer: Create a movie trailer for a book (March 6th)

Personal Narratives: Document a personal story in a video (March 20)

Claymation: Bring content to life through animation (March 27)

Bells & Whistles: Lighting, audio, and the green screen (April 17)

For more information and registration go to Workshops on the iDEA site.

We look forward to seeing you at the workshops!

Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E (trailer) was without a doubt one of my favorite movies of 2008. The expert use of simple, but effective story techniques and visual storytelling made this movie a masterpiece in my mind. Ever since the movie came out on DVD and I was able to watch it with Director’s commentary I’ve been referencing it in my storytelling lessons.

As far as I’m concerned, this movie should be considered a blueprint for how to film a movie. Wall-E’s filmmakers subscribe to the idea that you should be able to watch a movie without sound and still understand what’s going on, and Wall-E definitely accomplishes this. For a movie that features very little dialogue, Wall-E is extremely easy to understand, and can be a great lesson for students.

 Wall-E would be a great addition to your teaching library. Watching the first 10 minutes of the film can begin a great discussion with your students about how to tell a story visually.

Below, I’ve included several resources that explain analysis about the film and the steps leading up to its creation. I’ve found it interesting to see how much work went into Wall-E before the filmmakers even sat down at a computer to create the characters. Andrew Stanton, the Director, explains that Wall-E was his full time job for four years, and a significant portion of that was dedicated to the first 15 minutes of the film.

Click here to see a video about the creation of Wall-E featuring interviews from the filmmakers. The video is on Youtube, so you may not be able to view it in your school. Even if you don't show it to your students, there's some great information here that you can pick up for yourself.

Here is an A.V. Club interview of Wall-E’s director, Andrew Stanton. It’s pretty interesting to see some of his inspirations. Also, pay attention to how much of the discussions leading up to the creation of the film had to do with the story rather than the technology used to create it.

Click on this link to see how Karen J. Lloyd’s storyboarding blog go into some serious detail about how the Wall-E’s shot selection tells the story.

            Finally, this film analysis blog points out the brilliant use of visual storytelling in Wall-E, and how it might not be for everyone.

Creating Public Service Announcements (PSAs) can be a great way to give your students filmmaking skills and fits right within the core content by addressing both Language Arts and Visual Arts. Students inherently understands PSAs because they've seen so many on television, so it won't take much time to introduce them to the concept.

   Because PSAs are only 30 seconds long, creating one won't take too much class time and students are forced to consider the importance of each moment they put into their script. I've had the opportunity to introduce PSA and commercial lessons lately to a few after school programs and they have really enjoyed them.

  There are several student produced PSAs included in the DVDs we've provided you, and the PSA lesson plan is located on page 129 of the guide book. Also, check out The Ad Council Website for several PSA examples. Students really enjoy watching these and many interesting conversations can come out of viewing these.

 I recently had the opportunity to work with Drew Millerberg’s career technology class at Bryant Middle School to lend a hand with some filming exercises. Drew and I decided to have his students film some 8 Shot Movies (check out the lesson about 8 Shot Movies in the iDEA guide). Drew’s students spent one class period planning out their films, another class filming, and a third class to screen the final films.

            The 8 Shot Movie lesson gives students a great introduction to using the video camera, doesn’t take long to complete, and students get to work in groups and express their creativity. Drew and I were surprised to see that all of the groups put some good effort into the project and some students who had been struggling this year really stepped up .

            One nice thing about the 8 Shot movie exercise is that you don’t have to worry about editing software to complete it, just screen the raw footage from the tape. This lesson can also be tied into the core content, an 8 Shot Movie can be about anything, from math to science to history.

            Check out the video gallery to see some examples of these films. Click on the gallery and search for "8 Shot Movies."