The 5 Hour Film Project

How do you keep a group of 146 Grade 8 and

9 students occupied for an entire day? This was the challenge I faced this week.

On Wednesday, our school had a number of different activities happening that meant all the Grade 10 and 11 students were off campus doing either drama workshops or attending a pre-conference meeting at another Round Square school. The Grade 12s were given the day to make some serious headway on their ORTO (One Research Task Option) projects which constitute a large chunk of their year work for various subjects. This meant that there were a number of teachers who would be occupied either with the 12s or off campus with the other students and the 8s and 9s needed something to do. Enter Mr Kirk. 

Last year, when the idea was originally pitched, I tentatively used the name ‘iDay’, thinking that I would use the time to do some skills training—you know, 5 ways to maximise the effectiveness of Evernote or 3 ways Adobe Voice can be used as a study tool? However, owing to several factors, not least amongst which is the fact that such skills development stuff is rarely met with any kind of enthusiasm, I thought maybe something else was in order. Furthermore, many of the students, simply by following the ‘what does this button do?’ approach, have figured out ways to use Apps in meaningful and exciting ways. I’m sure I’ve got more to learn from them than they have to learn from me.

So, the question remained, what to do?

While I was wondering about this, I considered all the functionalities and Apps which did not require internet and which would enable me to group students around a common goal. The one that came up again and again was the camera, GarageBand and iMovie. Bearing this in mind, an idea began to form.

Last year, I had the privilege of attending the 48 Hour Film Project in Cape Town. The premise for this endeavour is that film companies gather on a Friday evening. They are then given a list of mandatory elements to feature, and then they are assigned a genre of film at random. After this, they have until Sunday afternoon to write, cast, film, edit and master their films for screening on the Sunday evening. It’s an ambitious project, and some of the end results were really amazing, especially considering the constraints the film companies faced.

Using this as a template, I put together an idea for the 5 Hour Film Project. Students were divided into groups of 15 by going through the Grade list and writing the numbers 1 to 10 next to the students. I mixed 8s with 9s to allow for a bit more interaction between the groups. Also, the 9s completed a section on making silent movies during their drama lessons last year, so I thought they could apply their expertise and simultaneously teach the 8s about what they’d learnt. 

After the groups were assembled, they were given the brief: create a movie that is no longer than 5 minutes long and which features ‘The Great Zamboni, Professional Juggler’, a key and the line, ‘Just a dream away’. The groups were then assigned random genres (drama, action, fantasy, adventure, crime, horror, romance, comedy, superhero, sci-fi) and that was it. The groups also needed to design a poster to promote their film. They had been asked to bring props and costumes with them, but they had no guidelines about thes

e and could use whatever they liked.

For the remainder of the day, the students kept themselves busy with brainstorming, storyboarding, scripting, filming and editing their films, and other students were tasked with getting the poster designed. Just about everyone was engaged and involved in the whole process and there was barely any teacher interaction required at all. People wandering around campus were met with screaming vampire-esque aliens running away from lazer blasters (Free FX for iMovie), wizards wielding their hockey stick staffs, dance offs, mermaids, terrifying school principals and sports stars all just getting on with what they needed to do. 

The day ended with a screening of all the final products which were incredibly entertaining, and considering the time they had to complete the task, pretty well polished. I will be running screenings in the Learning Commons during the week which will hopefully inspire the younger students.

All in all, the project demonstrated that when students have a clear common goal and when they are given the space to be creative, they rise to the occasion marvelously. There were no curriculum standards or lesson plans or marking grids necessary, and not once was I asked ‘Is this for marks?’. 

I feel this is a view into what modern relevant education needs to be: student centred with an emphasis on collaboration, and with teacher input only where it is necessary. They need to find their own way, trial what works and what doesn’t, brainstorm collectively and throw themselves into what they’re doing. If we can find ways to emulate this in all our subjects (to varying extents), then I think we’ll have more engaged students who are able to problem solve and think critically. 

I can’t wait for the next iDay!

Prompt response

So, the prompt thing didn’t quite work out.

I clicked all the buttons, entered my email address wherever I was asked to and I waited. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. I’m quite annoyed that the little project on which I had hoped to embark faded into nothingness before it even got off the ground. I’ve since downloaded Wordpress’s very helpful eBook, 365 Writing Prompts which I now plan to use on a more regular basis, so let’s see if this finally gets the ball rolling properly.

However, this gave me an opportunity to reflect on something my students do: they wait for me to tell them what to do. I often get irritated and frustrated by this, because I want them to take initiative. I don’t want to be the dictatorial figure standing at the front of the room barking orders day after day. I want to give them some kind of idea and then let them run with it. I’ve tried this, but it doesn’t seem to work. What usually happens is I end up with a room full of kids looking straight back at me. Some will give it a go, but the majority tend to feel lost and frustrated by the lack of anything concrete to go on.

After much trial and error, I concluded that I needed to strike some kind of balance with how my lessons were structured. Firstly, there needed to be a sense of freedom with whatever I set. Students had to know that they could take control of their learning; they could let their minds wander. Secondly, there needed to be a sense of guidance, reassurance so that students at least know what is expected of them. They need a prompt.

This last detail has always bothered me, but now, having gone through this experience with the blog prompt, I understand how they feel.

I don’t know where to start each time I write one of these. I sit staring at a blank screen and, inevitably, I delete the first twenty attempts at writing something. Nine times out of ten, I abandon the whole idea and the blog goes unwritten.

The other contributing fact to the unposted post is fear of judgement, of failure. I want these posts to mean something to someone somewhere. Yes, I know that’s vague, but I don’t really mind who reads what I write as long as what I have to say adds some value. Perhaps it’s a different way of looking at something, or a brilliant example of precisely how not to do something. Regardless, I write this for a public forum, and that comes with the anvil of potential judgement looming over my head.

What if what I write is stupid? What if people find them boring?

Eventually I get over this fact and I remember that really, I’m doing this for me. It’s helpful to get one’s thoughts down and often while reading through what I’ve written in the past, I’m reminded of details I noticed back then and so it doesn’t really matter who reads this, if indeed anyone does at all.

This experience is very similar to what students go through on a day-to-day basis: first, they don’t know where to start. With such an enormous wealth of information available to them, it’s difficult to point oneself in any direction. If you’ve ever tried to teach yourself something without having some sort of programme mapped out for you, you’ll know this is very tricky to do. Teachers today need to be curators of knowledge. We need to collect, compile and guide students through what we have managed to find and in doing so, we need to teach them to do it for themselves.

The other block which stands in the way of unbridled student engagement is fear of failure. Education has made getting the answer wrong one of the worst things that can possibly happen. I’m guilty of perpetuating this, because I have to set tests where there are correct answers, and where incorrect ones do nothing but show the student what he or she doesn’t know. I have to do this, because of an educational system that needs to standardise, needs to test and filter and assess and report at every given opportunity. I’m sick of it, and my students are too.

What’s the solution? I don’t quite know yet. I’m still waiting for the right prompt, I guess.