Getting started

If you and/or your students are new to film making, or you're looking for a refresher, you have come to the right place! Explore this collection of resources to help you on your movie making journey.

Empowering learners

Filming is a great way to create and share learning. Empower your learners to develop the skills for creating successful movies.

Begin with some of these:

Create a Learning Story
Create a One Shot Film
Create a Short Film

1. Create a Learning Story

Opportunities for learners to plan what they are filming to enable them to make connections with creating a story for an audience, storyboarding and planning a film shoot. Students could use a number of tools:

Explain Everything

Students use Explain Everything (EE) to create and organise a series of slides with illustrations/photos/animations/text and record their voice. The EE is then exported as a video to Google Drive and can be shared on their Edublog.

If you are new to Explain Everything, check out these resources on the Manaiakalani 1:1 iPad Support site.

ChatterPix

An easy to use iPad app, ChatterPix allows learners to make any picture talk: Simply draw a mouth across the picture, then record your voice (up to 30 seconds). The resulting video is saved to your iPad camera roll and you can export and share it from there.

Google Vids

Google Vids, a recent addition to our Google apps, are perfect for creating a screencast of students' learning. They export the finished clip to Google Drive and share it through their Edublog.

Use the Planning Sheet to map out your screencast. Check out the Toolkit presentations by Michelle Tate and by Fiona Grant to learn more about Google Vids.

Planning a Screencast

T2 2025 - Google Vids | Ataata Kūkara - designing tasks for students to use - Michelle Tate

T2 2025 - Capturing a lesson with Google Vids - Fiona Waugh

2. Create a One Shot Film

A one-shot film (also known as a one-take film, single-take film, or continuous shot feature film) is a full-length movie filmed in one long take by a single camera, or manufactured to give the impression it was. (Wikipedia)

Identify and plan for opportunities to film something they have created that can be

filmed in one or two shots
requires minimal or no editing
can be uploaded to their Google Drive and shared via their Edublog.

For example: Recite a piece of original writing, speech, role play, interview, song, dance/drama or skit, demonstration/explanation.

Find a Toolkit presentation by Fiona Grant on the right, and some One Shot film examples below.

Toolkit: Create a One Shot Film

Late for school by Braxton, Credence & Tui Justin.mov

Late for School by Conan & Tane.mov

Late for School by Taniqua, Huia, Daliyah & Amara.mov

Above: Some One-Shot movies created by ākonga from Kawakawa Primary School.

3. Create a Short Film

Once your learners are confident with the technology and the process, identify opportunities to create short films in response to their learning. Encourage them to harness what they know and to collaborate with others to design, plan, film and share.

Initially co-construct criteria with your learners in response to to purpose, genre, length, number and types of shots, e.g. limit to 30 seconds or similar.
Co-constructing criteria is also a good time to begin to explore technical elements of a film, e.g. shot types, framing and picture composition and camera movement (see Shot Types & Film techniques)
Ask students to create a short pitch for their film idea. Depending on your learners a variation of The Visual Portrait of a Story may be helpful to scaffold their film pitch. Focus on the highlights.
Storyboard - provide scaffolding for planning sequence and elements of the story
Planning the shoot - a well planned shoot enables efficient use of time to both film and edit their video.

Feel free to check out Practice Activities for Learners to inspire you.

Ideas to inspire you

Six Styles of Classroom Video Projects – And Tools for Making Them By Richard Byrne
NZ Onscreen: Loads of wonderful short film ideas
Day in the Life of a Letter
30 Film Shots Every Film Fan Needs to Know - Empire Magazine
First & final frames of 55 films [video]
Creating meaningful learning experiences through video: ISTE
5-Minute Film Festival: Resources for Filmmaking in the Classroom (Edutopia)
www.48hours.co.nz
Through the Lens of Filmmaking
Short of the Week - student films
Playlist of favourite Short films
Hand Drawn Videos, A Quick Guide to Making Them
BEHIND THE SCENES: The making of "They're Coming" Stef Parker

Page updated

Report abuse