Making Movies

My grade 8 class is planning to make their own short videos this term. They will eventually put together their own 2-3 minute videos. The MYP 'Area of Interaction' for this unit will be Community and Service. The videos are expected to be educational to some degree and will be shared with the community. We are still in the early Investigate stage. Students are watching and sharing a lot of short videos on their own and we are beginning to categorize them according to form, content and style. In the meantime, the videos that I am showing try to draw attention to particular features that I want them to think about when they start making their own. For example, we were looking at creative use of sound in Friday's lesson. I showed them a great little video from a reality show called 'On The Lot' that was on TV a few years. ago. The director, Zack Lipovsky was well known on the show for his stunning special effects work. But in this video, there are none--just very clever use of sound effects. And they make all the difference. Take a look: