This is our last week of technology integration summer camp, and our theme this week is Movie Making. The kids have been busy making animations in GoAnimate4Schools.com and GoAnimate.com. I still have not found a good way to download the video so that I can include their animations on the DVD that they will take home. It appears that you can upload some of your animations to YouTube.com with a "Plus Account" which would enable you to download the video as well. However, a "Plus Account" is extra money each month and not the best option for students in a week long themed summer camp. I have embedded a few of the student animations below.
Our major project this week has been in creating a movie with everyone in the group included. Since we only have the week to create, film, edit, and publish the film itself, we often look for available scripts that other authors have already created. During the school year, I would certainly have the students rework something that they have written for an assignment, or during writer's workshop, for our script, but with such a short timeline "stealing" a script speeds up the process and helps to make the week more successful. This session we grabbed a script from Aaron Shepard's Reader's Theater page, and a picture book that he has written called, The Legend of Lightning Larry. Lightning Larry is a cowboy that rides into the town of Brimstone and changes the old west down forever. Instead of shooting bullets, Larry's gun shoots bolts of light that makes everyone a better person.
We spent the first two days reviewing the script, storyboarding our scenes, gathering costumes and putting up the set (green rolls of paper helped immensely), and practicing our lines. Day three was used to film the entire movie. The storyboards proved to be a huge help, since two of the scenes took place at the Cottonmouth Saloon, and with the help of these plans we were able to shoot the movie out of sequence, but ultimately saving a great deal of time. Marco Torres, the guru of student films, once referred to the importance of storyboards by saying, "It's much easier to take an eraser to a blueprint then it is to take an axe to a foundation." I couldn't agree more!
Thursday we spent the entire day in the computer lab editing our project in iMovie. I had visited 1880 Town in South Dakota a few summers ago on a trip across the northern part of the United States to visit as many national parks as I could, and we were able to use a lot of the pictures from this tourist attraction for our movie to replace the green screen backgrounds.
Friday we reviewed the movie for the last time and added the final touches to voice overs, sound and visual effects. It was time to burn our film to DVD and share it to YouTube for the whole world to see and comment on. Take a look at our student film, The Legend of Lightning Larry below. Keep in mind the students did everything on this project except for the script itself. We would love to hear your reactions and feedback, so please post your comments after viewing the movie.
Paul's Talking Burger and Soda Animation, "I Got an F on My Test"
GoAnimate.com: f by sharks182
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
Timothy's Pirate Animation, "Oh God!"
GoAnimate.com: oh god by tfitzgerald
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
Quenton's Animal Animation, "I'm Cool You're Not"
GoAnimate.com: Im cool you are not by qconvery
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
Eric's Jungle Animation, "An Elephant that Doesn't Eat Peanuts"
GoAnimate.com: An Elephant that Doesn't Like Peanuts by lawsonlabs
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
The Legend of Lightning Larry story by Aaron Shepard
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