I'd like some advice on how to begin a short movie unit

My goal is for my students to create scripts, storyboards, and other necessary planning in order to complete a successful movie for my language arts class.

I'm aiming to do short two minute movies while emphasizing the use of storyboarding, script writing, and other behind the scenes duties.

We have Macs, and we would be using Imovie as our editing tool.

I'd greatly appreciate any knowledge, advice, or resources you could share on this topic.

Tags: imovie, movies

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Permalink Reply by Patrick H on May 8, 2009 at 5:07am

Thanks so much. I'll check to see if our school owns this particular book. I looked at the sample chapter online, and the book appears to give an in-depth look at the philosophy behind making a movie.

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Permalink Reply by Karen Mallette on May 8, 2009 at 10:26am

Check out the Center for Digital Storytelling http://www.storycenter.org/ They have a great "Cookbook" for how to approach this topic, available as a free download. They also run some fantastic workshops.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick H on May 9, 2009 at 9:15pm

The "cookbook" has a large variety of introductory information to share with my students. This is another great lead. Please keep the helpful ideas coming.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Bogush on May 9, 2009 at 11:56pm

Here is the rough plan my class used http://moourl.com/lbsbg. ..one big change not reflected is to write script before choosing images

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Permalink Reply by Patrick H on May 10, 2009 at 12:25am

You have a fantastic website. I appreciate the simplicity of directions to your students. Your work will serve as a helpful beginning point for planning my project.

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Permalink Reply by Ann on May 10, 2009 at 9:44am

There is a nice sixteen minute video called Film School for Video Podcasters on the K12 Online Conference site. It was created by Matthew Needleman. Read through the entire page in addition to watching the video. He has some nice links.

Marco Torres has some great resources, too. He does amazing work with high school students. His wiki has some resources as well. I've been using iMovie with students on the Mac for about three year. It's really important to approve the scripts and storyboards in advance. I don't know what grade you teach, but sixth through eighth grade handle the software side really well. They need the guidance in the storyboarding, scripting, and planning aspects. They also love creating intro and outro music in Garageband.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick H on May 10, 2009 at 7:08pm

I hadn't thought about using UnitedStreaming for this. I will take a look at this resource as a possible introduction.

I am thoroughly impressed with the feedback from this community. Thanks for the help.