The project „Filmmaking journey: from scratch to screen“ will aim at experiencing the value of film and its creation in education. It will focus on educating students to use video in ways that are educationally enhancing, responsible and empowering. Through collaborated structured filmmaking projects our students will learn such skills and techniques as script writing, understanding of lighting and sound, camera angles and different types of shots, storyboarding and scene planning, video editing . We will also create the right environment for the development of other valuable skills such as how to work collaboratively, assign roles, negotiate aims, meet deadlines, all of which will be done in the target language (English) thus creating opportunities for genuine communicative language use. The project will start with training session of the teaching staff of each partner school during the first transnational meeting in very basic filmmaking in order to have a clearly defined starting point from which we will increase our level of expertise. The training will be conducted by an English speaking expert from our associated partner The University of Trnava in Slovakia. The trained participants will collaboratively create a basic filmmaking manual in their native languages whose content will be further expanded by the students' trainings in camera work, script-writing, lighting, sound and video editing carried out either during the short-term exchanges and online collaborative sessions using eTwinning space. In a further step the teachers will agree in advance on the samples of various short films genres which will be shown to our students separately in each institution and which will follow a short introduction of short films background and theory. The schools will form/create „Film clubs“ where after-viewing discussions about filmmaking, film ideas, and film messages will be developed. Afterwards, international groups will be formed and the students will discuss and choose some of the concepts and issues of media literacy to be explored through their collaborative process of short films making. The process itself will be divided into 3 stages: pre-production (carried mostly online through different online platforms), production (carried during short-time activities of students), post-production (the students' editing collaboration online and in the professionally equipped film and radio studio on the premises of the University of Trnava assisted by filmmaking professionals). During the very last short time activity of students in Slovakia the official preview of all produced films will be held and open for wide public. However, apart from media literacy short films produced in joint-international teams, other forms of video production will be explored throughout the project lifetime as well. Student will create short individual video introductions, video debates, digital narratives and collaborative stories and they will shoot short video clips about their schools and hometowns. All these activities will be carried out through eTwinning platform.
The project “Filmmaking journey: From scratch to screen” aimed at experiencing the value of film and its creation in education. It focused on educating students to use video in ways that are educationally enhancing, responsible and empowering. Through collaborative structured filmmaking projects our students learnt such skills and techniques as scriptwriting, understanding of lighting and sound, camera angles and different types of shots, storyboarding and scene planning, and video editing. We also created the right environment for the development of other valuable skills such as how to work collaboratively, assign roles, negotiate aims and meet deadlines, all of which was done in the target language (English), thus creating opportunities for genuine communicative language use. The project started with basic filmmaking training for the project coordinator and colleagues from each partner school during the first transnational meeting in order to have a clearly defined starting point from which our level of expertise could be increased. The training was conducted by an English-speaking expert from our associated partner The FMK Trnava in Slovakia. The trained participants collaboratively created the basic content of a filmmaking manual, which was gradually further expanded after each of the students' trainings (camera work, script-writing, lighting, sound, and video editing carried out either during the short-term student exchanges or online collaborative sessions on our TwinSpace), and eventually published online to help other teachers and students with school filmmaking activities. In a further step, the teachers also agreed in advance on the samples of various short films genres which were screened by our students separately in each institution and which followed a short introduction of short films background and theory. The schools also formed “Film clubs“, where after-viewing discussions about filmmaking, film ideas, and film messages were developed. Afterwards, five international groups (of 10-20 students from each country) were formed and the students discussed and chose some of the concepts and issues of media literacy to be explored through their collaborative process of short films making. The process itself was divided into 3 stages: pre-production (carried out mostly online through different online platforms but during personal meetings of students as well), production (carried out during short-time exchanges of students), post-production (the students' editing collaboration online and in the professionally-equipped film and radio studio on the premises of the FMK Trnava, Slovakia, assisted by filmmaking professionals). During all this joint learning and work, five international short films were created, which were officially screened by a wide public at the very last short exchange of students in Slovakia. The films were screened within the two-part “video news“, whose main goal was to cover all the most significant events and steps in the lifetime of the project. After the screening, the viewers were also invited to see the photo exhibition “Behind the scenes“, which depicted the project through the pictures taken during our meetings. However, apart from media literacy short films produced in joint-international teams, other forms of video production were explored, by having students also taken part in the two film competitions announced by the project coordinators and created additional short films in small national teams which were sent to different short film competitions and won different prizes. The project “Filmmaking journey: From scratch to screen” opened up completely new horizons for all participants. It brought such new experience, skills, and abilities to our students and teachers that its official end will definitely not mean the end of our filmmaking journey. For all of us, this project was just the beginning of our further quest into filmmaking.