This past year, my students took on the largest film project ever attempted at JWMS.  Jebari, one of my 8th grade video production students, wrote a really wonderful script about a boy whose parents are getting a divorce; the boy decides to get creative and seek lost treasure in order to solve his parents’ financial woes and save their marriage. Where does one find a sunken pirate ship and lost treasure in the middle of the southern California desert? At the Salton Sea, located at the eastern end of the Coachella Valley. Based partially on local lore, Jebari cobbled his script together from various versions of the legend of the lost ship and his own creative ideas.

When Jebari came to me with his project idea, I was immediately supportive because my favorite answer to give students is, “Yes!”  I thought his idea was original and the script had the potential to make an emotional impact as well. Jebari wanted to cast the movie with AV Club students and utilize video production classmates to round out his crew. All of it - the story, the performances, and the potential success of the project hinged on filming on location.  Though my students currently have access to a green screen and three-point lighting, Jebari and I talked at length about how much we needed to be able to film off campus. Enter DigiCom Productions and two of the producers of the Palm Springs Unified DigiCom Film Festival, David Vogel and Dr. Lee Grafton.  They graciously read Jebari’s script and decided to fund almost $1,000 of travel expenses for my students to be able to plan and execute two days of on location filming. We filmed at two different sites: the Salton Sea and a residential neighborhood in Indio. (Our school is located in Cathedral City, at the west end of the Coachella Valley.)

Here’s a look behind the scenes of “Lost Ships”...

Throughout the production of “Lost Ships,” my students and I learned two big lessons.

The first realization we reached is that movies are made in the editing room. The first cut of “Lost Ships” was over twenty minutes in length; the second cut didn’t get much better and sat at a solid sixteen minutes in length for the better part of a week as we scratched our heads and tried to figure out how to condense the storyline. After several more cuts and many hours, Jebari and his assistant directors and editors adopted a non-linear approach to the storytelling of “Lost Ships.”  It wasn’t until we all agreed to throw the script out and create the best story from the footage we had that my students struck gold.

The second lesson we learned involves some ideas about filming on location: You will always need to do a reshoot.  Before filming on location, my students drew extensive storyboards, tirelessly rehearsed their script, planned to accommodate for lighting changes throughout the day, and even then, they needed to do a reshoot.  No matter how prepared you are going into it, there will always be elements out of your control, unforeseen complications, and moments during post-production when you think, “If we only had a shot of _______.”  Hence, having the opportunity to revisit locations is crucial to creating the best product possible. 

Here is what Jebari had to say about filming on location:

Students worked for over five months to produce "Lost Ships" from beginning to end.  Their dedication and passion for this project really paid off, as demonstrated in their final product...

The cast and crew of “Lost Ships” were recognized recently at the California Student Media Festival as “Lost Ships” won an award for “Best Storytelling.”  Students were also staggered to learn that in a little over a week, “Lost Ships” will premiere at the Palm Springs International Short Film Fest as part of the DigiCom Best of Fest Student Showcase!  Also, Jebari and another student from my video production class, Gina, will receive all access filmmaker’s passes at Fest to be able to interact with adult filmmakers from around the world…wow!

Since Jebari is an 8th grader, he promoted to high school this past Thursday, as did two of the film's actors, Brent and Marissa.  Having been their video production teacher for the last three years, I will be honest and admit that I had a couple of tearful moment in my classroom after all my kids left.  Sometimes, there are groups of kids who have this incredible, beyond ordinary connection - with one another, with me, with the medium of digital storytelling. So, sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye. But I definitely know that these kids are destined for great things.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the future!

There is little that I love more than sitting in the audience at a film festival, watching my students as they see their work appear on the big screen.  By the time we end up at the festival, we've all seen the movie countless times during the editing and revision process.  Most of us can quote the dialogue word for word and we know every transition and special effect by heart.  So, when we're sitting there in a darkened auditorium, I don't take time to watch the film as it rolls across the screen; for me, it's a far more powerful experience to watch the expressions on my students' faces as they are overwhelmed by pride and a deep sense of accomplishment.  It's a thrilling experience - whether it's their first time at a film festival or what feels like their billionth.  Their smiles are always huge, their eyes always shining, and in those moments, I know exactly why I am a teacher and why I choose to include digital storytelling in the curriculum. 

Connecting with students through the medium of film is one of the aspects of teaching that I am most passionate about. We take film making very seriously in Room 208, probably because there is no shortage of inspiration to be found in each other and the process of learning.  Sometimes it seems like the world readily discounts what middle school students might have to say because, yes, middle schoolers can be immature, squirrelly, and obnoxious. But they can also be serious, ambitious, humorous, and even poignant.  Even after integrating student film making in the curriculum for six years, students can still amaze me with what they are able to produce.  

Last night, my students and I attended the 2013 DigiCom Student Film Festival.  We had a blast watching both our own work and the work of other students.  One of my students was awarded a video camera for directing the award-winning film, "Identity Crisis."  Last year, he won a video camera for directing a film noir piece, "The Lady In Black" and editing the award-winning, "Spitball Love."  He has been an active student in my video production class for the last two years and a member of the after school AV Club that I advise.  Film making is his heart and it shows.  I love knowing that we have been able to forge a teacher-student bond based on the creative process of film making.  When he geeks out about a new script idea or a special effect he's working on, I geek out, too!  It's awesome. 

Award-winning films from Room 208 that were shown at last night's DigiCom include:

• Identity Crisis
• Math Genius
• CST Remix

Also, The Desert Sun covered my students in two separate articles this past week:

Probably the icing on the cake at this year's festival was the classroom grant that I was awarded, consisting of four iPads and $4,000.  What an amazing, unexpected blessing!  Here's a video clip of the big moment that was captured by and posted on The Desert Sun. 

If you teach in California, maybe you've heard of a not-so-little Twitter chat we like to call #CAedchat.  Moderated by nine diverse, passionate, dedicated educators from around the state, it is very exciting to be involved in the growth and development of something that connects educators from across the state every Sunday evening at 8pm Pacific.  

Last week's chat topic was about the importance of PLNs (Professional Learning Networks) and the necessity of sharing resources, ideas, etc.   In light of that, I realized that several people have asked me about how I made the #CAedchat promotional video and I'm not sure a 140 character answer is sufficient.  So, I've decided to write this post to help you (or your students) create a video in a similar style.  In case you haven't seen it, here is the #CAedchat promo video:

1. Write
My first step in creating this video was to write a script - which is also the first thing I have my students do when digital storytelling. I tried to highlight the main points I wanted to share about #CAedchat, it's development, and the important role we hope it will play in the professional lives of educators in California.  Then, for each line of the script, I devised an activity that I wanted to be performing on camera at the exact moment each line was read.  

2. Film
All of this preparation was followed by filming.  I decided to film using an iPad.  Here's a snapshot of the set-up I used in order to be able to film myself with my iPad as well as be the one drawing/coloring/cutting, etc., in the video.  By the way, this is also my "document camera" set up whenever needed.

I knew that the nature of this project would involve speeding up the film at an insane rate, so I decided to film the outline of activities in one continuous shot.  Positioning the outline next to my right hand, just out of range of the shot was a good call, because I could glance over periodically to ensure that I stayed on track.

3. Edit/Sound
Creating the script and outline were one half of the battle, and filming was fairly easy.  The real challenge came in post production.  Using the iPad for editing was out of the question, since the iPad version of iMovie does not allow you the same versatility with visual effects that the full blown iMovie for iMac provides.  

After importing the video to iMovie, I quickly recorded the voice-over narration.  At first, I attempted to simply speed up the entire video clip at the same rate so that it would last the same duration as the voice-over, but I soon realized that some tasks took longer to accomplish on camera than others, and that a blanket speed wouldn't work.  (Otherwise, my outline of what to do as each line was read would be thrown out the window!) The strategy that ended up working best for me was to split the continuous clip into smaller pieces so that I could tailor the speed of each individual activity to match the rate of my voice as I read the script.  

4. Share
When all was said and done, I exported the finished file in HD and uploaded it to my Vimeo Plus account, then started tweeting like crazy.  Making the #CAedchat video was a ton of fun and it's been pretty gratifying to see people share the video on Twitter as a way to promote our state's chat.  Bottom line: I never would have thought to make a video like this, if it weren't for such an amazing purpose. I have loved co-moderating #CAedchat and hope that -whether you live in California or not- you'll think about joining us soon on Sunday evening at 8pm Pacific.  In the meantime, maybe you'll try out this method of movie-making with your students? If you do, please share a link in the comments below! I'd love to see what your students come up with. 

By Jessica Pack
Follow Me on Twitter @Packwoman208
Email me at [email protected]

Middle schoolers have a unique outlook on the world.  They are not quite adolescents, yet could not be mistaken for elementary kids either.  Capturing their interest and truly engaging them in the learning process can be tricky at best.  Sometimes, it seems near impossible. For example, a unique challenge of teaching in the desert of Southern California, is that whenever the weather changes - students inevitably go a little bit crazy.  In the land of constant sunshine, a cloudy day, strong winds, or - most shockingly of all - some actual raindrops can bring instruction to a grinding halt.  So, when it came time to teach poetry this year and we happened to be smack in the middle of a cloudy and rainy couple of days - I knew I needed to deliver an unforgettable exploration of poetry. 

Since songs are poetry set to music, I decided to tap into one of my favorites:

Starting off by reading In the Ghetto was a good decision. About 80% of the students at my school site come from socio-economically disadvantaged families, and I seem to have a higher than average amount of students this year who are bussed in from a neighborhood known for its gang affiliations.  The content of In the Ghetto surprised them - they are used to hearing Elvis' more lighthearted classics play over the loudspeaker at the local water park during the hot summer months. But they were entirely unfamiliar with this song, which quickly and understandably struck a chord.  

We read the lyrics using the Four Voices strategy.  This consists of breaking text into meaningful chunks and color-coding it in four different colors.  Each student in a group assumes a color to read and this aids in their overall comprehension of the poetry text. Afterward, I used In the Ghetto as a model text.  On clean copies of the poem, we worked as a class to paraphrase each stanza and color-code literary devices.  Discussions about tone and mood evolved naturally during the paraphrasing process, and I was delighted to see that engagement was through the roof thanks to the use of Today's Meet.  When all was said and done, I played the song so students could hear it.  They loved it!

To repeat the process, while gradually releasing control until students could execute the read/paraphrase/analyze process on their own, I busted out some other major players in poetry and music.  Whenever possible, I shared the songs or You Tube fan tributes in class after reading.  (For example, there's a fantastic fan tribute for Annabel Lee on You Tube, which really helped cement understanding for my EL students.)

After our poetry exploration, which included a day of poetry-themed learning centers, I asked students to attempt to write their own poems individually.  In groups, students selected their favorites and planned iMovies to illustrate their poems.  Since students have previously engaged in digital storytelling, the storyboarding process was very successful at keeping groups on track and focused.  The poems were read as voice-overs and some groups chose to add music, while others preferred to deliver their poems slam style.  Here are a few of their finished poetry movies:

So, what do you get when you combine Elvis, Poe, CCR, Seuss, Simon & Garfunkle, and Frost?  Magic for sixth graders learning about poetry!

By Jessica Pack
Follow Me on Twitter @Packwoman208