As technology rapidly develops, mobile devices are becoming smaller, thinner and much more powerful. Apple iPad has become such a powerful tool for students to create with. It’s amazing how mobile devices like iPad or iPhone are able to capture video that will fill a cinema screen, but also they can also record and produce the soundtrack, design the artwork for the poster or DVD cover, use the internet to promote the movie, plus so much more. All from one device!
I recently visited St Andrew’s Major Primary school to deliver a filmmaking workshop with a group of students. I set them the task of creating a video about their school, using only an iPad.
The students really enjoyed this task, they all worked very well as a team and throughout the workshop remained focused, on-task and completely engaged. They took the lead on the creation of the movie, from the planning to the final edit.
Students use iPad to sketch note their storyboard
The students started the planning process by using Apple Pencil to sketch note their storyboard. This helped them to plan out their filming ideas and they found digital sketching so much easier and more fun than just using paper. It also looked much more attractive and could be easily edited or added to.
The first part of the movie plan was to film a tour of the school. Using the iPad device’s built-in camera and camera app, the students decided to film the tour using the time-lapse option which created speeded up footage. This made the video more engaging for the viewer, also enabling the whole school to be seen in a shorter amount of time.
Students used the time-lapse feature to video the tour of this school
As well as filming the school tour, the students wanted to interview a teacher. They thought of a range of different questions to ask so that the teacher’s answer would help tell their story of St Andrew’s Major Primary School. They thought about the angle of the iPad camera and decided to relocate their position due to the direction of light coming in from the classroom windows. They filmed the interview using the iPad device’s standard video mode.
Teacher interview filmed on iPad
The students also filmed outside the building whilst the school were on their break. This enabled them to get footage of their surrounding environment and to include their peers in the video.
Once all of the video footage had been filmed and the students were happy with what they had captured, they returned to a quiet table to edit together as a team. The students used iMovie, which they were all familiar with and very capable of using. They trimmed the individual video clips to the correct lengths and picked suitable music for the background. They also muted unwanted sounds to make the video look and sound professional.
Students using iMovie to edit the video clips together
Here is a video of the filming process, taken from my Twitter Feed @HopkinTeach
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