If your child is passionate about movies, it can seem difficult to incorporate their interests into their schoolwork. However, by assigning them some filmmaking projects throughout the school year, you can let their creative side shine while also teaching them about writing, history, and even biology. If your child is younger, they may need some help with the technical nature of these projects; otherwise, you can give them a general outline and see where they take it!
[Edit]Steps
[Edit]Practicing Creative Writing
- Creative Writing and Film Making: Every movie and tv show starts out as words on a page, and writers have to be super descriptive as they plan out what the set and actors are going to look like. By encouraging your child to write their own scene, you can give them some insight into how the media works while asking them to put pen to paper.[1]
- For younger kids, you can stick to drawing picture books or dictating their story as they tell it to you.
- Pick out a genre for your child to write in. Every film has a genre, or a category, that it fits into. Talk to your child about which they like best: romance, thriller, comedy, or a combination of any of them. Start with that general theme as you work with your child to write a fun screenplay.[2]
- For a combined genre, try romantic comedy, horror comedy, or psychological thrillers.
- Help your child think of 2 to 3 characters. Every movie has at least one main character. As your child starts their movie, help them come up with 2 to 3 people that would be interesting to write about. They can be fictional, based on real people, or even famous people! For example:[3]
- Martha: 33, lives in New York City, grew up in a small town on the East Coast, works as an engineer, loves seafood and spicy salsa.
- Doug: 31, lives in California, grew up in Los Angeles, works as a banker, loves Chinese food and isn’t a fan of chocolate.
- Create a list of descriptive adjectives that your child could use. To set up their movie scene, your child should begin by describing where the characters are. You can create a list of words for them to choose from to help them describe to the audience where exactly the story takes place. Some good words to use include:[4]
- Weather: rainy, sunny, cold, chilly, foggy, snowy.
- Sounds: loud, quiet, chirping, whistling wind.
- People: crowded, lonely, yelling, whispering.
- Describe how to write effective dialogue. For the bulk of your child’s movie scene, have them write out what they’d like the characters to say to each other. Have them think about what people talk like in real life, and help them write out each phrase for every character. In actual screenplays, they don’t use quotation marks, so you don’t need to worry about those for now. Actual screenplays have a lot of formatting rules, but for your project, you can stick to whatever’s easiest. For example:[5]
- Martha: I wanted to ask-
- Doug: Yeah?
- Martha: Would you… Could you stay a little longer?
- Doug pauses. Yeah. I guess I could.
- Brainstorm a good conclusion with your child. If you want your scene to end with a twist, try to surprise your audience with what happens at the end. If you want it to be a happy, romantic ending, make your characters embrace or share a kiss. For a horror movie, you might have the characters defeat the monster or get eaten. Talk to your child about what they think the right move is, then have them write it out on their own.[6]
- Try to encourage them to be as detailed as possible. The more details they add in, the more their creative writing skills will improve.
[Edit]Learning About History
- History and Films: If your child isn’t super into history, getting them excited about historical figures can be a challenge. By handing them the reins on a film making project, you can give them control over what they research and how they present their newfound knowledge.[7]
- Plus, performing a speech or doing an improv bit is a lot more fun than writing an essay for most kids.
- Research a significant person in history. If you’ve been talking about a specific time period, you can choose someone from that era. Otherwise, have your child do some research on someone from a specific time period who they think changed the course of history. Have them find about their life, their awards, and the most significant thing that they did so your child can accurately portray them.[8]
- For younger kids, you can give them the name of a person and one significant thing that they did as a little introduction.
- Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, Rosa Parks, and the Queen of England are all great people to choose.
- Use clothing and makeup to dress up. Check out what costumes you have in your closet or your kid’s playroom, then use those to create a character. You can also use makeup to add a bit of glitz and glam if your child is dressing up as someone glamorous![9]
- Wigs are a great addition to a costume, but you don’t have to go out and buy one.
- Write down what this person said or did as a script. If the person you’re going to be acting as had a famous speech or moment in history, you can go off of that. Or, you can make up a scene and write out what you think this person would have said.[10]
- For example, if your child is acting as Martin Luther King Jr., they might say his “I Have a Dream” speech.
- If you want to make this a little tougher for an older kid, have them skip the script part and let them improvise a conversation with you as they pretend to be their historical figure. You can ask them questions about their life, achievements, and what they did throughout history to test their knowledge.
- Act out the scene in front of a camera. Set up a smartphone or a digital camera on a tripod and face it toward your child. Have them act out their scene and record it to make your very own short film! You can show it to your child’s friends or other family members to prove how much they’ve learned about history.[11]
- To make the assignment a little tougher, add an essay for your child to write about the person and what they did in history.
[Edit]Watching Nature in Action
- Nature and Film Making: Watching plants grow in real time isn’t an interesting activity, and it can take days for a seed to sprout. By doing a little movie magic, you and your child can witness nature in action without waiting for days on end.[12]
- If your child is super interested in nature and film making, you can combine the two by setting up wildlife cameras in your backyard. Then, take a look at the shots that your camera captured during the night to see who (or what!) traipsed through your area.
- If a long project like this isn’t your scene, consider watching an educational nature documentary, like March of the Penguins or Life.
- Plant a bean seed in a small pot. Purchase a packet of bean seeds from your local nursery and pick out a small pot with a drainage hole at the bottom. Fill the pot up with potting soil, then make a small imprint with your thumb in the center of the dirt. Put the seed in the hole and cover it up with dirt, then water the bean seed so it starts growing.[13]
- Planting an edible food is a great way to teach your child about biology and nutrition at the same time.
- You can also put a damp paper towel at the bottom of a glass jar and place your bean on top of that. This way, you don’t have to deal with messy soil (so it’s great for little ones.)
- Beans sprout fairly quickly, which is why they make an ideal plant for this project.
- If your family isn’t a fan of beans, pick out a plant that your child really enjoys instead. That will make the project much more interesting.
- Set up a camera facing the bean seed. Use a digital camera or a GoPro and set it up in front of the bean seed. Check the viewfinder to make sure the top of the soil is completely in view, and try to leave your camera in the same spot for the whole project.[14]
- If you don’t have a digital camera, you can also use your smartphone. However, it might be a little tougher to keep it in the same place since you’ll be picking up and using your phone throughout the day.
- Water the bean seed and make sure it has enough sunlight. The aim of this project is to watch the seed grow, and it will need both water and sunlight to do that. Make sure you and your child are keeping track of the bean seed and watering it every day, as well as moving it into the sun, if you need to.[15]
- Bean seeds grow the best on a windowsill where they can stay warm all day.
- If it’s winter time, keep your bean seed inside so it can stay warm. If it’s summer, you can put your pot outside.
- Take 2 to 3 pictures of the bean seed every day. Keeping your camera in the same spot, take photos of the bean seed in the morning, afternoon, and at night. At first, it will just be photos of dirt, but as the bean grows, you’ll eventually see a green sprout pushing up through the soil![16]
- When you keep the camera in the same spot, it will make your short film at the end look much smoother, like you actually took a video of the bean seed growing.
- Put all the photos together to make a short film after 15 to 20 days. Your bean seed will be fully sprouted in 8 to 10 days, but it will continue to grow for much longer after that. After you’ve taken photos for 15 to 20 days, upload them to your computer and edit them in a slideshow to make a stop motion film. You can watch your bean seed sprout and grow all over again![17]
- You can also print out your photos and turn them into a flipbook, if that’s easier.
[Edit]Doing Art/Extracurricular Activities with Film Making
- The Art of Film: The props, the lights, the actors, and the camera are all captivating, and the project allows your child to use their creativity as an asset. Younger kids might need some help with the setup, but older kids can recruit their friends to be actors or set managers for their very own movie.[18]
- If your child has friends who are also interested in film, consider putting on a little film festival in your home with everyone’s homemade movies!
- Help your child create props for their scene. Sometimes, you might need more than the setup in your home or outside to make your scene look like the area it’s set in. You can paint cardboard to look like buildings, rearrange the furniture in your home, or head outside for a nature scene instead.
- Painting props is a fun way to involve younger kids as well. They can make flowers, clouds, or stars for outdoor areas!
- Hand out copies of the lines to your actors. Take your child’s script and print out multiple copies, then hand them out to your “actors” so they can memorize their lines. Your actors can be the members of your family, a few friends, or even you or your child playing multiple characters.[19]
- Try to give your actors a few days to memorize their lines before you put them in front of the camera. That way, you don’t have to keep stopping to give them a chance to remember what they’re supposed to say.
- Pick an area where the lighting looks natural. As you and your child set up to shoot the scene, scout out an area where the lighting looks good through your camera’s viewfinder. If you’re shooting indoors, angle some lights toward the ceiling so they light up the whole room without being too harsh.[20]
- You can try out a few different ways of lighting your shot after you set it up to see what you like best.
- Have your child set up the camera to get the shot they want. Talk with your child about how they want to set the scene. They could angle the camera to get the whole room, zoom in on an object, or set it up to follow one of the actors. Help your child with the tripod if they need it, but let them decide where everything goes.[21]
- They might need you to hold the camera and follow them around as they act.
- Assist your child as they shoot their short film. Press record on the camera, say “action,” and watch the actors take charge. Move the camera around to get different angles of the same scene, or keep it in one spot the entire time. Let your child be in charge of the creative process, but offer help if they need it.[22]
- Your child may want to do multiple takes to make sure they like how the lines are said and the way the scene is set up.
- Help your child with technology to edit the film. Upload their film onto a computer, then sit down with them and open it up. Pick out the takes that they want to use, then use a movie editing software to put your takes together or add music to the final cut. If your child is proficient with computers, they may be able to do this part on their own. Otherwise, you can help them out or offer assistance when needed.[23]
- iMovie on Apple computers and Windows Movie Maker on PCs are great tools to start out with.
[Edit]Learning Objectives
- Preschool (2 to 5 years old): Kids this young might not be able to do much of the film making on their own, but they can still have fun acting out their favorite characters and coming up with their own stories. Encourage your little ones to get creative with their world-building, and assist them in putting together a fun, entertaining movie that they would enjoy watching.[24]
- If your child isn’t comfortable in front of the camera, you could have them act out the scene with their favorite toys or dolls.
- Elementary school (6 to 8 years old): Children this age might be showing an interest in films or tv shows, so showing them how to make one on their own can give them an outlet that isn’t sitting in front of the TV. Help them with the heavy lifting stuff (navigating the camera, doing the research), and give them a few ideas for different films to make. Don’t be afraid to get a little hands off if they’d like to take their project in a new direction, though. Focus on seeing a project through until the end, even if it gets a little hard.[25]
- You can tailor each project to your child’s interests to make them more engaging.
- Tweens (9 to 12 years old): By now, you’ll be able to tell if your child is interested in movie making. If they are, let them explore their creativity with new ideas of their own. Emphasize how much hard work goes into making movies, and encourage them to use their creativity by coming up with their own prompts and ideas.[26]
- You can also encourage social relationships by involving their friends in the filmmaking process. This can teach your child how to work with someone their own age on a group project.
- Teens (13+ years old): Teenagers often won’t need much direction at all. Give them the basic outline of a project and let them get creative with it. If they need help from you, let them ask first instead of stepping in yourself. Encourage your kid to think on their feet and come up with solutions to problems that might arise.[27]
- You can even change some of the projects to be more focused on specific types of film making, if they’re super into it. Stop motion, claymation, and silent films are all fun for older kids to make on their own.
[Edit]Tips
- Give your child loose guidelines, but be open to switching it up if they want to try something different.
[Edit]References
- ↑ http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Read_S/Script%20writing%20grade%204-6%20by%20Natalie%20Holt.pdf
- ↑ http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Read_S/Script%20writing%20grade%204-6%20by%20Natalie%20Holt.pdf
- ↑ http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Read_S/Script%20writing%20grade%204-6%20by%20Natalie%20Holt.pdf
- ↑ https://www.mensaforkids.org/teach/lesson-plans/writing-a-screenplay/
- ↑ https://www.mensaforkids.org/teach/lesson-plans/writing-a-screenplay/
- ↑ https://www.mensaforkids.org/teach/lesson-plans/writing-a-screenplay/
- ↑ https://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/filmmaking-for-kids.html
- ↑ https://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/filmmaking-for-kids.html
- ↑ https://www.readingrockets.org/article/103-things-do-during-or-after-reading
- ↑ https://www.readingrockets.org/article/103-things-do-during-or-after-reading
- ↑ https://www.readingrockets.org/article/103-things-do-during-or-after-reading
- ↑ https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/gardening_with_young_children_helps_their_development
- ↑ https://4-h.org/about/4-h-at-home/bean-in-a-bottle/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg92cspLy0I&feature=youtu.be&t=12
- ↑ https://4-h.org/about/4-h-at-home/bean-in-a-bottle/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg92cspLy0I&feature=youtu.be&t=12
- ↑ https://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/filmmaking-for-kids.html
- ↑ https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/beth-newingham/movie-making/
- ↑ https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/beth-newingham/movie-making/
- ↑ https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/beth-newingham/movie-making/
- ↑ https://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/filmmaking-for-kids.html
- ↑ https://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/filmmaking-for-kids.html
- ↑ https://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/filmmaking-for-kids.html
- ↑ https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/beth-newingham/movie-making/
- ↑ https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/beth-newingham/movie-making/
- ↑ http://teachwithmovies.org/for-home-school/
- ↑ http://teachwithmovies.org/for-home-school/
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