Have you ever directed a film? How about when you were sixteen? Have you ever made a music video in New York City? These Winchendon students did. Seven students, from two campuses, came together in the same classroom with one goal in mind: to help each other make their films. This ColLAB fulfilled the promise of two campuses, one school.
Students in this ColLAB were pushed through the five stages of video production: writing, planning, filming, editing, and screening.
In the ColLAB preparation days leading up to January, the students wrote their scripts and watched music videos and short films made by other students their age. They even had visiting filmmakers from Winchendon’s French exchange program screen films in class and talk about the Filmmaking process.
Darryl Brooks made a music video on Winchendon’s MA campus during Mr. Holby’s Filmmaking ColLAB in the spring of 2019.
Lama Volant visited Winchendon’s MA campus as part of the French exchange program with Mr. Delorme and became a guest speaker in our classroom.
Next, students on both campuses planned their films. They wrote shot lists, drew storyboards, and made prototypes of their films.
A storyboard is like a comic book. It helps the Film Maker pre-visualize their film. The storyboard plays an important role in organizing the production process.
When making a film, it’s important to make a prototype before going into production. This allows you to test your ideas and see what doesn’t work. If you look at the difference between Omar’s prototype here and his final film at the bottom, you’ll notice how far he came.
Finally, students from Winchendon’s Massachusetts campus boarded a bus at 6 AM and arrived in time for their 10 AM class on Winchendon’s NYC campus.
During their first day of class, students from both campuses learned about what they needed to do to prepare, analize images, and began camera operation basics. They learned techniques such as the profile shot, the wide shot, tracking shots, panning shots, and the rack focus.
On the second day of production, the entire class came together for five hours to film Sydney’s music video.
Sydney was stressed while she prepared for her big day of filming. When she got on set she discovered something new about herself; she loves directing and motivating others.
Before editing our films, our class was invited by Grethe Holby, an Opera Director here in NYC, and Arthur Elgort, her husband, a photographer, to visit their studios in Manhattan. Grethe Holby also introduced us to “Bounce. The Basketball Opera”. It was the highlight of our trip. We are so thankful.
Grethe Holby is an opera director here in NYC. Arthur Elgort is a photographer known for his fashion shoots and his work for Vogue magazine.
Finally, as the students finished filming their movies, they moved into the editing process and continued to explore the city. For students from Winchendon’s MA campus, we know we’ll miss the Big Apple.
The final stage of any film is when you screen it to an audience, your friends and family. At the Winchendon School, our ColLAB program ends in a symposium where students showcase their work and receive feedback from their peers.
