Sixth Grade Video Project

Lights! Camera! Action!! In fifth grade you learned a lot about the process of creating a video. We practiced with the Door Video and then created a video about one aspect of life at St. Thomas School. You learned how to plan out your video with storyboards and a few of you wrote short scripts for sections of your video story. This year we are going to put all those skills together into a video that we can give to the school to use for years to come!

The Challenge

Working with a partner, you will create a 3 - 5 minute video that teaches other STS students about ONE of the core virtues. Your video should find a way to define the core virtue in a concrete way, give examples of what it looks like both in school and outside school and make the viewer feel an emotional connection to it. After watching your video each viewer should be able to walk away feeling that they can now practice the virtue in their lives and know when they see others practicing it.

From a technical standpoint your video must include:

• Titles and end credits.
• Good camera shots that keep the view interested and help tell the story.
• Both still images and video shots that help tell your story.
• Appropriate music to stur the viewers emotions.
• Text captions to help us understand the concept.
• GREAT story ideas that help us understand the core virtue.
• Good quality audio that shows you understand how to use microphones and where to place them.
• Solid beginning, middle and end to your video. Leave us with the most important idea!

Let's Get Started

1. Meet your partner.
2. Choose the core virtue you'll teach others about.
3. With your partner, take a look at some videos other students have produced:

   Middle and High School examples from Washington State

   Mabry Middle School samples (scroll to the bottom of the page to see examples)

4. Write up your TREATMENT, which is where you'll briefly plan out your video and explain it to others. If you were working in the film industry, you would use the TREATMENT to find people to invest in your video with their money. Mr. Biggs must sign off on this page before you can continue further.
5. Create your storyboard that describes your video.
   1. Watch a 4 minute video on Storyboarding by Mr. Joe Dockery, the film instructor at Mt. Si High School in Snoqualmie.
   2. Create your storyboard as completely as you possibly can. Get as many blank storyboarding sheets from Mr. Biggs as you need.
   3. Not sure about storyboading? Why you should do it? Or how? Click here for a really nice, short explanation of storyboarding!
   4. Mr. Biggs must sign off on this before you continue further.
6. Write a script for your video. Mr. Biggs must sign off on this before you continue.
7. Review this presentation by Mr. Dockery on the PRODUCTION PROCESS.
8. NOW you are ready to start filming your video. Use the SHOT LIST AND SCHEDULE form to plan out where and when you'll be shooting your video. Be sure to make sure your actors can be there and give them their scripts well ahead of time so they can practice. You'll need to make sure you can do the following BEFORE you start shooting:
   1. Use the camera on the tripod (NEVER film with a tripod except in the rarest of circumstances!!)
   2. Connect the wireless mics. Use the mixer if you need more than two mics on a shoot (which you will if you have several actors. Think about using a broom handle to create a boom mic).
   3. Create a folder the C: drive of the computer you will do all of your editing on. DO NOT SAVE video files in your DOCUMENTS folder. Premiere Elements works much better when files are all saved on the hard drive of the computer. Be sure to save your still images, music files, Premiere Elements projects, video clips and any other files you use to this folder. Don't scatter files around or you'll end up with HUGE problems late in the editing process when you can least afford them.
   4. Transfer files from the camera SD memory cards to the computer.
9. Edit your video using Premiere Elements.
   1. Trim and place video clips and still images.
   2. Add audio narration where needed.
   3. Add music.
   4. Create your titles and end credits.
   5. Produce the final video. We'll always create an AVI file, but for this project we'll want a version that can be posted on the web.