This year Mrs. Danielle Allen is teaching a new class titled Screen Writing and Video Production. In this class, students learn how to screen write as well as film and analyze movies.
Last year Allen introduced Journalism 3 into the curriculum. In that class, students learn how to become broadcast journalist by writing and recording their own podcasts. Although that class seem to be doing well, Allen had all this equipment with only a few students using it. Due to that, Allen decided to create a new class Screen Writing and Video Production so more students could have access to the equipment.
This is the first year of Screen Writing and Video Production and so far it has been a big hit with many of the students. There is a total of 24 students in this class that are all eager to learn more about the film industry.
Junior Ryan Williams has had some experience editing videos however, due to this class he learned more about the industry as a whole. “I took this class to learn more about the process of making a film outside of editing,” Williams said, “However I was able to learn more about the pre-production process as a well as the production process which I didn’t expect.”
Filming
This class offers a wide variety of knowledge about the film industry. Students learn different positions such as: director, producer, editor, talents, etc and take turns performing each of the roles. Along with that, student learn about camera angles, sound effects, lighting, and so much more behind the scenes objects. Students also watch movies and television shows and analyze their structure. All of these activities have been fun, but a lot of students favorite part of the class has been writing and filming their own movies.
One of the assignments Mrs. Allen had the students do was write and film their very own PSA. Students broke up into four groups of five to six and began working on their PSA. Senior Olivia Fasulo and her group did a PSA on sportsmanship. “My favorite part of the class was doing the PSA on sportsmanship,” Fasulo stated, “I had a lot of fun creating the script and filming the project with my friends. However, it is a shame we where never able to edit it because of our lack of software.”
Lack of Software
Originally each student in the class was supposed to get their on Adobe editing software. However, due to technical difficulties, students were unable to obtain the software on the school’s computers. Now the class is left at square one when it comes to editing software.
“It is a real shame that we were unable to receive any of the Adobe editing software, Allen said, ” Now I have to find and whole new editing system for the students to use and in the mean time we just cannot edit our videos.”
Although their are issues that need to be resolved, Mrs. Allen and the rest of the Screen Writing and Video Production class are not giving up. There are still a lot more things in store for the rest of the semester.
