Film making & Animation
There’s no project that utilizes more skills and requires more teamwork and discussion than one that requires students to produce a short film.
Movies are a big part of students’ culture and conversations, and perhaps the primary way students experience storytelling. But they consume films uncritically, with little awareness of the ways filmmakers manipulate the audience.
A study of film and filmmaking helps students better understand and communicate about the movies they see. It also shows how films are a powerful form of communication, giving voice to ideas and messages more clearly than words alone can express.
In creating a film, students practise skills for Designing and Developing a Digital Outcome, from the Technology curriculum.
In writing their script and filming, editing and exporting their film, the students show that, when given criteria and tools, they:
can independently make decisions about creating, manipulating, storing, retrieving and sharing content that has been developed for a specific purpose
understand the particular roles of components in an input-process-output system and how they work together
understand that inputs are transformed into outputs within a system and the “control” role that humans have in this
are able to use a software application and a range of file types to meet a specific purpose.
Pre Production
Storyboard That
STORYBOARD THAT is a website that lets kids create storyboards. Kids can fill panels with images from an image bank, dragging and dropping characters and props into scenes, then adding text into dialogue bubbles or anywhere they please. Once kids have put together a complete storyboard, they can save it to their account and return to it later, or save to a computer.
There is a free limited version that allows you to create 2 storyboards per week. Sign in with Google available.
Canva Storyboards
Create a plan for your next video project. Canva’s storyboard creator is free, and easy to use.
Bring your scenes to life without spending hours hunting for the right image. Canva’s image library has millions of images to choose from, from high-quality stock photos to illustrations. Or you can add your own images in seconds. Simply drag and drop from your desktop!
Open up Canva and search for “Storyboards” to get started.
Production
Stop Motion Studio
STOP MOTION STUDIO is a photo and video tool that makes creating animations simple and easy.
Kids can select photos from their libraries or record new images from within the app. A basic set of tools such as overlay, grid, frame-by-frame preview, frame positioning, and fade are included in the free version.
Available for PC, iOS and Android
Clapmotion
ClapMotion is a stop-motion software that allows you to create your own animation by simply clapping your hands.
Arrange your toys, pictures or whatever you desire and simply clap your hands to take a photo. Move them around and clap again and in no time you’ll have your own animation! Make flawless stop motion movies with the most simple stop-motion solution on the market.
ClapMotion is an ideal tool for the classroom and home, developing project based thinking, artistic, creative and teamwork skills.
Great news! ClapMotion is free! No ads, no hocus pocus!
Available for Chromebook
Keynote
While Keynote is normally used for presentations, you can make some fantastic animated movies using the built in shapes, your own drawings and the animation tools built in to the app.
It's a great way to learn simple 2D animation, and an introduction to vector animation.
Available for Mac and iOS
CodeSpark Academy
Creating a story in CodeSpark Academy is easy! Plus, it’s a great way for kids to explore their creativity and sharpen their logic while learning how to code.
Using the word-free coding interface, kid coders can program The Foos to walk, eat, and more in interactive scenes. Kids can further personalize their stories by adding voice recordings or speech bubbles to make their characters speak.
To share a project with friends and family outside of CodeSpark Academy, watch or play through your Story and then click on the yellow button with the arrow the bottom right corner.
Scratch Jr
Use computational thinking to create an animated story using Scratch Jr.
Young students can use the library of characters and settings to create their own story, or draw their own creations and bring them to life.
Post Production
iMovie
iMovie is a free video editing app that can be used on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer. It allows users to compile images and video with audio and transitions to create a simple movie. iMovie includes a collection of theme music and sound effects that can also be included in movie projects at no cost.
iMovie allows users the option of creating a movie or trailer project. Movies offer less structure and more flexibility for adding video, audio, and images. Trailers offer a more structured approach to movie making. They are preformatted like a movie trailer you would see for an upcoming feature film. Students simply need to edit text and insert video or images.
Adobe Premiere Rush
Adobe Premiere Rush is the free mobile and desktop video editing app for creativity on the go. Wherever you are, from your phone to your computer, you can shoot, edit and share high-quality videos.
Download the Premiere Rush app for free on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.
Da Vinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is the world’s only solution that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics and audio post production all in one software tool! Its elegant, modern interface is fast to learn and easy for new users, yet powerful for professionals.
Students can use the same software that industry professionals use for free!