Renfrewshire ICT Blog

I had a fantastic day on Wednesday when I helped out at Renfrewshire’s latest Digital Video Festival at Lapwing Lodge Outdoor Centre in the Glennifer Braes.

The course was delivered by Oscar Stringer who is a world leader in the teaching of video and animation for the classroom.  Oscar flew up from Bristol and created a flurry of activity in the office when we realised that all hotel rooms in and around Glasgow were booked by Spanish football fans who were in the city for the UEFA cup final.  Fortunately there was a cancellation and we managed to secure a room at the airport.  Otherwise I was to spend Tuesday evening frantically cleaning the house in preparation for an unexpected guest!

On Wednesday we had 30 P4 – P7 pupils from Arkleston, Fordbank, Moorpark, St James(Renfrew) and South primaries, along with S2 from Linwood High and accompanying staff.   Pupils from Bridge of Weir, Gallowhill, Mossvale, Ralston, St John Bosco primaries and Paisley Grammar attended Thursday’s session.

After demonstrating some examples of movie making ‘good practice’, Oscar set the theme for the day as horror. The youngsters then had great fun exploring the grounds (in the rain) and the lodge itself as they identified suitable locations at which to film.

The pupils were split ino 5 teams that comprised one person from each school and I was very impressed how quickly they bonded and contributed to the project – we had budding camera operators, actors and directors.  Staff were on hand to advise but, to be honest,  the pupils ran the show and there was no way that any aduklts were getting their hands on the camera equipment!

The afternoon session was spent editing the video using i-movie – once we eventually convinced the pupils to stop filming as they had more than enough material.  The video clips were edited, audio and captions added and we ended the day with a scary movie show as the rain tipped down from the heavens.

Each school will receive a DVD containing the movies produced during the day, and they have now acquired an ‘in-house production team’ that can capture important events in the school calendar . 

Thanks again to Oscar, Ann Crawford for the organisation and to school staff for their enthusiastic participation.  Watch this space for details of the next Video Festival (in September we hope).  If your school has not participated before then I strongly urge you to come along – it really is a joy to work with pupils from a variety of schools and agegroups outwith the confines of a classroom.