September 2011

I am going to be helping a small group of teenagers make a film. I start next Tuesday and just quietly, I am shitting myself.

This is where I tell myself to breathe and write the post out properly, so that you know what I am talking about in order to be able to virtually hold my hand.

I am unable to write about where I will be as these kids don’t fit into the mainstream school system and I don’t want to breach anyone’s privacy.

I had been approached as a ceramic artist to go into the city and mentor some kids. The idea was that we would throw some clay around and just have some fun. During the course of the interview I mentioned that I had just finished making a short three minute film. The interviewer was very interested in my fledgling film making abilities and asked me if I could help the kids make a documentary.

Of course I said yes, no worries I could do that. As long as he understood that my film making skills were very basic and that I really had no idea what I was doing apart from grabbing some vision, banging it together in some sort of order and adding some sound to it. We talked some more and decided to wait until I had completed a short course at the polytechnic on basic film editing and sound design.

I have completed the short course. I have made another 30 second film. And now I am going to be taking my very shaky skills into the city and helping some kids put together a documentary.

Commence hand holding now, internet.

This all sounds very nice in theory.

Easy peasy in fact.

Except for a few minor details.

My main objective here is to give these kids a voice through art. I want these kids to be able to continue using their voices after I have left.

I am used to working with a Mac for video editing purposes, though I do sort of know my way around Windows Movie Maker as well. The kids have individual  laptops and there is one iMac I can use.

Do I try and make a collaborative 3 minute documentary using  iMovie or do I try and muddle through using moviemaker with the kids using their laptops and suggest a one minute doco each?

I am only there with the kids for an hour and a half each week and my initial plan is to take in a selection of super short docos each with a different style of film making and share these films first.I am going to ask the kids to watch the films as potential film makers not as viewers. We will talk about camera angles and sound and that sort of stuff. I think that will be the first session covered.

I plan on finishing the first  session by asking them to think about their ideas during the coming week. The second session together we can begin to storyboard and then I will play it by ear from there on.

I am worried that my film making skills are seriously basic. I have good ideas, but I still need to refer to my notes constantly. I wont be going in there and pretending I am anything other than what I am. I have told the head teacher that I don’t really have a clue what I am doing and he seems to be fine with my cluelessness. I must give off an aura of capability or something. Or maybe he was just dazzled by my bright purple hair and the way I wave my arms around a lot when I am talking?

What do you reckon internet?

Any helpful hints?

{ 50 comments }