This was made by 4 second grade students. I was disappointed that my pseudo studio doors were opened too much and we filmed the wall, light switch, etc. Disappointing for me during editing. I bet there are some film gurus who would know how to edit this out but I am not at that stage yet. My little blonde in the front on the left is usually a shy girl but she comes alive on the film.
Connie Blackburn
Mar 16, 2009 2:59 PM
Oh, Laura! They were great. I never would have guessed that your little gal is shy. She was so professional. What a great way to get kids talking about what they have read. Connie
Frank Maggi
Mar 17, 2009 8:56 AM
You can really see the language practice this gives all of your young readers. I did not find the wall features to be a distraction at all. I just noticed the colorful book wall; it looked great. I would recommend avoiding jump cuts. That's where the camera framing stays the same or nearly the same, but there's clearly a cut (it "jumps"). One easy way to reduce that is film lots of B-roll and go to an appropriate cutaway (say, a book picture) to cover the jump. Nice job, Laura.
melissaandrews
Mar 17, 2009 1:07 PM
Wow - these kids are really cute. I love that one of the little girls is typically "shy" and is given a great opportunity to "shine". I'm sorry to say that I can't help you with your light switch dilemma. You may want to try adding some transitions between your clips to smooth them out. Great job!
lizfish
Mar 17, 2009 4:48 PM
Very cute Laura! In the future maybe have the cue cards held by someone in front of the student so they don't look down to read. I wouldn't worry about the light switch. I don't know if it's possible to do words of some kind over it with iMovie. This might be more distracting though. Super job- very colorful!
jbaehr
Mar 17, 2009 7:42 PM
Very cute! I think this would be a great idea to use frequently in the classroom for the kids to practice. I also didn't notice the light switch. Your display was very nice. I noticed that one of the students was speaking so much softer than the others. Unfortunately, I don't know how you would correct this post production. I had problems with this as well. Looks good!