Creating with Purpose and Mobile Filmmaking

Introduction to Create with Purpose Approach

Creating digital content often comes easily to young people who are immersed in technology in their everyday lives. While a young person can practice a skill such as mobile journalism on his or her own, an effective educator functions as a mentor to reinforce good practice, recommend ways to improve, and provide continual moral support to create great stories.

The challenge for educators is to provide guidance and space for young people to create content with originality, vision, and purpose. Creating content using mobile devices and following the Create with Purpose approach can help young people to produce authentic stories about issues and causes they care about.

Create with Purpose Principles

Introduce the participants to the following principles of how to Create with Purpose.

• —  Relevant: is the content relevant to the young people and their audience?
• —  Intentional: is it designed to have a specific impact on an intended audience?
• —  Personal: does the content express a clear point of view or specific perspective?
• —  Collaborative: have the young people and educators worked side by side?
• —  Original: is there evidence of originality in style and content young people have chosen?
• —  Inquiry-based: is the topic/cause/issue derived and led by the young people and not the educators?
• —  High quality: does the content illustrate an effective and innovative use of the mobile tools and techniques?

Production Process for Media Making:

A carefully planned media project (film, animation, photostory, radio show, etc.) or mobile journal- ism (MoJo) project has at least five steps in the process.

1. Planning
2. Production
3. Post-Production
4. Critique & Revise
5. Showcase & Share

Steps 3-5 above are critical steps in the production process, however, when facilitating media pro- jects with young people they are often skipped or out-sourced to an external facilitator. It is impor- tant to include these steps.

• —  Step 3 covers the editing process and is one of the most creative decision making stages of the project.
• —  Step 4 is critical to ensure the intended story, audience, message and style is being conveyed. The SAMS handout can be used again here.
• —  Step 5 is a great motivator to encourage young people to finish the project particularly if they are finding certain tasks challenging e.g. editing.

Film Crew Roles - Traditional v Mobile In traditional media making or filmmaking there are various production roles, for example: —

• Camera person - shoot the footage
• Lighting technician - plan and set up lights to create desired look/feel
• Sound recordist - plan and record audio with mics e.g. boom, laplel mic, directional, etc. —
• Technical person - back up footage and ensure all equipment is working/charged
• Interviewer - welcomes and preps interviewee(s), ask questions either on or off screen —
• Runner - an extra pair of hands to assist all of the above, where needed

For Mobile Journalism (MoJo), sometimes one person will do all of the above roles! However, when working with young people and the MoJo kit, these roles can be condensed to:

• Camera/lighting/sound person using MoJo rig
• Technical manager using laptop to back up and chargers to keep everything running —
• Interviewer (sometimes this will be the person on camera)
• Or one person doing all of the above!

When planning a filmmaking or MoJo shoot with young people it is important to decide on roles during the planning process. The group may decide to rotate roles during the shoot so that everyone experiences doing different jobs. This planning will ensure the shoot goes smoothly and everyone is clear on what their role is.

Activity: Storytelling for Mobile Filmmaking

Participants are asked to work in small groups of 4-5 and trainer explains brief.

Video Project Brief

Participants are given the project brief to create a 2-3 minute video using their smartphones and the recommended mobile filmmaking kit.

Requirements:

• They must be able to film the topic of the video at the location where the activity is happening. —
• They must include at least of of each type of camera shot in the video.
• Outline the five steps of the media making process that the participants must follow.

Step 1 - Planning

Create KWL map to brainstorm a topic (see previous workshop scenario on how to do this) —

• Review camera angles and shot composition handout
• Create storyboard or shot list
• Review Production checklist
• Decide on film crew roles
• Create interview questions/guide —
• Prep kit

Step 2 - Production

• Set up lighting, mics, props, etc.
• Do test shots to test audio levels and framing, etc.
• Participants shoot the footage (interviews, b-roll, etc.) using a smartphone and MoJo kit —
• Create graphics, if needed

Step 3 - Post Production

Ask participants to regroup in the room to begin the Step 3.

• —  Show the Kinemaster step-by-step video tutorial on demonstrate how to use KineMaster app to edit.
• —  Ask participants to start editing their footage using the Kinemaster app with their groups
• —  Create narration and/or source soundtrack, if needed
• —  Add transitions, titles, sub-titles, etc.

Facilitator provides support and guidance to the group as the edit their videos. Give them a 5 minute notice to finish editing.

Step 4 - Critique & Revise

Ask participants to move on Step 4 and guide them through the following steps:

•  Export a ‘rough cut’ of the video.
•  As a group, review the video on the smartphone
• Discuss what worked well, what changes would improve it. SAMS technique is a useful tool for critiquing media to assess if the message they wished to convey is clear. It is also useful to get people external to the project to critique it.
• Make a list of the revisions to be made
• Edit the final cut in Kinemaster

Step 5 - Showcase & Share

• Ask group to finalise the video and discuss export settings for the different platforms online and offline
• Upload video to YouTube, Facebook, etc.
• Discuss options on where to share the video with a broader audience
• Participants are now invited to watch each others videos. This is a good opportunity to invite feedback by asking the participants to critique each others’ videos in a constructive way using the SAMS technique as a guide.

Wrap Up Session

Connect the session back to the theory part of the chapter. Reflect on how Create with Purpose can help build authentic storytelling and how the five steps of the production process are effective approaches and tools to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills in young people.