Digital Photography for Movie Making

During the 2007-2007 school year I experimented with a digital project using my 5th grade classes. I teach technology to all classes, Kindergarten through 5th, but wanted to try the new project out with an upper level class.

We used a digital camera to take pictures of things around our building and outside. The students used the images to create a photo movie where they narrated and worked on transitions, timeline and special effects. The students had to take turns using the one digital camera, so they collaborated on what pictures to take so they could quickly take their pictures and hand the camera to the next group. Each student would select pictures from a download folder to be used in their movie. The download folder was created by me, and I completed the download for the students.

Once they had their pictures, they had to do research on the internet based on what they had incorporated into their movie. For example, if their main topic was trees, they had to research the trees from their pictures and put facts into their movie. If they did flowers, they often talked about seasons or weather. We discuss options at the beginning of the project and use online graphic organizers such as www.bubbl.us to setup the flow and timeline at a very high level.

The movies created are short (less than 10 minutes) since our front end time is mainly taken up by sharing the digital camera to get the photos. Once the movies were complete the students present them to the class using a classroom projector.