Teaching Sequence

60 minutes	Part A: Planning Your Short Film
10 minutes	Reflection (may be completed as homework)

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Planning Your Short Film

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will be working in groups to make a film in the style of the Who We Are: Brave New Clan films. In this film, students will be asked to reflect upon and share the things that make them who they are. Students may wish to explore some of the things that were important to the hosts in the Who We Are: Brave New Clans films. For example:

cultures
languages
significant places
families
achievements.

Assign students to groups where they will have the opportunity to work with others who might have a different level of ability, or who are of a different gender or cultural background.

Step 2.

Invite students to start thinking about what they want their film to be about and look like. Before beginning this stage of planning, explain to students that the film should focus on who they are and should be in an interview style, like the Who We Are: Brave New Clan films. A suggested time for the film is 3 minutes.

Give each group some butcher's paper and textas. Invite groups to brainstorm ideas for what the film might look like and create a storyboard using the Storyboard template (or students can create their own). Ask students to start thinking about how they might engage their audience and what techniques they might use in their message to grab the attention of their audience.

Step 3.

Explain to students that the Who We Are: Brave New Clan films tell the stories of the films' hosts through interviews. The interview is a common documentary technique that tells the story of events or people through a series of interviews.

Explain to students that they too will be creating creating a film that tells a story through interviews. Invite students to think about what sorts of questions they want to ask or be asked in order to tell the story, and who should be involved or interviewed in order to capture the story (i.e. family, friends, teachers, etc).

Alternatively, could they make a story about someone else? If this is the case, then who needs to be involved and what questions need to be asked?

Work together to develop a series of basic questions that you think would help get your story started. You could think about what sorts of questions might have been asked of the hosts of the Who We Are: Brave New Clan films, such as:

What is your name?
Where are you from?
Who is your family and who are your friends?
What is your culture?
What are you proudest achievements?
What are your dreams?

Encourage students to reflect on how the interview genre of documentary making allows for storytelling, and the importance and value of this in sharing stories.Step 4. Explain to students that they are now ready to plan their film in more detail. Groups can use the planning table on the Student Worksheet (online or printed) to guide thoughts and record ideas. The Steps to making a short film can be used to help students understand some of the steps that may need to be taken and the resources required when making a short film.

Part B: Making Your Short Film

Step 1.

Once groups have planned their film, they can start to make it! This will include both shooting and post-production. See the Steps to making a short film for more information on these stages. It is recommended that you give students some tight deadlines to work to and assign roles based on student skills or interests. This helps students focus on the task in a directed and collaborative way. For example, instruct students that they have half a day to film and another half a day to edit. The timeline should direct the task.

Step 2.

Invite groups to share their films with the class and instruct students to provide constructive peer reviews by providing a printed copy of the Film rubric.

Step 3.

Share your film with audiences outside the classroom! Invite other students, teachers and families to watch your Who We Are film/s.

Reflection

Once the film is submitted, distribute printed copies of the KWHL chart to students for completion.

Brave New Clan - Make your own Who We Are film

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