Literacy: Movie making

In the past few weeks, Year 6 have been doing a transition unit on a book called Abomination, by Robert Swindells. As one of the units, we were asked to create a storyboard about Abomination this can then to be turned into a movie.

In the morning, we learnt about all the types of camera shots like extreme close up and mid shots. This came in useful when we were filming in the afternoon. After that, we were given a sheet with four quadrants on. Each quadrant had a different picture in including an eye, an ear, a camera and a face. These represented four aspects of film;what was seen, what was heard; camera positions and character emotions. We watched a short animated film called 'Lifted' that featured an alien getting his abducting licence. We wrote what the film used in each quadrant and after everyone had finished, they were handed in to the front and we discussed what a film needed to be successful.

During the afternoon we began storyboarding our film in six frames and an overall description of the beginning of the novel. The groups took a long time to storyboard! After a long time planning groups were sent off to find the perfect location for shooting. The enviromental area was a popular choice for the beginning scene as the hill suited the act of Taylor Hill perfectly. A few groups were asked to film but most were asked to represent the story by taking pictures of the scenes that they had storyboarded.

I think that the lesson was a good change to normal literacy activities and there should be more lessons like this as they are two subjects in one. Literacy and I.C.T!