Every year, I get into discussions with students on how to make a light saber. I have seen used pretty successfully and it usually looks pretty good. But, this has to be the best. (Thanks to the Farnovision blog!)

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Welcome to best year yet. I am of course speaking about EDHS Filmmaking. This year, there are lots of kids starting out their path to video enlightenment. For the first time, we have broken the “120 Pupils” mark. Sweet. Truthfully, I made that mark up, but we do have that many students this year. I can imagine for some of you that making your first video is a daunting task. Just let your imagination take over and you will be fine.

I was looking around the blog web this weekend and found some people who have been where you are now. Scriptwrangler was there once and is now teaching future screenwriters. Brendon Bouzard has wondering if his 5-year plan is working. The world is full of full of filmmakers that sat where you sit. They found things to keep them going day after day of bad shots, missed opportunity, soft focus, and computer crashes.

Your job, in your first response, is to tell us what will motivate/inspire/enlighten you to make it through the year. Give us the link, the title of the book, name of the person, song or movie, or describe the picture that makes you think that you can do it too.

Thanks to Mark Wagner for setting up this great CUEtoYOU Professional Development seminar. Some of you may know that the American Film Institute (AFI) has been working with CUE and Discovery Educators to bring top notch, hands on film production training. Mark recently announced the following good news on the CUE website:

“CUEtoYOU will host the AFI Screen Education workshop at the CSUMB Language Lab on Saturday September 22nd. In this hands-on workshop, teachers and administrators of all grade levels and subjects will learn how to use filmmaking as a tool to engage student learning. Through experiential lessons, participants will learn to shoot, plan, edit, and critique film and make connection to their curricula. The workshop is lead by Frank Guttler, Associate Director of the American Film Institute K-12 Screen Education Center and lead professional development trainer for the last 5 years. ”

Spending a Saturday in Monterey making movies sounds like a great day. Some teachers may disagree, but I am happy to use my weekend so I don’t have to fight to get a substitute.

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