Highland pupils discover the art of documentary film making

Pupils from seven Highland primary schools are meeting at Eden Court, Inverness this week to view the results of their documentary film making.

Over the last year The Highland Council’s, Education Culture and Sport Service ran a cross curricular initiative for pupils and teachers. They had the opportunity to work with professional film makers from arts company Wildbird, to learn the skills and techniques involved in creating a documentary for video.

The pupils worked intensively to develop their own documentary videos and were involved in every stage of the creative process, from: selecting the subject and locations; creating story boards and scripts; designing interview questions; conducting interviews; operating the technical equipment such as cameras, lighting and sound; selecting appropriate music; and making animations and editing the work.

Primary 1 to 7 pupils and staff from Shieldaig, Torridon, Smithon, Lochardil, Ferintosh, Knockbreck (Tain) and Invergarry Primaries took part in the project. Each school created a 15 to 25 minute long documentary. Approximately 5 minutes of highlights from each school film will be viewed at the showcase event at Eden Court.

Congratulating the pupils and teachers on their documentaries Councillor Drew Millar Chairman of The Highland Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee said: “Well done to everyone involved for all their hard work, it’s plain to see that the results of your learning is visibility demonstrated in the high quality output of your productions.  This initiative is a good example of a cross curricular model of working, supporting the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence in Highland schools.”

The project supported schools to deliver their outcomes and experiences within Curriculum for Excellence in Expressive Arts, Literacy and English, Technologies and Health and Wellbeing.

In feedback to the project coordinator, Highland Council’s Arts Link Officer, Lynn Johnson some of the participating teachers said: “We saw pupils develop in confidence – building communication skills.  It was also great fun” …and… “The workshop was hugely enjoyable and of excellent benefit to the class.”

The project received generous support from Creative Scotland.  Thanks also go to Eden Court for use of the venue for the showcase event.