Exploring planet ULIS

Workshop result:

On the first day, we introduce the project to the students: We are explorers setting off to discover an unknown planet
We offer them to make a video travel journal of this exploration. We discuss the notions of travel journal and scientific exploration. Together, we try to describe the planet we are going to explore and draw up its identity card. The class teachers had prepared the ground by showing the students scientific travel journals. Some useful notions, such as shooting or sound effects, had already been covered and are displayed in the classroom.

One of the constraints of their production will be the technique used. We will give them access to 4 video techniques:

• Stop-motion

  

• Shadow puppets

  

• The video microscope

  

• Video effects

  

The students are invited to form pairs to come and try out these different techniques. For video effects, they handle various objects in front of a camera: a tube wrapped in aluminum foil, gelatin, light, a kaleidoscope and a strip of colored LEDs. They also have access to a small camera with a glitchy video feedback. Another station introduces frame-by-frame animation: we offer the students to animate the rocket launch with do.doc. In another room, the students cut strange animals out of black paper to film them as shadow puppets. Meanwhile, two other students use the microscope camera to discover the details of pieces of wood, pine cones, erasers and other found objects. These stations have no other goal than to understand and try out these techniques.

After these short sessions, we asked the students for their favorite technique. A few working groups were formed this way, while some students wished to work alone. Each group has to go and explore an area of the planet and make a short film.
We hand out a story sheet for each working group to fill in. The students have to describe their area and give it a name. We also ask them to imagine a scientific discovery they could make in their area and to bring back a sample of this discovery. An additional constraint: they have to make their film from a first-person point of view, like a video travel journal.


Download the story sheet here (in French)


It is early afternoon and we offer the students to record a sound effect all together for the rocket landing. They perform a kind of roar in chorus, then a sound of wonder (waaaaaah) for the discovery of the planet.
Once their story is set, we move on to making the storyboard.
We explain the principle of a storyboard and draw an example on the board. We then hand out sheets with empty boxes to each group. Each film will have 3 moments: discovering the landscape, discovering the discovery, a conclusion.

Download the storyboard sheet here (in French)


On the second day, the students start making the sets based on the storyboards drawn the day before. Drawings, cutting and gluing colored paper, black paper cutouts glued onto wooden sticks, setting up a 3D set for a film under the microscope… We suggest they build the sets little by little and start shooting as soon as the set of one scene is finished. In groups, the students take up one or more of the chosen techniques to make their first sequences. Little by little, the sets get built and the scenes get shot.

At the same time, we offer them to shoot an introduction to their film with the glitchy camera. They have to say a short sentence giving a name to the area they will explore: We are off to explore the desert area, let’s go!

On the third day, the students finish their sets and shoot the missing sequences.

Those who finished earlier make the posters inviting people to the next day’s presentation, others document the workshop and take a few photos with the tablets. Some even have time to start laying out these photos in do.doc.

To stay in the theme of the video travel journal, we ask the students to write a voice-over matching the sequences of their film. The stories get refined and become more and more coherent. After some speaking practice, we invite them one by one to record their voice-over in the room next door. We prepared background sounds matching their sets, which we play during the recordings. We try to have them perform their voice-over while their video plays, but the dyslexia of some students makes the process a bit harder. We had not realized how difficult this exercise would be for them.
We still have to make the closing credits. Each student draws themself and writes their first name on a colored rectangle. They are then invited to come to the animation station to move their character and get it into the rocket before takeoff.

On the fourth day, we watch all the films. One small detail is still missing: we ask the students to write the name of their area on a piece of colored paper and to take a photo of it. This element will then be added in the top left corner of their video thanks to a new do.doc feature. We then prepare the 3pm presentation. The film made of the various short films will be screened in front of students, teachers and supervisors. Tables, set up like an exhibition, will show how the films were made. On this last morning, the students finish preparing this exhibition: coloring the storyboards, preparing the items to display, printing the making-of photos…

Then we go down to the school library to set up the room where the presentation will take place. We take the opportunity to watch the whole film together. The students are proud but nervous about presenting their work to other people; they are afraid of being laughed at. They hide when their film is on screen.
Finally, it is time for the presentation, and the room is full, partly with other students. The film is screened, then everyone takes their place behind their exhibition table to explain the behind-the-scenes of their film. The other students are very interested and are happy to try out the techniques presented. Joy and pride show on the students’ faces.