Abstract
This chapter describes the film-making journey over 18 months in an after school club—‘The Clip Club’ based in an East London primary school. A small group of 9–10-year-old participants from diverse social backgrounds explore mobile film-making with iPads to produce and edit moving image clips and short films. Over time, funds of practical and pedagogic knowledge accrue relating to the particular affordances of working with film and digital media, aligned not only with children’s existing interests, skills and competencies, but also with their willingness to learn and the specific environments in which such capacities thrive. The study demonstrates that multimodal meaning-making combines messy non-linear processes involving iterative autonomous experimentation, reviewing and redrafting, and social collaborative relations.
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Notes
- 1.
The Clip Club’s blog is available here: http://www.theclipclub.co.uk [Accessed 7 February 2018] and documents its activities over an 18 month period. The Club was set up for research purposes and as such operated as a separate entity, distinct from the formal arrangements of the school.
- 2.
In the Index of Multiple Deprivation—see http://dclgapps.communities.gov.uk/imd/idmap.html [Accessed 7 February 2018]—the school falls within the 20% most deprived areas in the country.
- 3.
Members all chose pseudonyms for the purposes of online anonymity. The children are familiar with creating user names and this was deemed a continuation of this practice.
- 4.
The boys’ Ponyo (filmed) review is available here: https://fashioningandflow.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/film-educations-young-film-critic-competition-2011/ [Accessed 7 February 2018].
- 5.
Wizard had sketched the film’s Director, Miyazaki, as part of the DV entry—a drawing which ended up on the big screen at the BAFTA in central London. Wizard’s interest in drawing becomes significant later in this account.
- 6.
Into Film is a grant issuing charity formed in 2013 from the ashes of the disbanded UK Film Council and the legacy of two film education charities, FILMCLUB and First Light. Its aim is to put film at the centre of children and young people’s learning and cultural experience.
- 7.
For conference presentation purposes, I experimented with a videoed version of this interview with Nimbus standing silently, looking directly at the camera, ‘addressing’ the audience with a voiceover: http://theclipclub.co.uk/2013/03/20/points-of-view-1-nimbus/ [Accessed 7 February 2018]. I also videoed Leonardo using the same technique: https://vimeo.com/127138677 [Accessed 7 February 2018].
- 8.
http://theclipclub.co.uk/2013/02/05/7-tell-me-a-few-things-about-this-shot-in-a-comment/#comments [Accessed 7 February 2018].
- 9.
Hear young research participant Daniel’s words at 03:20′ on the second movie: https://fashioningandflow.wordpress.com/category/case-study-data-analysis/case-study-c-st-elizabeth-primary-school/the-critical-creators/ [Accessed 7 February 2018].
- 10.
As my research progressed I refrained from asking the ‘What?’ and ‘Why?’ questions evidenced here, which were too pointed and overly related to my research. I began asking open-ended questions of a ‘Tell me about…’ nature, allowing for more fluid, less directed responses, about feelings and experiences.
- 11.
As introduced in Chap. 2, phronesis describes the kinds of practical intelligence that informs improvised solutions.
- 12.
Unfortunately, publishing restrictions meant that I was unable to reproduce any of the photos taken in this research in this publication, most of which can be found on the Clip Club site.
- 13.
See third movie: ‘IMG_3668’ at 03:10′–04:15′ available here: http://theclipclub.co.uk/2014/01/22/he-dies-at-the-end-short-horror-clip/ [Accessed 7 February 2018].
- 14.
The final films (featuring a pupil-Clone magically emerging from the iMovie interface trying to get back ‘home’ inside the software) will not be analysed, as I am interested in the processes through which they materialised. Nevertheless, both films and the ‘Making of’ are available here, along with a wistful comment from a Club member made long after the project had ended: http://theclipclub.co.uk/2014/07/11/run-school-run-1-2-making-of-on-youtube/#comment-1542 [Accessed 7 February 2018].
- 15.
This post displays G-man’s strong photographic skill—image DSCF4686 in particular—and also demonstrates the use of the Evernote app to wirelessly manage the shot list: http://theclipclub.co.uk/2014/04/11/serious-shooting-earnest-editing/ [Accessed 7 February 2018].
- 16.
In another enthusiastic piece to camera, Dual 2 reveals the importance of his local community. He was more thrilled with Clip Club’s film festival success locally—‘out of the whole of Tower Hamlets’ (his home London borough)—than with the fact that it was a national competition. See: http://theclipclub.co.uk/2013/11/12/stoney/#comment-173 [Accessed 7 February 2018] and his accompanying comment: “Please have to look this video [sic] I could not write it so I did it in a video”.
- 17.
Listen @ https://soundcloud.com/shelleuk/leonardo-july-2014/s-ZeYgI#t=05:43 [Accessed 7 February 2018].
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Cannon, M. (2018). The Clip Club: Primary Film-Making & Editing. In: Digital Media in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78304-8_4
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