The first half term of the New Year has just ended... Short and intense! A busy time for everyone in education and particularly for Films for Learning. When I started this blog I had high hopes of being able to conribute my thoughts on a daily basis but that just dosen't happen because of the needs of alll the different things that need doing. In these forums alone you have to keep a check on the posts for moderation purposes, respond to enquiries or questions and give advice to those who need it. Add in films approval, moderation and uploading of our archives from the old site plus all the promotion activities on behalf of FfL and holding down your normal job and you have a recipe for long hours and working weekends!
I guess that I should feel more tired than usual but its a given fact that some activities give you energy. FfL certainly does that, its inspiring, energising and fun. When I look back at the last six weeks I can take a pride in everything that Mark and I have undertaken. There is an incredible feeling of satisfaction and achievment at seeing the Theatre and Community in its current form with a film count heading in the direction of my predicted target.
Target? What's that all about then? Well when we were at the BETT show in January I talked to many people in education, both educators and technologists and at that time the site had been live for 24-48 hours and we had uploaded just 12 films. I predicted on a number of occasions that we could be approaching 200 films by March and 2000 films by the time of the BETT show in 2009. I still think we will make that 200 number by the end of March and hopefully with some of the promotion activities that we are undertaking we could make that 2000 by January 2009.
Okay, I have to admit that I am a 'glass half full' kind of person but I am going to say it right here... We will achieve 2,009 films by BETT 2009! Thats how much I believe in this project and what we are doing. The model of films for learning works, we know that. Also out there there are numerous educators and film makers making films in isolation. What we have here is a worldwide platform for their work. It's free, it's moderated and it's 'safe'. What we need to do is reach those film makers and educators and show them just how easy this is.
If you follow the model for a staff film making workshop as posted by Mark Richardson you can see it is easy to make a film 'in camera' without major editing. Lets go another step... Video Cameras in Telephones... I have one, a Nokia N95 which offers a full 24 frames a second and a resolution of 640 x 480. Surely it is possible to harness this technology to make an 'in camera' film... Let's all have a go. I am going to be making and posting one before 7 days have elapsed from the date on this blog post. In fact for the first 3 people that post a Film for Learning shot exclusively on a mobile phone we will buy you a 4Gb Memory Card for your device. The conditions are... 1.) It has to educate... 2.) Errmmm, I am the Judge... 3.) There is no 3!
So go on, surprise me... Show us what you can do!
Footnote: Here are two films made, edited and uploaded in less than one hour using a Nokia N95 and Windows Moviemaker on Windows Vista. Both films were made within 24 hours of this blog post. No decent video camera on your mobi? Film 1 - How to set up a video camera. Film 2 - Using a Tripod.