BC Stories

Bring Filmmaking to Your Classroom

Students conceive, plan, shoot, edit and screen short films that speak about their lives and their community. R2R works in partnership with artists, classroom teachers and school administration to develop an interactive, immersive program that fosters artistic expression for students. The program also encourages participation of parents and community members.

Students learn basic filmmaking techniques and tips. They create a story outline, learn or expand their lighting and camera skills, and practice editing and sound. At the end of the workshop, students will have produced a 60-90 second video. R2R will work with you to decide which form it will take: experimental, narrative, animated, documentary, or digital storytelling.

Art Starts offers grants to bring this program to your school through Artists in the Classroom (AIC) — Grants for Schools.

Workshop Options

Animation

With a point and shoot camera, students make expressive, imaginative, and cutting-edge animation using lightning doodles, pixilation, stop motion or more traditional animation techniques.

Digital Storytelling

Digital stories are first-person narratives that are illustrated with animation, photographs, music, video clips, and some live action. In this workshop, students are guided through the stages of preparation, script writing, image selection and the editing of their stories.

Documentary

Documentary is a powerful medium for communicating a message and instigating change. In this exciting workshop, students learn how to use film to ask hard-hitting questions and tell real-life stories about issues they care about.

iPad Workshop

Explore iPad photography and video editing. This workshop encourages students to create unique short videos about local history.

If you’re interested in any of these workshops, please contact us.

Past Videos

“Global Problems” – Blueridge Elementary

This short was done by students at Blueridge Elementary and at the Museum of Vancouver. The students created their own story on the subject of Global Warming. A short animation demonstration followed that taught them how to do cut out animation. The sound was recorded separately after groups had completed their second scene.

“Bears and Berries” – Sk’aadgaa Naay Elementary

The Our World workshop took place at Sk’aadgaa Naay Elementary in Skidegate, British Columbia in October 2016. Two classes worked in teams to animate the Haida legend “The Bear and the Berry Picker”. Voiceovers by students were recorded in Haida with assistance from Joan Moody, the Haida language teacher, and two elders.

Documenting Youth Activism – Lord Roberts Elementary

This video was created by Grade 7 students at Lord Roberts Elementary School in Vancouver, BC as part of the Documenting Youth Activism Project. Working with two professional filmmakers, students had the opportunity to write, direct and produce short documentary films about youth activism. Students interviewed youth activists at their local high school and were involved in all aspects of production: storyboarding, camera-work, sound, and editing. Documenting Youth Activism was made possible with the generous support of the Telus Community Board in Vancouver.