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• Editing in the Classroom

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Crayons, Cookies And Casablanca

First Graders Learn Video Production

NOTE: The following article highlights early elementary students' use of the Casablanca Classic. This Casablanca editor has been replaced by the newer Casablanca Avio and Casablanca Prestige, but the student outcomes remain consistent with todays' models so we continue to make this piece available:

The first graders at Rocky Ridge Elementary School in Hoover, AL, are like most others. They have snack time, learn the days of the week and edit videos. Edit videos? Absolutely! And they do it with the Casablanca SE (School Edition) nonlinear digital video editing system.

Austin Coker, a first-grader at Rocky Ridge Elementary School, uses a Panasonic camcorder to make a video about the alphabet.

n fact, Sarah Barlow's first graders just finished a five-minute video about the alphabet. They video taped

objects in the building that represented each letter and added some creative twists to them while editing.

"The letter 'Q' was a difficult one to do, but one of the first grade teachers is Ms. Quick. So Barlow's

students videotaped Ms. Quick in her classroom for about a minute. Then we sped her up ten times--so

Ms. Quick was very quick," explains Carter Sayle, the school's music and video production teacher. The alphabet video began as a big book on display in the school's office, but Barlow wanted a more creative way to reinforce the sounds of the alphabet to her students. "I think making the video helped them learn their sounds better, and it gave them a sense of maturity because they got to do what grown-ups usually do," she explains. Sayle says the school's goal is to make video production part of the educational process.

"We want to use video to teach the students whatever subject they're working on at the moment, whether it be math or science or anything else. We want to see the machine in the classroom, and we want it to be portable, so the studio can come to the students rather than having them go to the studio."

Most students at Rocky Ridge have been doing live production and limited linear production for about two years in the school's broadcast studio, which houses around $30,000 worth of equipment. But Sayle says linear editing was too difficult for first graders. After previewing the Casablanca at a nearby school, he proposed the idea of using it at Rocky Ridge to the principal and teachers. When Sayle demonstrated the Casablanca's editing capabilities, the school purchased one with state funds originally intended for new computers. This is the first year Rocky Ridge is using the Casablanca, while before it used a linear editing system consisting of a Panasonic AG-A96 editing controller (the automated linear editing part of the system.)

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Sayle agrees. "It's a fabulous machine. It's so predictable and it's never thrown me any curve balls. There are no pull down menus, and everything is right in front of you. If you want to edit, you click edit. If you want to record, you click record. It fits education like a glove because it's an inexpensive way to do high-quality video production in the schools."

Rocky Ridge Elementary is using the Casablanca SE system because it's designed specifically for use in K-12 classrooms. The Casablanca Classic SE (now replaced by the AvioDVD and PrestigeSchool Edition) includes instructional materials for planning, videotaping and editing videos, a free library of fonts and effects and special software that allows projects to be locked to prevent accidental changes or deletions. Sayle believes it's important for children to gain a sense of accomplishment from their work. "This year's theme for our school is 'Dig Deeper.' The Casablanca arrived at a perfect time because we're showing the kids we can create more than just a book or a simple video. I want them to realize this is not just throwing stuff together and making a video. It's a piece of art."

When making the alphabet video, Sayle says his main focus was letting the children guide the project. "Some were writers and editors and others were camera people. We wanted them to be involved in the process so they would really learn.

"The slowest part was shooting the video, but once we started editing, it only took about a week. Six-year-olds have to be guided. We just didn't give them raw video and say 'go edit.' We trimmed it down and got the junk out of there. I think if we can start them out in first grade with this, then by the time they reach fifth grade, they can get on the machine and fly with it."

Another important factor was letting the students make the decisions about how they wanted the video to look. "We talked about the machine's capabilities. When it came to the letter 'W,' we shot someone drinking from a water fountain. But because the Casablanca can edit in reverse, the students decided water going backward is a lot more interesting to look at than water going forward. So they reversed it."

Rocky Ridge Elementary School has some future projects in the works with the Casablanca. The fourth grade teachers are planning to make an authentic documentary on the American Revolution. Hoping to shoot on location and purchase costumes, the teachers recently wrote a letter to the Hoover City Schools Foundation to request a grant.

"If we get that grant," says Sayle, "there will be a major production in the spring involving the entire fourth grade. Each class will handle a portion of it."

The article 'Cookies, Crayons and Casablanca' originally appeared in Government Video magazine and was authored by Alicia Zappier. This web page is taken from that article.

Casablanca: Then and Now

Originally, Draco, the original Casablanca distributor, developed the Casablanca for wedding and event videographers. But then recognized it as being the tool that was going to make it possible for a regular classroom teacher, not just a video or tech- nology teacher, to be able to pursue video projects with students.