Course Content (Syllabus)
Creating movies with children
This lesson attempts to make full use of the experience acquired by students during their studies through the implementation of a "teaching film" educational program in the schools of Thessaloniki. Students, after being informed on the first three lessons for the framework of this course, work every two weeks for 7-9 hours for two weeks in schools in the city that have participated in this program of the Department of Cinematography, which is done in cooperation with Primary Schools Education of Eastern and Western Thessaloniki. The work in the school covers topics such as cinema history, cinematographic films, examples of films with excerpts from mute cinema to the present day and contemporary media, key concepts in cinema, actors in cinematographic process, script, role distribution, Shooting etc. With this lesson, students learn to teach cinema, pupils get acquainted with cinema language, learn how to make a movie and come across issues around the movie, and the Film Department opens to city society by partnering with other educational institutions.
At the end of the next semester, we will try to organize, as in previous years, a special screening for all the films that will be made in Thessaloniki's OLYMPION cinema.
The aim of this work with students, mainly primary education, is not to produce a film as a final product. The goal is for students to understand the whole process and the course of making a film. That is, the goal is the journey. It is an educational program for acquaintance of students with cinema that aims to offer pupils the method of coping with the image as a language and critically approaching the various audiovisual products that flood us and consume everyday. The cinematic training we are pursuing with this activity is mainly thinking about cinema language rather than learning a new language.
The visual-acoustic teaching method seems to make it easier for the children to understand exactly what we want them to say about what cinema is. This method facilitates the teaching process because it provides greater stimulation, concentration and restraint of students' interest and attention. Students can build or use (drawing on relevant literature given in the first lesson and posted on the Department's website) useful for teaching their audiovisual material.
Cinema is not just a supervisor of teaching. Above all, we need to tell him as an Art. We know that it fascinates children, and uses intelligently and instantly every new technological discovery (digital image and sound, computers, etc.), motion, color, images and sounds, and as a younger art exploits the oldest arts. It is "a wonderful compromise between the rhythms of space (plastic arts) and the rhythms of time (music and poetry)".
The topics on which students work are their own decision, in collaboration with students and the class teacher. Students are encouraged to draw on the routines of children at school or in their neighborhood.
It should be noted that students must always be aware of the ethics of children's rights, in order to avoid abuses of the rights of the child.
At the end of the semester, each group of students delivers an envelope with their work (an analytical report, and the film most likely to be created).
Note: Relevant literature is presented in the first lesson but also on the course course and posted on the Department's website.
Additional bibliography for study
Buckingham, D. (2007). Εκπαίδευση στα ΜΜΕ: Αλφαβητισμός, Μάθηση και Σύγχρονη Κουλτούρα. (Ε. Κούρτη, Επιμ., & Ι. Σκαρβέλη, Μεταφρ.) Αθήνα: Ελληνικά Γράμματα.
Craggs, C. E. (2003). Εκπαίδευση για τα Μedia στο Δημοτικό Σχολείο. (Ε. Τσιλίγκου, Μεταφρ.) Θεσσαλονίκη: Κώδικας.
Champoux, J. E., & Anderson, R. (1999). Film as a Teaching Resource. Journal of Management Inquiry, 8 (2), pp. 240-251
Film Education Working Group. (1999). Making Movies Matter:BFI .
Giroux, L., & Piette, J. (2001). The Theoretical Foundations of Media Education Programs. Στο R. Kubey (Επιμ.), Media Literacy in the Information Age: Current Perspectives (σσ. 89-134). London: Transaction Publishers.
Masterman, L. (1996). A Rationale for Media Education. In R. Kubey (Ed.), Media Literacy in the Information Age: Current Perspectives (pp. 15-68). Transaction Publishers.
Πασχαλίδης, Γ. (2000). Εκπαίδευση και Μαζική Επικοινωνία:Όροι και Προοπτικές της Διδασκαλίας των Μέσων Μαζικής Επικοινωνίας στην Πρωτοβάθμια και Δευτεροβάθμια Εκπαίδευση. Παιδαγωγική Επιθεώρηση (30), σσ. 111-136.
Prout, A. 2005. The Future of Childhood. Λονδίνο: RoutledgeFalmer.
Σπύρου, Δ. (2005). Σχολείο και Κινηματογράφος. Κυριακάτικα απογεύματα στο Σινέ Φιλίπ.http://www.olympiafestival.gr/paideia/spyrou_05.htm .
Σπύρου, Δ. (2006). Σχολείο και Κινηματογράφος. Στο Β. Θεοδώρου, Μ. Μουμουλίδου, & Α. Οικονομίδου (Επιμ.), 'Πιάσε με, αν μπορείς..': Η Παιδική Ηλικία και οι Αναπαραστάσεις της στον Σύγχρονο Ελληνικό Κινηματογράφο (σσ. 271-281). Αθήνα: Αιγόκερως.
Valkenburg, P. (2004). Children’s responses to the screen. A Media Psychological Approach. N. Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.