Being a Director Production Package for Grades 6-8

Now everything you need to jump start student productions with lesson plans, advice on developing scenes, roles for crew members and software to create any background!

This set-up is ideal for YouTube clubs, skits and other classroom demonstrations that will absolutely engaging for students. This package comes comes complete with the Being a Director Instructor's Guide and Green Screen Software.

Giving students the opportunity to create digital material for classroom use helps students achieve a higher sense of empowerment, ownership, and purpose. Green screen technology is now being utilized in STEM, language arts, history, and core subject areas. 

With a quick and easy setup of the green screen backdrop in front of the included webcam, students will be able to create short news broadcasts, weather forecasts, short reviews, virtual visits to far away places – the planets, the solar system, the Pyramids, the Amazon, the ocean depths, even time travel, all without leaving the classroom!

Components

The Green Screen Production Kit includes everything a student, a classroom or a school would need to create engaging and professional looking broadcasts, presentations and short movies:

• One (1) 9' x 60" green screen backdrop cloth – perfect for chroma keying – the process of filming a scene, object or person in front of a pure colored screen, typically green, then replacing it with any scene or background to achieve special effects. Highly saturated, for accurate color-balancing, the HB green backdrop is ideal for use in any video project.
• One (1) USB webcam – 720p HD webcam with bendable gooseneck, non-slip base and built-in gooseneck microphone for optimal positioning.
• One (1) I Can Present editing software – powerful editing software with teleprompter, split screen, picture-in-picture, scroll text features, chromakeying and more!
• One (1) Printed copy of Being a Director Instructor's Guide and Teacher Resource CD with handout and tutorials.

Specifications

HB Green Screen Production Kit Includes:

• (1) "I Can Present" software
• (1) 9' x 60" Green screen backdrop
• (1) 10x digital zoom webcam
• (1) Instruction booklet
• For ages 8+

I Can Present Software Specifications:

General Requirements

1. Minimum of 1GB of free memory
2. Minimum Screen Size: 1024 x 768 Pixels
3. USB Webcam - included with HB Green Screen Production Kit

• Windows PC Users - Minimum Recommended System Requirements:

1. A PC running Windows XP SP2 or later, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
2. Windows XP requires .Net Framework 3.5 SP2, available as a free download from Microsoft's website.
3. 30MB of free Hard Disk space.
• Mac Users - Minimum Recommended System Requirements:

1. Mac OS X 10.5 or later.
2. 228 MB of Hard Disk space.

Webcam Specifications:

• Bendable arm for optimal positioning
• Gooseneck microphone
• Suction-type base
• Windows XP, XP2, Vista, Win 7/8/10 & Mac OSx
• Resolution: 1080 x 720
• Rate: 30 FPS
• Interface Type: USB 2.0 High Speed
• Imaging distance: 30mm ~ Infinity
• 1x IR LED Light: Infrared light
• Easy capture shutter for still images
• Captured image format: BMP, JPEG, PNG
• Captured video format: AVI, WMV
• Working Temperature: -10° ~ 40°
• Materials: ABS plastic
• Sensor Size: 4386 mm x 3.64 mm
• 500 million pixels
• Cable length: approx. 4’

Green Screen Backdrop Specifications:

• Size: 9' x 60"
• Color: Green
• Material: Highly saturated 100% polyester

Classroom Ideas

Here’s just a few ideas where you could use I Can Present’s green screen capabilities.

Art

• Use video to collect examples of shapes, colors or patterns
• Look for examples of shapes, colors, patterns in film extracts
• Use video to record making processes
• Use video to record observations
• Create animations including sets and models
• Create costume and set designs for films
• Investigate artist and non-narrative filmmakers
• Create abstract/montage films
• Explore the use of lighting in film
• Explore animation techniques used in title sequences
• Create title sequences using these techniques

English Language Arts

• Use moving images as a stimulus for speaking and listening
• Use short films to develop understanding of narrative and point of view
• Use moving images as a stimulus for writing, e.g. letters, news items, film reviews
• View the opening scene from an adaptation before reading the book, and consider what it tells the viewer about genre, narrative and character
• Translate a short film excerpt into a written story, poem, news report or letter
• Make a film adaptation of a story or a scene from a book
• Use filmmaking to explore the imagery in a poem
• Explore and compare the techniques used in print and moving image texts
• Explore how film language techniques are used for effect and persuasion in propaganda and documentary films
• Analyze or compare film versions of literary texts, considering features such as depiction of characters, narrative structure and the use of film language
• Write film scripts

 Mathematics

• Use video cameras to collect examples of shapes, numbers, patterns, angles
• Watch films that feature simple numbers and shapes
• Make animations to explain mathematical or geometric principles
• Use video cameras to record and plot movement, e.g. to show that the trajectory of a thrown ball is a parabola

Drama

• Use video to review and improve performance
• View film extracts to explore aspects of performance
• Make a film version of a drama performance

History

• View archive film to develop understanding of a historical period
• Use clay animation to depict an historical event
• Make film documentaries incorporating archive footage
• Make fiction films based on a historical period or event, perhaps one in the local area
• Compare, analyze and discuss different (fictional or documentary) film representations of a historical period, event or character
• Explore the techniques used in propaganda films

Geography

• Use film to record and present information about an area, e.g. the local area, or an area visited on a field trip
• Use green screen with background images to create a virtual field trip
• Green screen pupils over various maps to show their knowledge of countries and areas
• Use clay animation to represent geographical processes, e.g. glaciation or the formation of oxbow lakes
• View, discuss and consider fiction or documentary representations of places, natural phenomena or environmental issues
• View contrasting fiction films about a country and consider how they represent it.

Music

• Use a short film sequence as stimulus for a simple composition
• Create a soundtrack for a short film sequence
• Create a film interpretation of a piece of music
• Analyze the techniques used in the score for a film sequence
• Create several different soundtracks for the same sequence to change the genre or mood
• Create a piece of music to use as the basis for a montage or title sequence
• Use a cue sheet to plan a score
• Script and perform a voiceover in the target language for a film sequence
• Create a film advertisement in the target language
• View film extracts in the target language to develop comprehension skills; use visual and audio cues – e.g. lighting, performance, music, sound effects – to aid understanding
• Script your presentation in English and then present in your chosen language

Science

• Use film to record experiments
• Use film techniques, e.g. close-ups, time-lapse and slow-motion, to analyse and demonstrate processes and principles
• Create fiction and factual films to stimulate discussion and writing about aspects of a scientific debate, e.g. global warming, overfishing, genetic engineering

Design & Technology

• Use video to record product testing and disassembly, e.g. using slow-motion, time-lapse
• Use film as part of the design research process
• Design characters and sets to make an animated film
• Make films to explain the function of components in a product, e.g through a disassembly with explanatory voiceover

Civics

• Use short films, children’s films and feature films to stimulate discussion and writing about issues of citizenship. Using film can provide a way for children to address personal issues at one remove
• Explore the techniques which films use to present issues, groups, institutions or events in positive or negative ways
• Explore issues of film censorship and regulation
• Consider how representations can change over time, by viewing modern and older films
• Create campaigning videos on specific issues
• Make fiction or documentary films about their own lives or local problems. Use techniques such as animation, montage and film poems to explore difficult or challenging issues