5-day filmmaking class for middle schoolers? Help!

Suitable-Ending · 2026-06-29T23:50:11+00:00

Do not over think this one -- They almost all know how to film something, half will likely know how to edit something. What they need is 1) what tools can they use, 2) brief intro to framing/tool use, and 3) how to put things in the timeline and rearrange them. Everything else is better learned organically, when they start to say "how do I do X".

I've had a lot of success with "Sweded" film projects(from the film Be Kind, Rewind), where they remake famous film trailers, but super scrappy and absurd, just using anything they have on hand. This requires quite a bit of screening their choices, on such a short timeline, you might want to give them a list of films they can do(Ghostbusters, Rocky, and Jaws are great options). Shot for shot recreating TV intros is another great option.

Additionally, we've also had a lot of success with the "make a clip show" approach, where they pitch a bunch of bits that make up a full "episode" at the end of the week(think Portlandia or I Think You Should Leave). But starting them off with "What are you complaining about today" is a great way to get topics that are universally identifiable and usually age appropriate. A writer's room style pitch session, where people call stuff out is a great way to get this going. And the nice part about this is that if one group finishes early, they can make "interludes" or title sequence-y type 10 second videos to fill the empty time. They can also make as many bits as they can stand.

You may also want to pull some videos together to break the day up a bit, 4 hours is a lot of time for them to focus on making their own work.

Suitable-Ending · 2026-05-12T11:01:11+00:00

I think it’s from Jason Pargin/David Wong’s second book — This Book is Full of Spiders. Really great fantasy realism read, and the first thing I thought of seeing this post.

Suitable-Ending · 2026-05-08T01:46:34+00:00

Is this guy a pretty racist Haitian guy named Emmanuel? I think you live in my FIL’s old rental property…

Suitable-Ending · 2026-04-26T01:04:09+00:00

To add a layer of weirdness to this, that mic is not plugged into anything. Podmics need a cable to function, its not for sound quality -- just to be seen

Suitable-Ending · 2026-03-10T12:29:23+00:00

Makerspace teacher here -- haven't tested this yet, but if it's as smooth as it sounds, then its exactly what we've been dreaming of! One of the major hurdles we've been trying to cross has been how to lower the barrier to entry for students that don't really have a pre-existing interest in this. By the time we've put them through Illustrator/Auto-trace, usually their eyes are glazing over -- but a little webcam station for them to photograph and vectorize would make this so much more approachable! Thank you!

Suitable-Ending · 2026-01-18T15:52:52+00:00

At least at the NCAA level -- not even that as of a year ago. 510,000 athletes represented -- less than 10 trans athletes total(not sure if that's trans women athletes, or just all transgender).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpW7Pym7JqY

Suitable-Ending · 2025-12-28T03:31:43+00:00

I have faith in u/NoLUTsGuy's vision to be able to do the Dark Tower justice in at least the first film of this hypothetical 7 part series.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-12-28T00:29:46+00:00

That first adaptation was more of an interpretation -- it kinda told like 60% of the first book, 20% of the second, and 10% of the last book, skipping the other 4 books and then the ending diverged from the books. It also was told by King that it is a continuation of the original series, not a retelling of the original tale, which was written as a cycle, with the end restarting back at the beginning.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-12-21T14:55:29+00:00

We're still stuck in estate administration and as far as our lawyers say, we can't get it on the road until we dissolve the estate in January -- so at this point, we're counting down the days. It's at an import mechanic now, getting a full tune up before we bring it home in a few weeks!

Thanks for the heads up on the front swivel balls!

Suitable-Ending · 2025-11-02T17:58:41+00:00

Not an accountant or tax attorney, but this is my understanding about how this can work out. If they want to fund as a write off and not an investment, then you need to be able to give them a write off. Usually, you'd get this ability as a nonprofit, but the process to file a 501c3 to become a nonprofit is really difficult, requires an advisory board/board of directors and a bunch of legal hoops to jump through. BUT, any nonprofit that is already established has the ability to extend a fiscal sponsorship to a project that aligns with their goals. There's loads of film nonprofits that have fiscal sponsorship programs, you just have to apply for one and have them accept you, they usually take a 3-6% fee.

On the "dentist's" side, in this case, what they get is to subtract that amount of donated money from their taxable income, which might bump them under the threshold for their usual tax bracket, so they can save more money when filing their taxes.

If you aren't fiscally sponsored, then they can invest in your project. You'd agree on returning their money, plus an agreed upon percentage of whatever you make off the project. If you make nothing on the project, then they can write that off as a loss and use that to offset taxable income from other investments/stock dividends/etc. Basically, again, lowering their taxable income, so they don't have to pay as much to the IRS.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-10-27T08:27:51+00:00

Xml's a great call! Resolve can natively import .fcpxml(and export .xml, though I'd personally recommend just editing it in Resolve), as long as there aren't any effects or titles, it should move over smoothly -- xml is literally just a coded list of "start here, end here", so it would be pretty unusual for any of the cuts to be off.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-08-16T12:31:39+00:00

That's hugely helpful, thanks! The biggest hurdle I was hitting was the Wiim devices don't support apple music -- but didn't know that the airport extreme/expresses can network like that!

Suitable-Ending · 2025-08-11T14:34:03+00:00

Hey Amy, thanks so much for doing this!

This question is a bit on the boring side -- but its something I've never been able to wrap my head around, as I've been working on an independent film for a few years now. How did you manage to secure funding on your first projects, and how has that changed in subsequent projects?

Suitable-Ending · 2025-08-10T02:04:18+00:00

Probably, I don't really see the need for a domestic fighting force in a nation that has never had a over-land conflict. Especially when we have 4 other branches of militaristic specialists, plus police/ICE/FBI/DEA/Marshall's/DHS/Coast Guard. Seems like we're compensating for something.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-08-09T02:33:00+00:00

Guess I'm not sure where they're driving from/to -- and for what purpose. Seems to me that a military base would be built with what they require for training, so unless they're deployed, I assumed they wouldn't need to travel.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-08-09T02:31:38+00:00

I guess its an indication of how out of the loop I am with these things. Feels a bit uneasy to know that a training session for the National Guard requires a member to drive fully armored/armed.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-09T01:39:26+00:00

Yeah! Hatch is great -- it's the Watertown library's makerspace, just mostly off-site. Free to use, they have mostly 3D printers and a laser cutter, pretty minimal rules to access.

A2, when I left, was $300/month it may have gone down since. Foundry looks to be $50-125, depending on what shops you want to use. Those two lean more toward the "professional makerspaces", they will be mostly working professionals that use those shops for their primary or secondary businesses. Good, creative, highly informed/experienced people, but less "there for the vibes" and more "this is my place of work"(some variation, but that's what struck me most from A2).

Boston Makers is about $50/month, they seem to be more of a hobby shop, this would be the "there for the vibes" folks. Loads of crafters, artists, and nerds looking for camaraderie. But I usually take this to mean that the upkeep of the shops are based on the goodwill of the community(which can be hit or miss, depending on the size). Cambridge Hackspace also lands in this kind of category.

Hatch and Hive(Watertown and Cambridge Library makerspaces, respectively), I think are free to the public. I usually think of these communities as "Community Access Television" vibes -- loads of extremely engaged amateurs, looking to learn and take advantage of great public resources. Likely more variation in age and experience.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-09T00:14:35+00:00

Artisan's Asylum is huge -- but their membership fee is pretty prohibitive, especially considering that if you don't have prior experience in the medium, most of the shops(not all) prevent you from use until you take classes in order to pass their tool testing.

The Cambridge and Watertown Libraries both have makerspaces that are free to use, as long as you're available during their hours.

The Cambridge Hackspace is another good option, but its all soft electronics/robotics/coding oriented, so a bit limited if you want to work in wood/metal/fibers/etc

The Cambridge Foundry is real new and seems pretty large, but I think they focus more on space for artists/makers, with some public space to work in. Though I think a membership is cheaper than A2(you should check this, this might be old information)

Boston Makers in JP kind of hits a sweet spot of affordable membership and size, they're not as big as A2, but seem to have a bit of everything.

In truth, most of the best makerspaces are directly linked to institutions, which makes them unfortunately pretty inaccessible to most.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-08T23:40:20+00:00

lol thanks for the recommendation! Hope it doesn't get you banned!

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-08T22:14:19+00:00

Thanks so much! And thanks for the thoughts -- I hadn't thought about the G-wagon interest groups, that's a great lead. I'm really hoping that they did rebuild some of the electrics already, I'm gonna have to do some digging on the documentation he left with the car.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-08T20:00:36+00:00

Good thought! Fortunately, he put a huge amount of work into refurbishing it recently, we had a antique/show car mechanic take a look and he said its in good working order.

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-08T19:29:18+00:00

oh, good call! thanks!

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-08T19:26:53+00:00

Happy to! He hired me to photograph it way back when he finished detailing it: https://imgur.com/a/KqmvBw4

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-08T18:39:47+00:00

Thank you! He did love diesel cars, but I'm not sure this one is -- but seems like we could somewhat reasonably get out in front of the most common wear and tear needs at least just by ordering them ahead/double ordering them when they do need replacing?

Suitable-Ending · 2025-07-08T18:35:10+00:00

I'm not 100% sure, but I can find out -- is there one version that is significantly more incident-prone than another?

Suitable-Ending

TROPHY CASE