Using the Avio in the classroom

by Gill Clayton

Background

Secondary School in North Devon. Year 10 English – two classes using the AVIO Casablanca editing system. Groups in one class were set the task of filming and editing a 3-minute film within generic boundaries, using a storyboard, and only allowed 15-minutes filming time. The other class groups had as long as they wanted, with no explicit constraints.

Focus on

Contrasting group procedures and behaviour. How collaborative is editing?

Summary

• Editing keeps groups very focused on-task (in the main)
• Real challenge in digital video production is in editing, not filming – especially if shot out of sequence (as in the industry), and in choosing what to keep, what to discard.
• In one group, one particular student dominates the editing. She has 'vision' for the film which she just carries out – she can't share it.
• Editing is for some students an individual activity. But can some decisions be shared? One student thinks 2 people per project is the optimal maximum.
• Few of the groups produced a genuinely 'group film'. Maybe collaboration can be developed by making the planning process more flexible and collaborative (see Christine Howe piece)
• Students vary in their impressions of how creative digital video work is. One says it's closer to building with Lego than writing
• There's a creative value in adapting filmed material to circumstances, to overall requirements – working with what you have got and can do rather than what you wish you had and could do.
• Findings on AVIO software. Easy for film tutoring, cascading expertise. Girls liked its intuitive and 'touchy feely' interface. Some boys, able ICT 'boffins', thought it not enough like a 'professional' computer.