Film Makered: Sweded Cinema

About the Author

Amanda Fox

Amanda Fox is an award-winning teacher who has previously taught film, english, and social studies in the STEM setting and is author of Teachingland: A Survival guide to the Classroom Apocalypse. She is currently the Creative Director of STEAMPunksEdu, an after school and summer camp program that originated in Louisville, KY. Amanda speaks internationally on the power of EdTech integration, problem based learning, STEM education, and the power of video. She offers professional development to her staff and schools all over the world. Amanda is an Apple Educator, PBS Digital Innovator, ISTE Emerging Leader, and her favorite classroom tool is the iPad.

Connect with Amanda on Twitter: @AmandaFoxSTEM

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According to Swededcinema.com, Sweded cinema “takes the best and worst movies to come out of Hollywood in the past 30 years and remakes me them with an emphasis on comedy and a commitment to low-cost production (2012)”

With their lowcost, cardboard and duct tape execution, Sweded Cinema is an excellent fit for the Maker and PBL centered classroom.

STEAMPunksEdu Sweded "The Last Jedi" Trailer, July 2018

1.Must be based on an already produced film
2.Range 1:30-8 minutes in length
3.Must not contain computer generated graphics
4.Based on films less than 35 years old
5.Special effects must be limited to camera tricks
and arts 'n crafts (makered props and settings)
6.Sound effects created by human means
7.Hilarious.

Borrowed from swededcinema.com (they withhold no rights!)

The purpose of this project is to help students understand the basic elements of film making. In my experience, students come into film class and typically shoot everything from one angle--theatre style. By deconstructing a movie trailer and creating a detailed draft of scenes, students will begin to understand the importance of using a variety of camera shots and angles. With computer generated graphics (post-production) prohibited, the focus of the project is on preproduction and production.

Furthermore, one of the pillars of sweding is the makered props and sets during the recreation of each scene. Leveraging design thinking, and the four C’S of STEM--creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication students work together to deconstruct scenes, reenvision them, curate a list of materials needed, design sets and costumes, and then produce and edit a short trailer. With digital media becoming a more prominent form of communicating with the world media production is a necessary skill in today’s society and film naturally lends itself to interdisciplinary connections.

English Language Arts Common Core standards are a perfect alignment with digital media projects. The maker component of the project also involves math, science, and engineering subject areas that can be aligned, or assessed with Sweded trailers. Teachers can ask students to create items to scale (math), design prototypes (engineering/design thinking), or leverage circuits for lighting (science). Each trailer will have unique elements that can be tailored to fit specific content areas.

Additionally, students go through the design thinking process in conjunction with the production process. Students have to plan, prototype, and test their scenes. Their problem or dilemma is: How can I recreate each individual scene using low budget materials? As they venture through this design process they have to collaborate with peers, think critically about elements of film, leverage creativity to design sets and props, and communicate with team members on a production plan and schedule.

This Sweded trailer can be customized for any K-12 environment. The trailer selection can be up to the teacher if there are plans to tie it to curriculum, or be left up to the student. This video project is excellent as a student presentation model.

Students will identify how many scenes and the types of each scene is comprised of. They will reenvision the scenes using low budget items and recreate the props and settings to best resemble the ones in the scene. They will film and edit their videos, and also recreate any sound effects and music by human means.