My Hometown Project

Pine School is offering a Multimedia class for the first time this year and students are excited about the opportunities being made available as they learn more about technology and have more opportunities to advance their skills.

For the Hometown Project, students will:
Use digital cameras and video cameras to take video footage and photographs of Pine, Louisiana and the surrounding communities, including the people, the businesses, the schools, old and new building structures, Mile Branch Settlement (in Franklinton, about 10 minutes from our school), and capture the spirit of living in a small town.
Use computer software to edit images for video.
Use video equipment to interview members of the community and then edit the video.
Use computer software to create a video about Pine, Our Hometown, incorporating interview, still images, captured video, and music.

Hopefully, this will open up communication between students, parents, and community members. Our community has plenty to be proud of, and I would like to see my students take pride in their community. Because the majority of our students come from low-income homes, many do not have the opportunities to use digital equipment that this lesson would allow.

In addition to opening up communication between students and community members, it will also enhance their interpersonal skills as they work together with other members in their group to plan, create, edit, and produce their movie. I would like to make the finished DVDs available to our community as well, maybe providing the local businesses with a finished copy.

For this project to be a success, we need:
a new digital video camera, possibly two, tripods for the cameras, digital cameras (at least three), editing software, two external hard drives, and two microphones that connect to the video camera.