WHAT'S COOL ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL?

WHAT’S COOL ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL?

What is your school doing with environmental literacy, outdoor education or nature connection?  Tell us about it!

We are accepting short video clips from Play Again fans highlighting your schools’ proud accomplishments.  Our goal is to inspire others to do what you are doing – connecting elementary, middle and high school students to the natural world.

The best video clips will be added to a new Environmental Education Advocacy version of Play Again!  The others will be posted on our website.

FOUR EASY STEPS

  1. WHAT’S COOL ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL?: Create a statement that highlights one or two great things your school has accomplished  in a succinct and inspiring sentence or two (see examples below).  It should take about 3-10 seconds to speak aloud.  
  2. CHOOSE A LOCATION:  Find a quiet place with a background of your choosing, ideally outside your school and/or with a view of nature.
  3. SHOOT: Put the speaker (an educator or student) 3-4 feet in front of camera (a “portrait” type shot showing head and top of shoulders). Start the camera 5 seconds before they speak and keep it rolling for 5 seconds after. Have the speaker address the camera directly and speak clearly and naturally.  (Please feel free to also take a few high quality still photos of your speaker, the rest of their class, and the project they are speaking about.)
  4. SUBMIT: Use the free site WeTransfer.com to submit your video clip to David@lightmotivefilms.com.  In the WeTransfer message include your name and email and your school’s name and full address.  Send still photos to the same email address (with school name and town). *By submitting your video, you are giving Ground Productions permission to use the footage for the Play Again project – please make sure releases have been obtained prior to filming youth (while school names may be used, individuals will not be identified by name). **For inclusion in the film, submit by March 3. 

TIPS

  • Sound is important. Make sure your camera picks up the speaker’s voice clearly, without interference.
  • Practice saying your statement until it flows naturally. Don’t speak too fast. If your statement contains more than one sentence, pause briefly between them. Use a confident voice. You are representing the cool things your school is doing!
  • Hold the camera as steady as possible (try a tri-pod or other steadying device).
  • Review your shot to make sure it looks and sounds good.
  • We will accept HD video,1080p (most common) or 720p; iphone cameras are not ideal but fine if sound is captured clearly and shot is in focus.

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS

  • You are welcome to submit up to three statements.  But please change the speaker and the background for each.
  • Feel free to combine two related activities in one statement.  But please pause between the two.  For example “Last year we created a school garden (pause).  And this year, we built a really cool outdoor classroom!”
  • You may add an “establishing shot” of up to 10 seconds to accompany your statement shot.  For example, if your statement is “We built a school garden,” you may add a brief shot of students in the garden before or after it.

STATEMENT EXAMPLES

  • Our students designed a school garden that provides food for the community.
  • We designed and built an outdoor classroom!
  • We take weekly field trips to our local park.
  • We align our curriculum with the seasons and visit our local park in fall, winter and spring to see how it changes.
  • We replaced screentime with greentime.  Our class did a screenfast to raise money for…  Some of our students lasted over a month!
  • Our class restored a stream in our neighborhood!
  • Every year we take a field trip to Bull Run Reservoir to learn where our water comes from.  Then we spend __ weeks exploring water issues.