Homeschool High School Elective in Video Production - FREE Resources and Guide

Summary:  Homeschool high school electives can include the fun of video production!  Here is how we made our own homemade course, including list of free #homeschoolelective curriculum and more.  And it is nice to have an easy to teach high school elective!  #homeschoolinghighschool is so much more than just core studies

Making things, doing arts and crafts, and photography were always big in our homeschool.  One year my daughter wanted to try her hand at video-making. 

This became a year long project, and offered many opportunities for creativity...writing scripts, story boarding, planning shots, and then making videos.

And it helped to balance out her core studies, which focus so much on the head.  It also gave us the time to encourage my teen to explore and develop her special interests, talents, and gifts.  

Our Video Making Course

This includes:

- Finding Equipment and software

-Three sample videos that my teen made

- Video Making Contests

- Assigning High School Credit

- A list of skills that my teen gained from this project

Our first step was to get the equipment and software that was needed. 

Equipment and Software


1. A camera, which was a Nikon Coolpix S9100

2.  Editing software - Pinnacle Studios 16, from ebay

3.  Tripod (or ask a friend to help with filming)

We went to the library and searched on the web and found these:


Resources for Video-making


1.  The Cutting Edge

A documentary about film editing, with examples, "clear explanations and clips from many ground breaking videos"


2. Behind the Scene Videos


There are 26,000 behind the scenes videos, on Vimeo, where she
learned about:

- filming technique

- sound production

- lighting

- set design


3.  The Filmmaker's Handbook 

This book is a guide to producing, directing, shooting, and 

editing videos.  She studied the steps of videomaking, including:

- writing a script 

- doing a storyboard

- then planning for each shot.  

My daughter made four videos, and below I will share three of them...

Video 1 - The Golden Year 

I got to help with the filming....Click the link above to watch the video.

"The Golden Year" was a short video, telling the story of a princess who gave up her crown.  My teen wrote this story last year, as a part of  her writing studies .then turned it into a video. 

When it was time to film, she asked a neighborhood friend to be the actress in it.  This gave her practice in asking for help, coordinating with a friend, setting up filming times, etc.  

Next, after spending more time working with her editing software, 
my teen started a second video, which she called...


Video 2 -The Girl on the Carousel

This is a story of the girl pictured above, and how she met a friend 

at the carousel.  She took a number of weeks to plan this video. 

Then she and her friends spent three hours filming, one morning, 

creating forty frames.  

After making her first two videos, my daughter spent some 

time watching shorts using the "Behind the Scenes" videos. 

Next, my daughter heard about a video contest 

offered by Oak Meadow, a homeschool curriculum publisher.


Video 3 - My Homeschooling Adventure

To get started, my teen just looked at her photos of her high school 

activities and began by making a slide show. Then with the stills 

chosen and complied, she worked them into a video and wrote up a 

script. We are honored that Oak Meadow Publications put her 

video on their site's high school page.

If your teens are interested in contests, here are a few below.

Video-making Contests

1. Student Cam

2.  STN Contests - Student Television Network

Assigning High School Credit


Assigning credit was easy using the Mastery method. Since she entered three videos and they were accepted in contests, that indicated a  beginning level of mastery. 

That is because she met the qualifications and rules for having her videos accepted into the contests.

Doing this project helped my teen with a number of important skills.

Skills Gained from Video-Making

1.  organizational skills  - important for college or any vocation 
2.  assertiveness - by approaching friends to act
3.  practice in asking for help 
4.  cooperation and work skills- working with friends
5.  practice in following specific requirements for the contests

You are also invited to join my encouraging group for high school moms, called at Homeschooling through High School.  

Lots of moms just like you there, sharing triumphs and challenges.  Get your questions answered there, too. Join us here.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

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