Tag Archives: camp

Spring Break Tinkering School, Part 2

Posted on by


rDC Spring Tinkering Camp

Spring Break Tinkering School at reDiscover Center finished about a month ago now, and was great fun, and finally I have the chance to show you more pictures and video from the week! Check out my Flickr album here. The kids got a basic understanding of many of the things that go into creating a movie while building and playing with their creations. Thursday morning, we finished up our sets, props, and costumes, and in the afternoon we had some rehearsals, followed by quick filming. As it turned out, our main character was one of the script writers, and he had his lines memorized pretty much from the get go.

 

There were a few places where the counselors needed to supervise more closely than we might have ordinarily, given more time, so that we could get a video that effectively captured their creations. Several campers took turns operating the camera dolly with a counselor always on hand to keep an eye on the camera angle and record button, and one in particular took a keen interest in the audio recording, spending a lot of Thursday roaming camp with a recorder mounted on a camera tripod acting as a boom and headphones so she could hear what the microphone heard.

 

Thursday night, I edited our footage, a panoply of experimentation, improvisation, and sometimes intentional bloopers. (If I’d had more time, I would have created a blooper reel as well)

 

First thing Friday, after our welcome activity, the campers had the opportunity to see their movie, Attack of the Marshmallow Maniac, which clocked in at a whopping six minutes. Click below to watch it!

 

 

One of the things that most impressed me was that, once we hit our stride on Friday, creating elements of our theater/arcade for the parents’ screening, the campers had reached a point where they were comfortable enough with the tools that they could focus almost entirely on their creations. It is such a satisfying experience to see your campers truly absorb the medium.

 

There are many exciting plans in the works for Summer Tinkering School (one-week sessions starting June 15th – some spots are still available), but I won’t list them here in case any future campers are reading. It’s a surprise! You’ll love it!

Spring Break Tinkering School at reDiscover Center

Posted on by

We are making a movie this week at reDiscover’s Tinkering School, where I am lead instructor. And when I say “we are making,” I mean the kids. They will be designing and building absolutely everything – the script, the sets and props, the camera dolly, and all of the characters/creatures. Today, the campers (aged 7-12) were presented with the week’s big build theme: Monster Attack Movie, and – after much debate and voting – they decided on a Lightning Marshmallow Man for their monster. 

 

Photo Mar 24 12 46 23 PM

 

(The creativity behind this kind of brainstorm list just makes my day.)

 

It’s interesting to contemplate the things that the kids considered monster-worthy, especially as each society’s monsters are a reflection of the threats and concerns of the time period. There is obviously a heavy element of whimsy (a mutant transforming kitten, for example), and a lot of animals or everyday things turned upside down (a zombie vulnerable only to enchiladas), but the story that developed from their chosen monster says a lot. The marshmallow man comes about when a barrel of toxic waste spills on a bag of marshmallows. An environmental hazard makes the fluffiest of sweets deadly, and brings on natural disasters in the form of targeted lightning strikes. It does say a lot about what children see as some of the biggest threats right now.

 

Yesterday, they had training in all of the main tools of our shop: clamps (regular and corner), power drills and drivers, squares and T-squares, tape measures, hand saws, saw horses, jig saws, and the chop saw (the last two always are used with direct adult supervision).

 

The Tinkering Challenges from yesterday were to build a structure from dowels and corks with a trick that can easily knock it over, and – in the afternoon – to build something to move a cup of water around the room without  spilling it or holding it with their hands. We wrote down what we discovered from those challenges, and today we got to use those observations in planning the set destruction and the camera dolly.

 

They absolutely dove into building once we got going. The groups (which I always like to assign after the brainstorm, and based on what sparks their interest) had a few prompt questions to help them think of what aspects they would need to plan for. Fortunately, I had my laptop with me, because our writers have some killer keyboard skills and had enough ideas to need that speed. The monster building group decided on their materials, started building the frame, and learned how to use spade drill bits when they wanted larger holes. The set/props group began construction on a toxic waste refinery, the empire state building, and marshmallow bombs that break apart when they hit the ground (a really effective design, where foam balls are cut in half and held together loosely with a cork in the middle). The camera group assessed the challenge results from before and created their own design for a dolly based on them, which includes spaces for prop storage and snacks. Gotta love crafty. :)

 

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, and will post again with pictures!