Things My Students Teach Me Part 2

“Don’t talk so much.  We get it.”

I definitely read that in a teen’s eyes this afternoon.  And something else was very evident, during a session of guerrila filmmaking with two guys who “got” it today.  They got how to use the camera to tell the story.  They then sat down and quickly rewrote the existing story to expand on what they’d just learned.  They deepened their characters’ motivations and started using the space we had (the basement conference room at a library) and adjusting the action for the furniture we had.  They worked really hard for an hour and then we jumped up and started filming.  And about halfway through it, I learned a very very important lesson, and one that triumphs over any deadline, and this is what I learned:

Sometimes, you just have to have a giggle fit.