iMovie Trailers (Gr 1-2)

I have a love/hate relationship with the Apple iMovie app that you can get for the iPad. I love it because it is an awesome easy to use, super fun app. It can make video projects look beautiful and professional with hardly any effort.

And I hate it for exactly the same reason – it can make video projects look beautiful and professional with hardly any effort. In other words, it doesn’t really teach you anything. It does all the hard work for you.

So when the Gr 4s asked me this term if they were going to use iMovie for their projects I said no. And why? Because I want them to learn real-world video editing. I want them to learn different cutting techniques, and styles of titles, and audio editing.

Now, in my mind, letting the Gr 1-2s use iMovie – that’s fine. They’re not ready to jump on a computer and learn about layers and transitions. They just want something fun that looks good that engages them. And iMovie fits the bill perfectly.

So the project was to use one of the iMovie templates (in our case, we used “Family”) to create a fun looking trailer. Of course, this started with a discussion of what a trailer is and why we have them. One particularly bright student said a trailer was a persuasive text. I wanted to hug her. But I didn’t. I like my job too much. 😉

This project took 2 sessions to explain the app and give enough time for them to film little silly clips to put together as a trailer.

Here’s a video where I explain the lesson:

And here is an example.