Like countless other language arts students, 12-year-old McLaine Carroll was asked to read J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy The Hobbit.
But instead of just having to write a book report about it once she's done, the Grade 8 Bowden Grandview School student has been appointed unit production manager on a 10-minute film her class is producing about it.
“I love it,” she said of the project. “I really want to see what it looks like at the end.”
Her class has been reading the book for the past month, preparing a script and Carroll is now going through resumes students have been asked to submit to divvy up the different jobs on the project.
“We ask them a couple questions and they answer them,” she said, noting that the development phase of a film production is one of the most important parts. “We're just going to change the script a bit.”
For a short, the students are embarking on quite the ambitious project. Storyboards are in the works, the school purchased a boom pole and a microphone and there's even a behind-the-scenes crew documenting the process.
Two Grade 8 language arts classes are tackling the project, and an options class is helping create props and the set. One scene will be shot on a soundstage constructed by the class. Another will be filmed outside on location, with some parents even bringing horses to include in the scene.
Carroll was in high spirits a day after visiting Ya Ha Tinda on a location scouting expedition.
“I like having to go and look at the cool places we can go,” she said.
Teacher Nathan Clark is serving as the director for the project. He says he came up with the idea to shoot a film when thinking of ways to get students more immersed in the study of the English course.
“I knew I wanted to read The Hobbit with the kids, but I wanted to make it more interesting,” he said. “I wanted to just film a small part of it as part of their curriculum.”
Fourth-year Red Deer College students will be mentoring the Bowden students, and they will have access to the post-secondary school's sound and video editing facilities.
Clark says sometimes it's important to stray from the traditional model of learning to engage the class.
“I really believe in realistic learning,” he said. “It's so hard to try to replicate that in a classroom setting.”
Shooting will start in a couple of weeks. The Grade 8 youth will put together a rough edit and get feedback from other students before tweaking the project and coming up with the final video.
A wrap party is planned for December and the video will be uploaded to YouTube. The students will all go to see the Hollywood version of The Hobbit which comes out the following week.
Carroll says while she's learning a lot, it's been a lot of fun to have to collaborate with her classmates, too.
“I'm getting to know a lot more people,” she said. “I like working with a lot of kids I don't normally hang around with.”
