A group of Chester media art students have been busy developing their film trailer ‘Escape’ as part of their Media Studies projects and have had to learn some new to them skills to help them take their story board through to their finished film trailer. It’s been great fun being part of their creative process, albeit from behind the scenes so to speak.

They’ve worked really hard on their creative ideas, developing the film plot, planning their story board, organising their ‘zombie victims’, deciding on their shoot location and coordinating and directing the whole process.

On top of shooting video, they’ve had to take their stills action shots, so photography media skills were also involved. They then had to get to grips with photo editing software. They actually used fireworks which is similar to photoshop, and made by the same company. As I only use fireworks, they had little choice over which software program I could teach them to use for that!

Taking the video is one thing, they then had to edit the digital footage, create and add music, build a simple website, create a slideshow of their still photographs, write and add their website copy for each web page and then put all their creations onto disk for presentation and submission for marking.

They learned web design and built an image gallery with dreamweaver and fireworks, used imovie for film editing and for adding their audio clip and finally used iDVD for presentation on DVD.

“They had a lot to learn” might be a bit of an understatement!

Yet they DID IT all and they picked up the technical ‘how to’ elements very quickly, like kids do these days when using technology. I’m sure kids brains are hard wired for technology from birth these days!

They’ve finished the whole project and although it’s not a ‘for release’ film and they won’t be walking a red carpet this week, it’s really come out very well indeed and their creativity and hard work really shows.

Let’s hope their tutors agree.

They should give me permission to share their final trailer here with you in due course.

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They’ve both been developing their art projects on the music theme over the school term, having first researched and explored their music based ideas, before expanding those ideas into their preliminary pieces.

Those consisted of drawings in mixed media, which then further developed into 3D compositions to represent the music elements they had chosen, using mixed media including cardboard, to help with the 3D effects.

Once they were happy with their 3D compositions, layout and presentation, they went on to prepare their blank canvases for laying down their acrylic paintings.

Although they are twins, you’ll note from the photos of their individual paintings, that they actually have very different styles.

One chose to work with a neutral color pallet, whilst the other went for a much more vibrant color theme in purple tones.

Obviously, being their mum, I love both of their acrylic paintings. And, as a part time artist myself, it was brilliant fun watching them go through the whole creative process, from start to finish.

What I enjoy about the creative process is that it can help kids think differently, not just about their art or what they are producing, but all elements of their lives. I’m certain that this can only benefit them in later life, whether they go on to become artists or in whatever else they may decide to do.

When they are working on their art projects, it is very temptingto step in with my paint brush! However, with that temptation resisted, I’m always pleased to be on hand with a few tips and willing to answer questions if and when asked!

The downside, if there really has to be one, with having two additional artists in the house, is that they ‘borrow’ my acrylic paints and brushes!

Yes, they’ve had lessons in cleaning and drying my brushes properly!