Cut Out the Dull Bits: Using Filmmaking to Teach the Writing Process

Ten years ago, I was in attendance at IETC and wrote the following tweet: “Joe Brennan is making me want to go home and make movies.”

Now, I teach a class that is dedicated to filmmaking and hosts its own film festival each year and student engagement is through the roof.

As an English teacher by training, some parts of teaching filmmaking come naturally to me, while others required more work, but one thing I’ve realized in my time teaching filmmaking is that the main strategy I’ve used with great success is the same one I struggled with earlier in my career: utilizing the full writing process.
Students are taught the pattern of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publication in many classes where writing is expected, but most students resist several of the steps and many teachers struggle with a way to overcome that student resistance. But utilizing filmmaking, this session will discuss how students can have the importance of the Writing Process ingrained into them by harnessing the creative and collaborative aspects of filmmaking.

In my session, I intend to briefly discuss the evolution of our own program to where it is now, and then focus on the main idea of how student engagement and buy in with the Writing Process can be attained through filmmaking projects, whether in a dedicated class or for a single project. In the session, I’ll share the successes of several students within the program, I’ll share resources both that I’ve found or that I’ve created to learn how best to write scripts, create stories that are meaningful, and then translate those stories into video projects.
The session will focus on the use of the Writing Process but also on practices that build student engagement and promote positive collaboration.