Art Directed by an 8th Grader

Yes, the title is true.

This past weekend I did creative production work for my little cousin. He was over for a visit and a couple hours before he had to go, he mentioned that he needed to create a short video on Lewis and Clark for a school project. Of course I started in with a million questions about how he was going to dress his sets and what his script looked like..."offering" my suggestions (aka running completely roughshod over the poor kid). My husband gently reminded me who's project this was and I backed off. But I did tell him I'd love to help him with this project before he went home.


We only had a couple hours to get this done so we had to move fast. He had come with the idea that he wanted to use toys for actors, making it more of an animated film. I loved this. We built a set using part of my Halloween village accessories and part of our Christmas nativity scenery. "Little People" were perfect in proportion to the set so we went with the farmer for Lewis, a random pilgrim for Clark, and the teacher from the school set for Sacagawea. Sir Toppham Hat makes an appearance straight from the Thomas Train set. Use your imagination people, we only had a couple hours to pull this together!


My suggestion of making a silent film was met with enthusiasm and so we set to work. Believe it or not, this entire little film was completely created on my iphone with an app called Silent Film Director. This tool made it so easy. I will admit to having upgraded to "pro" for a few bucks more. They had everything I needed from editing capabilities to effects and music. I have never shot video and edited it before...but oh my, I'm sort of a monster now. It was serious fun.

This film is rough, there was no time for re-shooting anything (I accidentally shot it portrait instead of landscape) and the typography leaves something to be desired...but I think it's sort of cute so I thought I'd share it.


Here is my his film:

–Cassandra