SciCast Notes:

“Keep it simple.”

If the SciCast mantra wasn’t ‘Not boring’, it would have to be ‘Keep it simple.’ Every time I do a workshop, I exhort teachers to start with something simple, to make a film that’s so straightforward, everyone worries it’s not enough.

It is, as this film shows. It’s great, and I’m delighted the school submitted it.

It’s short. It’s very simple indeed. But the team have had to think through what they’re trying to say, work out how to explain the physics, decide they don’t want to do that on camera, prepare the slides, plan how many bits of live filming they need to intersperse with the slides, pull all the bits together, and assemble the final film. All for 45 seconds — phew!

Along the way, they’ve found time to get three key details right:

1. We can hear what they say.
2. They’ve thought about the camera shots. We see a big wide shot of the hall at the beginning, placing them in content. Then when they’re performing the demonstration we see a closer shot, allowing us to see more detail. Great!
3. They’ve mucked around at the end, and left that in. It’s easy to plan things so carefully, you forget to make the film yours. That little clip at the end does nothing to explain the physics, but it does make the film human. Good call to leave it in.

There are lots of ambitious films on SciCast that must have taken hours to make. I’m glad there’s room for films like this, too.

— Jonathan.