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Film Street is an exciting new website aiming to introduce children to all aspects of film and filmmaking. Within the first month of its launch on the 27th April 2006, it has had more than 700 visits in a day and over 850 users have registered to create their own Film Street profile.
The design approach is educational and engaging as well as extremely entertaining – not just for the target audience of 6-9 year olds, but also for adults. As a character in the world of Film Street, the user can visit various locations such as the cinema; film academy; animation studio; costume rooms; library and the film studio where they can go into the special effects; sound and editing; and camera and lights studios. In each of the buildings, users can learn about specific aspects of filmmaking, watch film clips, and try out an online activity. They can also save their work in their very own scrapbook and download further ideas and activities to try away from the computer. A structured tour of Film Street is also available, with the guide and character experts taking you step-by-step through the different activities in each of the buildings. However, users are also free to explore the street in whichever order they choose.
The user can choose to register and create their own profile and choose a character they want to be when visiting Film Street. They can explore each building and experiment with the resources there. For example, in the animation studio the user can animate characters in an easy-to-use and fun interface that helps them learn about sequencing and, frame by frame, animation. In the camera and lights studio the user can experiment with different camera angles in the filming of a short scene; learning how the camera position affects the shot. In the Special Effects studio, the user experiments with the concept of blue screen and is able to choose different backgrounds and layer a whole host of effects from asteroids to giant crabs around a superhero character. At the Film Street cinema children’s productions, short films from around the world and previews of the latest releases are shown. Children can submit their own films to Film Street and have them shown in the Children’s Film section. They can also write reviews of the films that they see. A dedicated and comprehensive teacher and parent section provides lesson and activity plans and downloadable resources, all mapped to the curriculum.
The whole site is designed to immerse the user in the Film Street adventure, whilst at the same time actively encourage children to develop their skills in literacy and other subjects such as music, drama, history and ICT. In addition there are a wealth of printable resources encouraging children to experiment offline to develop their own story-boards; character, costume and camera ideas. Children can use their personal scrapbook to store their work and save information about their journeys through the street. There is always something to come back to and to inspire more creative ideas and experiments while learning about filmmaking and the film industry.
Carolyn Royston
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