Script to Screen: How Silverbox support your children's learning through Filmmaking ??

As a parent, you've probably witnessed your child's fascination with storytelling.
Perhaps they've even expressed a desire to create their own films. If your child has a budding interest in filmmaking, you're in for an exciting journey together.
Here'e a few things we do to help fuel your child's passion for filmmaking, from the initial script to the final cut.
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1. Encourage Their Creativity
Every great film starts with a compelling idea. We encourage your students to brainstorm and develop their own stories. Ask them questions about their characters, plot, and what message they want to convey through their film. We genuinely love to hear their ideas and help them refine their concepts.

2. Provide the Right Tools
To bring their vision to life, they will need some basic filmmaking tools. Our basic kit includes a camera, a tripod, Laptop and video editing software. Depending on each students level of experience, we continue to introduce them to new and exciting equipment and techniques to continually challenge how they might approach telling their story.

3. Teach the Basics of Screenwriting
Scriptwriting is the backbone of filmmaking. We introduce students to the art of writing scripts. We start with looking at how to create interesting characters, scenarios and motivations and then slowly transition them into the more technical aspects like formatting, dialogue, and storytelling techniques. This skill is invaluable to the filmmaking process but will also serve them in a variety of other writing activities they will encounter throughout their lives. 

4. Learn Together
We're not afraid to learn alongside your child. We're always growing and learning. There's nothing better than finding a new technique or trick and trying it for the first time with our students. By learning together, we bond over shared experiences, the surprise of the final result and acquiring new skills side by side.

5. Embrace Trial and Error
Filmmaking is a process of trial and error. We expect that not everything will go perfectly the first time and that students typically don't get enough opportunities to 'successfully fail' during school time. We encourage your child to embrace mistakes as valuable learning experiences and help them troubleshoot problems and find solutions. We believe this process helps to foster fantastic problem-solving skills.

6. Collaboration
Filmmaking often involves collaboration with others. This is sometimes a skill that can get overlooked during school hours. Students are taught to work alone as they practise for tests, copy into workbooks or take on homework alone at home. Encouraging students to work with friends (even if they share interests) is not an easy skill to master and takes practise. Collaborative experiences like filmmaking can teach teamwork, communication, and most importantly compromise.

7. Create a Supportive Environment
We endeavour to provide a supportive environment where your child feels comfortable experimenting with their ideas. We value patience and understanding, even when faced with challenges or setbacks. A positive and nurturing atmosphere will help your child to thrive as a filmmaker but also as a person.

8. Offer Emotionally Sensitive Feedback
When your child completes a project, we offer constructive feedback. Highlighting what they did well and gently suggest areas for improvement. 
We're aware that, even as an adult, receiving feedback about something we have put our heart and soul into can have an unexpected emotional reaction. Sometimes we can't help but think "I'm terrible at this" or "it's not my fault that went wrong, it's your fault!" (sometimes we might even be right).
However, during our session we try to acknowledge these feelings and use them to our advantage by adopting the "I'm bad at this/your terrible at this/OK, what's next" method. This is the emotional process we all tend to go through when receiving feedback.  We work to help students understand that the first two stages are, more often than not, completely untrue and the only important phase to focus on is "OK, what's next".
This is a great method of emotional regulation for any creative to have and helps to put what really matters into perspective. The most important part is it prevents the "I can't do this" negative feedback loop to begin. If you haven't tried this for yourself I would highly recommend it!

9. Showcase Their Work
We celebrate your child's achievements by showcasing their films to our groups, handing out prizes and certificates. However the most important viewing is probably the one you have together at home. We hope that by providing you their work at the end of each term helps boost their confidence and motivation when they get to show you all their hard work.

10. Encourage Exploration
As your child gains experience, we encourage them to explore different aspects of filmmaking.
Each term focuses on a different aspect of filmmaking from script writing & cinematography right the way through to sound design and editing. This exploration helps them discover their unique filmmaking style and interests. I can safety say that after a few terms, some of them are extremely unique!
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Supporting your child's interest in filmmaking is a rewarding journey that can foster their creativity, critical thinking, and technical skills. Being engaged in creative activities not only nurtures their passion but also creates skills they can use in a variety of situations.
From scripting their first story to watching their films come to life on screen, their time making films will become a crucial part of their creative skillset in the future 🎥🌟