By Yusi Gao, Mandarin Teacher at the Brearley School

1. Documentary Film Projects In Travel Study
Programs and Language Classrooms
Yusi Gao
ygao@brearley.org
The Brearley School

2. When I Was 16

3. Basic Equipments

4. Other Good-to-haves

5. Sound
If you are only filming with your phone you should:
Avoid areas with loud background noise (Outdoor filming)
Keep windows closed and turn off the fan. (Indoor filming)
Use headset to record narrations
Place the camera near the actors/interviewers
Run a sound test to make sure you are catching enough sound
Use a separate phone to record audio if necessary

6. Camera-work
Use a tripod
Learn different types of shots
Ask your students about different filming apps they use
Take lots of B-rolls shots
Backup daily

7. Planning
Find a topic that is engaging and
enlightening for your students
Narrow the down the topic to one
specific question

8. Planning
Identify the interviewees
Plan interview locations

9. Planning
Find the “Narrative Arch”
Write a “Treatment”

10. Pre-production Checklist
Treatment
Shot-list (shot type, length of
shot)
Work schedule
Narration
Interview questions

11. Interviewing
Start with ice-breaker question
Ask open-ended questions
Ask follow up questions
Transcribe each interview

12. Editing and Post-production
iMovie Vs. Adobe Premiere
Limit the time of each shot to 12 seconds
Avoid using class time for editing
Your students probably have better ideas than you do
Use instrumental music as background music
Allow students make different cuts
Don’t forget subtitles and credits

13. Individual Mini Film Projects
Select Topic
Write script using required sentence structures and vocabulary
Script editing
Filming
Record narration

14. Classroom Projects