Kids use different ways to win movie awards

Two Parkway Southwest Middle School teams won first place awards in the first annual Show-Me a Movie contest. The two teams used entirely different approaches to achieve their success.

Doreen Zhang and Sharon Xu

Sharon Xu and Doreen Zhang picked an international environmental subject--destruction of the tropical rainforests--and did extensive Internet research.

The team of Jason Dong, Wilbur Song and Andrew Williams picked a how-to-do subject--learning to play chess--and did no outside research. They also used hand-made props to illustrate their movie.

But their results in the Show-Me a Movie contest were the same. Parkway Southwest Middle was the only school to win two first places. Both teams of eighth graders were from teacher Terri Moore's gifted class.

There were 55 entries in this first year of movie-making competition. (For a look at all the winners, go to http://www.csd.org/showmemovie/winners.htm.)

The 10 winning teams got to show their films at the 2005 Midwest Educational Technology Conference. It was held Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in downtown St. Louis.

Fourteen-year Sharon Xu said she and teammate Doreen Zhang "brainstormed a lot of ideas" before deciding to focus on rainforests. Their movie title was "Save the Rainforests."

Fourteen-year-old Doreen said, "We thought we could help prevent further destruction of the rainforests." Their film finished first in the "Show-Me a Challenge" category.

Their rainforest movie included a dramatic photo of a rainforest on fire. Fires are set by native people to clear the land for farming. Farm crops, grazing for cattle and lumbering are three human activities that are quickly reducing the amount of rainforest.

The girls quoted statistics that say Amazon rainforest trees produce 20 per cent of the world's oxygen. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and water by photosynthesis.

The other all-boy Parkway Southwest Middle team used a simpler approach and message.

Jason Dong, Wilber Song and Andrew Williams

Fourteen-year-old Andrew Williams said, "We thought we should do something that we all knew about." He and teammates Jason Dong and Wilbur Song, both 13, all play chess.

In fact, their film, titled "How to Play Chess," ends with Jason and Wilbur playing a quick game. In the film, Jason wins the game at checkmate. But, Wilbur isn't conceding defeat. He said, "We had to figure in the time to make the movie finish on time."

Their movie used only a chessboard, chess pieces and paper squares to illustrate moves each piece can make. Their movie won in the "Show-me Something New" category.

But both movies had motion, musical background and voice-over narration.

Sharon and Doreen did each step of the movie-making as a team. That included the research, the filming, the soundtrack and the final storyboard and editing.

The chess movie team divided up the work.

Andrew did much of the filming while Wilbur did much of the editing and some narration. Jason said, "I thought of all the ideas and did the storyboard."

Despite the differences, both teams tried to make their movies unique.

Sharon said, "We didn't think many people would do a movie about saving rainforests."

Andrew said, "I don't think anyone else explained chess." Wilbur added, "Especially not in two minutes."

Meeting the requirement that the movies could be no longer than two minutes seemed to be the biggest problem. The two used crisp editing to save time. The chess kids used a fast-forward technique to get through the movie-ending chess game.

All the kids enjoy school and are starting to think about future careers. But, in some cases, their career ideas don't gibe with those of their parents.

Sharon said her parents want her to be a doctor but "I'm not sure." Doreen said her mother wants her to be a radiologist but "I think it's boring."

Jason said his parents also want him to be a doctor. "But, I want to make video games or make music," he added.

Wilbur is learning towards being a biochemist while Andrew plans to go into journalism. "I want to be a humor columnist," he said.

If you are interested in movie making, you can find out more information by logging on the Cooperating School Districts' website at www.csd.org.

The deadline for entries in next year's contest will be Dec. 19, 2005.

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