Update: End the School Year with the 2020 Green Ninja Film Festival

 
 

As schools transition to remote learning for the rest of the Spring school year, Green Ninja would like to introduce a great end of the year project to give students something to look forward to. Teachers can adapt our story and filmmaking lessons to their science classrooms to participate in the annual Green Ninja Film Festival. Judges from the science community will select the winning films that will be screened at our virtual event.

What is it?

The Green Ninja Film Festival (GNFF) encourages young adults to create films about environmental solutions. The program started as a research study in 2013 supported by NSF to increase student agency in science through filmmaking and storytelling. After seeing positive results in the community, teachers requested a film festival every year since then. This year, we thought opening it to our community and schools affected by COVID-19 would provide a great end of the school year experience! 

Entry into the film festival requires a short film accompanied by a digital portfolio that includes justification of the underlying science in the film as well as audience analysis. Three judges from the science community will select the winners. These elements help provide focus on school-based science while also giving students the full freedom to use their imaginations to design the types of films they think will be impactful to their audiences. 

Who can participate?

Everyone! All teachers and parents are welcome to have their students submit their own films to the festival. We are offering a collection of Green Ninja lessons on storytelling and visual composition to support teachers and student filmmakers. Having students create their own environmentally themed films is a great project that can be completed at home. We have mainly focused in middle and high schools, but we welcome elementary student films as well!

What resources do you provide?

For teachers and parents who want to use our lessons, you may access them here. We've curated 5 lessons from our Grade 6 unit on Scientific Storytelling that will help you get started! You can download teacher lessons and files needed to provide your students with some basics to storytelling and filmmaking. Lessons provided include the following:

  • Lesson 6.13 Story Development Part I

    • Be introduced to the "Story Spine", a basic framework on how to develop a story.

  • Lesson 6.15 Brainstorming Day

    • Learn about brainstorming techniques to keep your story original.

  • Lesson 6.17 Introduction to Film Techniques

    • Learn some basic filming techniques to enhance the look of your film through compositions.

  • Lesson 6.23 Scientific Storytelling Portfolio Part I

    • A digital portfolio is the second required piece to submission. We provide a template for students to fill out that will provide the supporting scientific evidence of your film.

  • Lesson 6.27 Classroom Film Festival

    • If you would like to host your film festival as well, a certificate template is provided to celebrate your students' work!

How do students create films at home?

Students can use tablets or smartphones to film their live-action videos, draw scenes, or use toys at home like Legos. We realize that not all students may have a filming device, so alternatively students can use online animation tools to create a story. Some examples are listed below.

To see the selected winning student films from previous years, visit the YouTube page for the Film Festival here. 

Submission Requirements

To submit to the Green Ninja Film Festival, please submit your materials to contact@greenninja.org.

  1. Subject line: (your school's name - teacher's name)

  2. Attach the digital portfolio as a PDF file (digital portfolio template)

  3. A YouTube link to the video hosted online

  4. Videos must be under 3 minutes

  5. Submissions are due on May 22, 2020 at 5:00 PM

If selected to be a finalist, students will be required to submit their original video files (.mov/.mp4) to us via Google Drive for screening at the film festival. Winners of the film festival will receive a certificate of completion, public recognition, and prizes.  

Film Festival Event Details

Thank you so much for participating in this year's Green Ninja Film Festival! We're excited to see what students create!

EventsGreen Ninja Team