Creative Differences

Last week, we filmed the last scenes of the Pluto movie. In recent days, we’ve been reviewing editing the movie in preparation for next week’s screening. 

While creating the stop-motion movie, the children learned a lot about the technical aspects of movie-making—including setting up shots, capturing images, and editing out frames. Editing the film has introduced a new set of challenges in that we have to make creative decisions. When nearly everyone in the class had some part in making the movie, who gets to make the call? 

The children are skilled collaborators, and are great at sharing and building upon ideas. They listen, ask questions, and assert themselves. Disagreements do arise, however, and when it’s difficult to decide, the children not only call for a vote, they also accept the results with a positive attitude. 

In the process of editing the Pluto movie, we challenged the children to not just stake out their positions, but also to explain—calmly and respectfully—the reasons for wanting one course of action over another. We asked them to discuss as long as needed to decide as a group without taking a vote. ​

Voting and compromise are not easy, but reaching consensus is far more difficult. So many decisions—naming the movie, editing the length, adjusting the color, adding subtitles—all required a great deal of debate and patience. Occasionally children developed creative ways to combine their ideas, and in a few instances they were persuaded to change their positions. It was wonderful to see the children work collaboratively in lots of different combinations over several days, and to feel that their ability to reach consensus was bolstered by their strong relationships and their appreciation of each person’s contribution to the project.