PORT TOWNSEND — After immersion trips to Mexico and Vietnam, two groups of Jefferson Community School students are editing video footage of their trips into short feature films intended to capture the experience.
The trips are part of the curriculum at the private school, which sponsors them on trips to foreign countries each year.
The school plans to screen both films before the end of the school year, although a final date has not been determined.
The editing process is under the supervision of Port Townsend filmmaker Jane Champion, who acted as chaperone and adviser on the Vietnam trip.
Champion, who is the Port Townsend Film Institute board chair, said her support is part of the institute’s community outreach program.
“The students documented their trips on video and still photography, along with journaling and blogging,” Champion said. “Right now, they are putting their stories together about what they saw and what they experienced.”
Champion is teaching editing techniques, but the most important element is storytelling.
“They’ve learned about he power of storytelling,” Champion said of the students.
“Before we left, they learned how to shoot, how to interview someone and how to bring it back to the editing bench to tell the story.
“They learn these skills so when they encounter any kind of story they know how to document it.”
Both trips took place in March and were two weeks in duration.
Ten students went to Vietnam while 12 went to Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
“We were there for two weeks and camped in the desert,” said Dylan Nichol, cqthe student leader on the Mexico trip.
“We learned a lot of things about the local culture and environment.
“We toyed with the idea of just doing a movie about street, dogs but that wasn’t possible, so basically we are doing a movie of what our experiences were like each day and give people an idea of what it was like being there.”
“We didn’t know what to expect before we left,” said Becca Stewart, cqwho went on the Vietnam trip.
“We didn’t have specific things we wanted to film — it was just people, places, food, to get the essence of the culture and show it to other people.”
Because this is a yearly event, many of the kids have done it before.
“With each trip you gain something new,” Stewart said.
“On the first trip, I learned to be independent and take care of myself.
“On the second trip, I learned how to share and get along with people in general.”
“One thing that you can always count on is that you always get closer to the students on every trip,” said Will O’Brien, cqwho has gone on five excursions.
“I don’t know if we are going to use these video skills later,” said Brenna Latchford.cq“But it’s good to learn them now, so we can build upon whatever we decide to become.”
The excursions are an anticipated yearly event, with the destination disclosed when the school year is already under way.
Maya Rome cqsaid the highlight of the trip for her were the accommodations, staying with a Vietnamese family.
“It was so different,” she said.
“Where I stayed was in the back of a tailor shop. It was all open, and there were no doors.
“We ate on the floor and slept on a wooden bed.”
While there was no script for the videos, the kids used their imagination on the spot.
For example, a motion camera was placed on the head of a street vendor as he served and prepared his food.
The students said the Vietnamese people were fascinated by their white skin, which they wanted to touch.
Cameras are prevalent in Vietnam, but they are the larger “older” models — like from 2006, the children said.
Behavior is the same, as kids tend to laugh and act nervous when they are being filmed.
“They would get not embarrassed but kind of giggly because they knew the camera was on them,” Rome said of her Vietnamese friends.
“It was universal: When kids know the camera is on them, everyone acts the same way — kind of giddy.”
The video camera allows instant replay, which increased bonding between the two cultures, the students said.
“It helped us connect,” Stewart said about the technology.
“It helped us to explain how cold it is here,” Stewart added.
“They were talking about how cold they were over there, but when we showed them pictures of snow or the mountains, it helped them understand what it is like here rather than saying, ‘It’s cold where we come from.’”
Jefferson Community School is a private school with 24 students in grades seventh through 12th.
For more information, visit http://jeffersoncommunityschool.com.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
