In our first four years teaching film, Thrive Collective’s School Media program taught 800 elementary and middle school students the basics of filmmaking and storytelling. Below are the stories our students chose to tell.

Our innovator schools include Brooklyn’s PS/MS 282; PS/MS 42Q and PS/MS 183Q in Queens; IS 117 and MS/HS 141 in the Bronx. Students learned to use the green screen, boom mic, DSLR cameras, smartphone and tablet cameras, and editing software, while creating commercials, music videos, newscasts, PSAs, and more. Even a thriller!

While expensive cameras are fun to use, they can be hard for students, and even adults, to access. Nowadays we don’t need fancy equipment to tell a great story. Many students carry multimedia production studios right in their pockets. From cell phones to tablets, anything is possible!