After deciding upon their topics, the youth then wrote scripts and created storyboards on which they drew and laid out the different shot sequences for the PSAs.  After completing the storyboards, they were ready for action!  They put to use the camera techniques they’ve learned to date as they shot the scenes for each PSA.  The youth also served as the actors for one another’s projects.  After completing the shooting, the youth then edited their footage using I-movie.

Check out their finished projects at http://youtube.com/creatingabetterworld.

The Youth Media Producers began to plan for their upcoming documentary projects by selecting topics, conducting research, and preparing Power Point presentations.  The students chose to do documentaries on the issues of youth gun violence and youth HIV/AIDS. These subjects represent two very pressing issues for today’s youth in Chicago as well as nationally and globally.  We had two teams for each topic.  Each team pitched a different angle from which to approach the documentary resulting in a total of four pitches.   

The approaches pitched for youth gun violence were:

•    The economic reasons that young people resort to gun violence

•    The environmental factors that contribute to gun violence

The approaches pitched for youth HIV/AIDS were:  

•    The emotional reasons that young people engage in harmful sexual activity that leads to the contraction of HIV/AIDS, and

•    The role that lack of education, knowledge, and sexual responsibility plays in young people contracting HIV/AIDS.

The teams did a fantastic job researching their topics and presenting their first pitches.  Check out their presentations at: http://youtube.com/creatingabetterworld

We are very proud of our Youth Media Producers.  Much excitement lies ahead next month when they will learn advanced video editing skills and begin pre-production work for their first documentaries. 

Stay tuned!