Moving Image Education

project overview

Iain Scott is an English and Media Teacher at Williamwood High School, the only school in Scotland which offers AS Level Moving Image Arts

Sometimes it just feels right to try out a big change.

We met in the Filmhouse in Edinburgh in December last year. Ames (Association for Media Education Scotland) and Scottish Screen were both behind it, and introduced Northern Ireland exam board CCEA’s course Moving Image Arts. First impressions were positive, as the work seemed focused on Production (70% of the marks) with an online exam based on analysis of film clips for the rest.

Why take the trouble? Scotland is moving slowly in Moving Image Education. Alone among the Home Nations (do we still call them that?), we have no such course available, and SQA will not come up with one until the embargo on new courses is over in a few years. Pupils enjoy film work. It seems a pity to wait if something can be done to bring progress.

I set out a letter arguing the case for our head-teacher. After Christmas everything was put in the hands of a depute head in charge of curriculum, but the reaction was one of interest in a possible innovation. I could express interest to Scottish Screen in being a pilot school. Part of the attraction was that they would give some support, and I wanted to drum up both more interest in Moving Image Education within our school and any new resources we could find! That was the start. It was quite exciting, though I still didn’t know if it would ever happen! What I did know was that both making and studying moving images is natural to many of our students. I wanted to make it happen if I possibly could!

Then there was a wait. A process followed involving discussions at SMT level, but the response was encouraging to me. To my surprise, no-one bristled with horror at the thought of approaching a different exam board from the SQA. Scottish Screen told us that the SQA regarded exams as an open market place, hard though it might be to take that in! Eventually I was told I could approach new sixth years after the exams were over. Our depute thought I would have no difficulty interesting students in the course. So the school’s response was quite positive, although the hurdles of finding pupils, convincing them and making it happen still loomed like Beecher’s Brook ahead.

I contacted Scottish Screen and we had a visit from Adam Seddon to check out the equipment we currently had. Was it enough? How much support could we hope for? Could I expect more training to raise my own game a bit further? Adam was reassuring. Our few cameras, our suite of computers with Pinnacle editing software looked sufficient to him. Our new school also has a Video Editing Suite with an Apple machine and Final Cut Pro in it. This was exotic, and is ‘Industry Standard’, but there is only one machine. How can a class use one machine? Perhaps I could be trained on it we could manage some polishing up of work on the best machine. It seemed that the basic requirements were there.

Initial advice from CCEA was to work with a group of between 6 and 8 for the first year, so I began with the hope that such a number could be persuaded to take it on. All we now had to do was come up with a course and see what training could be arranged. Although it was a busy part of the year, the prospect of being involved in something new was exciting and quite terrifying at the same time. However, I was sure it was a logical step to take, and a good way of moving forwards in Moving Image Education for me.

When examination time arrived, I had more meetings with Adam, including a day’s training to discuss course content. I was put in touch with Ian Piercy, video artist and animator, to develop my technical skills, and Ian visited us a few times in June. Now it was down to finding pupils for the course, something I had never had to do before. My abiding nightmare was to have come so far and then been unable to find a class. With some trepidation, I began to lay plans.