I'm pleased that it worked out so well Nicole. It brought back memories of leading a small group of primary school kids at a tiny rural New Zealand school through the process of making a super 8mm movie.
As alternative life styler crafty types we had been approached to take a craft day in leatherwork, but I thought that my relatively better film making skills might work better (and preserve a few fingers from very sharp knives; they needed them for milking)
I don't know about the kids, but it was a real learning exercise for me, so many personalities to adapt to. We decided that every kid would shoot one shot and it was quite hard to persuade the meeker and less confident ones to do that. I could only reflect on what chance they had in the regular classes--fortunately by virtue of its small size of the school they would not be completely lost in the crowd.
The storytelling part i.e. editing had them lost; they were quite interested in the splicer, but not why two shots followed each other.
We also went seriously over budget, and had to fall back on leatherwork, making 2 belts which, when raffled, brought in ten dollars and put the production back into profit.
The parents loved the result.
My apologies if this isn't quite germane to your post, I hope it's of interest.
I agree vehemently with your appeal for more support for arts in schools, particularly music. There has been some agitiation in the eastern states and a seriously concerning report on ABC RN Background Briefing
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2009/2612176.htm
Regards - Ross
