Star Wars Movie Making Camp Touts Teamwork & Technology

Inver Grove Heights students don’t need to travel to a galaxy far, far away to enjoy the magic of the Star Wars films.

Wookies, Jedi and Storm Troopers can be found only one town to the north in South St. Paul at Northern Dakota County TriDistrict Community Education’s Star Wars Jedi movie making .

The camp, which begins today, teaches students project management skills and creativity through moviemaking, specifically the production of a stop motion animated LEGO Star Wars movie. The camp is open to students in grades three through eight.

“They have to work as a team,” said Lana Dang, director of Computer Explorers, the youth enrichment company contracted to teach the camp. “We try to get the kids to switch roles every hour or so.”

The students work in production teams of two to four. The four-day camp begins with a daylong Frames software tutorial, followed by a half day of storyboarding, one to two days of filming and a day of editing.

Action figures, LEGOS and backdrops are provided. Participating students learn how to use a digital camera, download footage, edit digitally and add special effects to their film.

Camp instructors allow students to work together to create the story for their movie. The finished products will available for viewing online.

Computer Explorers has long offered filmmaking classes, although the Star Wars class is new to the company’s 2011-2012 curriculum.

In addition to movie making, Computer Explorers also teaches programs across the Twin Cities metro on subjects such as robotics, engineering and video game design. The company works with 60 school districts and contracts more than 300 summer classes.

Jedi movie making camp is held at Family Connections, in South St. Paul. Cost to attend is $80.