It’s a windy day on a playground at Morehead Elementary School, where a group of children cavort with a giant, colorful parachute. Each movement changes the colors that catch the light – fast, small ripples mix with big, deliberate waves against a soundtrack of joyful laughter.  

It may have appeared to be a typical playground activity, but for these students, participants in a Dance for Camera after-school class at the expressive arts magnet school, the scene was cinematic. 

“Their joy was palpable, yet they were learning,” observed Jenny Braswell, dance teacher at Morehead. “Exploring their creativity and learning by play.” 

When “Under the Silk” was screened by the group in their last class together, the final product was a showcase of the raw creativity of elementary students, the unique mentorship of UNCG’s student interns, and two professors’ commitment to extending arts exposure and filmmaking technology to youth in our community. 

Creative Collaboration Ignites 

Encouraging students to see things from unique perspectives is at the core of instruction for media studies assistant professor, Jennida Chase, and Hassan Pitts, lecturer and technology coordinator. It was natural for them to lend their expertise to enhance the art-education curriculum at the magnet school their daughter attended, but when they tapped into UNCG’s Institute for Community and Economic Engagement, the benefits of the partnership far exceeded their expectations. 

“Initially, we wanted to help bring in extra resources and people to support these students,” explained Pitts. “We hoped to show them something new that maybe they’d only seen on the big screen.” 

Chase and Pitts began by volunteering in the Dance for Camera class offered to third through fifth grade students in Morehead’s after-school Arts Academy program. Braswell, who graduated from UNCG in 2009, teaches the free enrichment class, which draws students interested in dance and those with filmmaking interests.  

The media studies instructors found themselves energized by the open minds and creativity of the young students. It inspired them to leverage grants to fund their partnership with Morehead, so the group could produce a short dance film. Braswell recalls helping Chase and Pitts write grants for camera equipment and time in the editing suite.  

“The first grant was from the North Carolina Arts Council for $15,000 and then we applied for a matching grant from UNCG and got the P2 (Community Engaged Pathways and Partnerships) grant,” she explained. “It secured $16,000, which enabled us to pay Jennida, Hassan and two interns from UNCG, and buy all the camera equipment, props, and costumes we needed. There’s no way that we would’ve been able to do any of that without those funds.” 

Chase is passionate about her responsibility, both as an academic instructor and a creative mind, to bring opportunities like this to the community: “It’s important for UNCG to take on projects like this so we can build a bridge between our majors and the greater community. This funding gives us support for our idea, so we can make a living, creative process with some very impressionable young people.” 

Morehead’s Braswell echoed Chase’s passion: “My goal is to expose my students to as much as possible in these formative years. This partnership gives them exposure that I can’t. They wouldn’t have this opportunity at any other time or place. We got so lucky with all this!” 

The Impact of an Idea 

With funding in place, it was time to unleash the creative potential of the young minds at Morehead. Chase and Pitts used a portion of the grants to hire a dance and a media studies intern. They helped to keep the students on task in their classes each Monday afternoon.  

Grace Wiggins, a second-year dance major, helped with choreography. “The students spearheaded the whole creative process,” she said. “I was just assigned to take the movements and put them in different places, but it was really their minds and their bodies. The concept was all theirs.” 

As they began filming dance sequences under the parachute, students like Khariya Farrell were surprised by what was captured. “When I looked at the video, I didn’t know it was going to look like that!” she gasped.  

“That’s the light that I’m looking for,” Pitts acknowledged. “And when it appears in their eyes, you know that something’s clicking and they’re realizing, ‘It’s not just someone else who can do this, I can do this!’” 

The film production allowed for experience in front of the camera and behind it. Evan Jean, a third-year media studies major, was tasked with teaching the kids how to use the slate and verbal commands to control the set as a director, and frame shots as a cameraman. He loved working with them and engaging his media studies skills in a mentorship role.  

“It’s important for me to leave an impact,” he says. “This has been an amazing opportunity, especially working with the kids, but also with Jennida and Hassan. We’ve had great workflow as employees and as learners.” 

Pitts was impressed by how the young filmmakers responded to the student interns, who thrived in the real-world experience of working on a creative team. “The complement of the two disciplines [dance and media studies] as distilled through our interns is really kind of a special blend,” said Pitts.  

Technology Takes Center Stage 

At the end of the school year, the class took a field trip to UNCG to film the final shots in Carmichael studios. There, the students worked on a professional set, using high-tech equipment including the Department of Media Studies‘ newest tool, an LED volume. 

The LED volume is a high-resolution screen, or wall, used to create immersive backgrounds and environments. Thanks to Chase’s suggestion to leverage yet another UNCG partnership, the background in “Under the Silk” was designed by students at the Department of Cartoon and Animation at Baskent University in Ankara, Turkey. The scenes filmed in the studio transport the viewer from the playground to a dream sequence in a faraway land. 

“I think that educational institutions specifically have a responsibility to make technology more accessible,” Pitts says. “Sharing resources and ideas is important. You could spend a lot of money on a lot of technology, and if only one person gets to play with it all, then what is that worth?” 

Students like fifth grader Gabby Davis soaked in the experience on the professional set, absorbing the mentorship of UNCG’s finest filmmakers. Throughout the production, Davis served as a dancer, cameraman, director, and choreographer: “Even on this small set, you need all these people because you have so many important roles.” 

Introducing elementary students to the many career paths found in filmmaking was perhaps the greatest purpose of the partnership, which served Morehead Elementary, UNCG, and the Greensboro community at large. 

“When you ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up, it’s usually based on whatever they’re aware of,” Chase says. “They don’t know that somebody who looks like me is a cinematographer. They don’t know that someone that looks like Hassan is a filmmaker. Or somebody that looks like them.” 

“In this production, the class had grown-ups with art careers all around them. They saw that Mrs. Braswell and me and Hassan are all people who practice the arts. To me, that’s a healthy way to be a member of your community and celebrate the arts with them.” 

Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications. 
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications. 
Videography by David Rowe, University Communications, with additional footage provided by Department of Media Studies.