Pilot
/ Gila River Indian Community
/ Child Protective Services
The PVV GRIC Devising Process
The devising process begins by brainstorming different topic ideas between
the students and collaborating artists. The students poll family, friends,
and other community members for subject ideas and preferences. These
specific ideas are work-shopped through theatre games and exercises,
writing prompts, and group discussions. After each preliminary topic
has been briefly explored, we weigh out their pros and then—as
a class—make a decision on the topic which becomes the theme for
that year’s PVV video and the rest of the year’s class work.
We continue the devising process around the central theme. Students
learn how to operate digital video cameras filming class sessions, interviews,
and the poems and stories they write for the piece. As the filming occurs,
the students map out their individual sections through a process called
storyboarding. (The students take their written material and come up
with visual images they would like to place in these stories, and the
exact spots they would like these images to appear. They then draw out
these images to match the words and phrases of their written piece,
to create a visual representation of what is needed for this piece and
how should look once it is put together in the editing process.) Once
these storyboards are complete, we compile a list of all the images
we need to capture, the B-roll footage, and begin the task of going
out and finding and filming this footage. After this stage, the students
and collaborating artists take the individual pieces into the computer
lab and edit them using non-linear digital editing software. Each student
learns how to edit and has the opportunity to create and put together
their own piece. Once all the pieces have been edited by the students
in iMovie, the collaborating artists take these individual sections,
as well group created works, and put them together, to create a loose
narrative. Students serve as producers then in addition to filming,
writing, acting, and directing. The final pieces are then brought back
into the community to be used as sparks for dialogue and/or workshop
material.
