Local to global and back | Bangkok Post: learning

There is a lack of audio-visual materials that are specific to Thailand, so a project has been undertaken to develop DVDs for primary school pupils in Thailand.

The cast and crew of ‘Smooth Transitions’ take a break from filming. Clockwise, Sam Graham, who stars as ‘Bank’; Ms Panida Phiwdee, the show’s co-director and executive producer; and Chelsea Graham, who co-stars as ‘Noi’. STEVE GRAHAM

Planning the dialogues

For the last two summer breaks, I have made educational videos starring my two children. Whoever said never to work with children or animals knew what they were talking about.

Planning the dialogues was the easiest part, albeit very time consuming. Local books that covered the O-Net and N-Net tests were bought, and dialogues were made out of the multiple-choice questions. This task was completed for Prathom 1 to 3 (Grades 1 to 3) in the first year and 4 to 6 (Grades 4 to 6) in the second year.

Care was taken to allow for vocabulary substitution and a certain amount of recycling in order to give the DVDs the maximum impact. There are approximately 30 pages for each prathom grade, and the dialogues vary in length, depending on the tasks that were constructed in the original test book that was purchased.

Filming and recording

A local music school called Chorus Line was used to film the actors first, and then the stars of the videos went into the sound studio to over-dub the sound so that the audio quality of the DVDs was close to professional quality.

My children were used as the stars in the DVDs, playing the roles of "Bank" and "Noi".

I have no experience in directing or producing films, and my children are not accomplished actors, although they watch enough Thai television to know how to overact. This was amateur hour at its best, but it is amazing what you can do if you really want to succeed.

Trying to keep two children focused during the weeks of filming and recording proved to be extremely challenging. I found I was at my wits' end most of the time as their attention span could be counted in seconds (and I thought I was the one with the attention deficit).

Post production

It took about five weeks to marry the video to the audio soundtrack. Occasionally, a revisit to the sound studio was necessary to re-record a bit of dialogue that was not in sync with the previously recorded video. English subtitles were also added, so that the DVDs had an extra dimension when paused in the classroom.

Then came a painstaking period during which I had to listen to the DVDs and read the subtitles for errors. This has got to be one of the most boring, yet most important, tasks, because you know that the slightest hint of any error and someone will certainly bring it to your attention pronto. Mistakes would also affect the perceived quality of the product, so proofing _ as always _ is very important.

Once the process was completed, the individual clips were archived as a zip file, together with a script created in Microsoft Word and an MP3 sound bite, and posted on my website for teachers to download as they wish.

Copies of the DVDs were also made available at teacher-training events. Prathom 1 to 3 were completed last year. Prathom 4 to 6 will hopefully be ready soon.

In my opinion, products like this satisfy a local need, and I believe that this model can be used to make materials for schools in any country as long as you are prepared to put in the hours. Go to tinyurl.com/23t8z64 to see the video. Let me know what you think. I'm open to suggestions and perhaps a gentle criticism or two.

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