Blog ·
Before, After
What's in a kid's head at 9:05 versus what's in it at 9:45 — that's the whole video.
Botelle School · Environment
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Lauren’s video opens on an empty hallway — waxed floor, nobody in it. Then the doors open and the whole thing fills up with backpacks.
Before, after. Two shots, one idea.
Which got me thinking about where else that move works. The one I keep coming back to is what’s in a kid’s head at 9:05 versus what’s in it at 9:45. That’s the actual job of the place, and it’s happening in every classroom all year, whether anyone’s filming it or not.
Here’s how simple it can be.
Talk to the camera for 30 or 40 seconds: what today’s lesson is, what you’re hoping they walk out with.
Then roll, and ask the class what they already know about it. You’ll get crickets. Keep it — that silence is your “before.”
Film the lesson. Hands, materials, the half-erased diagram on the board.
End of the period, same question, same camera. This time you can’t get them to stop.
That’s the whole video. Parents will watch it twice.