Day Three: Pitching Your Story

The guest speaker for today was Lauren Moews, a film producer. She discussed the importance of the characters and pitch of any story. She also explained the process of filmmaking and producing films.

Lauren used famous movies as an example for an exercise on pitching the movie idea to potential clients to raise money. She used Harry Potter, Moana, and Wonder Woman to explore the campers’ understanding of characters.

The campers discussed who the protagonist, antagonist, and mentor were for each of these films. They also discovered the best way to describe and explain why these characters play important roles. The campers can take this lesson and apply it to their personal stories, allowing them to have more ideas and to make their stories even better.

Today also marked the second day of museum visits, allowing the sixth grade group to take part in the process. The Weatherspoon Museum is the art museum located on UNCG’s campus. The camp is able to utilize it as a way to tie the campers’ writing to other forms of art and expression. The museum’s current exhibition is called Art on Paper and features pieces done with and on paper.

The class’s first activity at the museum mirrored what the high school group did the previous day. As a group, they discussed what they saw in a selected painting. After each detail had been addressed, the group picked out adjectives that they felt fit the feeling of the painting.

From that list the museum director chose the word “Pairs” for the group to turn into an acrostic poem, seen below.

Each camper then selected a separate piece of art which they studied and completed another acrostic poem. They had the opportunity to share these with the group afterwards.

Also today, many campers were able to enjoy a sweet and cold treat: ice cones in a cup! The kids quickly rushed to get in a long line to pick out their cup size and pour their favorite flavors.

It was a big hit! Some campers picked one flavor, others two or three, but only a few were brave enough to pick all of the flavors. The refreshing and colorful treats served as a nice break from writing, and hopefully inspired the campers to write more vibrantly.

Next Wednesday the ice cup truck will come by again. The smallest cup is $3, the medium sized cup is $4, and the large cup is $5. Snacks will still be provided to all campers, regardless of whether or not they bought an ice cup.