Our work with people who spoke English as a second language in the community led us to develop a project which was supported by the Communities Team Language Hub programme. Language Hub is a grants programme offered by Leeds City Council Communities Team. The focus of the funding is to bring people from new and settled communities together through activities, so people can share their skills, build relationships and have opportunities to practise conversational English.
We delivered a 10 week film and photography project to ESOL learners in Leeds taking them through the basics of using their devices to capture photographs and simple timelapse imagery, through to storyboarding and editing their own short films. The subject of the films focused on aspects of their own daily experiences of living in Leeds but many of the films also featured aspects of the pandemic. While the sessions were delivered in a linear fashion, participants were encouraged to continue to reuse techniques they had learned throughout the course.
We worked with local ESOL provider Dawn Smallwood in order to bring formal language learning elements into the programme. However the sessions were not structured in the same way as a typical ESOL class. Twelve languages were represented by the participants, including English, Polish, French, Spanish, Kurdish, Farsi, Portuguese, Crioulo, Arabic, Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu, and some participants spoke multiple languages. In order to facilitate communication and understanding for all participants, we used a range of materials, including physical workbooks with written and visual information, Padlet with links to video tutorials, WhatsApp to send reminders and for people to ask questions and share information and support, and Zoom to facilitate weekly meet ups.
Due to the pandemic, all of the sessions were conducted online. However, because of the use of supplementary materials and technologies, participants used the time in between sessions to complete the tasks then discussed their outcomes during the Zoom meet ups, leading to a much richer experience. As part of the sessions, we worked with 100% Digital Leeds to support people in using their own devices, Men’s Health Unlocked to supply tablets to 2 participants, and Mentally Healthy Leeds who provided additional support.
Our Leeds
Photo walks
We began by getting to know the participants and sharing our experiences of living in Leeds, for example how long we’d lived in the city, what our neighbourhood was like, what kind of house we live in, and the places we like to go. We invited the participants to take photographs of their Leeds to be shown at the following session and gave them a few tips on different techniques they could use when taking photos. This resulted in rich imagery of daily life, views from windows and daily walks.
Following this, we focused on a more detailed look at the city: exploring different locations, how the neighbourhood was organised and used for different purposes, transportation routes, and places that showed the history of the area or the ways in which it was changing. The workbook contained a short guide with different questions for participants to think about while they were taking their photographs. We also provided links to timelapse tutorials so they could start to think about their images as a narrative. Participants made short video diaries where they could film locations they’d found in the previous weeks and practice talking into their cameras. As each participant used different technology, we used generic imagery to describe the different camera functions and they could learn more about how their device worked.
Planning and editing
We considered different ways to plan the film by thinking how we could use our collected materials in a storyboard. We showed examples of how these could be created using text, visuals, or a combination of both. The storyboard was then used to create a timeline by importing film clips into a video editing app and we gave examples and tutorials for different free applications for Apple and android devices, such as iMovie, Filmmaker Pro, and Movie Maker.
We explored the technique of animating still images, allowing the participants to lead the viewers eye around the still image to enhance the message they wanted to present. We introduced in-camera transitions and encouraged the group to film their own transitions to enable the film to flow smoothly. We also showed the participants how to add text to their images and videos to highlight different aspects of the text.
Reflection and presentation
We encouraged participants to reflect on their films and give advice to each other about the aspects that they liked, creating peer support. We invited them to discuss the techniques they had used, the particular story they wanted to tell and which were their favourite images. The participant’s used this reflection to further hone their work and the final films were showcased during the last session. You can see examples of the films below.