Teaching Video Shooting to Some Special Youths

Recently we took on an unusual project. We were asked by some police friends to teach some youths under Superintendent Caution (警司警戒) to make videos, as part of our community service learning program. So on a Saturday morning, 10 police officers took 20 youths to our university, where a team of our university students taught them how to shoot and edit videos.

We told them the basics, gave them video cameras and asked them to go out on campus to interview and shoot the videos. These youths are under Superintendent Caution because they have committed some light offences. They typically come from poor families and are doing poorly in schools. They were initially very passive and disinterested. It took a lot of plodding to get them to do anything, even to get into the elevator!

Many of them have never used a camera before. So learning to make videos - something new and unfamiliar and difficult looking – is hard. Part of the reason may be a fear of failure – what if I tried and could not to it? I would lose face among my friends! After very patient coaching and prodding and encouraging from our students and the police officers, about half of them eventually completed the three sessions and seemed genuinely interested. That’s a big achievement and we are planning follow-ups. We are all hoping that we can do a small part in helping them to build up confidence in their own abilities and to acquire interests in something healthy and useful.