Full Duck Productions

Students gathering for an assembly at P.S. 1

One of the earliest charter schools in Colorado, P.S.1 planned a giant celebration in its fourth year to commemorate the opening of its renovated historic building. Community and school members had transformed an old manufacturing building in Denver's inner city into a modern school facility. They asked Full Duck to create a video to honor the building and show the enthusiasm of students, parents and staff and the innovative program, which unites the school and community to make learning more vital.

Challenge: Produce a video to show to attendees at the opening celebration of the renovated school building; incorporate the history and philosophy of the school. Provide an upbeat, celebratory feeling while being entertaining and informative.

Solution: Full Duck Productions searched the archives for old footage of the building before renovation began and collected images from the new school and students. Full Duck interviewed the founder and board chairman of the school for statements about history, goals, and philosophy and interviewed students for statements about interesting projects they are doing at the school. Full Duck captured the character of the school further by taping images of unique features in the building and caught the energy and excitement of the opening by taping last-minute pictures and hand-painted tiles that were just being put into place. The video started with upbeat music and a picture of the invitation to the celebration. The video closed with close-ups of each student stating a one-word testimonial that summed up what he or she thought about the school: “exciting,” “innovative,” “fun.”