Account on the process of preparing the primary school mathematics collection
Beginning
The idea of making educational films on the primary school mathematics goes
back to 1995. That year a project for making a film based on the primary school
science book was given to the Educational Technology office. At that time it was
declared that doing this project was not possible, and the suggested mathematics
instead of science. This suggestion was first refused because of abstractness of
the subject and difficulty in designing images, but then accepted through the
office’s persistence, on the condition that only the 1st grade
mathematics film would be made, and if it was done successfully the rest would
be made. The 1st grade mathematics film was made in 1995, and it was
successful so the primary school mathematics project started.
Script
The project started in June 1996, after signing the contract; making 800
minutes of educational film based on 2nd to 5th grade
mathematics books. For writing the script, all the books were taught to the
director and script writers by the project’s scientific expert, and educational
ways and details were studied and argued. Then the director and script writers
determined the general structure of each grade’s main subjects and came to
common ideas. At this point the script writers began their job, which was pretty
difficult as not only the scientific and educational details were to be kept in
mind, but also the imagery had to be new and interesting enough for primary
school children. The small budget of the project was to be considered and...
The process was like this: first, two writers would tell their ideas about a
subject. When they reached agreement about the form, one would write that part
and the other one would rewrite it. Then the director would mention his opinions
and the written parts were given to the expert, and after studying and
commenting he would give it back to the script writers for further rewriting. So
the whole script was written in 5 months. Then the scripts were to be studied by
the experts of the Educational Technology office, which took another one and a
half month, and it somehow was the most difficult part as some of the experts’
ideas were quiet interesting! Anyway it finished as well!
Preproduction
The preparation started while the script writing was half done. As the
general structure was determined, the art director started his job in August,
and the designing finished in almost 2 months and then decor making started.
There were 6 main decors and some simple ones for the intervals.
One of the big problems in preparation process was providing the decor stuff,
because many different things and devices were needed and sometimes it took one
day to prepare one of them. Some interesting ones were:
. little blue and red duck-shaped buttons
. a pillar made of 10 cubes
. a volume made of 100 cubes
. a volume made of 1000 cubes
...
Scheduling
The scheduling began in November according to the script and the needed
decors. The estimated time for studio film shooting was 40 days, 2 days for
changing and lighting each decor. Film shooting started on 26.12.1996 ant went
on successfully till 1.2.1997, in spite of many problems like the small studio
and some technical problems. After a 3-day interval, film shooting in parks,
shops and different neighborhoods started.
Animation
Some parts of the script were to be made in animation. 2 animators started
their job in November. It was one of the most difficult parts of the project. Another script was prepared so that
the animators could understand the task and have no problem making the
animations. The costs of making the animations were far above the project
budget, so it was decided to bye the computers and needed equipments. Actually
nothing could be done without that, though the group worked on the system day
and night.
Music and song
Composing the music and song started in October. First the musical programs
were determined. The director and the poet shared their ideas and then the
poet’s job began. When the songs were ready, it was time to compose the music,
which finished in May, 1997.
Actually all the other parts were ready by February, but as the song composing
took so long, editing didn’t start till April, and then the songs were fixed.
Final evaluating
The editing finished in June, 2007. The result was given to the scientific
expert before sound mixing. Fortunately there were only a few slight problems
which got taken care of easily, and after the final technical processes, on July
the 8th the whole program, done by a 30 people in 13 months, was
handed to the producer to be published and distributed in the country.
 
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