Creativity is making a comeback in schools after several years of bean-counting. Film is one of several media which encourage creativity but has not been widely used because of the expense of editing suites, difficulties of training, shortage of accomodation for dedicated facilities etc.

Digital video does away with a great deal of that clutter and enables hand held filming, on-site editing on a laptop with sophisticated but easy to use software. With the complexity cut away creativity can be cut loose and some schools are finding that film making is easy. Filters and special effects offer a level of gloss which appeals to youngsters familiar with highly elaborate film and television. Where the 1950's child could be thrilled by a crude flip book animation a modern child is used to elaborate computer games and dramatic technological effects. To find that he / she too can create such effects is liberating.

Nor is creativity confined simply to personal development: creative uses of video to measure and record science experiments, explore landscape and process, achievement and response open up digital film to a wealth of oppportunities beyond simple point and shoot.