Room 212 Production
Room 212 Productions is a student-run, teacher-facilitated production house operating from a New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) classroom. On February 10, 2016 while working with Season #1 filmmakers Frances DePaolo and Daniellia Hazel 212 Productions was born. During Season #4 the name evolved into Room 212 Productions. So, what is Room 212 Productions? Well it depends on the lens through which one is looking at it. If using the Department of Education lens strictly, then it is senior level English Language Arts class. If seen through a vocational lens, then Room 212 Productions is a small youth-based production house that specializes in short documentary films.
Room 212 Productions entire process operates under the banner called the “Senior Language Project (SLP)”. Success on the SLP hinges on 3 simple steps.
STEP 1: Every director/producer (student) must first find some idea, or a field of study they find intellectually exciting. STEP 2: Each director/producer must research some specific aspect of their topic, and render a piece of MLA formatted scholarly writing. This piece is called the Scholarly Artifact (SA). STEP 3: Finally, each producer is expected to either make or do something physical which explores and articulates the topic in a more tactile and/or kinesthetic way. This piece is called the Physical Artifact (PA).
At this point about 85% of all Physical Artifacts are documentary films, but they needn’t be.
The PA has taken other forms such as a short story (Season #2-STD by Mikeda Fleming), an original screenplay (Season #3-Deeper Than by Theresa Charles), a One-act play (Season #4-Gimme Shelter by Edgar Jimenez), the painting of a city mural (Season #3-Bodega Mural by Samuel Gauyo), and a cookbook (Season #8-Teeanna Jones). Through their SLP, students cover an array of literacy skills as described by the New York State Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, as well as obtain real situation practice with skills that may one day be applicable to future careers or employment opportunities.
