Lights, Camera, Innovation: How STEM Brings Films to Life

This week’s Girls in STEM Club session at the Discovery Science and Technology Centre truly brought the excitement and creativity of filmmaking to life through the captivating theme “Lights, Camera, Action!”.  The workshop offered participants a unique opportunity to step into the world of movie magic, exploring how science and technology blend seamlessly with art and imagination.  The focus was on two fascinating and widely used film techniques, forced perspective and green screen (chroma keying), both essential tools for creating the visual illusions that make cinema so captivating.

The session began with an engaging introductory video on forced perspective, illustrating how filmmakers cleverly manipulate camera angles, scale, and distance to make objects or people appear much larger, smaller, or closer than they are in reality.  Working in small, enthusiastic groups, the girls experimented with cameras, props, and creative positioning to produce fun and mind-bending images.  Their results, which they proudly shared with the group, were a wonderful showcase of imagination, problem-solving, and teamwork.

The next activity introduced green screen technology, which allows filmmakers to replace a solid-coloured background, usually green, with any digital image or video.  Widely used in everything from weather forecasts to blockbuster films, this technique enables the creation of realistic or fantastical scenes without leaving the studio, helping to control production costs.  After watching a demonstration clip, participants had the opportunity to experiment with digital backdrops themselves, discovering firsthand how visual effects can transform ordinary footage into compelling cinematic stories.

The session concluded with lively discussions, laughter, and a shared sense of accomplishment, demonstrating how STEM empowers creativity and turns innovative ideas into visual storytelling.