A dozen local teens are coming to the end of a five-day workshop where they're learning how to make a short video, with the results to be screened at 6 p.m tomorrow at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. After the screening, which is open to the public, the films will be shown at the museum on an ongoing basis.

The workshop is part of the One Minutes Jr. video project, a collaborative effort among UNICEF; The One Minutes Foundation, which was established at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam; and the European Cultural Foundation.

UNICEF, which was looking for ways to use video in its work with children, has conducted these workshops in developing countries since 2003, but the Pittsburgh one is its first formal North American workshop.

Here the workshop is teaching basic film and video techniques to Pittsburghers ages 13-18 from the YouthAlive! program. Each participant is making a one-minute video with a specific theme -- "Self Portrait" -- but each also must come up with his or her own ideas within that framework.

The goal is to encourage self-expression through the use of video, says Karen Cirillo, executive producer of UNICEF's children's broadcasting initiatives.

In many of the countries in which UNICEF has done the One Minutes project, kids don't have easy access to video equipment. Here, with inexpensive digital video equipment in reach of many families, along with cell phones that capture video, the workshop can spark a new creative outlet.

Participants are learning basic camera skills, story development and editing skills. "They're picking up a lot of skills in addition to technical skills. They're learning a lot about team work, cooperation and critical thinking," Cirillo says.

The films will be posted on the One Minute Jr. Web site (theoneminutesjr.org) in a few weeks, and workshop participants will get a DVD of all the films.

-- Adrian McCoy, Post-Gazette multimedia writer