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One week ago, 13-year-old Cullan Parks knew very little about shooting and editing video.

Today, he uses terms like “whip around” and “pan” as if he’s been using those particular camera techniques for years, and can speak with authority about focus, zooming and exposures.

A whip around is a really fast pan, while an ordinary pan is really slow, Parks explained.

The teenager is one of 14 young students who attended week-long video making classes at the Marco Island Center for the Arts under the tutelage of film producer Jennifer Marquis-Muradaz.

Each of the classes made public service announcement clips that are due to be aired throughout the summer on the Education Channel (20).

Cullan and his group settled on a PSA highlighting “cyber bullying” — sending nasty cell phone text messages — and after brainstorming with Marquis-Muradaz decided to shoot a series of messages on actual phone screens, and finish with the texted words Think Before U Send.

The previous group chose to highlight how much there is to do in summer to avoid boredom.

On this particular day, the group had put together their rough cut, and were in the process of editing the final 30 second cut from about six minutes of filming.

Marquis-Muradaz, with a feature adaptation of Macbeth and seven short films under her producer’s belt, said her teaching style is not to interfere too much.

“They need to be hands-on, so they chose the subject to explore, made a list of ideas, wrote the script, directed and shot it, and are now editing it.”

She said all the youngsters were willing learners.

“A lot of people think making a movie is just shooting with a camera,” she said. “That’s a big part, of course, but editing brings it together. You could take the same footage and create a million different pieces, depending on how you arrange the shots, what kind of graphics and what kind of music you use.”

Marquis-Muradaz has lived in the area for the past six months.

Most recently she worked in Ireland as a producer, and before that spent about 10 years in California, also in films.

Her big project at the moment is putting together a full-length documentary on the plight of children in the civil war-torn African country of Sierra Leone.