Inspiring Creativity: Apple Camp 2025 Lets Kids Make a ‘Friendship Film’
Credit: Jesse Hollington
Toggle Dark Mode
Apple is once again running free summer workshops for kids at local Apple Stores this summer. From June 21 through July 31, Apple will offer special Today at Apple sessions aimed at younger audiences.
However, Apple is changing things up for this year’s Apple Camp. While past Apple Camps have offered a variety of areas for kids to explore, Apple is lowering the age range this year and focusing on a single topic again.
We invite kids ages 6–10 and their families to explore the magic of filmmaking on iPad with iMovie. Campers will collaborate as they direct, record, edit, and more to make a friendship film that celebrates how we’re better when we come together.
Apple
Apple is also lowering the age range. In the past, Apple Camps were available for kids aged 8–12, but this year, Apple will welcome a younger audience from ages 6–10.
In the past, Apple Camps have presented topics across multiple sessions over the course of a week, with kids returning each day to learn more. However, this year’s Direct Your Own Friendship Film on iPad will be done in a single 90-minute session.
This year, campers will be split into two groups and will learn how to record video and use iMovie on iPad to create a story together inspired by friendship. The groups will use the iPad to film scenes to create a movie. They will then use the iMovie app to edit their movies and learn how to add fun sound effects, transitions, slow motion, and more.
Apple
While the sessions are a fun way for kids to learn about filmmaking, this year’s Apple Camp still seems like a step down from the Apple Camps of yesteryear. The 2019 program offered kids a choice of four sessions, including Creating Your Own Song with GarageBand, Designing Your Dream Park with iPad, Coding Fundamentals and Programming Robots, and Directing Your Own Movie with Clips and iMovie, each of which was spread out across three 90-minute sessions. In the years before that, Apple covered other similar topics such as Creating Characters and Composing Music, Stories in Motion with iMovie, Coding Games and Programming Robots, Beat Making and Songwriting with GarageBand, and Telling Stories with Clips.
During the multi-day sessions, kids worked toward a final project, such as producing a song, a design, a robot story, or a movie trailer, and were given an opportunity to present it to the group on the final day. Even though this year’s Apple Camp will be compressed into a single session, it’s likely to adopt a similar style.
Apple Camp: Direct Your Own Friendship Film on iPad is free of charge and Apple will provide all the necessary devices — iPads in this case — for kids to work on during the session. Final projects can usually be exported at the end so the youngsters can take their work home. Kids must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, and each kid will leave with a special edition Apple Camp t-shirt, now made with 100% recycled materials.
Apple moved to the single-session format in 2021 following an “Apple Camp at Home” during the global health pandemic. At the time, it was assumed it was merely ramping things up more slowly, but it’s stuck to that simpler approach ever since. However, it’s also made up for that by offering more kid-oriented Today at Apple sessions that it runs throughout the year, such as Code Your First App, Draw with BE@RBRICK, Create Comics Inspired by Planet Earth, Create an Interactive Story of Kindness, and Make a Theme Song.
