The purpose of this article is to isolate and detail various literacies deployed by youth when they composed multimodal texts that culminated in the production of student films. In particular, we focus on manifestations of young people's thinking in the forms of fast and slow literacies. Using data from a series of research studies in which we observed Grades 3-12 students create short films in course-embedded field experiences and summer movie camps, we examined how the composition of student-made films allowed us to interrogate and elaborate literacies, both fast and slow, and the fast and slow thinking that supported the creation of those literate manifestations. We suggest fast and slow literacies, broadly construed, alter theories of literacy learning.