Lights, Camera, Learn!

Lisa Scaltrito's 8th grade class presented their 'American Stories' short films at the Skirball Center recently, culminating my month-long residency with Notre Dame Academy . The projects, which screened as part of AFI Fest 2010, explored themes of immigration and identity and challenged the production teams to research their own cultural heritage and tell the story of a fictional immigrant to America. In addition to an intensive week of basic digital storytelling training, the students had two field trips to the Skirball Center to gain inspiration from the Center's "American Journeys" & "Thousand Journals" exhibits. This project was based on the "Thousand Words" lesson I use to teach basic storytelling in editing technique and was modified to align with the Notre Dame's social studies curriculum and Skirball's Arts in Education outreach goals.  Six student teams were given a basic outline for their immigra...

Registration is now open for a series of my workshops sponsored by the LA County Office of Education's Instructional Technology Outreach including deeply discounted tuition on a 2 day classic Door Scene training and if you've been following my Digital Storytelling residency at Notre Dame Academy and want to know more about the "1000 Words" project, then you might be interested in my December workshop "Storytelling in Editing.    These 'make & take' workshops are very popular and you will learn: • Basic visual grammar and the difference between a shots and scenes • Organize and improve filmmaking with storyboards • Experience hands-on how to use video cameras • To access free images for educators from the Library of Congress. • Basic editing with the latest version of iMovie. • Proper narrative use of transitions and effects.     Lights, Camera, Learn!: Opening the Door to Video in the Classroom 11/12  04:00 PM - ...