Lights, Camera, Learn!

My Middle School Residency ends with students making movies and a teacher making plans for change.

2010-11-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

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 immigrant including; Age, Gender, Country of Origin and a decade of immigration. Student teams wrote character bio, a 1 page story narrative and finally 2 column video script. They used online resources like the Library of Congress' American Memory Archive and others to find images that represent their immigrant's life and finally combine the images with narration, music and sound to create their own unique immigration story.

Team Wei's Journey to America tell the story of a young girl's immigration from China. One of two teams that narrate their movie in the native language of the country with English subtitles.

Team Alejandra produced this story about a young woman fleeing a civil war torn Cuba and making a new life in America and also make some astute observations about assimilating in American culture. Notre Dame Principal Lilliam Paetzold volunteered her own family photos to be re-interpreted by her students.

All the students wrote self-evaluative essays following the final screening at the Skirball and many wrote about how they'll never look at TV or film the same again and how they were amazed about how much they learned about working as a team, managing, problem solving and creating. Their veteran teacher, Lisa talks about being transformed by this experience and by the leap of faith she took to get out of her students way and to let them drive their own learning.

Both Lisa and NDA's Principal are planning to build on this experience by doing much more media and technology infused projects at all grade levels in the future. I was moved and inspired by my experience at Notre Dame Academy; Lilliam Paetzold and Vice-Principle Ellen O'Shea and their supportive staff for giving Ms. Scaltrito the faith and freedom to really engage with this project. I'm grateful to Emily Mahon and The Skirball Center for the opportunity to work with such bright, talented and creative young filmmakers, the Notre Dame Academy Class of 2011.

>>Quick Plug<< I'll be leading a 1-day Storytelling in Editing workshop at the LA County Office of Education in Downey next month and in January I will present more about this residency and modeling the Thousand Words Project at Macworld Conference and Expo, 2011 in San Francisco. Click on the banner below for 15% discount on your conference registration.

Frank's Fall Workshop Series. Get the best of Lights, Camera, Learn! before Winter break!

2010-11-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

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 - 08:00 PM
11/13 09:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Register Now!

Lights, Camera, Learn!: Storytelling in Editing
12/11 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Register Now!

I know my old Screen Ed vets out there would get a lot out of this! Need a refresher? Bring a friend and start a film unit at your school! >>>Download the Flier<<<

Flat Classroom Conference Beijing 2011 opens registration, with me as presenter!

2010-10-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

My friends Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis have announced the speaker line up for the 2011 Flat Classroom Conference in Beijing, China and I'm honored to be among the distinguished line-up of educational leaders like, Bernjean Porter, Kim Cofino, Andrew Churches and of course our hosts Julie & Vicki!

The Flat Classroom™ Conference is a unique limited-seating conference including students and educators to envision the future of education as they use leading technology tools such as wikis, blogs, social networking and multi-media storytelling. The conference is diverse in participation while allowing smaller groups with leading world-class presenters in a "flattened" environment where virtual participants join in the conversation from remote corners of the world.

Educators will leave the conference understanding how to collaborate globally and with contacts in hand to start projects. Students will leave the conference with leadership skills, technology skills, presentation skills, and a better understanding of diverse cultures and collaboration.

Registration for the Conference and I'm certain a life changing experience in China is now open at the Flat Classroom™ Conference website. I had the privilege presenting at the Flat Classroom gathering in Doha, Qatar and it was amazing! If you have the travel bug and wish to learn and teach with colleagues from around the world won't you join us in Beijing February 2011?
Register Now!
More on this to come...

L.A. Middle school selected for month-long Digital Storytelling Residency ...with Me!

2010-09-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled to announce that in association with the Skirball Cultural Center I'll be leading a month-long Digital Storytelling Residency for the students in Mrs. Scaltrito's 8th grade class at Notre Dame Academy in West Los Angeles.

This in-school residency will take inspiration from objects in the Skirball’s core exhibition. I will guide this middle school class through the process of creating high-quality documentaries. Students will learn to use still images, storyboarding, and editing techniques as a way to illuminate themes of heritage, immigration, community, and identity. The student films will then be presented by the student directors at the AFI FEST Screen Education screenings taking place at the Skirball in November 2010.

'Our American Stories' Documentary Film Residency is based upon my very popular 'Thousand Words' lesson that develops both technical production skills but also important storytelling skills. How an image is composed, read and interpreted can give that image the power to inspire and arouse great passion and sometimes great change.

I originally developed this lesson for my video class at I-Poly H.S. that would challenge my students to 'read' a picture and to really think about how they use, and often misuse, editing tools such as transitions and effects.

First, I set up a series of photo buckets with my Picasa account containing some historic photographs by Dorthea Lang and Lewis Hine from the Library of Congress' collection. You can see all the photos here, here and here. Pretty powerful stuff!

I assigned the students to make a 90 second photostory with photographs from folders that corresponded to their last name. I asked them to look at each photograph for a minute and develop a point of view and a story from 6 of the 10 images provided. The goal is to get them to narrate a story, visually and for them to learn the narrative value of properly used editing tools like transitions and pan & scan techniques of the Ken Burns Effect.

In addition to using the editing tools, they also composed their own music with Garage Band. The students seemed to get a lot out of the project, and as usually the case with good project-based assignments, I found them doing a fair amount of independent research about their photographs. Research that went well beyond what I was looking to teach them about making good editing decisions.

Here are some nice examples of completed "Thousand Words" projects:

Anne R.'s take on the the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War 2 from Dorthea Lange's photographs.

Karissa N. was moved by Lewis Hine's images of child labor in America during the Industrial Revolution.

Looking at the results, ultimately I think this approach was far more interesting for everyone than a dry tutorial on effects and transitions....not that there is anything wrong with that. :)

I can't wait to showcase the work of Mrs. Scaltrito's students here on Lights, Camera, Learn! here and during the AFI Fest in November. Stay Tuned!

iPod Nano video camera in professional development...who knew?

2010-03-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

This iPod Nano Video workshop has just been named Best of CUE, as evaluated by the attendees and participants of the CUE 2010 Conference in Palm Springs.

It's pretty easy to be a snob about video cameras if you went to film school. It's a Hi-Def, progressive-scanned, 1080i pixel resolutioned, cine-geek's wonderland! I have learned since then, most often by necessity, that good work can be done with the simplest tools at hand.
So when I was challenged by my friends at the recent Computer Using Educators Conference to present a Lights, Camera, Learn! workshop featuring the video camera on the new iPod nano , I was intrigued.

This new 5g iPod Nano is certainly cool, it boasts a video camera, FM radio, pedometer among its extra features and absent a world with flying cars, the new nano is strong proof that the future is here! It captures certainly 'good enough', cell-phone quality video and sound, but it's so light and small you wonder if a strong gust of wind might blow it away let alone allow you to shoot steady enough video to be useful for anything beyond goofing around at a birthday party.

If The Professor could take a couple of coconuts and make a nuclear reactor or McGyver disable a spy satellite with a shoelace and pack of gum then I can teach the Door Scene to a conference audience with an iPod!

Hold your camera with both hands, rehearse your shots & have fun with some of the effects was all this group really needed to team up and run with our 3 hour mini-film school in Palm Springs. A few basic moves and the iPod's easy download to a recently refreshed iMovie made for a surprisingly productive and downright fun workshop for everyone. This one project in particular I think made excellent narrative use of the Nano's on-board effects suite. Have a look, I hope you ordered your Door Scene 'extra creepy'!

Moral of the story is a parable for teaching and learning in the digital age. It's not the size of your mega-pixels that matter, it's what you download with them that counts!

Movie Trailer Recuts: It's all in the editing...

2010-03-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

Editing is sometime called a story's final re-write. It's the stage in post-production when all of the story elements are finally assembled. For movies, editing means weaving pictures & sounds, using cuts and transitions to control pace & mood. In movies what happens in the edit suite can make or break the director's story...or tell an entirely different one.

How may times have you seen a movie trailer that looks nothing like the movie you paid to see? Marvel at the skill of the trailer editor, for they know how to spin a story and sell the sizzle! What some of them do to relax is a testament to the power that skillful editing has to tell engaging and sometimes completely unexpected stories.

There is much to learn from their example...

FlipVideo, Roadtrip Nation and me at California League of High Schools

2010-01-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

I was in beautiful Monterey, California this weekend as a proud presenter at the California League of High Schools' annual conference. In addition to a keynote by Dr. Robert Marzano, all manner of Google Goodness by Kyle Brumbaugh and a special presentation by the founders of Roadtrip Nation, this conference was the premier of the 'Lights, Camera, Learn! Flip for Movies in Education' workshop.

The concept of the workshop was simple: Take the basic process of the 'Door Scene' and apply it to the 'big red button simplicity' of the Flip MinoHD camera. Some basic VizEd, a hands-on demo, a shooting and editing challenge...in under 3 hours! What could possibly go wrong?!

I see some really exciting education applications for these tiny HD cameras on the horizon. The whole Flip Video line by Pure Digital are inexpensive, easy to use, and capture pretty good video and sound especially if the video is headed for YouTube. I think the Flips hold one advantage over tape cameras that make them ideal for education. They don't don't require a 'can opener' to work.

Think about it, you find an old camcorder at the bottom of a desk drawer and want to use it for some project at school. Unless you also find a compatible tape, a battery or charger you or your school are on the hook for the extra stuff that makes traditional tape cameras work....the 'can opener'. Even if the that camera has a charged battery and a tape, if you intend to do any editing or sharing you also need a cord to import the video and some software to edit and share your movie.

The Flips are ready to go out of the box with 60 or 120 mins worth of flash memory, a pop-out USB arm for importing files and charging the internal battery AND the simple, functional and cross-platform FlipShare management & editing software built right in. I think these cameras are ideal for cost-conscious and borderline techno-phobic educators looking to jump into project-based learning with video.

I think for a first time out with a new workshop it went really well in Monterey! The teachers and administrators all seemed to enjoy playing with their new toys and getting quick lesson on visual language and filmmaking.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

I need to thank my fellow lead-learner Jim Sill from Visalia for expert assistance. The video below was part of my ill-fated iMovie demo and is of the class getting to know each other and the camera. enjoy!

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

I have to double back and say a few words about the Roadtrip Nation, imagine two guys just out of college and with no clue what to do with their lives. So they borrow an old motor home from the parents, paint it green and tour the us interviewing interesting and inspring people on camera about their journey. That roadtrip spawned a PBS series, books and an international following of young people taking their own roadtrips of self-discovery. Their website has a huge archive of interviews and stories, applications to participate in future seasons of the show. Roadtrip Nation also has a battery of materials and curriculum for educators, we're looking at a Roadtrip Nation program at LA County.

Remember, I've got another another FlipVideo in Education workshop on Saturday February, 27th at the California League of Middle Schools' conference in Sacramento. The workshop includes a Flip MinoHD camera! I'm also speaking at the Macworld 2010 Users Symposium on Febrary 12. I actually feel pretty honored to be on the bill for this event, there are some amazing speakers and educators presenting, including:
Milton Chen, Rushton Hurley, Carol Ann McGuire, Marco Torres, Chris Walsh, Randy Nelson and on and on. If you are interested in attending use the promo-code they gave me...check it out! I have my own promo-code!!!

60 Sec. Tutorial: Editing Transitions

2009-11-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

While prepping for a '1000 Words' Workshop for the California Art Education Alliance and need to present a quick editing transition tutorial in the about the time it takes to watch a TV commercial.

What to do when it's really just about bringing two clips together? Sounds like a video clip Love Connection! Here is what I came up with.

While I've got you here, I thought I'd post some upcoming workshop dates in 2010:
January
16 California League of High Schools Conference - Monterey
23 Skirball Center - Los Angeles
Feburary
9-13 Mac World Expo - San Francisco
25-28 California League of Middle Schools Conference - Sacramento
March

4-6 CUE Conference - Palm Springs

26-27 Los Angeles County Office of Education

The Wilhelm Scream and the rise of modern sound editing.

2009-09-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

You may have not heard of the Wilhelm Scream, but if you’re a fan of the westerns or creature films of the 50’s, watched television during the 60’s or 70’s or seen anything made by George Lucas then you know what it sounds like. BEWARE!! Once you know that the scream you hear is Wilhelm’s you will hear it everywhere!

One of the most overlooked film making disciplines is the tapestry of sound created by the Sound Designer. The soundtrack of a film contains much more than the dialog of the actors and some background music. The Wilhelm Scream is a historical artifact of the development of how sound is used to help movies tell stories.

The scream originally appeared in the 1951 Warner Bros. Gary Cooper film "Distant Drums". In "The Charge at Feather River" (1953), the scream is heard when a soldier named Pvt. Wilhelm is shot in the leg with an arrow, which is how the sound got it’s name. The recording was archived into the studio's sound effects library, and was re-used in many Warner Bros. productions including "Them!" (1954), "Land of the Pharaohs" (1955), "The Sea Chase" (1955), "Sergeant Rutledge" (1960), "PT-109" (1963) and "The Green Berets (1968).

The same recurring sound was noticed by sound effects fan Ben Burtt (who was robbed of an Oscar for his work on “Wall-E”) who later was hired by George Lucas to create sound effects for Star Wars, he found the scream while doing research in the Warner Bros sound library. Ben adopted the scream as a kind of personal sound signature, and included it in all the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" films, as well as many others.

Since then, other designers have used the sound in over 150 movies and television episodes including "Poltergeist" (1982), "Batman Returns" (1992), "Planet of the Apes" (2001), "Toy Story" (1995), "Pirates of the Caribbean" (2003)"Madagascar" (2005), "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), "Aladdin" (1992), "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "The Fifth Element" (1997), Reservoir Dogs" (1992), "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002), Tropic Thunder (2008), "The X-Files," "Angel," and "Family Guy."

One of the great mysteries of The Wilhelm Scream is who’s voice was on the original recording. Studio records are not conclusive, but sound designer and film historian Steve Lee suggests the scream belonged to Sheb Wooley a musician and character actor - but is probably most famous for the song "Purple People Eater," which in 1958 spent six weeks at Number One and sold 3 million copies.

Veteran Sound Designer Mark Mangini ("Gremlins"(1984),"Star Trek"(2009) describes the Wilhelm Scream as in a class by itself, fortunately and a sound designer "in" joke that's finally been outed. Whereas at the beginning of the industry expensive and heavy recording equipment kept the library of sound effects small and somewhat stock, the emergence of lighter more portable technologies gave designers greater choice in the sounds they can use. The trend in the industry now is to create more unique soundscapes and the use of sounds like Wilhelm and other familiar sounds like it are generally accepted that repeating library sounds is bad form, at least in cinema.

Mangini says “Sound Designers now strive to create iconic sounds for their individual projects. You should strive to make the sounds of your individual project resonate with the audience and create unique synergy yet, this goal should not extend beyond a given project. Can you imagine hearing the light sabers anywhere but in a Star Wars film?”

I agree, I love the movies and like the idea that the sound artists are striving to tell new stories with their soundtracks not just referencing old ones. I think that artifacts like the Wilhelm Scream can also open important discussions about how films are made and how sound is used by professionals to tell the best most compelling and original stories possible.

Many thanks to Mark Mangini, Steve Lee and hollywoodlostandfound.net for the images appearing on this post and for documenting this little gem of film history.

More on the Wilhelm Scream:
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Scream
The History of the Wilhelm Scream - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PxALy22utc

NECC for the ADD & Lights, Camera, Learn workshop this week!

2009-07-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

The National Education Computing Conference (NECC) came and went so fast this year I barely had time to blog about it. It was a quick trip to our nation's capitol for me, but I had time to see many friends here on the EdTech frontier. I got to see Carol Anne McGuire's Rock our World presentation and my FlatClassrom collegues Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. It's wonderful how they're building ties between classrooms around the world!

I got to meet my virtual colleagues at Wilkes University in person, including the Discovery DEN gang. Speaking of Discovery, I caught Hall Davidson's 10 Things to do with Video presentation with Joe Brennan. Hall is a great presenter and is most generous with his handouts and resources.

This was the first NECC in five years without an official AFI presence, and since ISTE saw fit to feature it on the conference streaming site this year, I'm proud to present the AFI ScreenEd session I lead at NECC '08 in San Antonio.

There was too much to see and not enough time to do it all, especially with all of America's history and treasure just steps away on the National Mall. My week in Washington was a blur but a blast!

***Workshop ALERT***
There are still some seats available for my Lights, Camera, Learn! Workshop this Friday at the Los Angeles County Office of Education in Downey. If you have some video projects planned this fall or just want to shoot better vacation video this summer, Come on Down!

In this hands-on workshop, teachers and administrators of all grade levels and subjects will learn how to use ﬁlmmaking as a tool to engage student learning. This is a classic 'Door Scene' Workshop, and is appropriate for all levels of learners.

You will learn:
• The difference between a shots and scenes
• Organize and improve ﬁlmmaking with Storyboards
• Experience hands-on how to use video cameras

$35
http://ito.lacoe.edu/workshops/registrant_create.pl?workshop=88

My First Class

2009-06-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

This week International Polytechnic High School in Pomona graduates it's class of 2009 and with it, the students of I-Poly Video. This year was my first year as a classroom teacher, these were my first students!

The California state sponsored career-track outreach called ROP gave me opportunity to pilot a video class at a high school, which was a big change from the professional development training I was doing at AFI. Piloting a program in this case also meant designing a curriculum with engaging projects. I was lucky in that my class was motivated, adaptable and creative. Qualities any career counselor will tell you are critical keys to success. So, I had that going for me...which was nice.

So, the kids were learning to be filmmakers and I was learning to be a teacher. We had a lot of fun this year. Here's what we came up with.

Filmmaking is part of the curriculum at I-Poly, every student makes a movie as part of their study of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. So, I wanted to start by building on basic skills. Learning the different shots what they look like and how they are composed is key and I used a project called Shooting Gallery to get the students working as a crew filming a series of storyboards and then right into editing.

Good lighting is a most often overlooked aspect of production. Because the human eye does such a good job adjusting to different light levels we don't think about it when we shoot and then wonder why our video looks so bad. I introduced the concept of 3-Point Lighting to the group with a video project to shoot a simple lighting set-up and then deconstruct each of the elements, Key, Fill and Back Light. The challenge going forward was getting the students to continue to use the techniques in their future projects. As an assignment in isolation I still think they did fine and did see better looking videos after.

I've written on this blog before about the 'Thousand Words Project', which builds better editing skills by using transitions and the Ken Burns Effect for maximum storytelling effect. If you've ever seen someone using and overusing flashy effects and transitions you know how distracting they can be. I'm sure there is a valid narrative use for the exploding star wipe, I've just not seen it yet. We did two rounds of Thousand Words at I-Poly this year and I could see a marked difference in skills between projects, the students seemed to really enjoy the creative aspect of essentially a technical assignment.

Building basic production skills was only a part of a ROP program. Employment skills like resume building and industry specific entry level job skills are also mandated by the state. The students have to know how to handle themselves on the set and in the office. Since the first job any of them is likely to have would be with a local production house or reviewing hours of raw tape for a reality show I wanted a project that would model the most realistic, tedious and thus marketable skills. The class created syndication promos using episodes of the Discovery Channel series PLANET EARTH. First they got to know their assigned episode by building a byte-log of interesting clips from their episode complete with time-code, then they wrote three scripts for the promo; 30, 20 & 10 seconds each. Finally, they assembled each version. I think these projects will be the most impressive in their portfolios.

They later went on to script, storyboard and produce original local market commercial spots.

These kinds of career/technical classes benefit from the voices and experiences of people working in the industry. Beyond the experience of the instructor, guest speakers are common. I had the problem of convincing a professional to make the 50 mile drive out to Pomona for a late afternoon class. I knew there had to be an easier way to bring some of real Hollywood into my class. I found the solution in my own DVD collection and an activity called Annotated Screening. I chose a number of movies to screen with the directors commentary track for the class. Then I would use the class discussion board to post general questions about what the class learned about the filmmaking process from listening to the filmmakers. Presto! Filmmaker in the classroom minus the mileage reimbursement! We did annotated screenings of Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix, Edward Scissorhands and 2001:A Space Odyssey. The online discussions were lively and fit nicely into the student's social networking routine. One of my favorite moments was during the discussion 2001 when a student commented "From this movie, I now get a bunch of jokes on The Simpsons."

Eventually, the students started to work individually and in teams to document various school activities and to produce PSAs on important topics. This week the producers of I-Poly video walk the stage with their High School diplomas and ROP certificates of completion.

George Lucas is often quoted saying 'Films are never completed, they are merely abandoned', I kind of feel the same way about this work-in-progress pilot course at I-Poly. Only time will tell if any of my students will find careers in an uncertain economy and a swiftly changing entertainment industry, regardless they've made me proud.

As for me, I had the life-changing experience of being a teacher and developed a deeper respect for those who do this job everyday! Pray for a miracle in education funding this year...I'm just getting the hang of this!

America's Promise Alliance Impact Academy, Washington D.C.

2009-05-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

I'm in our nation's capitol this week to participate as a speaker at Colin Powell's youth outreach organization America's Promise Alliance. This conference is called an Impact Academy and will bring together more than 150 young people with leaders from the nonprofit, business, politics and journalism sectors to discuss the challenges facing children and youth today and how they can work with the different sectors to empower their peers and increase the nation’s high school graduation rate.

I and my Film Your Issue colleague HeathCliff Rothman will be presenting a basic visual literacy session to students interested in filmmaking. Conference participants will be challenged to return to their communities with ideas around using the arts to serve young people in need, community action and advocacy, career exploration, living healthy lifestyles and successful strategies for leveraging school-based programs to support peers and community.

Video Blog Carnival and Keynote Update

2009-04-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled last week to participate in the Video in the Classroom Blog Carnival over at Mathew Needleman's Creating Lifelong Learners. Along with some choice postings from this blog, I was in the good company of other blogging educators passionate about using video in the classroom including Kevin Hodgson, Dan Meyer and our friend Joe Brennan shares his famous 'Makin' Movies' presentation where you might find me and my Google Teacher Academy video making a cameo appearance. There are also some tricks for downloading YouTube videos and some valuable links to some royalty free production resources. Article submissions are being accepted now for next Blog Carnival in June. Support the cause, share your knowledge!

Just a quick reminder that I'll be the keynote speaker at the San Gabriel Valley CUE Tech Fair this Saturday!
I'll be presenting a couple of new lessons ideas for both students and teachers. I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends in the event. Registration includes breakfast & lunch, presentations, vendors and hands-on sessions.
Saturday, May 2 Village@Indian Hill Conference Center
1460 E. Holt Avenue, Pomona, CA
http://www.sgvcue.org/events/09techfair.html

Get A Job! Career Essentials with a Rock-a-Billy beat!

2009-04-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching a career-track TV/Video class at a local high school as part of California's State Regional Occupational Program (ROP). In addition to the basics of production, the curriculum calls for units on career building; resumes, portfolios, interview skills etc. I'm finally over the trauma of the mandatory sexual harassment unit.
I was looking for something to show that class that would make the career essentials stuff as riveting in the classroom as it is in real life and I came across GET A JOB a little gem from the 1980's.

Brad Caslor's 1985 animated classic is technically an "educational film" dealing with self-motivation, preparing a resume, contacting people by phone and mail, getting ready for an interview and the interview itself. More than that it's a brilliant homage to Bob Clampett, Tex Avery and other extreme animation of the 1940's. Thanks to the miracle of YouTube this out-of-print nugget exists to help get your kids ready for the work world!

Workshops, Keynotes, Advanced Degrees and Vampire Movies....Oh my!

2009-04-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars. I have a few speaking and workshop dates of note:

I'm scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the San Gabriel Valley CUE Tech Fair.
My first keynote invitation, I'll have something special for the presentation. If you are in the greater LA area, try to make it.
Saturday, May 2 Village@Indian Hill Conference Center
1460 E. Holt Avenue, Pomona, CA
http://www.sgvcue.org/events/09techfair.html

If you are planning to attend NECC this summer in Washington DC, I'll be presenting a Lights, Camera, Learn! workshop as a pre-conference session with my friend, colleague and fellow Google Certified Teacher Ken Shelton.
Seats are still available for this 1-day intensive on June 27, 2009.
Registration info.

Also of note, this term I started teaching an intermediate filmmaking course online for Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. Wilkes' Professional and Graduate Studies program has partnered with Discovery Education to offer an MS degree in Instructional Media completely online! I and my Chicago colleague, Joe Brennan have been recruited to write and facilitate courses for this program. If you are looking for a good distance learning degree, I recommend checking out the Wilkes program.
Program info.
http://wilkes.edu/instructionalmedia

I'm working with LA County's Education Office to set a date for a 1-day Lights, Camera, Learn! workshop in June. Stand by for more on that.

I have to give a shout-out on a new book, Twilight: Director's Notebook by Cathrine Hardwicke. This surprisingly entertaining and informative book bills itself as 'How we made the movie', and contains a nice breakdown of the adaptation and production process with photos, script drafts, design sketches and storyboards. It reads like a scrapbook and manga novel about making a vampire movie. It demystifies filmmaking for the young neo-goth pre-teen budding filmmaker in your life. I love stuff like this!

Adapting Literature for Hollywood: Breakfast at Tiffany's

2009-03-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Films made under the societal, industrial and cultural conventions of Classic Hollywood Cinema generally conform to the closed-ended narrative structure and reinforce certain central methods of moral and social controls. Shinning stars, defined gender roles and happy endings are part of the social contract between the filmmakers of the classic Hollywood picture and the expectations of the audience. The adaptation of Truman Capote’s wistful and melancholy BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S presented mid-century Hollywood with many challenges to their strict society-reinforcing conventions.

Perhaps the most obvious bow to these pressures was the invention and conversion of Paul Varjack from un-named narrator to the leading man/love interest characterized by George Pepard and by the reordering of the film’s narrative away from the novella’s 1st person memoir with a discontinuous timeline and ambiguous ending to a fairly conventional Hollywood romantic comedy with a 3 act structure culminating with a classic ideologically accepted coupling, the kiss.

The novella’s sexual politics also needed to be in some respects de-emphasized and re-assigned to conform to the conventions of the time. Audrey Hepburn, arguably reigning Hollywood royalty, was faced with Capote’s character of Holly Golightly as a damaged, un-rooted, party girl who takes money from men in return for her attention and other favors. Holly’s character as written was likely inappropriate for a star of Hepburn’s stature and such elements of her character was muted in George Axelrod’s adaptation and most interestingly much of that story baggage was transferred to Paul Varjack and the invention of his identity as a gigolo or kept man and the character Tewey, his benefactor. Whereas Hepburn’s Holly seems not to have a problem with her lifestyle, Pepard’s Paul is clearly not comfortable in his situation…how could any real man be? The film’s production design supports this idea by making Paul’s apartment a visual metaphor for a gilded cage, garish and emasculating. But why challenge the societal conventions of the day by allowing the leading man to be subjugated so?
Many of the invented scenes clearly telegraph a standard dramatic 3rd act coupling of the leads, specifically the scene at Tiffany’s where Paul asks to have a Crackerjack ring engraved. A ring of course a traditional symbol of Western pair bonding, a critical tenant in the social controls implied in Classic Hollywood conventions. I would argue that in this Hollywood version of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, it is Paul who is the character in the most distress and as part of an Audrey Hepburn star vehicle it is he who is in fact rescued at the end of the film. His very masculinity in fact restored by Holly’s love, true to the classic narrative and broader notions of social mores and accepted gender roles. These were themes not present in Capote’s novella but were almost demanded by the decision by studio executives to turn BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S into the romantic classic it is regarded as. That kiss in the rain between Holly and Paul after finding Cat, while not having anything to do with the original story, is the purest expression of Hollywood fulfilling it’s contract of expectations with the audience.

Hollywood’s Holly Golightly will stand as a type of proto-Carrie Bradshaw of , quirky and breezily independent gal like in Sex and the City as truly befits the star who played her while Capote’s Holly with her damage and baggage will forever seem to me like that crazy chick from FIGHT CLUB.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S 1961
Preview Capote's Novella on Google Books

Did you know?

2009-02-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

Forgive me if you've seen this before, but this updated version of the popular "Did You Know?" presentation is making the rounds again and I just had to share.

Kudos to Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Jeff Brenman for so clearly illustrating the magnitude of the challenges for teaching and learning in the 21st Century. And for scaring the crap out of me!

Heading to Doha to see how flat the world is!

2009-02-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

This should be an exciting week. I'm hours away from leaving for Qatar to present and participate in the Flat Classroom Conference at the invitation of the Qatar Academy in Doha.

At the conference I will lead LIGHTS, CAMERA, LEARN! workshops for teachers and students from Ethiopia, Australia, India, Pakistan, Oman and the USA. I'll work with film studies students to document the conference and sit-in on a couple of panel discussions. I think I'm most excited about the opportunity to present a unit on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD to a 10th grade English class. I think is the coolest thing, so soon after the inauguration of our new President.

The Flat Classroom movement is great program created by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis (coolcatteacher blog). Julie in Qatar and Vicki in Camilla, Georgia. It is based on the constructivist principle of a multi-modal learning environment that is student-centered and a level playing field for teacher to student and student to teacher interaction. Sounds yummy, right?

I'm making the trip to throw a little Screen Education into the mix and I'm really looking forward to The World is Flat author Thomas Friedman's keynote, live from Washington DC via a Skype link-up.

Day One
There is nothing like traveling to the other side of the planet to see just how flat the world is...

I was awakened this morning by the sunrise call to prayer from the many mosques in the area. So many different cultures represented at the conference and it was kind of bracing to be a minority American... only a few of us here. Most of today was getting acquainted sessions. I spent a lot of time with the Qatar Academy film studies students on documenting the various sessions.

This is me with Julie Lindsay of QA and Don Knezek, the CEO of ISTE just before the presenter's welcome breakfast.

The student teams participating in the conference are essentially in competition to create a project around the conference theme "Citizenship in the Global E-Learning Economy" and the teachers participating are getting leadership training in using web 2.0 tools. I was spending time with some student teams interested in using video in their projects.

Tomorrow I present my first of 2 LIGHTS, CAMERA, LEARN! workshops to the teachers and my first full session to the students. Should be fun.

Flat Classroom Conference Wrap-up:

Today was one of those days when you realize why amazing opportunities present themselves in the strangest of places. The bulk of the last day of the conference was a mad dash between 4 multi-cultural groups of young filmmakers who were challenged to create short videos to promote their Flat Classroom Projects. The projects were to engage and rally other young people around the world to a cause using Web 2.0 tools. And noble causes they were; Racism, Poverty,
Educational Opportunity. Given a seemingly impossible task of creating a video pitch concept
to completion in under 3 hours, these amazing kids overcame language, culture and the endless failure of technology to rally around their conviction, their creativity, the supportive environment of the Qatar Academy and pizza to move everyone with their videos. It was truly inspiring! Check it out!

You can see all the video projects from the Flat Classroom Conference and even vote for your favorite to determine which global project gets funded and deployed on the Conference Ning.

We said goodbye to the Flat Classroom Conference participants today after the final screening of their videos and I think this experience will have a lasting effect on me as I reflect on just how true the old saying is that people are people no matter where they are.

Tomorrow I present my study unit on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD! and start a 2 day consultancy with the Qatar Academy to work with the film studies program and a round of workshops with the faculty.

Thanks to all the students and educators of Flat Classroom, present and virtual for an amazing experience, Julie Lindsay and Vickie Davis for bringing us all together and the our hosts at Qatar Academy.

A Thousand Words - Storytelling and Editing

2008-12-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

A picture is worth a thousand words, as the popular saying goes. The
poetry of that statement belies the underlying truth of just how
powerful images can be. A picture can show a view of reality, but the
objectivity of that reality can be profoundly affected by how that
picture is framed, how an individual's eye travels across the image,
and how that image is interpreted by a viewer's own point of view and
life experience. How an image is composed, read and interpreted can
give that image the power to inspire and arouse great passion and
sometimes great change.

I wanted to develop a lesson for my ROP Video class at I-Poly H.S. that would challenge my students to 'read' a picture and to really think about how they use, and often misuse, editing tools such as transitions and effects.

First, I set up a series of photo buckets with my Picasa account containing

some historic photographs by Dorthea Lang and Lewis Hine from the Library of Congress' collection. You can see all the photos here, here and here. Pretty powerful stuff!

After a short lecture and demo on the grammar of editing transitions and a screening of segments of some Ken Burns documentaries. There is a nice clip on YouTube with Ken Burns explaining how he 'gets into a photograph' and the origin of the famous Ken Burns Effect on iMovie that I used as part of the background lesson.

I assigned the students to make a 90 second photostory with photographs from folders that corresponded to their last name. I asked them to look at each photograph for a minute and develop a point of view and a story from 6 of the 10 images provided. Then storyboard out the narrative showing how the camera would pan and scan the larger image. My goal was to get them to narrate a story, visually.

In addition to using the editing tools, they also composed their own music with Garage Band. The students seemed to get a lot out of the project, and as usually the case with good project-based assignments, I found them doing a fair amount of independent research about their photographs. Research that went well beyond what I was looking to teach them about making good editing decisions.

Here are some nice examples of completed "Thousand Words" projects:

Anne R.'s take on the the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War 2 from Dorthea Lange's photographs.

Karissa N. was moved by Lewis Hine's images of child labor in America during the Industrial Revolution.

I also did the project with the students...here's mine.

Looking at the results, ultimately I think this approach was far more interesting for everyone than a dry tutorial on effects and transitions....not that there is anything wrong with that. :)

Digital Education Leadership Conference - Goin' Hollywood!

2008-12-12T19:48:00.000-08:00

This week I was honored to be among a group of invited educators, technologists, district IT gurus and some of the leaders in the space where technology and learning collide...often with unintended results at the DELC 'Let's Go Hollywood' Conversation.

The world famous Magic Castle was the site of an amazing kick-off reception on Wednesday night where conference opening speaker Mark Seigel dazzled the crowd not with his inspiring insights about the possibilities for education but with...wait for it...Card Tricks!

The conference room at the Hollywood Renascence Hotel may have been small but the ideas were big, from Mr. Seigle's quite elegant connection to a quality education today solving the problems of tomorrow to Matt Federoff's demonstration VICCI, a beautiful, simple and intuitive online curriculum management system he created for the Vail, AZ School District.

Matt told us how they made Empire High School a textbook free zone. Sounds radical right? Well, to hear him tell the story it just made more sense economically to take the money they would spend on textbooks that become quickly out of date and spend it on laptops that can access a world of information and resources that's always current and relevant. Crazy right? Revolutionary? No, as it turns out just incredibly smart! Seriously, who do these people think they are?!

How does dynamic and appealing media like video games fit into classrooms in urban and rural areas? Pretty easily it would seem for those willing to try was the message I got from Adrian Hall who came all the way from the UK to show us how he hacked a PS2 dance mat to help schools teach 2nd language skills and how applications for the DS and other systems, and social networks are challenging what constitutes 'educational technology'.

There were also great conversations with Rowan Trollope of Symantec about cyber-citizenship and Ben Hope of Fox Network with the skinny on how a fully digital production, post production and distribution model saves money but is also pretty good for the environment.

I think one of the most intriguing activities the group engaged in was what I can only describe as a Constitutional Convention for a Student's Bill of Rights and I think the DELC got much more for the convention than they expected as the conversation touched on digital privacy, the importance of safe learning communities, what choice and voice does the student have regarding who teaches them what they learn. What does 'going to school' mean for the future of education...how about a world where we don't use the word school? Can a quality education be guaranteed for all learners if learning spaces don't have 4 walls and a whiteboard?

Having conversations like this with anyone passionate about education would be a thrill, in my case it was extra cool to be in to company of friends like my buddy (and fellow AFI exile) Mitch Aiken, Julie Drake & Chrystal Maggiore from the LA County Ed Office and some of my favorite Screen Ed workshop grads Barbara Barkemeyer my Google Teacher Academy classmate Jeremy Davis, and Kieth Lawrence from the Mary Pickford Institute. Thanks to the folks at the Center for Digital Education and their sponsors for a great couple of days of ideas, arguments, demos and Magic in Hollywood!
As they say...That's a wrap!

DVD ExtraCredit - Storyboarding with Monsters Inc.

2008-11-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

You've got a master's degree worth of filmmaking knowledge sitting unlearned in your DVD collection! Don't believe me? Watch a DVD of your favorite movie with the commentary track. I will eat my blog if you don't learn something fascinating about how filmmakers think and work.

I always try to direct educators to cool DVD extras that can help them and their students better understand the filmmaking process. One of my favorites is a storyboarding skills building exercise using a DVD of Disney/Pixar's MONSTERS INC.

Like most of the Disney DVD releases of late, MONSTERS INC. is packed with all kinds of great extras. The Storyboard to Final comparisons are excellent for helping students of all ages get comfortable creating very quick storyboards.

Here's how you do it.

What you need:

Both disks from the MONSTERS INC. set. & DVD player
Blank storyboards. OR notebook paper folded in 6ths.
Document camera OR camcorder connected to a monitor or projector.

First: What makes MONSTERS INC. a good choice for a storyboarding lesson? I like it because all the characters are based on very simple, primitive shapes. Circles. Squares. Sticks. SO they are easier to sketch. Builds confidence!

On disk 2 click the 'Humans Only' section. From the menu of doors click 'Story', then select Storyboard to Film Comparison.

You will find a comparison of a News Report scene from Chapter 13 of the feature disk.

Basic Idea:

Play the original 30 second scene from disk 1 for the class.
Then play it again, stopping at each shot.
Give the class, including yourself about 30 seconds to quickly sketch what they see on screen.
Point out the basic shapes of the characters to help students sketch generally NOT draw specifically.
Under the document camera, compare your own sketch in real-time to the Storyboard to Film Comparison on disk 2. Discuss how it compares.
Repeat with some student storyboards.
Laugh

This REVERSE STORYBOARDING exercise is a favorite of teachers at my workshops and I hear it has gone over well with kids in the classroom. Give it a try.

Let me know how it works or if you have a favorite DVD extra you use to teach or just think is cool.

ROMEO + JULIET - It’s like totally Shakespeare!!

2008-11-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

Baz Luhrman gave the Bard top billing in his 1996 adaptation WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET to signal his desire to be faithful to the original text. The finished work, some have called MTV meets Shakespeare, looks, feels and sounds like an ‘of the moment’ polished contemporary work. Much of that has to do with elements of production design, music and editing. The arresting visual style is second only to the characterization and performance by the cast.

The conventions of studio filmmaking concern them selves with issues of economics in an era of market capitalism, those conventions impact all aspects of the filmmaking process from the writing and production of film to of course issues of casting. By 1996 Leonardo performances in BASKETBALL DIARIES and THIS BOYS LIFE earned him solid credits as a serious actor but this superstar launch from TITANIC was still in the future. Claire Danes was primarily a TV actress with an emerging film career. These two were young, attractive and on the way up, Lurhman’s vision of a contemporary but faithful adaptation for a video age audience called for leads that would look good on the cover of Tiger Beat and who’s images would fit seamlessly in the commercials between segments of TRL.

Modern, young and very attractive American film stars speaking Shakespearian dialog in their American accents in a geographically ambiguous setting gave this adaptation a unique feel that at times was not entirely successful and sometimes even slightly altered the traditionally understood narrative.

Lurhman goes for a kind of camp sensibility in this film by using varied film speeds at times, especially in scenes with Juliet’s mother and fast camera zooms in the gas station gun fight sequence. Leguizamo’s ‘Dia de los Muertos’ take on Tybalt and Harlod Perrineau cross-dressing, cabaret singing Mercutio call the most attention to the otherworldly nature of this adaptation.

Harlod Perrineau take on Mercutio is a joy to watch but I was troubled by the treatment of the Queen Mab speech that ended with Romeo dropping a hit of ecstasy before the party sequence. The original text suggests this speech this as a kind of theatrical goof, Mercutio showing off his imagination and storytelling skills for the amusement of his friends. Lurhman’s adaptation has the Queen Mab speech as the pretext for getting Romeo high on a ‘love drug’ at the party where he meets Juliet. Lurhman has used this particular device since, notably in MOULIN ROUGE, by sending Ewan McGregor into the nightclub high on absinthe as a way of highlighting a dreamlike and chaotic atmosphere he wanted. This to me calls into question, in a very small way, the over arching theme in this adaptation ROMEO & JULIET, the purity and potential danger of young love. Although totally appropriate in the context of Perrineau’s characterization of Mercutio, the idea of that love being chemically enhanced or altered by the drug diminishes if only slightly this telling of this story.

Joe Brennan's ScreenEd Blogging

2008-11-16T13:59:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most prolific reporter and booster of the AFI ScreenEd program in the blogosphere was Joe Brennan on his Digital Storytelling blog over at Discovery Education. The Lights, Camera, Education section of Joe's blog does a great job of outlining his early adoption and training with the Screen Educaton Process and his expert review of the teacher resources materials to his coverage of the last AFI presetation at NECC in San Antonio earlier this year, which includes a link to a video of my entire presentation.

Joe is an inspiring educator, Apple ADE, Discovery DEN Star and a good friend. Have you seen the profile AFI did of him?

I look forward to being fodder for many many more of Joe's blog posts in the future. Here's to you Brother Joe!

The Princess Bride vs Pulp Fiction

2008-11-16T12:50:00.000-08:00

I'm starting the new Lights, Camera, Learn! blog by re-posting the blog entries I made for the official AFI Screen Education blog.

Thu 1 Nov 2007

We get all kinds of inquiries at the Screen Ed Center from educators and students with basic filmmaking & equipment questions or for tips in using the LIGHTS, CAMERA, EDUCATION! resource, even sometimes about the AFI 100 Years/100 Movies series.

Occasionally we get a question that gives us pause, and also allows the staff here to reflect on why we love movies! Like this question from Charles, an 11th grader in Conneticut who asks:

“I recently got into a heated debate with several students on which movie was better. Pulp Fiction or The Princess Bride. I was amazed to see how many people stand behind The Princess Bride. Could you please end our debate by telling me what movie is better and why? I still can’t believe this is a real topic of discussion. ” -Charles E.

I hope we never stop arguing and debating about our favorite movies so I didn’t settle the issue. Instead we tried to give Charles and his friends something to think about…

Ultimately, the question of which is the best of anything is a very personal one, especially in the subjective area of the creative arts. I’m not surprised that these two films are being debated in this way. Both THE PRINCESS BRIDE and PULP FICTION are films that have their origins in different types of mythology. BRIDE represents the kind of fairy tale mythology that speaks to America’s shared European roots while FICTION represents a more modern-era American mythos, detective and action novels of the 30’s &40s, and popular culture of the post-50’s era. The archetypes represented in both films also speak to our shared understanding of story and character, from the princess in distress, Buttercup and Mia Wallace to the dark hero Wesley and Vincent Vega, even Indigo Montoya and Butch, as the ‘loner on a mission’. Both movies tell great old stories in engaging ways.

To pick a favorite of these great movies, is tough. I’d look at two factors, first how the basic crafts of filmmaking and storytelling are applied in both movies. Second, which of these films would you send out on the next space probe to represent the best of humanity? In my opinion THE PRINCESS BRIDE wins on both counts. The technical challenges of BRIDE I think trump FICTION, you need not look much further than the duel sequence between Wesley and Indigo to get a taste of the old style swashbuckling films, somehow Vincent & Mia’s dance contest performance don’t rise to that level of grand cinematic storytelling.

The main point that I think distinguishes BRIDE is that the entire story is told by a grandfather to his grandson. Peter Falk’s patient reading of the story to a first skeptical Fred Savage who starts the movie playing video games eventually gives in to the joy of the story and the low tech medium it was related from, the written word…a book. One generation telling stories to the next is how we as humans pass on knowledge and and build civilizations.

Charles, for these reasons and many others, given the choice of which film entertains but also speaks to the best of what humanity has to offer, THE PRINCESS BRIDE would be my choice to open the 1st cineplex on Mars.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE is #88 on the AFI 100 Years/100 Passions list of great American love stories of all time.

PULP FICTION is #94 on the AFI Top 100 and#53 on the AFI 100 Thrills lists.

To Kill A Mockingbird Author Harper Lee Honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom

2008-11-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

I'm starting the new Lights, Camera, Learn! blog by re-posting the blog entries I made for the official AFI Screen Education blog.

Thu 8 Nov 2007

At a White House ceremony, President Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author Harper Lee. Bush praised Lee’s 1961 book, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD as a “gift to the entire world” and one that “has influenced the character of our country for the better.

Mockingbird, a staple on the reading lists of thousands of schools nationwide, won Lee a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The 1962 film adaptation directed by Robert Mulligan and staring Gregory Peck won 3 Academy Awards in 1962 including Best Actor for Mr. Peck and Best Adapted Screenplay for Horton Foote.

To Kill a Mockingbird has also made frequent appearances on many of the AFI 100 years 100 Movies lists. It is # 25 on the all-time top 100 American movies, #2 on the 100 most inspiring films, the music composed by Franz Waxman was ranked #17 as best film score and Peck’s Atticus Finch is listed as the #1 hero on the AFI 100 Heroes & Villains list.

Educators all over the world use the movie to teach the book and the book to teach the movie. Comparing this book to the film it inspired has also made its way into the teaching of AFI Screen Ed Process as a means of understanding how the written word can correlate to and contribute to the understanding of visual grammar.

Shots=Sentences, Scenes=Paragraphs and so on. The medium may differ but the telling of great stories remains central to the human experience.

The AFI Screen Education Center congratulates Ms. Lee on this honor.

Activating the Screen Ed Process: The Door Scene

2008-11-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

I'm starting the new Lights, Camera, Learn! blog by re-posting the blog entries I made for the official AFI Screen Education blog.

Mon 5 Nov 2007

Question: When do we usually see video cameras? Weddings, births, birthday parties, school and sporting events come to mind. Now ask yourself how often you actually sit down and watch those videos. How often can you get someone else to watch? Are these videos interesting? Do all those long continuous shots, wild moves and dizzying zooms make for compelling viewing? This ‘default mode’ for shooting video create the visual equivalent of a run-on sentence. This is because most people use their home video cameras to document an event rather than tell a story.

The irony of this situation is that most people living in western culture during the last 50 years have learned to decode and understand a nearly continuous and increasingly sophisticated stream of visual information. Visual language, with its unique vocabulary and grammar, is effortlessly comprehended by even the youngest members of our society. So, with all the prior knowledge and experience gained from years of watching TV and movies, why do most home movies look like home movies?

It’s a matter of literacy.

Although we quickly learn to read the visual language around us, “writing” visually (by accessing screen vocabulary and grammar to communicate rather than to just comprehend) is a skill typically reserved for highly trained media professionals and enthusiasts. The AFI Screen Education process begins by bridging that visual literacy gap in a transformational way. By accessing prior knowledge, and engaging as a group to construct and define criteria for what makes good visual storytelling, Screen Education teachers and students bridge that visual literacy gap—a first step in engaging with filmmaking as part of mainstream curriculum.

It begins with The Door Scene.

Resources and instructions for using The Door Scene and all of the LIGHTS, CAMERA, EDUCATION! series can be found at AFI.edu, the Screen Ed website and by searching “AFI” on Discovery Education streaming .