Workshop Outline

Issues to be considered in terms of pedagogy:

• The place of media literacy
• The place of differentiation, multiple intelligences
• Cross-curricular competencies
• Language competencies in terms of creating 'texts', visual texts as meaning.

Together, we will create a short video, from idea to media: from storyboard to virtual celluloid; from camera to edited finished film.

Some notes on making media with students

Basics
The most important rule is simplicity  -  it doesn't have to be complicated to be effective!
Image composition - remember the rule of thirds!
The camera shots chosen can communicate different things. They can:

• Set a mood
• Emphasize a point
• Provide more information
• Evoke an emotion

Telling a story with pictures

A story can be told without words, or even sounds (although these add to the overall meaning, of course). Students can begin to create media stories by following the formula of setup-action-reaction (or beginning, middle and end), where they use only three camera shots to tell a story. This allows them to focus on message creation and communication and makes the project more manageable from a technology point of view (storage, editing). As they get more and more adept at media message creation, they can experiment with more camera shots and more complex editing.

Length

One of the most common pitfalls of making video with students is the length of the production. In the real world, a very low-budget conservative ratio is estimated at 10 hours of production for 1 minute of video. 1 minute of video is long! The best thing is to keep student productions short.

Commonly used video styles

• Lecture (talking head)  -  like the Apple commercial
• Visual Narrative (show and tell)  -  a book review like on PBS' Reading Rainbow
• Demonstrative (show and do)  -  a science experiment, a how-to video.
• Interview or Group Discussion (ask the expert)
• Mixed format:
  • Documentary
  • Dramatic Presentation