Just presented at Technology & Learning’s Chicago TechForum last Friday with David Jakes and Jon Orech, both from the Downers Grove high schools in Illinois. We had a meeting of the minds a couple of weeks before and I thought we sketched out a pretty good plan to cover the complete spectrum of digital storytelling, from the solid foundation of writing to making movies to all the tools and outlets available on the Internet. Without having seen any of the evaluations, I have to think we managed to exceed our own plans and expectations. Dave did a great job of setting the stage and showing where we are going and actually are on the web while Jon, the English teacher among us, concentrated on the writing and thought process behind transitions and panning/zooming a photograph. That was a perfect set-up for my Makin’ Movies take on storytelling and its visual grammar. There’s a Wiki with Dave and Jon’s hand outs. Mine will be up there soon. I have to lift some stills out of my example videos so the slides make some sense. But read Jon’s article and check out Dave’s web resources in the meantime.
The fine folks at the Illinois Institute of Art let me sit in on an open house for area teachers titled “The Intersection of Art and Technology.” Their suburban Chicago campus is very close to my house and I was glad to be able to go over for a look and see what storytelling tools they put to use to prepare students to make a living in a variety of media arts .
First stop on our tour was the green screen studio. You can see from the picture that part of the floor is also in the key color. But what was really different for us was the green treadmill that lets people walk or run naturally in the scene.
They are also one of fewer than ten schools that have a motion capture set up. Six special cameras are mounted in a circle and the actor wears a special suit with reflective balls set on key spots. The captured 3D movement can then be applied to any virtual 3D body: a video game warrior, a dancing baby, a dinosaur, etc. The professor who hosted this part of the tour is an alumnus who is also a working professional. Sports fans around the country may have seen his animations on the giant screens at professional basketball, baseball and hockey games. Bulls fans know him for the video of a herd of Bulls charging through Chicago at the beginning of every game.
The next presentation took us through the web design curriculum from artistic presentation to the technology of tapping into databases to present information or merchandise on demand to making a video or animation play on any computer regardless of screen resolution.
What both sessions had in common was the expectation that students had taken the basic art class that explains colors and their relationship to each other. They also expect that students conduct themselves in a “professional” manner: respecting other’s work, sticking to time constraints, being prepared. Hmmm….
I couldn’t help but think of Jason Ohler’s words last month at our state conference promoting Art as the 4th “R” and reminding us that creativity and artists of all kinds are and will be in more demand than ever in the new economy.
Speaking of the arts, a big shout out to the school district I recently retired from, Niles Township in Skokie, IL. The fine and performing arts program has been named the top program for arts education in the United States. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts singled out District 219 for its outstanding support of high-quality arts education. You can watch the application video here and read all about it on the front page of today’s Chicago Tribune.
Just looking through David Warlick’s “2 Cents Worth” blog the other day I found a post referencing a March 6, 2005 article in the NY Times by Elizabeth Van Ness titled “FILM; Is a Cinema Studies Degree the New M.B.A.?” Though just over two years old, it’s right on the money talking about the power of digital storytelling to get your message across. From gangs to people reinforcing their social power, digital storytellers might feel “that cinema isn’t so much a profession as the professional language of the future.” The article points out that with just over 15,000 directorial and producer jobs in the U.S., parents and students might have been leery using college tuition on film classes in the past. “The U.S.C. Cinema-Television dean, Elizabeth Daley, argues that to generalize such skills has become integral to the film school’s mission. More than 60 academic courses at U.S.C. now require students to create term papers and projects that use video, sound and Internet components. ‘If I had my way, our multimedia literacy honors program would be required of every student in the university,’ she said.”
"Amen!" says I.
Picture credit: IRC. "Thomas Edison with a Film Projector." unitedstreaming: http://www.unitedstreaming.com
As I was reflecting on Lance’s webinar from last Wednesday and looking through the chat and PowerPoint, I thought there were a couple of points I could elaborate on.
iPod Video Out Connection - You can use/buy any camcorder video cable with a 1/8” mini-plug at one end and red, white and yellow jacks at the other to connect a video iPod to a TV or LCD projector. However, due to some proprietary wiring on Apple’s part, the video will come through the RED (usually) connector and one of the audio channels then is on the YELLOW. If you buy Apple’s AV connector (almost twice as much) the colors match up standard.
Green Screen - Hall is working on a thorough post about using the chroma key capability in video editing software to layer a video over another video or picture just like you see with every weather report on TV. This is built in to the Adobe Premiere and Final Cut families of software. Visual Communicator (now an Adobe product) also does a nice job with this, but clips you want to add need to be edited in another program. VC lets you do a great job of making a news broadcast type video, but doesn’t have the ability to edit clips itself (at least the last version I used). Basically, you are telling the chroma key filter to replace one specific color in a clip with the pixels of another video or photograph. If a person is wearing that color, that part of clothing is replaced with the background video or photo. A lot of movie special effects are done this way. You can buy fabric or plastic table cloths in just about any “key” color, but green and blue are the most common. Or you can go as far as painting a wall.
I know of a couple of school studios that have painted an entire room/booth/closet including the floor. Lighting has to be fairly even; shadows and big wrinkles can change the color for the camera’s “eye.” Lance’s example extends to his feet and literally lets him step into the shot. You can also get some interesting effects by wrapping yourself in the key color.
Chroma key and other plug-ins are availble for iMovie (sorry, PC people, apparently you can’t write plug-ins for MovieMaker): eZedia, GeeThree (get the free sampler), Stupendous Software, Virtix, (get free ones here too, especially the flames) all have nice packages, and cf/x lets you buy their plug-ins one at a time (~$3.50). Read cf/x’s warnings and try before you buy.
I have always been a fan of United’s TV ad campaign, “It’s Time to Fly,” that brings sketches to life. Last Thursday, within the space of an hour, I saw their latest, got a fare sale email from them, and was invited to facilitate an AFI ScreenEd workshop in Pittsburgh. As I was checking flights on the United site, I was moved to dig a little deeper and found a page that highlights their ads . You can play the whole series on the web, but my favorite, “The Rose,” is downloadable from their Archives section. What a great story told in just a minute that ends kind of where it began.
I have seen a few student videos where a class has illustrated and narrated a book. I would think that combining students’ own original art work into any kind of project would naturally extend beyond a single subject area and tap a different set of talents. I pointed out one art teacher’s site a couple of month’s ago and United’s “Making of the Dragon” video actually reminded me of her class’s “Young Sloppy Brush.” 
Also, Jason Ohler, storytelling maven and fierce proponent of recognizing art as the fourth “R,” has documented a project where students put themselves into their own drawings with green screen technology.
So, loyal readers, anybody have some good projects or sites where students’ original art work is used to craft a digital story? Share by adding a comment below.
Tim Childers over on the Tennessee blog tipped me off to the “Story of Movies” website.
I didn’t have to look far to find this quote from Martin Scorsese: “Movies are a door to knowledge — knowledge of society, knowledge of history, knowledge of art. The Story of Movies opens these doors by teaching students to think critically about film and providing them with a deeper understanding of this uniquely influential art form.”
Though the site and its curriculum ideas seem to be aimed at middle school and classic films, I think that there is a lot here for digital storytellers of any age. Of special interest to all is their downloadable, sixteen page “Beyond Read-the-Book, Watch-the-Movie” found in the Teacher’s Lounge. And, of course, the interdisciplinary tie-in, tapping a student’s knowledge in a number of different subject areas, is one of the main attractions. Once you sign up, you can get access to a free DVD of a movie and curriculum that includes teacher’s guides, graphic organizers, activity booklets, and lesson quizzes. Looks like the DVD’s are out of print right now, so you may have to wait til next year to use that resource. The site is presented by The Film Foundation in partnership with IBM and Turner Classic Movies.
Thanks, Tim!
Via RSS
