Even occasional readers of this blog know that I hold the resources that Frank Guttler and Mitch Aiken have assembled for the American Film Institute’s K-12 Screen Ed program in very high regard. So, you too will probably share my sorrow on learning that the grant funded outreach has lost its funding and Frank and Mitch have been let go. Bob Jennings, Xander in the “Xander Anders Show” ScreenNation Learn videos, has been reassigned within AFI. It looks like the digitized assets will remain available and student film makers will still be able to upload to ScreenNation, but any further challenges and innovations are in doubt-> good news on this, see Bob Jennings’ comment below. The “Lights, Camera, Education!” videos and teachers’ guide/manual are also still available on Discovery Education streaming.
I hope you’ll join me in thanking Frank, Mitch, and Bob for all they’ve done to bring Hollywood magic into digital storytelling for any classroom and subject area by leaving a comment below.
In what has become an annual summer event for me, I spent the last few days right outside of our nation’s capital at Discovery headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. As usual, it was a great opportunity to reconnect with my colleagues from both coasts, my neighbor Steve Dembo (who I almost only see when we’re on the road), and DEN STARS, old and new, from around the country. We offered a 2 hour version of the full day “Lights, Camera, Education!” workshop and our STARS rose to the occasion. After a little more than an hour of “this is what you would have done if we had the time,” they had less than an hour to plan, shoot, and edit their door scene. With so little time, creativity just burst forth. Inspired by Steve’s “Social Networking/Web 2.0” morning keynote, one lady got through her door by Plurking a friend to come open it from the inside. And another, perhaps camera shy team, filmed a lonely water bottle trying to get back into the refrigerator with the love of his (her?) life. Happy ending! See the YouTube embed at the end.
Yesterday, before I jumped on the Metro and headed to Reagan airport, I was able to join a group that went over to the Discovery production studios just a few blocks away. As usual, the red carpet was out. I took a little detour to peek into the editing suites and was invited into one where the man at the controls was working on a promo for Renovation Nation. Rejoining our group at the main stop - the green screen studio, we had a crash course on chromakey and lighting before taking turns in front of the camera where Ted Koppel, among many others, works. It is amazing how much thought and equipment goes into getting it just right (perfect actually) and how closely we can mimic almost all of that with our students. It was also inspiring to see the educators in my group take to the green screen stage, step in front of the camera, and make on the spot clips thanking school boards and administration for their support. They also welcomed students back for the year and one even wished her son and his growing family well as he prepares to deploy for Iraq.
Wish I could have stayed through today to see everybody’s final projects. Boom-de-ah-da!
Now, the water bottle and the door…
Just in case you weren’t able to meet the door scene guy (AFI’s Frank Guttler) in person at the DEN reception in San Antonio, you can see him in action on a NECC webcast. Look for “AFI Screen Education Center: Digital Filmmaking in the Core Curriculum,” Wednesday at 1:30. Due to copyright concerns for this webcast, Frank had to leave out his usual Hollywood illustrations of movie points that we all easily recognize, but he still builds a compelling case for visual grammar and using video with students in the core curriculum. Use the manual and video clips available on ‘streaming for just minutes or hours to get across some movie making basics and then build on the writing process to concentrate on your particular subject matter. Research backs it up: students take charge of their own learning, make use of 21st skills they already have, and they tend to retain material at a deeper level. You’ll see interviews with students, teachers, an administrator and Hollywood professionals, a preview of upcoming challenges with the stars (just 5 days left to get in on this first one), and a tour of ScreenNation (including a couple of extra features). Frank also highlights a few videos in different genres posted by students on the ScreenNation site in his AFI blog.
Couldn’t make it to San Antonio? Use these webcasts to bring NECC 2008 to you - especially Hall’s “It’s in Your Pocket: Teaching Spectacularly with Cell Phones.” Humor, hard facts, audience participation, fair warning, it’s all there!
So, if you were the associate director of the American Film Institute’s Screen Education Center and had to make a ~90 second video in order to apply to attend the Google Teacher Academy, wouldn’t you bring all of the resources and talent you have access to at AFI into your entry clip? Of course not, Silly - Keep It Simple! And that’s just what Frank Gutler did to become one of the chosen 50. He even filmed himself using only the built-in iSight camera on his laptop. And Frank didn’t keep it short and to the point just in production either. In a little over a minute he explains that the research tells us WHY making videos with students is so beneficial. But let Frank tell it…
And if you’re a film fan and have Encore in your cable package, there is a great 2 hour special paying homage to film editors and film editing. I stumbled across it last night and it will be rebroadcast on June 21st at 4:35 Eastern. Did you know that movies weren’t edited until the Wright brothers took to the air in 1903? Oh wait, I think I do remember a few students’ videos where they hit record and just let it go. But that was after ‘03, I think…
Just a reminder as you are packing (or have packed) up for the summer, there’s still another month left to enter the American Film Institute’s Hometown Claim to Fame challenge. Right now it’s looking pretty good for a town just a couple of suburbs away from mine. They have three entries in! Though my sentimental favorite would be the suburb next to my old neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Hometown, IL. This could be a good chance to get your feet wet and get your junior hi and high school students thinking about learning and sharing on ScreenNation. I hear future challenges will be hosted by Sean Astin and Jennifer Love Hewitt! And, judging by Brett Harvey’s post on the California DEN blog, it looks like Hollywood’s home state is poised to join the fray. So tell us about your hometown or I may just have to PhotoShop a ridiculous pot onto YOUR picture.
P.S. Barely two weeks left to get your teacher or 5th-8th grade student entry in for the Discovery and 3M Young Scientist Challenge. There will be a special webinar with the Mythbusters next school year just for schools that enter.
…not to transition? That’s not much of a question unless you’re going for a cheesey, 1950’s kind of B movie trailer look. Keep yourself safe from PPTS (that’s “PowerPoint Transition Syndrome” according to my old buddy Ken Wiseman). And my new buddies Xander and Calvin make just that point in their latest ScreenNation learning video aptly titled “Transitions.” Watch a commercial, a TV show or a movie. How many transitions do you actually see? Any? Not many for sure. Cuts and dissolves, that’s about it.
The American Film Institute’s ScreenNation first challenge is on and it should be right up your alley, or your main street at least. It’s called Home Town Claim to Fame. I wouldn’t know where to start with the city I grew up in - Chicago and I’d have to learn a lot (maybe the point?) about this village I’ve lived in for almost half of my life - Arlington Heights, IL. Middle and High School entrants should include interviews with at least three people and run no longer than 5 minutes. Upload your video by June 30th. Winner gets a hard drive camcorder, bag and tripod, AND the very unique title of first ever ScreenNation challenge winner. Of course, I can’t tell it like Xander and Calvin, so watch their invitation at the ScreenNation site.
I spent two days working with students and teachers in my hometown last week. A great way to cheer up cold, gray, rainy days for me. Come on spring!
I’m really not in the rhythm of the school year anymore, so it was a pleasant surprise when I was contacted by a school to come back and help the 8th grade class create their memory DVD. Just 7 weeks til graduation? Last year we broke into teams who gathered pictures of their pertinent event (a sport, the Springfield trip, etc.), tweaked and organized them in iPhoto, imported to iMovie, and added titles and transitions before exporting as a DV clip. I then just assembled the clips into one master iMovie and exported that to a DVD for everybody. With a class set of laptops this year, I figured we could add some interviews and I could have the students take over the entire final production. Just a few minutes into my initial presentation I found out they were also beginning the process of making movie trailers for stories they had just written. Did I have any advice on how to go about that? Talk about waving a red flag in front of a bull! Thankfully, the teacher of the following class was sympathetic to my zeal and the students’ enthusiasm and gave us an extra ten minutes to finish up our initial foray into memory movies and movie trailers. One obstacle though, half the laptops only had the newest version of iMovie. “A house divided…” There are some neat things that have been added in that iteration, but more that has been lost. Remember you can download the previous version from Apple and then have the best of both worlds with both programs.
On Saturday I headed to a school just a few miles north of where I grew up and spent the day doing “Lights, Camera, Education!” with about ten teachers from our Chicago chapter of the Illinois Computing Educators. This was an eager group and their questions always seemed to be just ahead of the slide or the clip I was showing. Unfortunately, the computers in the lab we were in had no FireWire/1394 ports and the teams couldn’t import their videos for editing. We had to show their rough final door scenes on my computer and talk through their storyboards about what the finished product would have been. I then took one team’s clips and, under their direction, did a quick rough cut with a couple of special visual and sound effects. Fortunately, this gave us a little extra time to explore more deeply into ScreenNation and examine the clips that can support makin’ movies with their classes.
We all know a picture is worth a thousand words and so, moving pictures must be worth… Well, a lot more words, right? Realizing that, I concede that my words could not describe this clip from AFI inviting 13-18 year old students to upload their work to the new ScreenNation site.
Not wishing to steal the IRS’s limelight next week, the American Film Institute has opened the public beta of its ScreenNation™ website a full week early. So head right over to the ScreenNation™ site and check it out, no password needed. Junior and Senior high school students can upload videos and participate BUT any age can learn from and be inspired by what is shared there. Action!
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