Videomaking+in+the+English+classroom

A discussion of video/cinema/film/the language of sound and images in the English classroom   **TABLE OF CONTENTS:**  If you only have five minutes to spend on this wiki page please click [|here], otherwise enjoy. media type="youtube" key="CsAChn35HSo?fs=1" height="385" width="640"      THIS PAGE IS NOT ABOUT “Conversations introducing project based collaborative learning as the pedagogical context for digital video production, the value of supporting a sense of creativity in students to promote deeper engagement with subject matter through hands-on activities, and how to involve a variety of learning modalities as opposed to predominantly passive reading and listening.” -[|Dr.Pedro Hernandez-Ramos, The British Journal of Education and Technology] iT Is AbOuT THIS  “If people aren’t taught the language of sound and images, shouldn’t they be considered as illiterate as if they left college without being able to read?” -[|George Lucas, founder and chairman of The George Lucas Educational Foundation and the creator of "Star Wars"] aNd tHIS     "So much of today’s society is done visually and even subliminally for young people that it could be dangerous. One has to know that it’s a very powerful tool." [|-Martin Scorsese, founder of the Film Foundation and director of "Goodfellas" and "The Departed"] And thIS  "Since we cannot erase visual texts from modern life…we must challenge students to analyze critically the texts they view … and help them learn to employ visual media as another powerful means of communication." -[|Ben Fuller, Editor Media Matters] (I have mixed feelings about this quote, why would anyone ever want to erase visual text? Visual text should be embraced. It is one of the incredible means of communication humans have come up with.)     LaSTLy   “Writing is the single most powerful activity in school….The danger is when students substitute video for writing, which is as ineffective as substituting music for math… it should not be either-or-it’s both-and.” -[|Douglas Reeves, chairman and founder of the Center for Performance Assessment] A literature review Led to no research done on best practices for videomaking in the English classroom. Mostly what the pages of educational journals and articles provided were testimonials by students who preferred videomaking to writing essays and teachers who found video improved collaborative skills and brought the camaraderie of sports teams into the class room.  [|Martin Chen] [|, Executive Director of Edutopia] writes, "We go through school and learn the grammar of English -- punctuation, capital letters, run-on sentences, what a verb is. But nobody teaches what screen direction is, what perspective is, what color is, what a diagonal line means. . . . Somehow, in the educational system, these need to be balanced out so that kids can communicate using all the forms of communication, especially in this day and age where the power of multimedia is coming to the children. " Chen’s words reiterate those of George Lucas. In the video below Lucas speaks of how in school "we stress so hard learning English, "English grammar" and we shove music, art and cinema over to some form of artistic, therapeutic or fun thing as opposed to a valid form of communication. He goes on to say that the educational system needs to be balanced out so that kids can be using all the forms of communication… and that the basic grammar of art, music and cinema belong being taught in the English classroom." media type="custom" key="6996725" width="428" height="428" align="center"

In the video below Martin Scorsese discusses visual literacy and how we must shape the minds of young people in a critical way as to how they view and interpret film/video. He says that film/video vocabulary is just as valid as the vocabulary used in literature, the vocabulary including :panning left and right, tracking in and out, booming up and down, inter cutting a certain way, the use of a close up as opposed to a medium shot, or long shot.

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ViDeomaKing in the classroom does not require a camera or edit suite. These [|storyboards from the film adaptation of "Where The Wild Things Are"] include lots of information. The film was practically made on paper before it was shot, a technique used by Hitchcock. The camera movement, angle, framing, the details of location, wardrobe, props, set design, costume, action and dialog are all in the storyboards. As an assignment students can be asked to make storyboards based on one of their favorite scenes from a book the class is reading. __It is important that their teacher teach them the grammar of film__. A good way of doing this is screening short films and music videos using a laser pointer and pointing out the camera movement, type of shot, editing, lighting choices and noting details such as hair, make-up and set design.



iN tHe onTARio cuRRiculum videomaking is an obvious fit for media arts studies, but it also fits throughout the English curriculum. Videomaking does not have to mean the technical aspects of the videomaking process. As Martin Scorsese describes in his interview he grew up with visual literacy watching lots of films and making storyboards. Film/video literacy cannot replace reading or writing, but it should find it's way into every English classroom. Many, obviously not all of the Ontario ministry's expectations can co-exist with educating youth to interpret and create film/video/digital media.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 200%;">oN-liNe reSoUrces FoR tEaCHeRs [|Making Movies: A Guide for Young Filmmakers] [|Capturing Reality - The Art of Documentary] [|The Toronto International Film Festival's Sprocket Festival for Youth] [|The Story of Movies] [|Journeys in Film]