Beyond School

Lesson learned: if you start a digital video, finish it quickly.

I started this months ago as part of the “Visionary Student Blogging” project for my AP Literature seniors. Some crazy introductory idea that I hoped would help them see how blogging could be an escape from school-as-usual.

I didn’t finish it the way I wanted to, and life got in the way. I spent a bit of time this morning making the attribution titles at the end so I could post it. A couple of people had seen it on our AP Lit Ning and told me they liked it.

I think it’s kind of vague, myself, and imperfect in more ways than one. But educational fantasies are always a bit vague, aren’t they?

(I used Zamzar to convert YouTube videos for import into iMovie, by the way.)

(If anybody can tell me how to make my YouTube videos show up in RSS readers, by the way, I’d be so appreciative. I know it can be done because I see others do it.)

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After my first outing doing a rather “schooly” self-assignment for AP Literature, I got what I asked for: friendly and constructive criticism - “assessment”? - from Dean Shareski, Bud Hunt, AnneO, Diane Cordell, and my flat world team-teacher/blood brother Chris Watson - all whom I thank for taking the time.

So you’ll notice these changes:

1. No scrolling text. Instead, I used iMovie’s “Music Video” editing option. One bothering limitation in that option is a ten-second maximum duration for each block of text. Another is the slider for text size - a numeric text-size option would be nicer for uniformity’s sake. (Dean suggested no text at all, or subtitles. Since I want my students to have the option of reading along as they listen, I chose to stick with the text. But I didn’t like the scroll either. Subtitles would have taken forever to add, line by line. Thus the “music video” devil’s bargain.)

2. Less jumpy transitions. On my first try, I learned the time-consuming lesson that all text edits over images are erased if you put transitions before or after a clip. I also learned something about measuring the duration of some lines of recital first, and then adding images with those durations set. I also reduced the use of the Ken Burns effect, because that effect consumes a lot of time, and is often damaged when fades or dissolves are added to them.

3. (This one was tough:) I added some editorial and “teacher-y” stuff in there for my students. It goes against the opposing desire to make this an entertainment piece for all. (And it just occured to me I could have easily exported a straight recitation, then added the teacher stuff to a second schooly version. Damn.)

So here’s the next installment, this time on YouTube instead of Google Video (for you comparison shoppers out there):

Paradise Lost, Book 4 (episode 2): Satan Enters Paradise

This one is about four minutes long. It took me about four hours. Feedback still welcome! (And feel free to read my AP Literature students’ feedback on our open class Ning.)

To Reflect a Bit More:

I’m still wondering about the overall value of digital storytelling. I know that for me, at least, I record the readings over and over, never quite satisfied, discovering an inflection better placed here than there, and so forth. But I have to say, it does get tiresome. Maybe that’s the fault of the parameters I’ve set: reciting someone else’s work, limiting it to still images, voice-over, and text. Not what I’d call a very in-demand real-world skill. (Or am I wrong?)

(I’m also curious how many of you out there who have assigned a digital storytelling project have tried one - or more - yourselves. And what your impressions were after the attempt. Comments?)

I really want to start playing with actual filmmaking: scripts, shots, storyboards, the whole bit. That would be far less schooly, and surely far more engaging. Yet I look at so much “crap” when students (and others) are given a camera and told to make a real film, I don’t think I would assign that to students without some very tight scaffolding and staging. But somebody - was it Dean? - mentions the “Don’t give them a camera until they’ve given you a storyboard” rule in this year’s K-12 Online Conference, don’t they?

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Dean Shareski and Cindy Barnsley gave me valuable (though tactfully veiled) criticism for my original “Cutting the Crap (from Student Movies)” video. To paraphrase, “That first part was really good.” ;-)I took the hint. I’ve divided the original into two shorter efforts, and added end credits attributing the Flickr photos I used to model that for students.

So now, Episode One is simply about finding legal images and videos for mash-ups using Creative Commons Search (with a quick Zamzar-to-download-YouTubes, etc, thrown in). And Episode Two is a re-mix of the Ken Burns Effect lesson, with an added intro: an example of how bad the Ken Burns Effect can look if not done skillfully, in the form of one of my own “crappy” iMovies of late.

I’ve put them both on a new page on my new WordPress home entitled “Cut the Crap,” so you can always find them there. But here they are anyway:

Episode One: Keeping it Legal with Creative Commons Search

Episode Two: Still Photo Skills with the Ken Burns Effect

For more posts on digital storytelling, see:

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Eight minutes on how to 1) find content on Creative Commons, 2) use Zamzar to download YouTube and other videos for mashups. (It’s also posted on my “Teaching Gallery” static page.) [Update: Photos credited in final titles, plus CC licensing added.]

Coming in Episode 2: Still Photo Skills: Advanced use of the Ken Burns Effect.

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