Film School for Video Podcasters

My session for the K12Online Conference, Film School for Video Podcasters, is now online. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to download for your iPod or to watch on your computer.

The sixteen minute presentation is a series of short vignettes framed by a film noir detective story in which I play the detective (of course).

The inspiration for the project was being a video judge in an internationally known technology contest and seeing the poor quality of submitted projects. Even though the topic of the projects were very noble, the student use of the medium of filmmaking was horrendous. What I was judging were powerpoints that moved and not movies.

I maintain that video is not the language of the twenty-first century. It's the language of the twentieth century and we're just now catching up. So, I do consider it important for teachers and students to have a basic knowledge of the language of film. This movie is an attempt to help teachers gain that knowledge. After sixteen minutes you won't be an expert but I hope you will begin to think a little bit more strategically about your work with video in the classroom.

In the movie I discuss:

• Storyboarding Almost everyone knows that you have to storyboard but there aren't many models for teachers on how to storyboard. Here I try to show you step by step.
• Shot selection I talk a little bit about the meaning behind certain shots as well as how to set them up to be aesthetically appealing.
• Equipment In a nod to my hero, Jim Cramer, I present Mad Moviemaking in which I answer questions on what kind of equipment to buy (because these are the questions I get most often about videomaking)

Woven in between those sections is my opinion on the importance of teaching media literacy via media production.

I plan on posting a bit more about my process of making the movie later but suffice it to say that it was a lot of work. I welcome your feedback below. Enjoy!