Teaching video production

[Stephen Jackson]

Good Day

I've been asked to teach an afterschool and saturday video production course at an all boys high school.

I'm wondering if anyone has taught any similar groups and would you have a lesson plan that I caould look at as I start building this course.

I'm going to focus on classroom instruction in the afternoon and lab hands on work on Saturday.

We will probably work on developing news type of stories and work toward a long form production of a short film.

Thanks in advance

[Kris Holodak]

Well, I haven't taught this in particular - apart from a guest lecture in my nephew's high school class once - but I have been involved in instructional design, so I can give you some general pointers if that would be helpful.

It looks like you have a pretty good class goal, be sure you have specific goals for each lesson. At the end of the day the boys should be able to ...deconstruct a segment of the local news ...identify where the light sources are coming from in a given scene ...select an appropriate microphone for a given situation and explain why they chose it. Think about whatever individual skills you think they'll need to combine to reach your final goal of production of a short film. Make each one of them a lesson (whether that lesson takes half a day, all day, or several days) and at least for yourself be able to articulate what the objective of that lesson is and how they need to get there.

Sorry if this was already stuff you knew since it wasn't exactly what you asked. Hope it helps.

Smile,
Kris

[Leo Pepingco]

The best thing I've found in teaching this subject is, Teach the basics of shooting first. The idea of crossing the line and why we see such and such kinds of shots on TV and film.

Once you can get the kids to understand why things are done the way they are done, you can tell them what is needed.

I once scoffed at the need for a tripod when explained about camera accessories. Then later, I realised that you need tripods not because for stability, but for the viewer to not notice anything outside the frame. One you understand that there is a camera man, or a director etc... An audience frames thing differently.

If you teach the Why we do the things we do, you can get the "what you need and how you do it" without having to explin why, because you already covered that area.

BTW.... I had a fellow student laugh when our lecturer said "The reason why the camera must be attached firmly to a tripod is to prevent damage" The stupid student said "How could a tripod hurt a camera?"

Later, the camera fell off the tripod during a shoot where he was suppoed to attach it.....

[David Chapman]

I haven't taught HS but I taught last year in college (granted this was a graphic design class). I think college students can pay a little more attention that HS students, but you need to make it interesting!

For instance... the basic design rules for a layout are: alignment, contrast, repetition, and proximity. I turned the thing into an acronym: CRAP. I said, "If you don't want your work to look like CRAP, use Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity!" They didn't remember the words until they thought of CRAP. Then they matched up the words.

Anyways... if you come up with an easy way to remember stuff that seems complicated (righty tighty, lefty loosy) they will remember it!