The Social Service Video Project - MYP Year 5
By Benjamin M. on Wednesday, 20 February , 2008 - 7:55 am
SEE THE VIDEOS INSIDE THIS ARTICLE…
AIM:
To identify social/environmental issues around us and communicate about them effectively in a 30-60 second video announcement.
CONCEPTS
filming, photography concepts such as shots, sound recording, linear and non-linear video editing, graphic design, typography, storyboarding
- Investigate tools suitable for production and post-production.
- Analyze existing ads, their call-to-action, duration, shots, etc…
- Reflect and develop your understanding of the social significance of the issue you have selected.
- Identify a target audience and accordingly, create a design specification of your ad.
- Identify ways to evaluate the effectiveness of your ad at the end of the cycle.
- Design several storyboard with written details of each shot.
- Get feeback from peers. Evaluate each designs against your design specs and select one final one.
- Plan each shot including props, actors, location, time and any other aspect needed.
- Make provisions for the unexpected.
- Identify post-production (editing) tools and time needs.
- Create footage of the ad as per your storyboard and follow the plan.
- Keep a process journal of the production and post-production.
- Evaluate the ads using appropriate testing
.
GENERATED RESOURCES
short trial movies, storyboards, role-plays, 30-60seconds of edited video footage, audio-tracks, computer graphics
AREAS OF INTERACTION
Approaches to learning, homo faber, environment, health and social education, community and service. A rare case where all five AOI’s naturally integrated in this project.
LINKS TO OTHER SUBJECTS
Sciences, Humanities, English, local languages, visual and performing arts
Assessment Tasks
30 to 60 seconds of edited video footage
RESOURCES NEEDED
Computers, video-editing software, sound-editing software, graphic design software, photo-editing software, camera, boom mic, tripod, headphones.
BACKGROUND OF THE SOCIAL SERVICE VIDEO DESIGN CYCLE
This cycle’s title should have read “Blog Design Cycle”, I had initially planned a blog module that would have allowed students to create an online topical blog on a social/environmental issue that they felt strongly about. Learners’ interests and experiences is central to my technology unit planning. I had initiated this module, but it received lukewarm interest from the class, I quickly changed tack and reoriented them towards the making of video social service announcements. This was met with astounding enthusiasm. Three years prior, an MYP class had been approached by an Indian TV channel to create their own talk show, as part of the show, they had to product 5 to 7-minute segments. This took considerable planning and logistics. The students were bogged down by technical hitches and scattered storylines. As a result, they quickly lost interest. I knew the medium fascinated them, what teenager doesn’t want to make a movie? Later, I realised the task was too heavy for MYP learners, it was impossible to create a quality 5-7 minute segment in a reasonable amount of time. The experience prompted me to restrict the length of the ad within a range of 30 to 60 seconds. The typical ad slot on TV is 30 or 60 seconds. I chose a time range rather than a set duration because I felt the learners were novices and needed some flexibility to express themselves. Keeping the format under 60 seconds really encouraged the learners to articulate their thoughts and communicate their messages effectively. It also allowed them to concentrate on the quality of every second of the video, and I believe their final solution has more impact than if it had been just 30 seconds longer.
From a logistical standpoint, 60 seconds of video makes perfect sense as it frees up important material resource faster. At the production (shooting) stage, this meant greater availability of the school’s single camera, boom mic and tripod. At the post-production stage (editing), students were able to divide their time and share the computers needed for video editing. We have 22 students and our computer lab has about 16 Imacs and Emacs, G4, G5 or Intel Core (2) Duo.
For the sake of context, my background is in new media communication. My full-time profession is teaching. As a technology teacher in the MYP, there are two priorities that I take very seriously: the first is to encourage people to communicate openly yet ethically and sensitively. As articulated in our schools conceptual framework, my second priority - and this should be central to any computer-oriented technology programme- is to ensure that when students completes the 5-year course, they can consciously respond to communications stimulus around them. Moreover, they should be able to confidently and effectively communicate to achieve their goals by harnessing the power of a variety of media including:
print - brochures, posters, news publication, …
Web/screen – creating static HTML, using web services, blogs, screen presentations, …
Video - shooting, editing, distributing on DVD’s or with tools such as You-Tube, …
Audio - recording, mixing, distributing through podcasting, …
My measure of success deals with the ability of students to consciously and responsibly communicate their message to the world. If students walk away from the 5 years of MYP with that confidence and ability to harness technology to better their lives and the lives of others, they will have tremendous impact in their field of action
THE PEDAGOGICAL DEPLOYMENT
It was important to expose students to high-quality advertisement that were linked to the project. Throughout the cycle, I often used social service announcements by the Ad Council ( www.adcouncil.org ), a US organisation that calls on private advertising agencies to volunteer and create social service messages in several media formats on a wide range of social, health and environmental issues. I also exposed them to interesting commercial advertisements, especially when a “making of” video was available ( see http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/ ). The approaches were eclectic and targeted very different audiences. We often started a class with a short 30 to 60 second spot as a starter activity and to initiate a reflection on narrative styles, call-to-action, storyboarding, etc…
CUTS
To introduce the use of cuts, I asked screened an ad once, then the second time, I asked the students to say “cut” every time a cut occurred in the ad. This helped make learners aware of camera direction. At that stage the notion of establishing shots, extreme wide shots, wide shots, mid shots, close-ups and extreme close-ups was indirectly touched upon but remained abstract
STORYBOARD AND SHOTS
We approached storyboarding in a similar manner: we screened another ad once to give a global view of the ad. After a brief explanation about storyboarding, I invited them to storyboard each shot of the ad individually. I told them I would only replay the ad ‘once’ this forced them to be extremely attentive and not become spectators (a very important aspect of film-making). I screened the ad and let the students piece the storyboard individually. Later I merged them into small groups of 3 or 4 learners and invited them to compare and complete their storyboards. Finally upon the request of the learners, I re-screened the ad and allowed the students to fill in the missing shots. As we looked at the drawings we identified different shots and I formally introduced their names with the support of existing printed material from Videomaker.com and Media College. Using an emailing group, I provided students with links to these and other wonderful online resources. ( http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/tutorial/01-framing.html )
It was important to create a sort of dry run that would allow the acquisition and utilisation of all the key concepts and skills before they got to the design stage of the advertisements. Time was a constraint, I devoted two sessions to the “Invisible Bench” activity. In the same session as the storyboarding activity, I handed out the play called “The Invisible Bench” which is floating around several websites (http://gsleaders.org/files/skits.htm):
#1 is “sitting” on a bench (which really isn’t there).
#2 walks up - “What are you doing?”
#1 - “Sitting on an invisible bench.”
#2 - “Can I join you?
#1 - “Sure”
#2 “sits” next to #1.
#’s 3 &4 walk up - “what are you doing?”
#’s 1&2 - “Sitting on an invisible bench.”
#’s 3 &4 - “Can we join you?”
#’s 1&2 - “Sure” (and so on till only one person is left)
Last Person - “Hi! What are you guys doing?”
Everyone else - “Sitting on the invisble bench.”
Last Person - “Didn’t I tell you? I moved the bench over there.” (points in other direction)
Everyone sitting on bench says “Oh no!” and falls.
I invited learners to storyboard the above script individually at first. Later, I created groups of 5 to 6 learners and ask them to either adapt one of their storyboard or to start a new storyboard collectively. To help them envision the shots, I handed out recycled pieces of paper with a 4:3 rectangle cut out in the middle of the paper. I showed them how they could look through it to envision and crop a shot. I explained that each group would go on to shoot and edit their version of this play. Being under 20 seconds and requiring no major props and acting, the students could really focus on film-making concepts. We were able to focus on shots, cuts (and coherence), technical considerations of lighting and sound environments as well as the handling of sound and video equipment from technical and safety standpoint. The students had about 40000 Rs. worth of gear (about US $1000.00), we took this opportunity to lay down important guidelines around the equipment. I worked with each group individually as it would have been next to impossible to create a practical environment with the entire class. While I was working with a particular group and shooting the story in an empty classroom, the other students were trying their hand at storyboarding their actual social service video. The Invisible Bench segments were very quick to edit and made use of all the essential tools in the video-editing programme. I devoted 2 class sessions of 1.5 hour each, but the students spent another 2 hours after school to shoot and edit. Students were actually suggesting stay-backs to move ahead faster. Their overwhelming enthusiasm throughout this module made us progress at amazing speed. During the editing process, students became aware of issues ranging from camera shaking, back-lighting, discrepancies in continuity of storyboard, poor audio, etc… Editing also allowed us to explore how a few clever post-production techniques can make up for a missing or unusable shot. After finishing the edit, each group showed their ads to the class and a stimulating reflection ensued as we discussed the strengths and shortcomings of each video. I should not that I did not go into great length about camera motion and zooms as those techniques require a certain amount of experience to pull off. I encouraged students not to zoom and to stay on the tripod whenever possible.
I used the project to discuss responsible use of technology to tackle real issues using existing ads as starting points on a variety of relevant issues like Aids prevention, smoking, obesity, alcoholism. I also took up the issue of online sexual predators, the Ad Council has very powerful ads in this regard. Some students realised how exposed they were based on the information they disclosed on social networking sites such as Orkut and Facebook.
We frequently contrasted approaches of ads to different problems and sometimes audiences. To address ethics in the media, I walked into class one day with two ads on reckless driving. One ad was light and humorous (see “New and Improved”) , while the other was so graphic [LINK CONTAINS GRAPHICAL DEPICTION OF A CAR ACCIDENT] that I actually showed it to colleagues before screening it. When I walked into the class, I announced I would be showing 2 ads dealing with road safety, and that one ad would be very graphic. I asked wether any students wanted to go out of the class while we played the ad. All decided to stay. We watched both ads, and by the end of the second (graphic) ad, you could hear a pin drop in the room. I asked the students their responses to both ads, they contrasted the ads on a number of points and correctly identified that the first ad (US-based) was heavily geared towards teenagers, while the second ad (Irish) portrays all ages of people - perhaps a reflection of differing societal problem or just a call-to-action to different audiences. Many were really shaken by the second ad but said it had made an impact and had scared them into not driving fast. One boy raised concern about showing it on TV without warning viewers first. We got to talking about ethics, my choice to screen the ad, my prior warning about its graphical nature as well as censorship. Later we discussed inter-cultural sensitivity of ads and at that point I invited students to incorporate an evaluation of their ads from an ethical standpoint.
We entered the design stage charged up, students drafted and redrafted several storyboards, sometimes going back to their investigation and rethink their design specifications. They had animated exchanges about how to best convey a message, students drafted and redrafted their storyboard, sometimes amending the design specifications. Pretty soon, the project was the only thing on the students’ lips. I began receiving phone calls from them at all hours of the day even on Sundays, they were teeming with questions and ideas. I was conscious of the need to explore with more depth the Indian perspective of advertising, rather than referring to international ads for support. Fortunately one of the student’s parent who heads a large Indian advertising firm volunteered to take a session on advertising with the MYP 5 group. My concern to bring an Indian perspective to the project was addressed.
With ever-growing enthusiasm, we continued to work. At the planning stage, students scouted for location all around the city, some approached local businesses and obtained permissions to shoot on their premises. One student convinced the restaurant manager of an ice cream parlor to let his actor spit pan (chewing tobacco) on the store’s windows. The average student took about 2.5 hours to shoot 5 to 6 minutes of raw footage. Students were expected to direct, handle the camera and sound check. They were allowed support from their classmates and friends to act, hold the mic in one place or to redirect bystanders. Because students were often shooting off-campus, I imposed the strict rule (possibly the only non-negotiable one) to have a responsible adult with the student at all time while shooting. I introduced this requirement after realizing the public nature of their shoot locations on their plans of action, thus the students had not made provisions for the responsible adults at the planning stage. It often happened that I was the responsible adult, I can think of better places to spend my sunday afternoon than in a men’s bathroom, but one student’s storyboard mandated the location and to his credit he had pulled off quite a feat in securing permission to shoot his ad in an up-scale social club of Ahmedabad. Students were least concerned about how much time they spent making their ads, staying up late and pleading with the computer lab teacher to let them in.
Somewhere early in the creation stage, I also received a call from Mrs. Karwal. a parent who heads the state-wide cleanliness campaign for the government. She expressed her keen in the project and her amazement at the quality of the ideas that she had overheard from the students themselves. We determined a day when she could come to the class and address the group. Mrs. A heard the storyboards from each student and complimented the class by saying, “my team has been banging their heads for months about how to raise an awareness of many of these issues and you guys are doing it, I would very much like to bring a delegation to screen the ads, and possibly to purchase them for use in a state-wide campaign”. We looked at the production schedule and fixed a date 2 weeks later for a world-premier screening of the ads to an Indian government delegation. This became a non-negotiable deadline. The students were ecstatic to know their ads might be screened on a greater scale than initially intended (online, in the school and as part of community and service school initiatives).
In the post-production phase, students grappled with but eventually tamed their footage into the alloted time range. Students were furiously experimenting with sound effects, transitions, color tones and special effects. This was the real deal, they wanted it to be perfect. The editing lasted until 12:30 in the night for some of the students. And then the big day came, the Indian delegation included high-ranking officials from government offices that struggle with the issues in our ads. We had booked the school’s multi-media room and were ready to project the ads on the big screen. Each student had prepared a short introduction 20 second introduction before screening their ad, talking about what the issue meant to them. We had worked with the drama teacher on the delivery of this short speech one day prior. The ads were received with a standing ovation by the delegation and many praises about the quality of the ads and the process. Mrs. Karwal concluded by saying the government would like to use all the ads and take a keen interest in future projects of the sort to tackle social issues including controversial social taboos.
As the new Indian youth, these students are well equipped to speak out. They offer a refreshing, honest and refreshing perspective that may be what is needed to address difficult subjects in Indian society. The students’ present ads will be introduced in cinema halls across Gujarat (50 million inhabitants) and used in government awareness programmes. The video unit coupled with the power of the internet and TV distribution will hopefully become a voice and a lively online community fostering creativity and responsible social change.
Category: Reaching out
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