Cool videos: Fall 2015

I am so proud and impressed with my students' work this year. It is amazing to look back at how far they have come in production: filming, editing, writing, promoting.

Here is a sampling of their work from this quarter:

Video Challenge: Printing procedure

Challenge overview: This is an introductory lesson to shooting and editing video. I wanted to develop a project that taught the basics of composition, the six-shot system and video editing in FCPX.

Level: Beginning video students.

Objectives:

1. Students will follow and execute the video storytelling process.
2. Students will implement the six-shot system.
3. Students will edit a sequence.
4. Students will use shortcut keys in FCPX.

Frontloading: This presentation taught the basics of composition, the rule-of-thirds, and the six-shot system.
Here is the "creative brief" we are providing with students as the instructions/parameters of the assignment:

Client: Anne Teak - ONW Language Arts teacher Job name: ONW computer procedures

Target audience: Incoming ONW freshmen.

Description: The goal of this project is to produce a video that demonstrates how to create a document and send it to the printer, implementing the 6-shot system and 180 degree rule. We will deliver a sequence with a beginning, middle and end. The music will fit ONW’s professional culture. Specifications for production and delivery: The video will be exactly 30 seconds long. It will be exported as an Apple Devices 720p file, placed in the Challenge #1 folder in Google Classroom, and uploaded to the student’s YouTube channel.

This project will be completed by: August 27th. Competitor samples:

https://youtu.be/wVRA3SC6Kgg

https://youtu.be/aRvura5lPWw

Student work from this challenge:

Student work: Miracle League game

This summer we held our inaugural journalism camp at Olathe Northwest High School.

The camp was based around the Miracle League game. Our students planned, filmed and edited stories about the game.

We talked a great deal about the video storytelling process discussed in this post.

Here are their stories!

Ryley DeMaro:



Val Cartwright:



Sean McPartland:



Alex Gabel:



Brooke Biasella:

Student Work: Creative Stand-ups

How you begin your news package is one of the most important decisions you will make. Viewers will tune out within seconds if they aren't hooked.

Previously I wrote about creative stand-ups from professional reporters.

For a quick challenge, I gave my students a fake news story about our school and asked students to create a stand-up for the news piece. Here are examples of their work:

Pig Latin added as a new foreign language:




Our principal will tryout for American Idol:




Jedi training added as a sport:



Super hero gang revealed at school:

Process for video storytelling

My favorite show on TV right now is The Profit. 

In this show, investor Marcus Lemonis helps struggling businesses become successful. Lemonis stresses his 3Ps of business success: People, Product and Process.

This year I want to stress the process of video storytelling.

Lemonis often tells business owners to "Trust the process." This will become my motto as I often see students who want to skip or rush steps along the way. I want my students to tell engaging and compelling stories, but they must learn to follow the steps of the process in order to do so.

Objective:

Students will follow and execute the storytelling process.

Process:

1. Plan: Students must develop a plan before they can begin filming or editing. That means storyboarding. Developing a shot list. Pitching their idea. Researching. They can't just show up and "spray and pray" that they will film a great story. They must first develop a plan.

2. Film: Students now have a plan for what they are going to film:

• Students know to utilize the 6-shot system.  
• They should also think to shoot in sequences for when they go to edit. 
• Interview subjects. 
• I also want them to capture action/reaction in everything they film. 

3. Organize: Next, they should organize their footage after importing it into FCPX. Create In & Out points, favorite/reject clips, and keyword clips. This should all be done before anything is placed on the timeline.

4. Write: Once the clips are organized, it is time to write the script. This is a step that is often rushed by students, but is extremely important to the process. They often want to start editing their story without a plan.

I created a news story template that combines elements of a STORYBOARD and NEWS SCRIPT so students can write a script of what the viewer will HEAR and SEE.

5. Edit: If all steps in the process have been followed, editing should be easy and quick. It should be easy to find the clips needed if they are organized. The script should lay out the entire story. Everything should come together easily.

6. Feedback: This is an important and often scary step of the process. Showing your unfinished work to other people can be intimidating. We have class feedback time where we go around to each work station and review the work - and the class provides feedback to the unfinished story. This is an important part of the process - much like receiving peer feedback on an English paper.

7. Publish: This is simple. Once you have completed your story, publish your work.

8. Promote: However, you are not finished once you publish your work. You must now promote it. We create these stories in order for people to view them, so they should be promoted through various mediums: Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Facebook, websites. Multiple methods of promotion should be used, and it shouldn't just happen once. Promote your story several times to reach the most viewers possible.


Assessment: 

I want to assess that students are following this process and not skipping steps along the way. Here is the rubric I am going to use this year for assessing process:

4 (A): Above and beyond in following the process. Meticulous attention is paid to each step.
3 (B): 100% of the process is followed.
2 (C): 50-75% of the process is followed.
1 (D): Less than 50% of the process is followed.

Finally...

This is the plan I am going to execute this year. What do you do to teach process? Any feedback on what I have developed? I welcome your comments below!

Creative stand-ups

Stand-ups are an important part of reporting a news story. A good stand-up accomplishes a couple of things:

1. It draws in the audience with a unique hook.
2. It sets the stage for what is to come in the package.
3. It give the reporter face time.

This year we are going to concentrate on three types of stand-ups.

1. Demonstration
2. Information
3. Participation

Here are great videos that describe how to do a stand-up. Watch them and take notes:

http://www.advancingthestory.com/2014/04/14/better-tv-stand-ups-in-a-box/

ONW...NOW! year in review

My Convergence Journalism and Sports Information students just finished the 2014-2015 school year.

This year brought many new changes - from a new green screen studio to an updated tricaster. We also expanded from a weekly show on Wednesday to three shows a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In all, we produced 39 editions of ONW...NOW!

However, the biggest change had to be the quality of the students' work. We made huge leaps this year from a year ago. Storytelling and shot composition/sequencing were the things we focused on the most - and it paid off. I believe we had more visually compelling and interesting stories than ever. It is a huge celebration.

Here is our 2014-2015 year in review show with five of our top stories:




Our sophomore A/V class also came a long way this year. As freshmen, they used flip cams and edited stories on iMovie. This year, they moved to professional-grade Panasonic cameras and edited on Final Cut Pro X. Here is the final show that they produced:



I am already making plans for next year. We are going to have a "boot camp" this summer to get a head start on the year, and I am excited about the work we will produce.

Cool video: Diving sequence

I wanted to share a great video that one of my sophomore A/V students created for her final exam.

This is a story about a champion gymnast who took her skills to the diving team this year.



I love this story because she has great sequencing throughout the video, but especially at the start:

Over-the-should shot

CU of her feet climbing the ladder

Another CU of feet

CU of feet

The jump itself 

Splashdown!

She did a really nice job of filming from the same spot (maintaining the 180 degree rule), while making it look like it was one continuous dive. You can't really tell that she filmed several dives to get the footage.

The only thing I wish this sequence had was a close-up of her face as she prepared to jump. That would have added more emotion to the sequence.

See my previous post about "Advanced Video Sequencing" to learn more about sequencing.

Music video assignment

This year my sophomore A/V students created music videos.

First, we watched a variety of music videos and talked about some of the common elements. They all tell a story, they have tons and tons of shots, and the shots change every couple of seconds and are synced to the beat.

We worked on editing to the beat using the Marker (M) function in FCPX, storyboarding, and filming lots and lots and lots of shots.

Here are some examples:

Crafting a story through editing

When I work with my video students, teaching them to tell a solid STORY is probably the most difficult thing to do.

We all know that stories should have a beginning, middle and end. When you are a great storyteller, that comes naturally. However, students need to follow a formula to take them through the process of telling a story through editing. Telling a story chronologically is one of the easiest formulas for students to follow.

I want to share an example of a video one of my sophomore video students produced:



For this video, he set out to produce a story about a fashion show at our school. He went to the show, filmed, and came back to class to review the footage. He called me over to look at what he filmed. It looked nice - but it was basically medium to wide shots of models walking on the runway. There wasn't much to work with to tell a compelling story.

After a discussion, we talked about changing the story angle to show the PROCESS of what goes into putting together a fashion show: the beginning, middle and end. The end was easy - the fashion show itself. However, he needed to go collect footage of the creation process of the clothing to have the beginning and middle of the story.

He went to the fashion design class to collect footage. After returning with the footage, the storytelling process naturally fell into place.

What is the first step in the process? Probably designing, but the students weren't designing on the day he filmed. Instead he started with the creation process: sewing.

He started with this shot:

He loved this shot, so he decided to lead with it. This shot is great for two reasons:

1. Visually it is interesting because it intrigues the audience. We aren't really sure what we are looking at.
2. It also has great NAT NOISE. I always want my students to use nat noise to start their story. It draws the audience in with sound.

Following are just basic sequences of the creation process. I talk to my students all of the time about shooting and editing in sequences. Check out this blog post to learn more.

Over-the-shoulder shot

Close-up of the hands

Structurally, we have the beginning and middle of the piece put together. We see the beginning (symbolically the thread on the sewing machine), and we see the clothing being put together. The clothes they were making were not the ones worn in the fashion show, but that doesn't really matter at this point. We are crafting a story through the magic of editing. This is the middle.

The natural ending for this story is the fashion show itself:

This worked ok as the end, but it lacked a sense of finality. However, he found it when looking at the footage from the START of the show:

How does a fashion show naturally end? With applause! He captured applause from the start of the show, but didn't have it from the end of the show. Doesn't matter. He used this clip as the end of the story. It gives it a sense of closure.

This story exemplifies a great first step for this student in the storytelling process. It has a natural arc. It has a beginning, middle and end. Story.

Think about this easy process when telling your own story through video. Other ideas? Feel free to leave them in the comments below!

Advanced video sequencing

The six-shot system and video sequencing is the best thing I have implemented in my broadcast journalism classes.

Here is a simple example of video sequencing and the six-shot system:



As you can see, this is one subject doing something that is repetitive. The six-shot system allows you to tell a simple, short story with a variety of shots.

Now, let's take this concept to the next level.

In this next story, the student used sequencing to connect together different characters to make it appear that there were multiple cameras filming at the same time. Check it out:



There are several sequences here that act as little short stories within the scope of a bigger story.

Let's break down one:

The sequence starts with this student looking to the left and slightly behind her. It poses a question: Who is she looking at? The next shot answers.

This student turns his head to look to his right. Whether or not they were actually talking to each other is really irrelevant. That is the power of editing. Who is he talking to?

It appears that he is talking to these students.

The next shot is this student again answering a question. He has a great expression on his face. He is talking to...

...the moderator. She turns back to the student from the previous shot and tells him "I can't accept that answer." This completes a simple five-shot sequence where we have multiple characters appearing to interact with each other. 

This looks simple, but it is complex editing. It takes a plan both in shooting and editing to make it happen. It doesn't happen by mistake.

If you want to take your editing to the next level, think ahead next time to how you can film and sequence shots to tell short stories within the context of a full video package.

Challenge: Feature story

Here is a challenge I am giving my convergence journalism students for next semester. Feel free to use:

Next semester, you will create a 3-4 minute short feature about a subject of your choice. Use what you have learned about the 6-shot system, sequencing, editing and storytelling to create your film.

Think about interesting people or ideas here at ONW. Talk to your friends. Ask around. Come up with original ideas.

This feature will be due by the end of 3rd quarter, just before spring break.

Step #1: Watch 3 stories and fill out a "beat sheet." Download the beat sheet here.

This website has great short features and documentaries.







Step #2: Write a project proposal as a blog post. Use this template for your proposal. 

Steps #1-2 are due before you leave for Winter break!

English nerd to Journalism geek

The transition

SID Students film GameDay: Northwest

Eighteen months ago, I embarked on a new journey in my teaching career: transitioning from English teacher to a Convergence Journalism instructor at Olathe Northwest High School.

For 10 years, I taught English at Olathe South and ONW. I feel like I came a long way teaching English from my early years when I didn't know how to teach Julius Caesar or Close Reading strategies.

I majored in English and Journalism at K-State, and it was always my dream to teach Video Journalism. It was just a natural move for me to go from English teacher to Journalism teacher, while incorporating my love of video, technology and social media.

However, last year I felt like I was behind the learning curve of my students. The software, technique, studio and cameras were all foreign to me. I felt like a brand new teacher all over again.

Washington, DC bound

Last February, I traveled to Washington, DC to learn the concept of Backpack Journalism from Bill Gentile. Backpack Journalism is the idea that anyone can film, edit and tell a story with equipment that will essentially fit in your backpack. 

Working with Jerry Gardiner on his backpack journalism video

I elected to do my story on one of the workshop participants, Jerry Gardiner, who came from Liberia, Africa to learn video storytelling. I followed Jerry on his journey for two days, documenting his mission to film and edit his story. Here is my finished documentary:

This experience taught me so much about video storytelling. I learned the six-shot system and the concept of video sequencing.

It was such a great experience that we brought Gentile to Olathe Northwest High School last summer to work with 15 of our students. The students learned a great deal, and I took away even more ideas for my students.

Bill Gentile working with our students in the summer

Tri-ing new things

Last year, our studio and equipment was falling apart. It had not been replaced since the building opened 11 years ago. 

This year, we tore out the old set and changed our studio into a green screen, infinity wall. We also ordered a new tri-caster system that allows us to produce our ONW...NOW! shows in a much more efficient and up-to-date way. We use a virtual set for our anchors, and we can produce the show with fewer people than we did before. Overall, it runs much smoother than our old set-up.

Students producing ONW...NOW!

Here is an edition of a show from this year:

Sophomore redesign

One other change we made this year was to redesign our sophomore video curriculum. I was excited to share what I learned from Bill Gentile, and I saw many of the ideas were applicable to our sophomore class. 

We started the year with "Cutting Carrots" which is a filming and editing exercise that implements the six-shot system and sequencing. Here is an example:

We took this simple concept and applied it to the rest of our projects: AB Sequencing, Chase Scene and music videos. The last two projects directly applied the ideas of backpack journalism, where students filmed each other putting together legos and told the story of the blood drive.

Sophomores filming the Lego Project

I feel great about the direction our sophomore video class is going, and I believe our students will be much more prepared for my Convergence Journalism in the future.

Looking to the future...

I have a vision for where I would like to take this program. A few goals I have for the future are:

1. Learn more about the tricaster. I am hoping to attend a workshop in New York City this spring where I will learn how to use the tricaster to its full potential. I know it can do much more than we already do with it.

2. Implement more writing in the class through news articles and student blogs. I spent most of first semester working on the video portion of the class, and I feel great about the progress we have made. I want to improve our writing and begin creating stories for our Raven Daily website.

3. Win awards. e-Magine is our spring film festival that we host every year. Last year, we didn't win any awards in the news story category. After the competition last year, I told the class I was making it a goal to win awards at e-Magine. I feel great about the work we have done, and feel we can be competitive this year.

Final thoughts

I feel like I have come a long way in the last 18 months as a convergence journalism teacher, but I know I still have a great deal of work to do. I am constantly reading other blogs, websites and communicating with other journalism teachers. It has helped me grow a great deal. I am excited about where I will be a year from now when I look back again.

Audio Slideshows

This year I started off my Convergence Journalism class with a project called Audio Slideshows.

The audio slideshow is a way of telling a story over a subject using:

• Sound bites from an interview
• Nat noise
• Photographs. 

These three elements are weaved together to tell a story. 

The LA Times produces great examples. Here is one.

1. The first step is to choose a subject for your project. The person should be a good character. For a subject to be a good character, they must fit the following criteria:

• They must WANT to be a character.
• They must be articulate
• They must have a good story to tell. 

I had my students pick a subject and create an Audio Slideshow over how they contribute to the Raven Nation (our school's mascot). 

2. They developed 21 interview questions for their subject. I use this guide to help students develop their questions. It has been the best way I have found to generate questions. Check it out.

3. Next, students conducted their interviews and recorded the entire thing using a voice recording app on their phones. We are working to use devices at our school, and this was the perfect opportunity to teach students how to record interviews that we will use later on in the year.

4. Using their phone's camera, the students then took pictures of their subject doing the activity. It should be something very visual: playing basketball, working on a computer, creating art. They used the 6-shot system to compose their photos. Read this post to learn more about the system.

5. The next step is to capture NAT NOISE of their subject performing their activity. If the story is about playing basketball, sounds of the ball bouncing, game noise or whistles blowing would be appropriate. These sounds will be layered underneath the audio to help tell the story.

6. Finally, it is time to edit the project together. We used Final Cut Pro X to edit the audio and video. Soundslides is another option to create the Audio Slideshow, but it costs money to purchase.

I tell my students to always start with nat noise to draw the viewer in.

Check out: "What makes a good audio slideshow" for more tips and tricks.

Here are some examples my students produced:

This project is a great way to teach students several skills:

1. Interviewing
2. Nat noise
3. The 6-shot system
4. Composition
5. Editing audio and video.

Questions about this project? Please post in the comments below!

6-shot system for video journalists

Last winter I learned the 6-shot system from Bill Gentile for video storytelling. This system gives videographers a game plan for shooting video.

There is a list of six shots to get, and you can keep cycling through those shots to get everything you need to tell a story.

The shots are:

1. Close-up of the hands

2. Close-up of the face

3. Over the shoulder

4. Medium shot (Waist up)

5. Wide shot (Feet up)

6. Extra-wide shot (Establishing)

Here is a great blog entry from one of my students that gives photo examples of the six shots.

The first exercise I have my students complete is called "Cutting Carrots." This exercise asks students to film someone doing something routine, using the 6-shot system. They then will edit it together in a SEQUENCE to tell a short story.

Here are some examples:

This is what it looks like when applied to a complete news package:



This method for shooting video has given my students a game plan for shooting video. No longer do they go shoot and "Spray and pray." Shooting everything around and hoping to have something great. 

Awesome interview tips

I asked my students to come up with five tips for awesome interviews. I received some great responses. Here are some of their tips with a link to their blog post:

Isabel Lauby: It is important to determine the location of the interview that is pertinent to the story line.  For example, when I did my package over boys on the drill team, I interviewed their coach while the band and drill team was practicing, providing a relevant background.  If you capture your interview in an interesting setting it will make your package better.

http://queenofconvergence.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-tips-to-great-interview.html

Pedro Von Simson: Use your first questions to make the subject feel comfortable. Incorporate easier questions about subjects such as their background that do not make the interviewee defensive. If you immediately start off with your tougher questions, your interviewee with be less likely to feel comfortable and therefore provide worse answers.

Tougher questions should close out the interview. These are the "meat" of the package where you get the important and controversial answers that lead to the soundbites that you will most likely incorporate into your package. The first questions are more important to develop background information about your subject for your voice over instead of being used as sound bites.

http://kansaskonvergence.blogspot.com/2014/11/five-tips-to-successful-journalism.html

Quen Barkyoumb:  Prepare everything that you'll need to conduct an interview. Make sure your camera angle is on point, audio is at the right level, your computer is charged, the lights are in the right spots, and every setting is at its correct degree. This will give your interviewee a sense of importance because you're all ready to proceed without any distractions. If you're messing around with your technology during the interview, then your respondent is likely to be annoyed.

http://pickmybrainquenbarkyoumb.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-interview-process.html

Cool Video: ONW A&E Electrathon

I wanted to share this cool video that a couple of my students produced:


Two things really stood out to me in this video:

1. Storytelling. This video has a clear beginning, middle and end. The video starts with an unassembled car. Throughout the video we see students working on and building the car. The final shot is the finished car driving away out of frame. Story. It is so simple, but something that is so hard to do.
   
2. Shot composition. We have worked hard on the six-shot system and sequencing. This video is textbook in my opinion. We see a student turn the steering wheel, and the next shot is the actual wheel turning. Another sequence has the student being interviewed while we see a shot sequence of him: close-up of his hands and face, a medium shot and wide shot. There are more sequences throughout, but this does an excellent job.

Here is the blog post by the editor, Sean McPartland, who does a really nice job reflecting on the project.

September top stories

My convergence journalism students have been producing some great work for ONW...NOW! this semester. Here are some of the top news packages from recent weeks:

Tyler Soetaert and Quen Barkyoumb:




Tiajah Holt, Joe Kolega, Rachel Brookhart:




Samantha McCue and Rachel Brookhart

Challenge: Video sequencing

Challenge #2 dealt with cutting carrots, or sequencing. We saw many great examples of what it takes to do sequencing using the 6-shot system. We also learned that you can never have enough B-Roll to build your sequencing. Shoot, shoot, shoot.

Here are a couple of the top examples:

Backpack journalism: Day #4

Today was the last day of the backpack journalism workshop in Washington, DC. I learned so much during this time, and would encourage any journalism or film teachers to attend to learn about backpack journalism. 

Here is my completed film.

I had a great time learning about backpack journalism from Bill Gentile and my colleagues at the workshop. Special thanks go out to Bill Gentile, Jerry Gartiner, Dr. Gwen Poss and Anna-Lynn Morris who made this experience possible for me.

Receiving my certificate of completion from Bill.