Media Innovation

One of our themes this year at school is “Innovation”. This past spring, the Headmaster challenged us all to come up with ways to innovate our way forward. I made two suggestions - the first, which has already been discussed on this blog, was the Apple iPad roll-out for the lower school. That’s going on now, and the teachers and students are loving it. We’ve also got a bunch of iPads into other faculty hands. The Science faculty and the Music department are using them regularly. I’ve put in, as discussed, Apple TV’s and a select few AirServer installs. I’m struggling with Streaming Video and Audio - it seems to really bog down, but other than that it’s working great.

My second suggestion was to create a “Media Lab”. My thought was that I’d be able, were I granted the funds and the time, to create a daily news show based on our “Morning Notes” bulletin. We’d discuss the day’s lunch menu, sporting activities and general announcements - filmed by and presented by the students - all in a 50 minute class. Ambitious.

The project was funded, thanks to a generous donation from the D.A.R. and the program was scheduled into the 7th grade language rotation. You take what you can get when trying to get a new program in place. To be honest, I had been hoping for older kids, but so be it...

A room was set aside, and I went nutty buying cameras, editing stations, tripods, lighting, cables, microphones and new furniture. If you’ve figured me out at all by now, you can guess that this is a Windows lab. We’re using Serif Movie Plus X6, which is a robust, low cost editor. I got twelve licenses of the Serif suite for less than the cost of one from Adobe. We’ve got 5 high end Windows workstations, each of which cost half of what an iMac would run. I did not scrimp on the camera, lighting or furniture. There's even a green screen, which I have not busted out. The room looks great.

I'm about a month into the class now, and I'm sorry to report that 50 minutes is not anywhere near enough time to shoot, edit and render a daily newscast. Certainly not with four novice 7th graders. Probably not with anyone. Here's how it's gone:

Stage 1:

We did an intro to the class. I explained what we'd be doing, and began to set up single camera one person news shots. I assigned them to go home (or to the dorm) and watch a news show, which many of them had never really done with any interest, and try to mimic the broadcaster. I used Jon Stewart for my in-class example. So, we had one student behind the desk, and one behind the camera. We had the Morning Notes on a computer off to the side of the desk. And we had fun. We didn't get a lot of good footage, but we practiced. We learned to set a good framing in a shot. We learned to sit still and face the camera. Most importantly, we learned to be quiet and not roll around on the chairs when a shot was taking place.

Stage 2:

We spent a lot of time editing. Just for fun. I had them put together different clips and use some of the built in effects. Just learning their ways around the software. I remain convinced that hands on is the best way to learn this stuff. There need be no goal at first, but just using and exploring with no fear of "wrong" will establish a long term comfort. 

Stage 3:

We also tried some two-shot interviews. Again using the Daily Show as an example of a well shot interview. I tried to stage a good shoot using only one camera. Not a good idea. We got some hilarious blooper footage out of this exercise as the boys tried to make up things to interview each-other on on the fly.

Stage 4:

A second camera was brought in. So was a teleprompter. I found a nifty free on-line prompter called Easy Prompter. I brought in an old 32 inch TV we had lying around and hooked it up to my laptop. Thanks to parent Josh Binswanger for the suggestion. Mr. Binswanger was gracious enough to come to class and give some tips and pointers. He also helped show the boys how to apply theatrical make-up.

Stage 5:

The two camera, two person shot, with a teleprompter. By this point we've naturally split into two distinct teams of two. It seems to work. The boys are playing nicely off of each-other and are genuinely liking the class. So each day, we set a goal of doing our morning notes with two presenters. "Now over to Timmy with the days lunch menu.". We've got the main camera and audio set on the "anchor" and the secondary (which is a FlipCam) on the "guest". The secondary cameraman is also the prompter operator. 

The hardest part of this process is the editing. The sound on the Flip is not nearly as good, obviously, as the direct sound to the main Sony camera, 

So when we are in edit, we have to match the audio from camera 1 to the lip movements of camera 2. It's a challenge that only one student has mastered. It appears we have a chief editor. However...

Stage 6:

It's still taking us two days to shoot, and another to edit. There's no way we'll ever get a daily show done. I've re-evaluated the process, and decided to do a weekly news-magazine. The boys have decided to call it 30/30. That might have to change, because, really, it does not mean anything. However, it's their title, their show. As of right now, they're all working on individual 5 minute stories, ranging from "The life of a day student" to "Herding of Llamas". This looks like it's going to be a blast, and I enjoy every day of teaching. We're having so much fun learning this stuff. First period. What a great way to start the day.