Unlocking the Moviemaking Mind

by Michael Schoonmaker

  we’ll discuss later, is a productive part of the process as well. Regardless, introducing video production in the classroom tends to work best when

  educators explicitly acknowledge process and the essential role it plays

  on the journey to outcome.

  NINE

  Reason

  When you’re teaching kids in a setting where the economic structure

  and the home structure and the skill level are so varied, some chil-

  dren—their world is very small. And I think anytime you can expand

  that with outside experiences you’re expanding everything about

  them. You’re giving them a new reference point, you’re giving them

  new knowledge, you’re giving them more critical thinking . . . new

  experiences they can relate to and I think it’s really increasing their

  brain power.

  —Sally Beechwood, 1st grade teacher, Corrigan Elementary

  One of our most interesting findings over the years of making movies

  with K-12 students has been the frequent, unscripted, and spontaneous

  occurrence of critical thinking. It’s almost as if looking at things through a filmmaker’s lens materializes ideas and concepts that are normally invisible to young learners.

  A colleague of ours in her mid-30s recounted a parallel experience

  when she took a drawing class. She did not consider herself an artist and

  was often confounded at her inability to draw anything well. After the

  first class she arrived home exuberantly claiming, “I can do it! I can

  draw!”

  When asked how she did it she explained that the instructor had

  taught her to hold a small pane of glass in front of the subject she wished to draw and then sketch on paper what she saw on the glass. Looking

  through the glass was helping her see and therefore translate a 3-dimen-

  sional object into a 2-dimensional impression—the first major step in the

  process of drawing. The pane of glass was serving, literally and figura-

  tively, as a critical lens to help her see the difference between her normal state of vision (3-dimensional) and a drawer’s state of vision (2-dimensional) to form a larger critical understanding of the variability of vision.

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  The Role of Critical Thinking in K-12 Learning

  The role and importance of critical thinking in K-12 classrooms is

  nebulous on whole. One reason for this is that it is difficult for students to grasp. It often undermines students’ assumptions of how the world

  works and as a rule requires a great deal of time and patience to work

  effectively. Another reason is that it is difficult for teachers themselves to grasp. The overall problem teachers face is that there is hardly enough

  time to teach subject matters themselves let alone the comparatively so-

  phisticated process of teaching students how to independently think

  about those subjects outside of the classroom. The ultimate role of critical thinking is to instill a spirit of independent, ever-growing thought toward life-long learning.

  Although it is not a formal part or major emphasis in K-12 curricula, it

  is regularly mentioned by teachers as a hopeful outcome in the total

  learning experience of their students. And teachers are more conscious of

  critical thinking outcomes when they are involved in lesson plans close to

  their hearts. In cases where teachers are looking for added impact in a

  lesson plan central their teaching goals, they may find utility in applying some sort of videomaking activity to that specific topic.

  Learning to “Fly”

  Over the years we have witnessed lens-like transformations of under-

  standing in classrooms by applying videomaking to a range of activities.

  In a first grade videomaking activity we demonstrated how media

  technology could generate the illusion that one of them could fly. This

  created a “behind the curtain” moment for kids who were accustomed to

  seeing the final product of media stories as opposed to the behind-the-

  scenes process. The exercise served to build a healthy skepticism about

  media stories and how images they consumed regularly were manipulat-

  ed in the production process.

  In a twelfth grade videomaking activity we demonstrated how a cam-

  era could not only materialize a seemingly inapproachable abstract law

  concept into everyday life but also attract the attention of their commu-

  nity. In this instance, students produced a documentary about the ques-

  tionable application of a federal racketeering law to gang members in

  their school district and community. Simply interviewing those associat-

  ed with the case created a stir in their community and demonstrated how

  they could have impact on their community.

  In a middle school videomaking activity we witnessed the serendipity

  of critical thinking when a student produced a story about his school that

  demonstrated how natural and easy it can be to generate critical thinking

  with a camera. Sidell was a sixth grade participant in our Smart Kids

  Visual Stories Project at the Kalet K-8 School, and he was very excited to

  Reason

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  tell the story about how bad school lunches were. The title of his story,

  not surprisingly, was “School Lunch is Nasty . ” Sidell felt the best way to tell his story was the cinéma vérité (literally “truth cinema” in French)

  technique.

  He would bring a camera behind the cafeteria counter to record the

  making of a typical lunch at his school, and then return to the other side

  of the counter to get a sense of what his fellow students thought of their

  lunch. Though he did manage to collect at least a little convincing evi-

  dence of nastiness behind the counter, along with an unexpected appreci-

  ation and genuine admiration for the cafeteria staff, it wasn’t enough to

  generate the results he had expected. On top of that, all of the students he interviewed in the cafeteria were really enjoying this particular lunch.

  The experience of using a camera to tell his story was generating a critical lens on this aspect of school experience he thought he had figured out.

  The experience of making his film inadvertently taught him how to think

  about school.

  Time Capsule

  In perhaps the most memorable instance of critical thinking with

  videomaking, we discovered a way for students to deal with the grief

  associated with the sudden and unexpected announcement that their

  school would be closing.

  When it was announced that the Bingham School would officially

  close at the end of the school year, we were as shocked and devastated as

  the students. When the students expressed sadness we tried to console

  them, but we found it difficult to hide our own sadness and we had no

  explanations to offer as we were not privy to the reason why the school

  was closing nor what would happen to the students next year.

  After a little time had passed, and with a little guidance from visiting

  scholar David Buckingham1 who paid a visit to the school shortly after the announcement, we decided to break out the cameras again as a form

  of grief therapy. The idea was to empower the children by asking them to

  create a time capsule video of the Bingham School—to be the voice and

  perspective behind the story of this school to those who might wonder

  what it was li
ke when it was a functioning school.

  Along with the passage of time, the time capsule activity helped

  soothe the students and convert what might have been negative energy

  into positive and hopeful energy in the form of their video time capsule.

  All ninety-plus students we worked with at the school in grades 4, 5, and

  6 took a picture of some part of the school and added a voice-over com-

  mentary about what the picture was and why they took it. On top of

  channeling their frustration and powerlessness into something positive,

  the final video was very heartfelt and meaningful for all the members of

  the school community. It was an exercise for both the filmmakers and the

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  audience in taking time to think about their school and what school

  meant to them on the deepest level.

  NOTE

  1. Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, London University, and the founder and director of the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media. He was visiting our university and consulting with us on the Smart Kids Visual Stories Project at the time.

  TEN

  Invention

  Over the years of teaching video production to college students, we’ve

  found there are two basic ways to teach it. The first is to take them from

  “square one,” everything from how production practices evolved from

  early twentieth-century filmmaking to present high definition digital

  video, and plain old teach them how it’s done. This approach is like

  teaching them a new language—letters, words, grammar, sentences, and

  like language it takes a great deal of practice to get it “right.”

  The second way is to just let them do it without teaching them the

  “proper” ways and techniques—to allow them to express themselves, to

  apply common sense and get their feet wet with the video camera, and to

  see what they can do. Out of this experience they usually develop an

  interest in learning the proper ways, but much can be accomplished with

  their inventive spirit.

  The first way of teaching tends to work well with college students as

  they have professional interests in the subject matter and the time to

  dedicate to focused study. The second way of teaching works incredibly

  well in K-12 environments where there is little opportunity to teach the

  intricacies of the video production process, but more opportunity to spo-

  radically experiment and apply video to educational contexts. I call this

  technique “inventive video,” a term I borrowed from Sally Beechwood’s

  first grade class. It was while I was working with Mrs. Beechwood and

  her students on their first grade movie that I learned about a very similar technique she called “inventive spelling” (Adams, 1990).

  The idea behind inventive spelling (also referred to as “write their

  way” in many school systems) is to let young learners’ desire to write

  motivate their adherence to proper writing form and procedure rather

  than vice-versa. Traditional spelling instruction has tended to emphasize

  form and correctness over and before expression. In other words, students lix

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  Chapter 10

  are encouraged to write correctly before they are invited to let their

  thoughts flow in writing.

  Mrs. Beechwood agreed with the inventive approach to spelling. To

  her, the traditional method could discourage young writers from express-

  ing themselves and therefore instill a negative connotation around writ-

  ing.

  What we have found over time is that our videomaking instills a very

  similar spirit to curricula as inventive spelling. Our version seems to

  unlock the moviemaker within young learners in a similar way that in-

  ventive spelling unlocked the unrefined, expressive “writer within.”

  Formal versus Inventive Videomaking

  In a recent research activity with middle school students from four

  different schools, we employed two very different styles of video produc-

  tion processes. Because our research team was being pulled in four differ-

  ent directions at the same time, we had to divide ourselves somehow to

  get to all of the student filmmakers who were working in teams of mostly

  two to four. Some students worked on their own with occasional help

  from other students.

  To do this, we split our research team into two groups, each covering

  two schools. One research group had a lot of video expertise, and the

  other had no video expertise. We had already trained all of the students

  on all the video production technology so they could operate the equip-

  ment without hesitation. The question was: could the students put coher-

  ent visual stories together with very limited technological and artistic

  consultation? Out of necessity, we had designed an experiment that

  could illustrate the effect, if there was such a thing, of inventive video-

  making.

  The students who worked in a more structured production environ-

  ment scripted their visual story ideas, planned them out on storyboards,

  and worked with the adults on the research team to acquire video and

  audio materials and assemble their films. There were loads of instruction-

  al opportunities in these structured settings and the students benefitted

  from them. In the end, the projects looked sharp and had good video and

  audio production values and compelling story content. Even though the

  ideas and expressions were theirs, the presentation received the benefits

  of visual expertise from adult consultants working alongside them.

  The students who worked in a production environment with limited

  technological and artistic consultation also scripted their ideas and ran

  them by the adult research team members for review and any substantive

  help they could provide. These students leaned on the adult research

  team members more for logistical support and general mentorship. In the

  end, the stories were decidedly heartfelt, compelling, and original, bring-

  ing light to student perspectives that are often left in the dark. Their

  Invention

  lxi

  expressions, in comparison to the more technically supported groups,

  were more authentic and honest in their aesthetic roughness.

  An example of this was when one of the sixth grade students, Huey,

  recorded himself on a laptop first talking about his love of a particular

  reading group and his subsequent demotion to a lower reading group in

  the recent past. He then proceeded to turn the laptop camera in the oppo-

  site direction showing the classroom he had been removed from and a

  group of students informing him that he was no longer welcome in the

  room. This production activity would not have been advised as a formal

  practice given the fact that the cameras (and microphones) the kids had

  been provided with were far more effective and higher quality for the job.

  The fact that this student took a laptop with him as his production acqui-

  sition device showed inventive spirit and, most importantly, effectively

  captured his feeling and the story.

  When all ten films were screened together, people didn’t talk about

  the differences between the ways the films were made. Inste
ad, they

  talked about the content of the films and the value of having heard the

  students’ points of view in a way they had never heard students talk

  before.

  Eagle Eye

  In another middle school classroom project students were in the midst

  of an English project when we noticed another instance of students using

  school-issued laptops as cameras. The project involved the class’s assem-

  bly of a news magazine program called Eagle Eye (named after their

  school mascot), and students were all working on separate aspects of the

  show in small teams.

  Each of the groups had their own laptop from the class laptop cart and

  was compiling different stories that would come together in one class

  video magazine. One of the groups was having a little more fun than

  some of the others because they were involved in recording a classmate

  across from them without her knowing about it. As might be expected, it

  was not out of the ordinary for students to “goof off” in the midst of their project work, but there was something very inventive about them using a

  built-in laptop camera as a camera to record something other than the

  user of the computer in a Skype-style manner.

  They were using the iMovie interface to record their unknowing

  friends and then playing the recorded footage back over repeatedly and

  laughing heartily. iMovie allows users to select a conventional camera or

  a built-in camera for use with the software either for inputting already

  recorded footage or for recording footage live. While the classic adult

  perspective might have been tempted to discourage these side antics,

  upon closer scrutiny, we witnessed that they were actually reinventing a

  production recording process in a rather inventive way.

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  Video their Way

  K-12 students did not have to reinvent technological processes to be

  engaging in inventive video. Like inventive spelling, the idea behind

  inventive video is aimed at a particular process of more colloquial, non-

  professional videomaking. This inductive approach opens a clear path for