Unlocking the Moviemaking Mind

by Michael Schoonmaker

  pressed appreciation for the secure environment the teachers were trying

  to maintain. If there was a theme to the first meetings it would be some-

  thing like, “Why I hate school.” The theme for the next generation of

  meetings shifted to, “We need rules to get it done.”

  As the students continued to talk, they slowly came back to the subject

  of their school closing, this time with an element of sadness.

  “Why did they make us come here and get used to it, if they were

  going to close the school?”

  “Now I have to make all new friends at a new school.”

  A Video Component

  The focus groups were arranged not only to capture open and honest

  perspectives from the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, but also to move to a

  story phase where students could use video cameras to express and share

  their perspectives in more of their own ways.

  At about this time in the project, we hosted media and education

  scholar David Buckingham, director of the Centre for Children, Youth

  and Media at the University of London. We brought him to the school,

  introduced him to the teachers, and discussed our strategy to move from

  focus groups to video story mode. He agreed that it was a good idea to

  capture their school stories and perspectives on video and audio, and

  through brainstorming suggested one possible approach to gathering

  their perspectives: “Why don’t you have them make a time capsule for

  people who might be curious about what Bingham School was all about?

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  Chapter 15

  Let the students tell the story, and in the process it may help them ex-

  press their grief.”

  When we shared this idea with the teachers and student focus groups,

  they were very excited. We were somewhat surprised at how anxious the

  students were to tell the Bingham story and even more surprised at the

  pride they exhibited in taking on the responsibility of representing a

  school that was closing its doors for good. Despite their initial displays of indifference, later reactions were demonstrating that these kids really did care about Bingham School—and the idea of school in general—regardless of the fact that aspects of their school experience to date didn’t seem to make them feel very cared for.

  Thinking back to the first time we broke out the cameras with the

  students, we reminisced about one of our initial surprises. Despite that

  fact that these students were going to a school labeled “troubled”—they

  were predominantly from neighborhoods labeled “troubled” and/or

  “disadvantaged”—when answering the question, “What’s important to

  you?” the vast majority proclaimed “school!” second only to the mention

  of “family.”

  Such positive declarations stand in clear contradiction to the frustra-

  tions kids shared in the early focus groups, not to mention their day-to-

  day classroom behaviors that their teachers regularly described as very

  bad. There were clear moments in the kids’ sentiments where they felt

  school was someone else’s thing, not theirs. Perhaps most importantly

  there was also a consistent sentiment of hope about school and the pur-

  suit of a lifelong learning, something closer to Lubbock’s call to instill a

  “wish to learn.”

  Conclusion

  As parents and careful observers of classrooms in urban settings, we

  have seen many well-intentioned soldiers involved in the often paralyz-

  ing grind of making education work. Like the kids we interviewed, they

  cling to a deeply held belief in the lifelong value of education and a will to make it better.

  And there are so very many ways to make education better. Unfortu-

  nately these many ways cannot help but operate in a series of conflicting

  vacuums. And there doesn’t appear to be an effective “conductor” with a

  magic baton to bring all of these ways in harmony with one another.

  Until one is found, it is certain that a continual stream of students, as the objects of education, will continue to fill classrooms in search of the good things in life it promises. It is also certain that no one will think to ask the children what they think of what their school is or what it should be. The

  institution of education was simply not built to ask children anything. It

  was built to tell.

  Listening

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  Given that no institution is perfect, schools will likely continue to

  deliver bad news like school closings, and kids will continue to feel the

  emptiness and struggle toward productive lives. But when school be-

  comes the place where emptiness is the rule rather than the exception,

  where few seem to listen or care about what it’s actually like to be a

  student in a school system, there is only so much time to recover before it passes indelibly through generations as a negative force in their lives.

  And the wish to learn, if it still matters, will have to come from some-

  where other than school.

  As believers in school ourselves, we remain optimistic that schools are

  still capable of rising up to this challenge especially if they stay close to their students. Involving kids in the process of making education work

  doesn’t have to be an indictment on education. We’re betting they’re

  ready and willing if we simply have the will to ask and the courage to

  listen to them.

  SIXTEEN

  Hearing

  There was a time, not all that long ago really, when we were among the

  little people. By little people, I’m referring to children in the K-5 grade range—somewhere between an emerging child and an emerging young

  adult: the picture that comes to mind when you say “kid.”

  When it comes to school video, these little people are not so easy to

  figure out. What can we hope to accomplish using the practice of video-

  making with these kids? They are works in progress when it comes to

  basic communication skills like listening, speaking, and writing and they

  are not quite aware of the idea of process, a concept inherent to video

  production (for example, in the forms of training, planning, collabora-

  tion, etc.).

  Our very first K-12 videomaking experiences began at the beginning

  of school: Kindergarten. And we were not immediately successful. Al-

  though we left each experience saying, “There’s something there!” we

  were unable to really understand what that “something” was, and it was

  frustrating. Our basic approach was to illuminate kids on the magic and

  processes of video. We were the experts with all the knowledge, and they

  were the little people with their blank canvas of media understanding.

  We had so much to impart, but when we set out to actually do it, some-

  thing didn’t feel right. We were missing something. The kids were rest-

  less and indifferent even when it came to conversation and instruction

  related to videomaking. Maybe they were just too little?

  A couple of years went by, and we progressed well into the second grade

  before we began to figure out just what we had been doing wrong. And

  as it turns out, it was not that they were too little to understand; we, the adults, were the ones who didn’t understand.

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  Chapter 16

  It Takes One to Know One
/>   A television network came to town and shot a news magazine exposé

  on the subject of kids and sex, focusing particularly on the damage of

  their overexposure to sex through media. The network ended up inter-

  viewing and observing many of the same children we were working

  with. On a personal level, we felt threatened. The subject was a volatile

  one, and we worried that the producers (who we knew nothing about,

  nor their motives) were in a position of misrepresenting these children.

  We worried that they would misrepresent and embarrass the kids and

  their school. In the end, they truly did.

  Beyond the embarrassment, it was the way that the producers did it

  that illuminated to us—like a mirror of our own treatment of the young-

  est school children—what happens when you don’t take the time to listen

  to the little people. The producers got what they were looking for: a

  scathing indictment on media’s role in exposing kids to sex. But they

  didn’t listen to the kids as they were collecting what they needed. In

  short, the kids were talking about sex and media, but they were also

  demonstrating a surprisingly mature and critical awareness of sex be-

  yond its surface.

  For instance, while they were participating in the experiments and

  interviews set up by the show producers, they were simultaneously dem-

  onstrating their awareness of moral codes and social nuances around sex

  in society. They were not just aware of sex. They were discussing it in a

  responsible and articulate manner. But the producers were oblivious to

  this because they were operating on the same premise that we were em-

  ploying in our work with them: When it came to the subject matter (in

  this case an adult concept of sex), the adults were the all-knowing experts and the kids were a naïve and impressionable blank canvas.

  The fact was that kids were far from “blank” on the issue of sex, and

  they had something to say about it, not just as innocent children, but also as young, thoughtful, and involved citizens. In their one-dimensional

  busyness, the adults producing the news magazine exposé simply didn’t

  have the time or interest to recognize or appreciate this.

  We thought back to our own ways of dealing with little people, not

  just in the inappropriateness of “shock and awe” lectures on video in

  kindergarten classrooms, but also as parents.

  If you’ve ever tried to compile stories from old home videos, especial-

  ly for big events and family milestones like birthdays, anniversaries, and

  graduations you’ve likely learned that the most time consuming part of

  the process is looking through all the video to find the shots to use. There are usually dozens and dozens of tapes, and hours and hours of footage

  on each tape. Regardless of what footage is ultimately used (or not), the

  tapes have to be mined through to find the right shots for the person or

  subject matter of the video.

  Hearing

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  This process of reviewing footage can become surreal, like going back

  in time in a time machine. The more you watch and become engaged in

  the task of finding shots from your lived past, the more you will experi-

  ence the reliving beautifully preserved moments from the past and feel

  like you’re there: at that first birthday party or that exciting Christmas

  morning or that hot summer day when the little kids made their own

  little video moment that you didn’t quite have time to see back then.

  This is the point at which you are likely to relive these home video

  moments from a different perspective. You may hear a former version of

  yourself in the background, behind the video camera, and cringe at the

  words that come out of your mouth. But you will also likely listen and

  pay attention to what you filmed—this time not caught up in the busy-

  ness and technology of capturing the moment, rather savoring this pre-

  cious moment and seeing so much more than you did then. You might

  see the little people asking questions you never heard before, see parts of them and their personalities you never took the time to see at the time,

  almost as if the older, now bigger people these little people on the screen have become were eerily present in their little people forms all along.

  What is clear in the moment of this glorious time machine is that the

  little people are much more like the “big people” they will become than

  they are different. Certainly there are obvious physical differences, but at a very basic level these little people foreshadow what the older versions

  have indeed become in their ultimate personalities, quirks, and manner-

  isms. We just didn’t realize—or even contemplate—it when it was hap-

  pening. The message in this is that kids are not blank slates. They bring

  something to the table, even though that “something” may be difficult to

  see or appreciate at first. The key in working with them is to not forget

  that.

  What does all this have to do with the subject of “Where to begin with

  early school work (K-5) involving videomaking?” For starters, we can

  engage with little people—even though they might not always acknowl-

  edge our effort in an adult manner—in order to help them:

  • See themselves: Children are figuring out who they are at the same

  time teachers are. Watch what happens when you simply show

  kids a live picture of themselves in a classroom (ironically, a place

  where they are accustomed to seeing others rather than them-

  selves). They come alive!

  • Express themselves: Children have much to say if we will listen.

  Some of it may have nothing to do with a lesson plan, but with

  patience and guidance most of it can.

  • Participate interactively in the learning process: Think of video as

  an ally in learning, a way to exchange between teacher and learner,

  rather than a one-way pipeline.

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  • Tap into their visual energy: They have much to say beyond the

  bounds that we place them in. They are enormously creative if

  given the chance.

  • Level their playing field in the classroom: Children who have been

  labeled as “special needs” or simply sluggish learners tend to show

  uncharacteristic strength when given the opportunity to participate

  in visual activities.

  In many ways, videomaking with very young kids is like being an atomic

  scientist and doing all your work based on things that you cannot physi-

  cally see, but you believe exist nonetheless. If we choose to believe that

  the K-5 kids have something to say about who they are and what they are

  learning in school, and we use a little imagination (and certainly a high

  dose of patience!), we can accomplish a whole lot more than just gather-

  ing precious pictures and sounds. But we must be careful because it is far

  easier not to listen to kids than it is to take the extra effort to hear them.

  SEVENTEEN

  Perspective

  It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wis-

  dom to listen.

  —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

  Capturing notions of what children think about the world from the posi-

  tion of adult re
searchers is no simple task. Yet this was the objective we

  had committed ourselves to in our Smart Kids Visual Stories Project, and

  the clock was ticking loudly as the Bingham School’s very last school year

  was winding down.

  The fact was that we had collected disappointingly little visual media

  from the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades we had been working with all year. It

  wasn’t for lack of effort or involvement. We had our weekly meetings

  with the teachers that were very productive. We had equipment in each

  of the classes, and they were using it on their own at least a little bit to record field trips and special class activities. We had brought in special

  guest speakers to speak to the children about making video stories and

  other media works. We had long finished the scripted “What’s Important

  to Me” video compilations of all students in each of the three grades. And

  we were having very productive and meaningful interactions with the

  kids in small focus groups talking about what it was like to be in their

  school.

  Even the teachers were a little worried about how little video product

  we had to show for our efforts. They clearly had imagined we would be

  making long form movies or TV shows by now. But trying to include

  ninety students in any kind of coherent video story project was proving

  to be a real logistical challenge for the handful of folks we had on our

  research team.

  That’s when we came up with our Hail Mary: the Day in the Life

  Project. The idea was to send a camera home with a child and have them

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  document a day in their life and return the camera the next day for

  another student. We use the term Hail Mary not so much as a sign of our late game desperation but as an indication of our more risky strategy of

  letting the kids do something with little to no constraints—just “letting it go” and see what happens.

  It didn’t take long, even though all of us expected it to. In less than a

  week, we had successfully collected Day in the Life videos from three

  students. So we sat down as a team to watch them and see what we had.