Video Production,
Basic Elements of Public Performance,
and Emerging Democracy
Imagine a people that are surrounded by an ocean of books, but never
taught to write. Since this is so incomprehensible, how does one explain the
stance on video education taken by the current culture of education? The
inhabitants of the twenty-first century are flooded with television, video and
film. Not only are students witness to a sea of
presenters and performers but democracy itself requires individuals to find
their public voice, yet students are seldom required to present. Video composition
remains one of the most powerful and useful forms of communication in our
culture, yet video or film creation is generally left out of the canon of our
current curriculum. With such an overwhelming presence of motion picture content
in world culture, it might seem amazing to reflect on how little this medium of
communication has been taught in our schools. Whatever the problems have been
with older motion picture technology, educators
will find that digital camcorders, computer editing technology and the Internet make this medium of
composition low cost, relevant to many educational goals, and easy. Just as
important, students find it highly motivational to use.
Fortunately North Carolina teacher standards have a long history of valuing video composition among its computer literacy competencies. Though accenting the needs of educators, the information and procedures that follow are valuable to anyone considering video production or looking for manageable steps in overcoming fear of public speaking. The information that follows will cover the basic knowledge needed to make a short movie with you as the on-camera star. The goal of this composition is to introduce your theme (e.g., unit plan) to an audience that includes your students, other teachers and your principal. These steps will lead through the use of a camcorder to tape the production of approximately two minutes of introduction to your theme.
Stop. Do not proceed past this paragraph until you have printed out the page that is linked in it. Print this grading rubric. Carefully read this document (the printout) as part of planning and preparation for shooting. Study this printout of the video grading rubric to determine which parts of this composition process will need the most attention in the learning to come. Reading the essays on the educational role of multimedia in general and the relevance of video in particular will also help in thinking not only about the role that the video might play in your unit plan but in your teaching career.
Before you read further in this composition, make sure you understand the grading rubric. Incorporate these assessment goals in planning and writing your script. The further information below will also help in explaining the important elements of the rubric.
This video must not only establish the major features of your unit plan but also should build motivation for participation by your students. Motivation comes from what your audience sees, the words you use and how you say those words. Be enthusiastic in your use of words in script writing. Smile, be friendly and relaxed in your delivery to the camera. Be clear. Monotone and mumbling will neither work on videotape nor live in front of a classroom of students. If you would like for your videotape to be something other than an introduction for your unit plan, such as an interview or narrated field trip that is related to your unit plan, please type up your ideas and discuss them with your instructor. Have me initial such a document and include this agreement with your submitted materials.
This web page reviews the details of video composition, gives
examples of problems and successes from prior video composers, and addresses
the final submission of the completed work. Further, it addresses the general relevance to education
and teaching methodology. This video activity integrates and models many
mainstream classroom activities to help you see the relevance and power of
requiring video
production for those that you will teach. For example, this video composition
activity includes a writing component, an oral reading component,
and a self-assessment component.
Important Components of Video Composition
Examples Done by Other Course Participants
See the five excellent video examples introduced in chapter five. A series of elements play a central role in any composition. Notice the way some of these elements below reinforce the same elements needed in the writing process and how other elements extend the composer's involvement in the visual part of the composition process.Audience
Though you technically speak to a camera, the camera technology doesn't care about you. But your audience does. Speak as if the camera is a doorway and you are speaking through the doorway or into the camera to reach them. Imagine a group of students in your class waiting to hear about what they will learn in this unit. Remember that you might later show this tape to parents, teachers and administrators during an evening Open House event as a way to tell them about the importance of unit plan. Before you start speaking your script, close your eyes and envision an audience. When you can "see" that audience, open your eyes and speak to them through that camera lens with sparkle and enthusiasm.Scripting
This is a writing assignment. Write creatively. Remember that people are listening to, not reading your words, so do not let your sentences get too long or complex. Keep your script conversational. You should do this presentation as if the unit plan is about to start. You could include samples of student work which you can invent yourself for this video that would be explained as samples from the last time students did this unit plan. When done with a real class of students, you might want to include a student for a couple of sentences describing their project or feelings about their experiences. Preview the script carefully for grammar, syntax and meaning.
This is a reading fluency assignment. Type your presentation into a word processor and print it out in a large enough font that you can read it verbatim from a few yards away from the camera. This will also help keep you closer to the microphone. Do not ad lib or make it up on the fly. It is a requirement to work on your oral reading skills by reading your script.
This introduction should indicate who you are, the duration of the unit (such as days, weeks, number of class sessions), subject area, and the nature of the content. I would not mention grade level in the videotape so that you would be more easily able to use it at different grade levels. However, do pencil into your script printout the grade level that you had in mind when planning this unit. Indicate the most important objectives of your unit plan, particularly those objectives that relate to the NC Standard Course of Study. That is, say something like: "There are three major Standard Course of Study goals that will be covered in this unit plan. They are: ...... ." Put these details in words appropriate to your students. One of goals should mention a computer literacy objective. Other sentences should briefly mention computer integration activities that will be included in the unit.
Remember that an introduction covers the highlights of your unit. Your script cannot tell everything. For greater detail about this unit plan, through your course assignments, you have at least a web site with a detailed unit plan outline, a newsletter to parents and community members, and a Powerpoint electronic slide show with digital video and audio elements.
Time Limit
Time your the reading of this script so that the introduction is just under two minutes, but the closer to two minutes the better. Carefully planning with the script saves an immense amount of time later trying to cut out sentences during the later video editing phase of the production process.
Dress
Look the part. Hiking boots and shorts while standing on the wet banks of Cullowhee Creek are very appropriate at the creek but not if you are shooting in a classroom. Professional classroom dress would be proper if you shoot in a classroom but might look out of place in the mud of a riverbank. Appropriate costumes for your unit are a great idea. Solid muted colors are safe. White is too bright, especially on a sunny day. Don't wear stripes as the resolution of most video cameras will have trouble keeping all the lines and colors straight. For a fun reflection on what it means for a teacher to "look the part" make a trip to the Reading Center and browse several of the Magic School Bus books by Joanna Cole and her illustrator, Bruce Degen.Photo-Op (Establishing the setting or background)
On-location and outdoor shooting is preferred. On-location but indoors would be next best. The strongest role for video should generally be to bring something to the audience that they can not get by your simply standing in front in them and talking. Come up with a background for your video that contains elements or scenes appropriate to your topic. Consult with the librarian or media specialist at your institution for items that can be used if your collection is not sufficient. For example, if you are introducing a unit plan, stand in front a bookshelf or display that has book covers and objects relevant to unit plan activities. If you are shooting outside and do not have a structure behind you on which to place relevant objects, you can pick them up as you need them from a table in front of you. The items and background should look appropriate for your audience. That is, using your shower curtain or cluttered kitchen table as backdrop will not enhance your reputation as a professional educator. Further, unless there is some functional classroom use for the date and time information in the video display, make a point of learning how to turn that feature off.Also, be sure and look at a range of backgrounds chosen by prior students in this course. This will provide additional ideas.
Don't rush on and off the camera scene. Just relax and look at the camera, and let the camera record for three to five seconds before you start talking and after you finish. That will not only prevent chopping off some of the information you intended to record, but will give a more professional start and end to your work. This extra "head and tail" video allows you to more easily cue the tape to the beginning and allow a few moments to turn off a videotape before some other material on the tape begins to play. This head and tail "extra" also provides important flexibility when assembling several video clips into a larger piece with a video editor. Further, the head and tail parts of a video clip are needed in order to have space for the special effects of a transition such as a cross dissolve or fade out and in.
Consent and Waiver form
Since you are just shooting yourself, you only need to have a copy of the Consent and Waiver Form in your notebook. You do not need to sign it. If however anyone else is included in your video, you must make a copy for them to sign. Children must sign it and also have their parents sign it. Other video release forms that are used in other courses and projects may not be suitable unless like this form they include specific mention that this video will also appear on the Internet. If others are on camera in your tape, these Consent and Waiver Forms should be included with the tape when you turn in the assignment.Camera Hardware
Use one of the departmental digital video camcorders unless you have your own digital camcorder. In Cullowhee, check them out of the departmental office, Room 246. If in Asheville, check them out from the WCU-Asheville office in Karpan Hall. You will need to find your own tripod or rest the camera on a solid foundation such as a table. To avoid more complex and thereby more time consuming preparation, do not use the "ancient history" formats of VHS, VHS-C or 8 MM formats unless you have discussed this previously with your instructor and understand why this will include extra work and lower the quality of the final product.Other important features of using a video camera are covered in the Video Camera Technique page.
Videotape
Put your work on the first part of the tape so that it is easy to rewind and find. You can work with a used videotape for this assignment. However, you should know that for the best quality videotape, do your practice takes on a used videotape, and then insert a new (not used) videotape for the version that you wish to keep and re-use many times.Speaking
Avoid speaking too fast or too slow. Your cadence should be generally be spirited and your attitude enthusiastic but there are other dramatic flairs that could be chosen. Your reading should be so fluent that I cannot tell that you are reading. Your role models are the professional television new commentators who read their lines from a teleprompter but are so smooth that you cannot tell they are reading. Video magnifies problems with speaking clarity so practice speaking clearly a time or two before you go out to record.Don't leave the shooting scene until you have played back your work to make sure you are satisfied with the audio and light levels. Take a pair of headphones to the shoot with you to make hearing the playback easier.
Eye Contact - The Teleprompter Concept
Position your script in such a way that you are looking directly into the camera lens when you read it. One excellent method is to tape it directly under the camera lens or have someone serve as your human teleprompter. They should hold the script immediately under the lens and very quietly turn the pages for you. Look at your tape and if it appears you are looking to one side, or out of the corner of your eyes to read the script, reposition your script and repeat the shooting. Good eye contact is critical for this video presentation.
Television professionals generally do not memorize their lines as do film performers. Instead they use a teleprompter to give the viewer the impression that it has been memorized or is done extemporaneously. Before computers, monitors and printers, these scripts would often be written out by hand and then the pages were turned by hand. Most school projects will not have electronic teleprompters which cost thousands of dollars. Even though a human teleprompter will still needed, thankfully the time-consuming process of handwriting of the script can easily be avoided. To make the script large enough to see from a distance, use the Select All command to highlight or select all the text in the word processor. Then change the font size to something much larger. If using a Times font, a 48 point size might be a starting point for moving smaller or larger. How large depends on the type of font being used as some fonts start out much larger than others, so some experimentation is in order. Keep printing out just the first page until the font is right for the distance you wish to stand from the camera. Many prefer to read this script in landscape (print sideways) instead of portrait mode.
One fun project students enjoy is to have their own teleprompter machine to place on a stool or something just under the camera lens. One simple design is to use a cardboard box and two pieces of doweling. Put the doweling on either side of a hole in the cardboard box, a hole that is big enough to display the width of a sheet of paper. Tape your pieces of script together and roll them on one piece of doweling with the end piece taped to the second piece of doweling. Someone will need to turn the doweling as the script is being read. Another approach is to find software that will turn a computer screen into a professional scrolling teleprompter. A small table, stool or stand is used to put a laptop computer or desktop monitor directly under the camera lens. This requires exceptional care to make sure the equipment does not fall to the floor if bumped. Having a wireless mouse enables the presenter to control their own scrolling rate, otherwise a human teleprompter helper is sometimes needed to use the mouse to adjust the scrolling rate if needed. See the bibliography for teleprompter software solutions that range from freeware to much more.
Audio Quality
You become your own audio engineer. No matter how good your visual imagery is, if you cannot be heard clearly, your audience fails to understand most of what you are trying to communicate. Much depends on the quality of your microphone and your distance from it. That is, your audio quality should be the primary factor in how far away one can stand from the camera, not how far the camera can see and zoom in on the presenter.There is a microphone built-in to the camcorder. This will work for a wide variety of situations. Do not position the camera a long way from the speaker and then zoom in. You can't zoom in the sound. (Nor can you read your script if it is far away).
The highest quality audio however comes from plugging a separate microphone into the camera. Some scenes or situations might require a remote wireless microphone. For example, the presenter might be some distance from the camera or background noises might be predicted to be loud and interfering, such a street corner. A remote microphone is worn on your clothing or around your neck. Radio waves send the audio signal to the camcorder. If you are shooting outdoors or in a situation inside in which there will be background noise, it is important to check out this remote microphone to create acceptable audio levels. Some cameras will not work with a remote microphone because they do not provide a special place to attach the receiver. Check with your instructor well in advanced of your shooting date if you might wish to experiment with a wireless microphone. The supply of remotes is very slim so their accessibility is not guaranteed. If you use the remote microphone, test it before you take microphone and camera out for work.
Take headphones with you to the video shooting and plug them into the camera. Don't leave the recording scene until you have played back your work to make sure you are satisfied with the audio.
Video shooting
The person who directs and uses the camcorder is the videographer. Before you shoot, practice several times in front of the camera before you turn the camera on. If you do not like your "take" after it has been recorded, then rewind the tape and try again. Do not tape one after the other so that I must scan past many copies wondering which version you want me to see. The first copy is the one I will evaluate. It is generally best to have someone help you so that you do not have to walk on and off camera with the camera on, but you can make that part of your script or plan on editing those scenes out later. If you have a partner, have someone turn off the camera before you leave the scene. Some camera have a "fade out" button that can be used to close out a scene; fade out is also a standard transition in the digital video editors that will be used in the next stage of this project.Camera
You can also have someone help you with the zoom control on the camera. Camera movement through slow pans (left and right) or tilts (up and down) or other techniques helps to add life and interest to the video. The technique of zooms (in and out) is often overdone while recording and is seen as amateurish. As you begin speaking, the camera could do a pan across the scene, stopping and centering on you. For the end of the tape, the last sentence or so could be spoken with the camera in tight (zoomed in) so that your face and shoulders fill the screen.Make sure your batteries are fully charged before leaving for the video shooting events. Please recharge them as soon as you return.
Lighting
You become your own lighting engineer. Lighting has a very significant impact on the quality of your video. Where possible, shoot on-location at a site relevant to your unit plan. Shooting outside on a sunny day is best. Position yourself so that the sun or brightest room lights are in your face or coming at you from the front. You do not want the sun or very bright lights behind the speaker so that the camera looks into bright lights. If your background or scene behind you is better lit than you are, then you become a darker silhouette or even a black outline. If you are shooting inside, make sure that every light in the room or classroom is turned on. If you are shooting during daylight hours, make sure that any shades on the window are pulled back to allow in the maximum amount of light.To better understand the impact of lighting, study the impact of the direction of the light in these sample videotape images, frames taken from the video work of other students in this course. Note that in most cases the light source hits the speaker or their props from the back or side instead of properly from the front. Since the eye is attracted to the portions of the image with the best lighting, the viewer is not concentrating on what the speaker intended. In a couple of case the automatic light settings adjust to a very bright white shirt or blouse on a bright sunny day and then the background becomes too dark or even invisible.
Don't leave the shooting scene until you have played back your work to make sure you are satisfied with the lighting and contrast. Lighting problems that look just passable in the field are likely to come out too bright or too dark once transferred to the computer for later editing.
In-Camera Editing
In this assignment you can use a powerful technique known as an in-camera edit. The simplest form of this is to turn the camera on, read and do your script for two minutes and turn off the camera. It is also easy to use in-camera editing to give a more sophisticated look to this work using multiple scenes. This is nothing more than turning the recording feature off after finishing a shot, moving the camera and turning it on again when you are ready to shoot the next sentence or so and scene and continue to do so on until you have finished. For example, if you were shooting mammals on a farm, you would do an introduction to the theme for a few seconds, then turn the camera off until you had walked to the pen for the first animal(s), turn the camera on and speak at this location, turn it off, move to another animal pen and repeat, and relocate again to do a close-up or tight shot of you for the closing. Or perhaps you are speaking next to a mountain stream, then turn recording off, and refocus the camera on a close-up of your hand in the stream and begin speaking again, then turn recording off to relocate for the closing. To avoid wasting effort, plan these scenes carefully in your script. Further, always do a quick record and then in-camera playback to test whether the camera is recording successfully before starting your sequence of in-camera edits. Have this editing already done in the camera greatly speeds up later editing, but it is an option not a requirement.Grading
Put the video assignment pieces in a large manila envelope.
- Print out a copy of the unit plan video grading template or rubric. On this printout, you are to evaluate your own video piece putting the scores down the far left column. You must include this sheet in your manila envelope with your other materials when handing in this assignment.
- The videotape must be labeled on the spine of the tape with your name, the title of the unit plan and the time or duration (minutes and seconds) of your piece on this tape. The spine of the tape is the edge that is visible as you insert the tape into the tape player.
- Cue the tape. That is, make sure that the tape is rewound to the spot that you want me to see when I put the tape in the tape player.
- Place your tape in an 8 1/2 by 11 inch manila envelope. Put your name on the outside of the envelope and under your name, put the words Unit Plan followed by the title of your unit plan. Also add your course number and section number. This way I will know who it is from and you will be able to easily pull your envelope from the box when it is time to pick up the assignment.
- Do not forget to include any consent and waver forms if other "actors or actresses" are included in your video.
- Also include the printout of your script that you read while on camera.
Reflection
Having used camcorders with cutting edge digital technology to record and bring the script to life, an important step will have been reached. The capacity to record and play sound and video are the first technologies that truly moved beyond what can be communicated with paper technology. In the next stage the video will be edited with technology now within reach of many classroom and home budgets. This is an unprecedented advance in an individual's communication capacity that has only been reached with just the last few years of human culture. The computer has made simple many of the complex and time consuming steps of video communication. This has also significantly expanded the opportunity for entrepreneurial activity for students and adults. It would seem that the jump into the 21st century composition has been completed. Something extraordinarily new has been reached.
However,
before becoming overly impressed with
this new found power, look back at the ingredients which were available for
artful mixing in this composition: planning, content, drama, image, voice,
location, and lighting. Long before writing was invented, these elements
were taught and mastered by the ancient Greeks (and other pre-writing
cultures) as core curriculum components of not only their educational system
and theatre but their public life. (See picture to the left:
Credits:
Roger Blackwell Bailey).
Long before writing was invented, oral skills were central to the emergence of
the open trading of ideas that helped to bring democracy to life in ancient
Greece and elsewhere. Yet today, public speaking is considered to be an intense
and common cultural fear (Snyder & Murphy,
2002; Yudkin, 1992). Through acts of students "finding
their voice," public speaking can support other curriculum activities that
aid the emergence of democracy in the classroom and in our communities (see bibliography). An
important aim of democracy (Dewey, 1916) is to empower every individual to
speak and act on their choices in socially responsible ways.
At the same time that 21st
century
technologies provide new power to think and communicate, a connection is
also being made deep into the human past. The affordability and simplicity
of digital camcorders and computer video editing and the global projection
of such work through the Internet is stimulating and revitalizing an ancient
yet increasingly neglected curriculum in our public schools, the curriculum
of public performance. (See picture on right, credits:
http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/) Though the picture to the
right reminds us of the deep and ancient roles of public speaking in human
culture, what might the reawakening of this power
through global computer technology mean to our culture? The ancient Greeks
projected to a few thousand in natural amphitheaters; citizens of cyberspace
project to all corners of the globe anytime day and night. Those educators that
choose to connect with 21st century curriculum goals will have a significant way
to make the most of this ancient human capacity.
Bibliography
Advanced Public Speaking Institute. http://www.public-speaking.org/
Dewey, John (1916). Democracy and Education. New York: Macmillan. Available at http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/dewey.html
Elementary Democracy: Consensus classrooms. Available at http://www.co-intelligence.org/S-consensusclassrooms.html
Snyder, Kenneth & Murphy, Thomas J. (2002). What! I Have To Give a Speech? 2nd Edition. Indiana: Department of Education, Washington, DC. ISBN: 0971987408 (full text online in ERIC database)
The Responsive Classroom. Available at http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/
Teleprompter solutions. Search www.versiontracker.com for teleprompter software for both the Macintosh and Windows operating systems. The program Prompt! is a freeware program that runs on both the Mac and Win platforms and is worth exploring. Search Google for teleprompters to find the more expensive professional equipment.
Yudkin (1992). Smart Speaking: 60 second strategies for more than 100 speaking problems and fears. Plume. ISBN: 0452267773
Videographer.com: A great place to find a professional videographer. http://www.videographer.com/
version 1.0: 1996; updated version 10.23.2005. Page author: Bob Houghton