Week Jan 20th

Agenda:

• Discussion of preliminary script
• Lance Armstrong Documentary Script Sample
• Interviews
• Group Worksheet-goals, tasks, accomplishments
• Rubric-Script detail 
• Review milestones for project-Scripts due week of 1/27 staggered, based on interview progress
• Discuss Mrs. Ritchie script review process

Blog Response for Tuesday:

You will write a preliminary script this week, with a final script for submission to Mrs. Ritchie beginning the following week. What do you think are the key components you already know must go in your script. List as many as you can. Work in groups. Submit 1 blog response for your entire group. 

Worksheet
Please download and fill this form out at the beginning and end of class, hand in a printed document at the end of class that outlines your goals, responsibility and achievements for the day.

Please take survey

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OfvX_-XyHQbYDXx4dUSqaOKiV4_qFTHn8LKA7Fnn5Ys/viewform

Week of Jan 6th

There is no official blogspot comment to make this week, but here is your agenda for this week:

• Review documentary guide document available online
• Review assessments related to the project:
• Planning/Analysis doc (classwork grade)
• Questions (classwork grade)
• Final Script (with a rubric for script)
• Documentary (with a rubric)
• Watch The Line
• Complete planning/analysis document as a group-upload

For web development group:

• Completed wireframes that describe the user experience and include the requirements set forth in the blogspot. (Adobe Illustrator)
• Determine coding environment (Aditya suggests Dreamweaver Code view, I agree it is fine)

Documentary Proposals

You will create a documentary as your next MAP project. The classes will create a total of 8 documentaries. Groups will be formed based on needs of the director/producer. The projects we produce will be based on the quality and professionalism of the proposals you create today.

Your final assignment for the semester is to write a documentary proposal. Please click on the following link to access the proposal. You have the entire film final period to write your proposal.

Your proposal must be completed to be considered as one of the 8 films we will produce.

Your proposal must be on the google drive at the end of today's final for credit and to be considered.

You will copy and rename the proposal file such that it stays in the google drive.

Click here for the proposal (remember to make a copy and rename it with your last name)

You must UPLOAD YOUR FINAL PROPOSAL HERE to the shared google drive folder.

Tuesday, December 10th - Ken Burns and Story

Please watch this video featuring Ken Burns describing 'story'.

Play Video Here

Your upcoming documentary project is not an MMJ news story, neither is it a PSA, it is a story deeply rooted in a complex and important topic. Your job is to find a unique story to tell about the topic 'Poverty in America'.

Please answer the following blogspot questions:

1. What does Ken Burns mean by 1 + 1 =  3?
2. What is an emotional truth according to Burns?
3. How does he make 'the dead' come to life in his work, specifically how does he do this with Photography and Audio?
4. Where might you find a story about Poverty in America?
5. How do you dig to find the Poverty in American story where 1 + 1 = 3?
6. What kind of person would make an interesting character to build story around? (ie., what about poverty from a child's perspective, or the perspective of a parent, a sister, a social worker, policeman, clergy, non-profit agency worker, historical figure, city counsel member, non-profit foundation worker). 
7. What conflicts might you find, what inciting incidents? (ie., a child who goes to school but has just lost their home, a parent coping with bills that cannot be paid, a child is too hungry to do homework, a worker who has been laid off due to corporate downsizing)
8. What are your initial thoughts about poverty in America? What message do you think you want to convey in the story you will tell through your documentary?

Introduction to Documentary

Blogspot Question:
Discuss your familiarity with the documentary genre by describing the most interesting documentary you have ever watched. How did the documentary inform your point of view? What made it credible or believable?

Monday Agenda:

• Polling/discussion around documentary genre
• Documentary 'Defined' by Academy of Motion Arts & Pictures, Videomaker
• Ken Burns-why should we study his films?
• Civil War Documentary, 8 media elements. Watch 15 min and log what you see.

Log by time and describe:

1. Photography-what does he do with photos that makes the visual more appealing (be specific, more than, 'he moves them', what specifically do you see at times, how are they moved)
2. Newsreels/Archive Footage
3. Interviews-with who, how does he tell you who is being interviewed?
4. Audio-music, narration, sounds, be specific-what do you hear? Is the music of a certain timeframe, or more contemporary? What instruments do you hear in the music?

Tuesday: 

Complete watching Civil War, Episode 1. 

Thursday:

Preparing for your documentary

Mood Board and Storyboards

Today you will upload the planning stages of your production worth either 20/10 points in your grade, depending on your project.

For poets, the key pieces are your story/mood board and a detailed shot sheet. Please upload everything here in this folder. To move your work to this folder in google, simply copy your file, and then 'move' your file to the designated folder (the link provided in this paragraph). Double check to make sure your file is there by the end of class). Make sure you are logged in.

Again, see link here for an example of a mood storyboard. I expect your storyboard to have images in boxes, narrative audio and camera instruction clearly identified. Each box should also have a duration that is derived from your audio narration. When complete, share with me and everyone in your group.
You may share at cleather@lgsuhsd.org

Mood board-elicits a certain emotion through visual style

Mood board, aggregated pictures describing potential shots

For Icons the key pieces are your media component list and evidence of your share folder.

If you look back on your project descriptions from this blogspot you will see that the storyboard (for Poets) does not require any drawing in the google draw tool itself. This was an option given to students who wanted to try drawing, using the pen stylus and tablet. Some students who wanted to experiment and push boundaries and had some artistic background demonstrated some success with drawing with the drawing tool. However, the project is fine with just images from Google representing shots and moods you would like to establish for your piece. It is also very convenient for sharing and making comments. Two very successful examples include Torrens/Lee/Davey project, and Chen/Lee/Aggrawal projects. In both cases groups tried drawing and sourcing imagery. The most impressive part of the Chen/Lee/Agrawal board is the collaboration that occurs in the comments section where the group discusses roles, challenges, how many After Effects shots, etc.

Most important was how the collection of images and assemblage in the mood storyboard allowed the group to begin a discussion around the kind of shots desired, the kind of look and emotion desired for their piece. That is exactly what a mood board should do, as seen in the Torrens/Lee/Davey outcome at class end.

What I have asked from you is a mood storyboard. The concept of mood board requires a collage like approach to creating a storyboard. If anything it frees you up from drawing and allows you to source images on the web to use as reference points.

Mood boards are heavily used in industry these days and very much a part of the visual performing arts curriculum at the college level-well worth understanding. Once you see the benefit, you will appreciate in a sense how they make the storyboard process easier for people who do not like to draw, and provide flexibility to those designing the production.

Vancouver is a hotbed of production activity. The link here describes the active use of a mood board in a production by university students at the Vancouver Film School. This school is a feeder to the multitude of production, gaming and design companies in Vancouver, Seattle and more.

Mood boards are a staple these days in the visual design process as applied to print, web, animation, video, etc. Having a really solid one in your portfolio would position you as a student who understands the most contemporary approaches to achieving strong visual imagery.