Agenda:: M May 3 (day 28)

Photo by Roy Beckham

reminder of critiquing process

• affirmation—strengths
• artist poses questions to viewers, focusing on specific areas in which you desire suggestions
• viewers ask questions
• viewers share opinions/suggestions (“I have an opinion about X, do you want to hear it?)
• justify ideas by pointing to examples/actual elements within the video being reviewed… how do visuals, audio, editing contribute to enhancing communication and generating viewer interest

THE BIG SHOW part 2! all class screening of final versions of this I believe (project 4)

THANK YOU for being an exceptional class!

homework:

• Journal 1: How have you addressed the  3 criteria for a “this i believe” statement with your piece?
• Journal 2: Describe your piece in terms of the aspects detailed in Lunsford’s “Everything is an Argument:”
  • purposes, occasions, kinds, and audiences
• Journal 3: students who showed their work today should post a “presentation and distribution” entry (see video production template) on their blog journals. Note: these will not be due until midnight Friday (5/7). This is the last part of Module 3.
• Journal 4: end reflection:: what have you learned from this class? what concepts, connections, and ideas have you learned that you might be able to utilize outside of this class or transfer to other areas of your life in the future? (these might be as small as specific technical skills and as huge as lifelong abstract concepts).

Agenda:: W Apr 28 (day 27)

Photo by Roy Beckham

reminder of critiquing process

• affirmation—strengths
• artist poses questions to viewers, focusing on specific areas in which you desire suggestions
• viewers ask questions
• viewers share opinions/suggestions (“I have an opinion about X, do you want to hear it?)
• justify ideas by pointing to examples/actual elements within the video being reviewed… how do visuals, audio, editing contribute to enhancing communication and generating viewer interest

THE BIG SHOW part 1! all class screening of final versions of this I believe (project 4)

homework:

• students who showed their work today should post a “presentation and distribution” entry (see video production template) on their blog journals. Note: these will not be due until midnight Friday (5/7).

Agenda:: M Apr 26 (day 26)

Photo by Carmen Li

NO CLASS. Please use this time to work on your final projects.

Agenda:: W Apr 21 (day 25)

Photo by Christina Kim

reminder of critiquing process

• affirmation—strengths
• artist poses questions to viewers, focusing on specific areas in which you desire suggestions
• viewers ask questions
• viewers share opinions/suggestions (“I have an opinion about X, do you want to hear it?)
• justify ideas by pointing to examples/actual elements within the video being reviewed… how do visuals, audio, editing contribute to enhancing communication and generating viewer interest

all class screening of selected rough cuts

• artist’s team’s summary of their discussion about piece
• critique by the entire class

homework:

• NO CLASS on Monday (4/26)… please use this time to work on your final cuts.
• Your final cut is due at the beginning of next Wednesday’s (4/28) class, exported as a .mov file to your desktop (name it with your name, This I Believe, and “FINAL”). Do not wait until you get to class to export it.

Agenda:: M Apr 19 (day 24)

Photo by Dustin Massel

writing warm-up 1 (15 min)

How does it feel to edit your material?  Consider the ability to manipulate the material to say what you want and what it means.  How is editing different than shooting?  How do the two stages inform one another.

editing exercise (30 min)

1) With a partner, “move the furniture around”

• Think about your peer’s project as furniture in a room.  Play with moving chunks of information around.  Think about pacing (does a couch need to sit right next to big chair, or do you need a little table to break it up).  Are the chunks too long (are there any long sectional couches that don’t fit).
• Peers are responsible for:
  • 1)  Suggesting further chunking and splitting where necessary.  Are some of the segments too short or too long?
  • 2)  Playing around with the material in the time line (save as a new project).  Try putting the information together in a new way.
 Discuss this arrangement with your peer.
  • 3)  Naming any of the elephants in the room.  Have they missed or ignored a major element in the project? Is anything too obtrusive?
  • 4)  Are form and content interrelating in the project? How might form be modified on segments to enhance what the author is trying to communicate? Is one element (form or content) stronger than the other? If so, how might one or the other be made stronger to better balance the relationship?

critiquing suggestions

Drawing on the Liz Lerman method of critique:

• affirmation—strengths
• artist poses questions to viewers, focusing on specific areas in which you desire suggestions
• viewers ask questions
• viewers share opinions/suggestions (“I have an opinion about X, do you want to hear it?)

for all of the above, responses can be more constructive if you justify ideas by pointing to examples/actual elements within the video being reviewed… how do visuals, audio, editing contribute to enhancing communication and generating viewer interest

critiquing of rough cuts for this i believe (proj 4) in small groups ::

1) each artist: show your rough cut

2) team: critique the rough cut

3) after your team has completed 1 & 2 for each artist in your group, choose one project to be viewed by the entire class.

Note: we will not have time to view everyone’s rough cuts during class time. Please offer every artist in your group as much constructive feedback as possible, as some students will not have the opportunity for the entire class to give them feedback.

all class screening of selected projects…as many as possible

• artist’s team’s summary of their discussion about piece
• critique by the entire class

homework:

1) continue refining your This I Believe rough cut for next class – we will continue reviewing rough cuts during next class… if your rough cut has already been viewed by the entire class today, use the feedback to begin creating your final version of This I Believe.

2) post your rough cut to the WordPress video site (“Post Video to WordPress” under “helpful links”)

Agenda W April 14 (day 23)

No class. Spend the day working on project 4 (this i believe) and your homework from Monday (April 12).

Agenda M April 12 (day 22)

Photo by Kate Hazen

reminders:

• NO CLASS on Wed (April 14) – use this day to continue shooting, editing, developing your piece, as rough cuts are due on Monday (April 19).
• monroe’s motivated sequence
  • Attention
  • Need
  • Satisfy
  • Visualization
  • Action

writing warm-up 1 (15 min)

1) How do you envision the structure of your argument developing in your piece?

• Monroe’s sequence is but one way of structuring an argument—one to which you do not need to adhere—you may find another way more appropriate for your particular argument. There are multiple approaches to socially engaged inquiry, expression, rhetoric, and composition.
• Create an outline of your piece, and what you intend include in each segment/chunk of the argument.

2) For each section/segment, comment on how you intend use form (shooting angles, lighting, shot compositions, audio, pacing, transitions, juxtapositions, etc.) to enhance the impact of what you intend to communicate with each segment and the overall piece.

discussion groups (45 min)

Part 1 (40 min): share your warm-up writing, pre-production and production ideas, and raw footage

• Allot about 10 minutes per artist/author
• Use the group to help facilitate the development of your own project, and to assist your teammates in the same fashion.
• Each artist/author should:
  • 1) share the content your writing warm-up, ‘pre-production,’ and ‘production’ posts to talk in detail about their project (teammates can be viewing the posts on their laptops as each author shares).
  • 2) share key bits of your raw footage, and what you intended to convey with not only the content of the shot, but also how it was shot. How do you intend the footage to weave into your overall piece?
• Team members should work to help clarify an author’s idea, ask questions, and offer suggestions for improvement.
  • For example: How might shots/audio/editing be modified or utilized to further enhance this communication? Suggestions for how other existing shots might be utilized to reinforce the argument.
  • Discussion could extend to further research ideas, shot lists, editing suggestions, etc.
• Authors: take “Suggestions for this I believe” notes in your journal. Return to these later (see homework), and integrate the ideas as appropriate into your post-production plan.

Part 2 (10 min): research

• after every author has presented and discussed their pre-production information, the group should spend a few minutes quickly researching the topics discussed (yours as well as your teammates’) and collecting relevant information that is available on the internet (readings, youtube videos, etc. etc.)

Part 3 (5 min): share your research findings and sources, particularly ones that you feel are relevant to your teammates’ topics

screening::

• crude impact, ironweed 17 DVD, 31:27 (oil and energy)
• out in the heartland, ironweed 19 DVD, 19:31 (gay rights)
• Hip Hop by Byron Hurt
• soldier’s pay, wholphin 1 DVD, 11:20 (the war in iraq)
• a stranger in her own city, wholphin 3 DVD, ~30 min (women’s rights)
• Radiant City by Jim Brown, Gary Burns

discussion

compare and contrast individual films on the basis of structure, style, rhetorical strategies, political agendas vs. personal expressions, etc.

homework:

• 1) Video: Rough version of Proj4: This I Believe (this means you’ve begun editing in iMovie, organizing clips into a coherent reel for your classmates to respond to… the more complete your piece is, the more constructive the feedback can be).
  • Your rough cut is due at the beginning of next class, exported as .mov files to your desktop (name it with your name, This I Believe, and “roughcut”). Do not wait until you get to class to export it.
• 2) Journal: complete a ‘post-production’ journal entry for This I Believe by next class (see the video production template). As appropriate, incorporate your notes from your “suggestions for this I believe” that you collected earlier in class.
• 3) No class on Wed, April 14. Use this day to work on your project.

Agenda:: W Apr 7 (day 21)

Photo by Reina Basu

writing warm-up (15 min)

in your journal, write a 100 word (no more!) statement that outlines the goals of your video project. keep in mind these are your initial goals, and they will change as the project moves forward, but time spent clarifying your goals now will save time in the future.

discussion

monroe’s motivated sequence

• Attention
• Need
• Satisfy
• Visualization
• Action

review: Lunsford’s “Everything is an argument” class notes

screening::

An inconvenient truth (96 min)

• keep notes on how the structure of the film conforms to the monroe sequence

discussion

responses to the film, comments from your notes on the structure…

• Out of 100%, what percentage would you give to entertainment and information to this film?
• Is this a film, or is it a document of a power point presentation? How so?
• Does this film motivate you to take action?  Why/not?  What points in particular inspired you?
• Think about the structure of the argument, what are the merits and downfalls of using this type of structure?

group discussions (30 minutes)

artists: present your project idea, the 100-word statement, and why you’ve decided to go with this particular topic.

Team members: help artists to clarify and improve the idea. (brainstorm about research ideas/sources, shot lists, and so on).

homework:

1) Journal 1: using the video production template, complete the ‘pre-production’ stage for your proposed video.

2) Journal 2: sing the video production template, complete the ‘production’ stage for your proposed video.

2) START SHOOTING. Be prepared to show raw footage to your team during next class.

Agenda:: M Apr 5 (day 20)

Photo by Brittanie Bright

writing warm-up 1 (10 min)

1) review your ‘100 questions’ journal entry from the beginning of the semester

2) review the current draft of your ‘this i believe’ statement

3) use these two writings as a starting point for a 10-minute brainstorming free-write on possible topics for your next video project.  this is the ‘dreaming’ phase in the project, so dream big and don’t worry yet about details.

discussion

volunteers to share free-writes?

writing warm-up 2 (20 min)

1) In pairs, read your partner’s “This I Believe” post.

2) Evaluate the essay in terms of authentic voice, narrative coherence, and communal relevance.

3) Post your response as a written comment on your partner’s blog with your name. Also post your response on your own blog, listing whose statement you are responding to.  Be generous with your comments and suggestions, as your partner will use these ideas to refine their statement.

Review

Module 3

Project 4 This I Believe

Grading Rubric for Module 3

Master Grading Rubric

in-class writing:

re-read your brainstorming free-write from today’s class. develop a series of 5-10 interview questions that you can ask other people to help you clarify your ideas and narrow down your list of possible project topics. Post these questions in your journal.

group discussions

Interview the members of your group. Use your list of questions. Get a feel for:

• what your possible topics inspire in others
• what information do they know about the topics?
• which topics generate the greatest response, questions, and/or interest?
• what personal beliefs do your interviewees express?

review: Lunsford’s “Everything is an argument” class notes

screening:: various ways of constructing an argument (about 20 min of each)

• King Corn by Aaron Wolf
• War Tapes by Deborah Scranton
• Jesus Camp by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
• Hip Hop by Byron Hurt
• Radiant City by Jim Brown, Gary Burns

homework:

1) Journal 1: Revise your “This I Believe” essay based on the feedback you received.  Post the final draft on your journal. Optional: also submit it to the This I Believe website.

2) Journal 2: Make a recording of you speaking your “This I Believe” essay and post it on your journal as well.  This could be in the form of you reading it in front of your Isight camera, or a sound recording (without visuals), or could even have an edited video/images to accompany the sound.  Choose a medium that you feel expresses the statement to it’s fullest.

5) Based on your brainstorming list, your subject interviews, and whatever additional meditation necessary, make a final decision about a topic for your next video: this I believe

Agenda:: W Mar 31 (day 19)

Photo by Jordan Feffer

presentation warm-up and discussion of reading::

meet with your group to discuss the Lunsford reading. Your group will present a 2 minute synopsis (from your seats, an informal presentation) of the ideas you gleaned from the section you read.

• Purposes (pp 7-15) (group 1: Charles, Carolyn, Christina, Jason, Katie B.)
• Occasions (pp 15-20) (group 2: Joy, Jordan Stein, Carmen)
• Kinds (pp 20-32) (group 3: Dustin, Roy, Esther, Marty, Janelle)
• Audiences (pp 32-41) (group 4: Jami, Kate Hazen, Brittanie, Jordan Feffer, Reina)

writing exercise:: beliefs

• 1) list 5-10 beliefs that you hold to be true (10 min).  Your beliefs can range from broad philosophical thoughts such as, “nature is more important than nurture,” to more specific instances such as “cats are better than dogs.”
• 2) choose 2 or 3 of the above beliefs and answer the following questions (20 min):
  • How did this idea form?
  • How firmly do i believe it?
  • Why do i maintain it?
  • What would make me change my belief?

discussion:: beliefs

• Where do your beliefs come from? is it from people like family, teachers, doctors, religious leaders, bosses friends, or media like newspapers, radio shows, magazines, television or Internet sites, or from experience?
• Think about a time that you changed a belief… how and why did this happen?

This I believe:: beliefs

• this i believe website

“The goal of This I Believe is not to persuade Americans to agree on the same beliefs but to encourage Americans to pursue the much more difficult task of developing respect for beliefs different from their own.” (Dan Gediman, executive producer of thisibelieve.org)

o  criteria for a successful statement of belief

Authentic voice. The writer must create a narrative persona (or stance) that the reader believes authentic, or else the text risks coming off as trite or condescending. Voice is a difficult feature to discuss in writing, but readers can describe the stance a writer is taking as they react to a given style, dialogue, and point of view; they must choose whether to believe or identify. 
 Thus, writers must seek to reveal true experiences, moments of relevance, and believed lessons learned; else, write fictional accounts as if they believed them to be true.

Narrative coherence. Most often covered in literary settings, the feature of narrative coherence regards the business of telling stories well: vivid description, controlled and appropriate pacing, subtle transitions, lively dialogue, and rich character development, for example. A personal essay generally relates a story and lessons learned; thus, if the storytelling fails, the whole essay usually fails. The same elements of narration that we celebrate in studies of canonical literature can be studied and applied to student narratives.

Communal relevance. At the end of the essay, the reader has the right to ask so what?” and have it answered. A writer does not merely tell a story for personal reasons, but in order to communicate a larger truth to the reader; the story is the vehicle on which this truth, often metaphorically, rides. The personal essay argues, in a way, that the beauty associated with being a human can often best be expressed through the sharing of stories. Thus, there often appear two distinct sections of a personal essay: narrative and comment. Sometimes they are neatly divided, with an immediate lapsing into a story with brief comments at the end, but such segmenting is not always the case. Other writers will choose to comment along the way, interspersing
authorial intrusions into the narrative to call attention to pertinent ideas.
 Whatever the format, the reader understands the reason and the importance of the story beyond its aesthetic appeal.

o essay writing tips

o examples of written essays that have been submitted and have been produced in audio format by NPR:

• Sara Adams :: Be nice to the Pizza Dude (consider her use of metaphor)
• Deirdre Sullivan :: Always go the Funeral (consider how she builds up to the reason for her belief)
• Phyllis Allen :: Leave your identity issues at the door (consider how belief changes over time)
• Brigid Daull Brockway :: A Busybody`s Guide to Improving the World (consider how action might be promoted based on belief)
• …a long list of others featured

screening:: a variety of ways to approach arguments

• crude impact, ironweed 17 DVD, 31:27 (oil and energy)
• be all you can be, ironweed 18 DVD, ~9min (war and the military)
• out in the heartland, ironweed 19 DVD, 19:31 (gay rights)
• happy box, ironweed 24 DVD, 13:13 (sustainability, supporting local farmers, the ‘green’ movement)

discussion:: how do these relate back to the arguments described by Lunsford? (purposes, occasions, kinds, audiences/context and appeal to audiences?)

small group discussion:: pick a belief for your topic

• Each artist, share the 3-5 ideas/topics you have with your group. With your group, consider which one idea seems the most intriguing, and executable.

homework::

write your own ‘this i believe’ essay. follow the criteria for a successful statement of belief (above): authentic voice, narrative coherence, communal relevance; and also the essay writing tips.