Treatment:

Title: So You Want To Be Elected?
Topic: Political Interviews
Objective/Purpose: To interview candidates for local political offices
Target Audience: School via Friday morning news broadcast
Running time: 5 minutes
Talent/Characters: Interviewer and Candidate(s)
Location(s): School studio or candidates office
Style(s): Two person interview (like Larry King, but more formal) followed by Man-on-the-street interviews
Tone(s): Questioning, Serious
Content Outline:

• Introduction by Interviewer (filmed just before or after interview)
• Welcome (name of candidate) and possibly handshake
• Question 1: Please tell us a little about yourself and why you are running for office.
• Question 2: What differentiates you from the other candidates running?
• Question 3-5: What is your view on/of ... (pick a particular issue)
• Thanking candidate for their time and possibly handshake
• Man-on-the-street interview of a supporter of candidate: Why are you planning on voting for (name of candidate)?
• Man-on-the-street interview of a non-supporter of candidate: After playing main interview for them, What is your reaction to (name of candidate)'s statements?
  

Videography Tip:

Your camera's CCD can "see" less than 25% of the contrast range (between light and dark spots) the human eye can see. Therefore, the camera adjusts its exposure as best it can. Unfortunately, that usually means parts are over exposed and others underexposed. To improve your lighting you may want pick settings that have less contrast between the bright and dark spots. (Outside, the best days to shoot with less contrast are overcast days.) Or, try to find ways to shade the lightest areas or lighten up the darkest areas with a reflector or extra lights.

Links:

• Build a Sun Diffuser
• Constructing a Simple, Reusable Chinese Lantern
  

So, you've added a title, but now you want to get change it or delete it. To change the text, font, color, or speed of a title:

1. Click on the title clip's icon in the Clip Viewer
2. Click on the "Titles" button
3. Make updates to the text, color, or duration
4. Click the "Update" button

To delete a title:

1. Click on the title clip's icon in the Clip Viewer
2. Press the Delete key once [this will delete the title, but not the original video clip(s)]

Product Review(s):

Book - The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking Inspires Learning:

An excellent resource for helping students realize their full potential as filmmakers in any genre is The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking Inspires Learning by Nikos Theodosakis. I wish this book had been available when I first began teaching students to create videos.

Though the first section of the book is relatively short compared to the second in number of pages, its importance is not. The book begins by explaining why filmmaking belongs in the classroom. In the first five chapters Nikos elaborates on what students get out of the filmmaking process. To summarize, the skills and benefits gained include:

• The amount of information available to us is increasing at an amazing rate. Memorizing and recalling may have served our generation, but it will not be sufficient for this generation of students. Therefore, opportunities to teach processing skills serves the learner twice, once for the content processed and for the learning processes they will need later in life.
• We live and learn in a visual world. Technologies abound for consuming and producing visual sources of information. If students are given access to such technologies, too often we only teach them the technical aspects. Instead we should be asking how we can empower their learning and efforts to fully communicate their ideas.
• From the first stage of visioning on through the research, planning, filming and distribution, students use their creativity, logic, problem solving, and analytic skills and much more. [These higher order thinking skills are further detailed in one of the final chapters that focuses on “Meeting SCANS Goals.”]
• The filmmaking process also develops personal and social skills such as: creativity, confidence, passion, team building, and collaboration.
• Filmmaking can also develop awareness and identification with oneself, family, social issues, and community.
• Develops oral, written, and visual communication
• Teamwork, leadership, and organization skills
  

Throughout the rest of the book, Nikos continues to refer back to these purposes while elaborating on the details of the filmmaking process.

The second section of the book details the filmmaking process in the film industry and in the classroom. In these thirteen chapters, Nikos details information on each of the five major phases: development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. Working through the phases as he recommends can save you and your students hours of frustration. It will free your students to create works that inspire and educate!

For more information about this book, visit http://www.thedirectorintheclassroom.com

Western PA School for the Deaf - Deaf People Can