In a New Dork State of Mind

New Curriculum Resource from The Film Foundation

Just after VHS but before DVD's, the laserdisk was invented. This technology got filmmakers really excited because it was the first format that came even close to the picture quality of movie theater film. And thus began the letterbox wars which eventually created the 16:9 HDTV format. As Directors began to see their creative legacy get translated into multiple formats, they became concerned about possible hack jobs. And out of this concern, the Artists Rights Foundation was created.

This group of filmmakers established new protocols that did things like limit Turner Classic Movies from arbitrarily colorizing classic Black and White films. ARF also wrote one of the best filmmaking textbooks I've ever seen, complete with activities, worksheets, and suggested movie clips. You can download a PDF copy of "Making Movies: A Guide for Young Filmmakers"here

Turns out the Artist Rights Foundation merged with the Film Foundation back in 2002. Recently, the Film Foundation announced the launch of The Story of Movies, a clearinghouse for all kinds of curriculum. The goal is to give different teachers tools that will expose students to classic films. Is it any surprise that Turner Classic Movies is a co-sponsor?

[edutopia article on the site here]

When You Have Some Time...

I know it's hard to make time as a teacher to do more than just plan and teach. But if you have a chance, sneak on over to this very helpful site. Here's what Techlearning has to say about it:
Storytelling 2.0 "It turns out a very busy person named Alan Levine created an online resource for a series of workshops that lists (at the time of this writing) 57 different Web 2.0 tools that can be used for digital storytelling. That in itself isn't unusual, of course, but what he did that was different was he took the time to retell the same story with each tool!

The site is at http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools, and is wonderfully comprehensive. In addition to his own oft-retold story, almost all of the titles also include examples of stories told by others. He also has a shorter list at the end of tools that he's tried that weren't successful for one reason or another, so you can see what sites to avoid (at least for now). Be sure to budget a lot of time for exploring!"

Download YouTube Videos

In the ongoing saga that is trying to get Youtube vids onto your desktop/into iMovie/into FCP...here's the newest update courtesy of Lifehacker. And I quote, from Tip #1 "If you want to stash a YouTube clip away for editing or watching without the net, you've definitely got options. Internet Explorer users might appreciate YouTube File Hack, which grabs FLV files for you. The Better YouTube Firefox extension, crafted by our own site editor, adds a simple 'Download this video' link to any YouTube page, and the All-In-One Video Bookmarklet is a nice cross-browser conversion tool. If you're away from your own setup, Vixy.net and Viddownloader are your go-to sites for downloading clips. As for watching FLV files, we like and use the cross-platform VLC player."
Click here for Lifehackers: Top 10 YouTube Hacks

People Ask Me All the Time - How Do I Save My YouTube Favs?

The Best Web Video Download Tools � NewTeeVee: "Streaming web video is great and all, but every once in a while you find something that you just want to save and cherish for always. If your home Internet connection is as unreliable as mine you’ll understand what I mean. There are a bunch of web sites and little apps to help you save hard copies of web videos, but perhaps due to their teetering on the edge of violating video hosts’ TOS, they are less than user-friendly. So yesterday I decided to go through them all and figure out which ones are the best."

My New Playground

We have a student who needs their own, individual project. So I'm building a series of exercises that will allow him to explore some of the issues going on in his life - inspired by the film Tarnation. Part of the plan is to have him use the built-in camera on one of our iMacs to make a self-portrait using stop motion. So I went hunting to find an example and found this instead...Boinx Software - iStopMotion 2 - Examples

Fun stuff. Now I have lots of ideas for projects for all ages!

You Can Take It With You

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Here are instructions for downloading YouTube Videos to your computer (or iPod) so that you can use them with students.

All this time, I've been searching on Google Video. If it wasn't there, I just didn't use it. Thanks Techlearning!

You Can Take It With You

Share web text, video, and more with your phone - Lifehacker

Even with the smallest student project, there is some distribution. Currently we output everything to quicktime and then let the students use iDVD to make their own copies. We also have a youtube site where we post students' videos so that they can share them with their friends. (It also serves as a great publicity tool for our organization.)
But this looks kind of fun. Lifehacker gives a review on Joey, a service that allows you to move video to your cell phone. I know that our students would love to do this.

What Else Should You Know?

Did You Know 2.0 has been out for only a month, and already it has gotten over 100,000 views.



In my humble opinion, it's unfortunate that this piece hints at so much but actually says so little. And, of course, as a filmmaker/teacher of moviemaking, I'm sad that that there's nothing in here about the democratization of media (especially video).

Price of a video editing system
in 1984 - over $250,000
in 1994 - over $25,000
in 2007 - under $2,500

About Music...

I've been hunting for free/lo cost music for my students to use in their videos. It's tough going, but here's some sources I've found so far. What do you use?
Creative Commons
Internet Archive
Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
Folktunes.org
Open Music Archive
Ourmedia.org
Jamendo
Podsafe Music Network