Stories Worth TellingA Guide to Creating Student-Led Documentaries

An Opportunity for Community-Service Learning Community service learning is an

educational process and philosophy that recognizes if students are to learn at full potential, they need to see a connection between curriculum and life, and, moreover, that they need to feel needed.

An Opportunity for Community-Service Learning This type of learning focuses on three

components:1. Creating a service experience for students

that directly relates to academic subject matter

2. Providing a beneficial service for the community, one that allows students to see the relevance of what they are learning.

3. Securing opportunities to reflect on what students are doing, feeling, and learning.

The Impact on Students and the Community A different type of learning takes place

with student-led documentaries—learning that is more difficult to measure, but that increases empathy and interest and creates stronger students.

Getting Started: Expectations Find a story worth telling, a problem worth

presenting. Teacher Role: Students are taught the

fundamentals of creating a documentary, then the teacher becomes a mentor, coach, and motivator who looks over the students’ shoulders along the way.

Student Role: The learning comes from the doing—students learn from doing the work themselves.

Clarifying Expectations and Assessing Student Work: 5 Categories of Assessment

1. Raw interview or the A-roll (100 points)2. Filler or supplemental shots or the B-

Roll (50 points)3. Log or transcription of video shot (50

points)4. The written script/story and storyboard

(100 points)5. The overall effect of the completed

story (100 points)

Managing the Project: The Three-Role ProcessEach group member assumes one of three roles: Reporter Screenwriter Producer

Project Roles: Reporters The reporters do the grassroots work. They

go out and do the interviews. They listen to the recorded interview and log it. Reporters gather research information on the topic using various resources from the library to the Internet. It is the reporter’s responsibility to find photos, documents, and Internet video clips and images (B-Roll), as well as music that relates and can be used in the documentary, and logs each resource.

Project Roles: Screenwriters Screenwriters take the recordings and

the logs from the reporters, watch the videos looking for sound bites, and study the logs for guidance. They write the script and complete the storyboard for the documentary.

Project Roles: Producers The producers do the computer editing

work. They put together the final product that will be the documentary. Producers get the script and storyboard from the screenwriters and match up the video clips and other images with the narration, music, and other audio. They do all the other work with the editing software to make a professional-looking documentary.

Project Roles: All-Hats Process While each student has a specific role he or

she is responsible for in the end, all students are required to help in all aspects at all times.

Each group will tell their own story on their assigned topic. Typically a 5 minute mini-documentary results. Each finished mini-documentary, or vignette, is the exported and blended together onto a video master copy to function as one documentary.

Team Teaching The work done in Science, English, and

Global Issues classes will be incorporated into the interdisciplinary documentary.

Management Using the Three-Role Process Once the mini-documentaries, or

vignettes, are complete, all reporters will come together, all screenwriters will come together, and all producers will come together to work on the master copy that will function as one documentary.

Determining Equipment Needs:ComputersSoftwareDigital CamerasMicrophonesTripodsStill CamerasScannerExternal storage deviceHeadphones/Earbuds

Other Equipment:

Managing the Production Process: Filming Techniques& Background Research

Practice, practice, practice, and be prepared for anything. Before filming an interview, practice with video cameras. Two main basics to practice involve placement and lighting.

Consider the interview spot, what is behind the subject being interviewed. Often the background is too busy or something appears to be growing out of the subject’s head.

Move the subject away from the wall to create a sense of space.

Filming Techniques: Rule of Thirds

Be sure the subject isn’t right in the middle of the screen. Subjects should be slightly off to the right or left. The subject should be looking into the other two-thirds of the shot to make it appear that he or she looking into space or at a person, and not at a wall.

The interviewer should position himself or herself slightly to the side so the subject is not looking directly into the camera.

A good shot can start with 1” to 2” of space above the subject’s head, with the lower portion cut off at the waist. This gives the cameraperson a chance to pull into the person’s face during the interview.

An effective technique is to zoom in tighter on the face to bring out the eyes during an emotional part of the interview.

Filming Techniques: Lighting Good light, but not direct light, should come in from a slight

side angle, so that one third of the subject’s face is in a subtle shadow.

To get some variety, it’s a good idea to film a few interviews outside, ideally on a clear day in the morning or evening when the sunlight is warm and not too direct.

Avoid backlighting which results from placing subjects in front of a window or light source. If it can’t be avoided, place more light in front of the interviewee’s face to avoid shadows.

Focus on the eyes. There should be points of light visible in the subject’s eyes.

Capturing the best footage requires practice.

Conducting Background Research

Gather sufficient background information prior to conducting the interview.

Demonstrate knowledge of the topic by asking good interview questions.

Once interviews are complete, and the story writing stage begins, gather additional statistics and research to help bring your subject’s sound bites together and enrich the telling of the story.

During the research stage, find filler shots, supplemental material, or B-roll, which includes photos, letters, memorabilia, or film footage to complement the topic. Use the camera or scanner to capture images. You can add movement to still images by using the “Ken Burns effect.” This is a great tool, allowing you to pan and zoom on the computer instead of manually.

Managing Images, Film Footage, and Music Be sure all images and video footage are

compatible with iMovie. You can organize and edit your images in iPhoto, part of iLife. Images from your iPhoto library are instantly available in iMovie.

Locate appropriate music to include in your movie. You can find royalty-free music on the Internet or import music directly from iTunes, or you can create your own music using GarageBand, a tool from Apple that’s part of iLife.