Guiding kids to learn editing

[Brent Bloem]

Mark,

At the start of next I’m probably going to have my best student shoot The Three Little Pigs. Or, if I find that I need a project to fill my summer hours, maybe I’ll shoot it myself.

[Brent Bloem]

So, here’s a draft of the editing prestige path. I included some areas that aren’t editor specific to this path(After Effects, Apple Color). I’m not married to the decision, but I’ve included them into this draft for several reasons. First, kids requested to know this information. Second, I’m using their interest as bait to get them to advance throught the levels (For example, they won’t be able to use Color until LVL 10; and, they won’t be able to use AE until Lvl 12). I figured in would only help them and my program.

If anyone sees repetitions, omissions, or flaws in skill flow/progression, let me know. I’ve pitched this idea to the other TV teachers at my sister schools and they seem interested. I’m excited to see where this leads.

15 Apply level 1-14 skills to edit a short film
14 Apply AE knowledge to create a title graphic that:
• Is 5-8 seconds long
• Uses:
o Layers
o Effects
o Filters
o Motion
o 3d space
o Cameras
13 Know:
• After Effects composition workflow
After Effects workspace
12 Apply Lvl 1-11 skills in a video work
11 Diagnose color grading in three visual works:
• Find the color palette each uses
• Explain the effect each palette has on the narrative

Grade three shots and…
• Enhance the message
• Explain why the grading enhances the message
10 Know:
• Effects of color temperature
• Color theory
• Do’s of color grading
o Avoid clipping
o Avoid crushing
o Be broadcast safe
o Be consistent
• How to make thoughtful grading choices
• Mechanics behind the color wheels
09 Write an essay to analyze the editing style of an award winning short film (10-15 min duration)
08 Apply Lvl 1-7 skills to stock video to create:
• A comedy
• A suspense
07 Apply Lvl 1-6 skills to stock video to create:
• An edit using shots between LS – MS
• An edit using LS-ECU and creative framings (e.g. OTS, etc)
• An edit using the above options plus moving shots
06 Know:
• The commands for the most useful FCP hotkeys.
• What the commands do.
05 Be able to:
• Open, close, and hide FCP
• Open and retrieve windows
• Make equipment connections—camera to Mac and DVR to Mac
• Log and transfer, capture, and import
• Organize project files on the HD via a file-folder system
• Organize media pool

Apply effects ,filters, and titles three different ways
04 • Provide examples for 80% of the rules.
03 Know:
• Dmytryk rules
• Murch rules
• Screen position edit
• Form edit
• Concept edit
• Combined edit
02 Know these and their narrative effects:
• Straight cut
• Fade
• Dissolve
• Wipe
• J-cut
• L-cut
• Flash frame
• Insert edit
• Overwrite edit
01 Know:
• 7 Shot types
• High hat shot
• Low angle shot
• Canted/Dutch angle shot
• OTS
• Subjective v objective framing
• Reciprocal imagery
• High angle shot
• Aerial shot

Apply:
• 30 degree rule
• 180 degree rule
• Screen direction
• Eye trace

Compositional don’ts

[Mark Suszko]

“Mark,

At the start of next I’m probably going to have my best student shoot The Three Little Pigs. Or, if I find that I need a project to fill my summer hours, maybe I’ll shoot it myself.”

Just be sure your shot list is exceptionally thorough, and that your actors delver consistent takes as much as possible, which is why I suggested college age actors at least, or local thatre group members who are experienced and consistent.

Fixing mis-matches where action is inconsistent between two takes is of course part of the job and something to teach, but, when just starting out, you want the majority of takes to be consistently correct and ready to use, because you’re primarily demonstrating a particualar kind of technique here first.

Then also have some fun if you have time left over, and shoot it in a few different styles like Tarantino style, Hitchcock style, Dragnet style, all POV style, etc. Try to anticipate every possible permutation. Even with soemthing as simple as 3 little pigs, you could shoot many hours of raw material if you wanted to cover every permutation.

[Bill Davis]

[Mark Suszko] “How are you fixed for footage of the 3 Little Pigs story? :-)”

Missed out on including that one – whoops!

But in a larger sense, what I SEN was designed to be a baseline program to inform students about what the fundamental goals should be when you start out to shoot anything – regardless of the content.

It’s an overview of things like coverage, shot editability, and yes, storytelling elements – that was designed to give students a sense of the possible before they go out to “do it themselves.”

The question I was trying to answer is how do you produce quality, if you’ve never broken it down into understandable steps.

That was the flaw I saw in editing instruction. Students sitting down with no overview of the fundamentals other than as “viewers” or at best “self taught” experimenters with no grounding in technique.

The “big project” approach I’m seeing here is to me, kinda like like training first year english students by having them try to write novels. Nothing “wrong” with that at all.

But the big project approach kinda puts things back in the way things “used” to be done. Rather than where I see the industry going.

Video is (for better or worse) somewhat less a team sport and more and more a personal one these days.

So I’m not sure the “comprehensive look at all aspects of movie workflow, script to SFX is so smart anymore.

Look at YouTube and Vimeo. Where are the eyeballs and dollars flowing? Simple form presentations that while they have a beginning, middle and end (if you’re lucky) seldom use the traditional form of the movie or TV show beyond the “infomercial” level. And they’re usually the product of a single communicator, rather than a large form crew.

Is this complex multi-step lesson plan the best approach to helping students prepare for that reality?

Maybe it is. Maybe it’s important for students to know about the hundred different jobs on a hollywood movie set, even if they’re just going to make business videos for their future employer.

But I think the question is a good one to ask in advance.

The thing I keep seeing in my years on the road doing classes for Videomaker is that the hundreds of teachers who went through my lectures typically fell into two categories. One group had virtually no grounding in any fundamentals. The other group were the “movie buffs” who wanted to inspire students through the traditional “large production” practices of hollywood and episodic TV.

What surprised me was how few programs concentrated on the “meat and potatoes” middle where most of the money flows in the production industry today.

It doesn’t require hollywood storytelling – it requires functional knowledge inside a single person of how to shoot and edit and deliver a message for clarity.

And clarity requires focus. I think most of the stuff on the lists floating around here are WAY overly complex to prepare someone in a year or two to be a “level 1” working video producer.

They look to me like in trying to be “comprehensive” they’re going to try to do way too much, too fast – and so do nothing very well.

That may be a fine goal and just what the OP’s class requires. If so, fine.

But to help the students actually succeed I’d focus things on maybe four basic foundational modules – likely camerawork, lighting, sound and editing. And try to give the kids a chance to understand all of those four fundamentals better – rather than trying to skim 50 topics.

But I could be very wrong and the presumption is that the instructor knows what and how they need to teach their subject.

I’d certainly be interested in the results of this approach. Whether the students get anything finished and if so, whether those submissions are tight communications, or the typical stuff I saw while participating in in judging quite a few amateur video contests while at the magazine.

Some quality moments hidden inside a mountain of general confusion.

FWIW.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Mark Suszko]

I think one of the traps in a TV “class” is teaching too much what is current techology. In my day we learned how to do a flange-back adjustment, how to align imaging tubes, and several other skills that are completely obsolete today, heck, they became obsolete within a decade of my graduation. The things that remained useful were the foundational editing concepts, composition, and lighting/sound technique.

When I see long, ambitious lists for a syllabus, and I think back to my school days, and forward, to watching my own kids in learning situations, well…. I think it’s better to concentrate on mastering a smaller universe of skills, rather than give a tenuous connection to the longer list, and having most kids forget 90 percent of it. You’ll always have a couple of kids that take to this naturally, show native talent, and they show drive to do more. Give them access to more and deeper. Most vital: give those that seek it out, more access to the gear after-hours for self-teaching, pointers to resources for deeper reading.

Understand you’re not teaching them: they are teaching themselves, you are only the conduit and supply of the raw input, the mentor ready with advice and insight when the things they want to try go wrong. You want them trying everything and learning from the failures along with the perfect examples. You give them tools, they build the machine their way.

[Brent Bloem]

Mark,

You’ve mentioned you point eloquently. I really think you get it. The ideas you’ve presented are what I’m trying to do in my class.

Here’s what I’m going for:

The levels aren’t a syllabus per se. They are goals a student could accomplish, not goals every student must accomplish. Their “leveling-up” ONLY happens if they show proficiency at their current level. For the native talent, they might blow through most of the levels, but any level they get to, their work quality must never backslide. Never. If they backslide, they have to repeat the level.

Let’s look at it in video game terms. A video game has an objective. Now me personally, I suck at video games. It’ll take me 5, 6, or even more tries to complete the objectives. My thumb pounding friends will get it on a first try. My situation–that’s ok. Their situation–that’s ok. We’re both different. I’ll learn the game’s stategies at my pace,they’ll learn at their own pace. But, what’s important, we’ve both learned. We’ve gotten the concepts.

My leveling up strategy will work like a video game. An this is unlike a traditional class tries where the teacher tries to keep everyone together. This strategy will be student focused. The kids will have to learn themselves. Indeed, like you said, I’ll act as the conduit. I think this is critical (see this related idea. It’s how I’d like to see classroom learning look like: https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html) But, as they learn, they’ll get special classroom benefits as they advance through the levels. In game terms, they’ll get loot. (See this interesting related link : https://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/724066/loving-the-loot-the-psychology-of-collecting-stuff/ ) In school terms, they’ll earn iMac access during lunch, iMac access after school, access to other programs they can tinker with, get extra credit, become a project leader for special projects, recieve work time extensions, and other stuff I haven’t thought of yet.

Teaching kids about technology is a catch 22. I agree, in the grand scheme of learning, today’s technology won’t matter tomorrow. But on the other hand, getting kids to know the opperational basics of technology is necessary. For example, how could today’s calculus students know how to do calculus equations without knowing how to imput the functions into a calculator? I’m not sure 99% could. The same, I believe, has some application to editing, especially for students without much experience using editing programs. Google for example, Bloom’s taxonomy. Bloom argues that before any student can perform higher order thinking (or more complex cognitive tasks) a student must follow this learning path in sequential order, from 1-6. He/she must: 1) know, 2) understand, 3) apply, 4) analyze, 5) synthesize, and 6) evaluate. The 1’s and 2’s aren’t impressive feats of ability. But never-the-less, they’re necessary, in order for kids to apply analyze and etc.

I’m obviously not an expert. I don’t have all the answers. I just see a direction I want to go, and I have a couple of waypoints to guide me. So, I really appreciate any advice you’ve got. It helps me to consider my thought processes and improve not only myself but also my students.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
-Mark Twain

[Brent Bloem]

Bill,

You’ve hit the nail on the head with, “The question I was trying to answer is how do you produce quality, if you’ve never broken it down into understandable steps.”

This is an area that I’m really trying to improve. In fact, I’ve looked for quite a few books on this matter, and I haven’t found one. Maybe your product offers the missing link I’ve been looking for?

I wouldn’t mind getting an educator evaluation copy. What do I need to do to check it out?

I stand corrected on your point about less comparmentaliation in the majority of the industry. I’ve made the ideas I’m going for compartmentalized for several reasons. 1) I’m trying to get the students engaged, and I think they kids will work harder for me with the video-game-esque specializations. 2.) I want kids to feel more invested. If they can focus on what they like, I’m sure they’ll work harder. 3) I want to boost my year two student program, so I can beat the pants off of my multiple NATAS winning sister school.

In our district, we have four levels of video classes. My first year is a survey, and kids are expected to engage in all aspect of production. Lighting, sound, video, and editing. My second year kids will do the strategy I’m working on. My third year kids, when a substantial numbe will graduate to that level, will do more of the one man productions, much like you said.

All in all, I desperately want my kids videos to be spectacular. I just haven’t found the way to increase the ratio of spectacular to crap. I’ll take any leg-up I can get to make this happen.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
-Mark Twain

[Andrew Rendell]

I mean aesthetically mainly, this kind of thing
https://pages.uoregon.edu/jlesage/Juliafolder/PHOTOANALYSIS.HTML

There’s slightly more to tv/film because we work with moving pictures so there’s the possibility of composition changing over time. It’s relevant to questions like; what does the shot convey to the audience in terms of information and in terms of emotional impact and also how long should you stay on the shot before cutting.

It’s trying to answer questions such as; what do we need to show in order to tell the story, what are we trying to convey visually – are we illustrating what’s being spoken or showing something extra that you wouldn’t get from just hearing the soundtrack.

I’m not sure how to go about teaching in a formal educational situation, on the occasions that I’m showing people this it’s in a “learning on the job” context, one on one, I’ll show examples of what I’ve been doing and try to explain why I made the cut in this way or look at clips of tv and film and say why I think a certain film maker did what they did.

[Brent Bloem]

Bill,

I was recently thinking about my first media class’s curriculum and I’m embracing the less is more philosophy in terms of content being covered in class. That said, I’m really interested in looking at your SEN editing products, because I’d possibly like to use this as a learning and assessment tool that specifically target’s kid’s editing skills. Is it possible to get a review copy by chance?

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
-Mark Twain