Pop Culture: HMW Design a Film Festival

How might we design a film festival?  How might we demonstrate our listening & speaking skills via a film festival?

We'll use these for DISCOVERY phase. 15 min

http://www.sundance.org/pdf/film-guide/SFF14-FilmGuide.pdf

http://fantasticfest.com/

http://www.miff.org/

http://allsportslafilmfest.com/

http://iffboston.org/

http://www.festival-cannes.com/en.html

You might Notice/Wish/Wonder:

What do you notice about these film festivals?

What do you wish about film festivals?

What do you wonder about these film festivals?

OR

Rose/Bud/Thorn:

What are the roses (cool aspects) of these film festivals?

What are the buds (opportunities/ideas you have) based on these film festivals?

What are the thorns (things you don't like/find ineffective) in these film festivals?

EMPATHY phase. 15

Interview at least 2 people from another design team.

Ask these three Qs

Which genres of film do you enjoy the most?

Would you rather watch a film you love again or watch something new?

What

Ask at least one follow up question in each interview to help you program your festival.

Record the answers.

EXPERIMENT phase. 15 min.

Craft it!  Design it.  What are the films you would show?  What would it be called? Where would it be held?   Why?  Use your empathy knowledge and your discovery to help you.

PRODUCTION phase. 15 min.

Four corners feedback.  (More on this in class.)

Eng 9. Kickstart Your Creativity.

SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

Blog.  3+ Posts.

Critical Creativity Challenge Post. Kick Start Your Creativity.

Take a look at these examples of creative Kickstarters

an improved hammock design that features a guy in a bear suit,

a machine that converts food waste into energy

 little hands that make you look like you caught a huge fish

 a mustache that makes reading easier.

Now it is your turn.  Invent a product you would pitch on Kickstarter.  What does it do?  What problem does it solve?  How much money will you be hoping to raise?  How will you spend it?  What will your stretch goals be?  Enhance your blog post by including drawings or photos, a logo, maybe even a pitch video.

Study.  Roots Quiz 3.  (Includes lists 1-3)

Optional Demonstration of  Understanding.  Roots Product 3.

Next wednesday

Write.  Cardboard Challenge One-Page Reflection.
Due. Thursday, Oct. 22. 

Pop Culture: Film Trailers & Film Culture & Project Interviews

Hi folks,

We are going to pack today full of film culture goodness as we explore and discuss the beautiful thing that IS the film trailer.  You may want to create a film trailer for your film culture product due next Thursday.  We're going to watch and talk and review.  A lot.

Here are three great resources to help us get started.  All of these can be found on our Pinterest board.

Resource 1.  9 Short Storytelling Tips.
Fantastic storytelling tips that can be applied well beyond film trailer designing.

Resource 2. The Golden Trailer Awards.
The Awards for Best Film Trailers.   (There are lots. Lots and lots.)

Resource 3.  Trailer Fatigue.
History and Current State of Affairs of Film Trailers.

You'll divide up into teams of 1, 2 or 3 to tackle this work today.  Pick your crew and get to work.

We'll start with the 9 Short Storytelling Tips.  In the space of 10 minutes, do the math for I will be cruising at breakneck keep-it-tight speed, I will give you both a sketchnote and a brief explanation of each tip.

Then!  In your teams, you will get to work looking for examples of those 9 short storytelling tips in either the Golden Trailer Awards nominees and winners OR Trailer Addict.com or a movie trailer source of  your liking.  Avoid the general YouTube search.  It can be cumbersome.  There's better curated sources out there.

Meanwhile, as you do that work, I will be conferencing with folks about their music culture products and write ups, giving feedback and putting you in a position to revise before next Friday if you so choose.

For the FILM CULTURE project, you will be able to choose if you want it to count on 1st Quarter or the 2nd, but not before it is assessed.  You know what the strength of your work will be.  You know the depth of your understanding.  Where do you want your evidence?

Also, the rubric for the FILM CULTURE product is exactly the same as the MUSIC CULTURE product.  Just insert FILM everywhere it says, "MUSIC."

SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

2 Req'd Blog Posts. This Week.

Last Week of Blogging for the Quarter.

Blog: 3+ Posts

Req'd Post 1:  Film Review.
A.  Read through the four reviews of the first Hunger Games films linked here.Roger Ebert hereLisa Schwarzbaum herePeter Travers hereIMDB.com User emptygravity here
B.  Choose a film you feel worthy of your time to write about.  It may be because you want to tear it apart and it may be because you want to sing its praises.  It may be a little bit of both.
C.  Write a 2-3 paragraph film review in which you attempt to copy the style of one the above reviewers by using the same techniques in your own review.


You might consider which of the above reviewers use the following:

• References to other films in which the actors have appeared
• References to other films the director has made
• References to the source material for the film (in this case, a novel)
• Summary of the plot
• Spoilers and/or spoiler warnings
• Spoiler-free discussion
• Vivid and descriptive language
• Casual and general langugage
• Use of 1st Person "I"
• Some form of review coding system: numbers, stars, thumbs, etc.

D.  In a final paragraph, explain which reviewer's style you were trying to adopt for your review.  
To what extent has this influenced how you watch films?

Req'd Post 2.  Pinterest Curation.

You've collected a series of articles for the class Pinterest boards.  In a three paragraph discussion, discuss which article you find most entertaining and why, which you 'd most likely replace and why, and which you think would be most important for me to use with other students and why.

DUE.  Friday 10.23.15

Revise. Music Culture Project.
Due. Friday. 10.30.15

Design.  Film Culture Project.
Due. Thursday. 10.29.15

AP Lit: Prufrock Remixes, Process, Woolf, and More

This week will feature more Prose 15 on Monday and Tuesday.  I've been enjoying our digging into Jane Eyre and "The Things They Carried."  I'm going to find a shorter excerpt, however, for Monday and Tuesday.  It is taking us almost as long to read it as it is to think about it.  Hopefully this next, from one Virginia Woolf, will allow us more space to discuss.

Then we will examine the results of last week's remixes and map and chart how our thinking is evolving and growing.  Our goal in this?  To become more and more keenly aware of both our creative and analytical processes.  In fact, that would make for a remarkably good third blog post for this week.

Your creative and analytical processes, as you see them now.   Monday and Tuesday in class will give you an opportunity to discuss.  Wednesday and Thursday classes will give you an opportunity to put them in practice as I'm giving you folks the all-too-uncommon-in-AP-land time to work.

There will be expectations for documenting your work on those days.  

Then Friday's class will begin our transition into Cunningham's The Hours and our move into less holistic, more precision focused literary analysis.   We'll be using The Hours to explore the relationship between character, point of view and plot and uncovering Cunningham's design.

Of course, as I type this, I'm thinking we may start delving into Joyce's Dubliners instead.   Hrmm . . . well!  We'll just have to see what Friday brings, won't we?  In that case we'd be looking at the relationship between character and setting and point of view.  See a trend emerging?

If you have a preference?  Holler!  Let's customize as much as we can.

Show Your Learning.

Blog. 3+ Posts.

(Last Week of Blogging for the Quarter)

Req'd Critical Creativity.  Finished Prufrockian Remix.

After having read & re-read the poem, sketchnoted & remixed the poem, design an original Prufrockian remix that employs Eliot's poetic device strategy and sensibility while offering something new.

Due. Friday. 10.23.15

Close Read.   Eliot Academic Articles.

Close read these articles then choose two to annotate and/or sketchnote.

Then discuss the extent to which the articles' content informs your understanding of Prufrock and any influence it may have on your remix design.

Blog your work.

Due. Friday. 10.23.15

Revisions.  Synthesis Essays.

Due. ASAP.  Final day for Revisions.  10.27.15.

Indie Book Projects.

Read & Design.  Due 11.4& 5.

Eng 9: Work. Work. Work.

Hey folks,

Friday, you have a day to update your blogs and post your work on the blog tracker.

You have a day to complete or revise your Playlist for Others.

Remember there's a rubric for this.  (The media standard is optional.)
To cite your songs properly in your project for the research standard you should follow this format.

• Artist/Performer's name "Name of the Song" (Year of Release)

which becomes . . . 

• Pearl Jam "Evenflow" (1993)

You can take it to the next level by adding the video or the link.

Pearl Jam "Evenflow" (1993)

While I'm on a roll, here's an example of an explanation.  This is why I would include this song on Mr. Brackett's playlist:

I included "Evenflow" by Pearl Jam (1993) on Mr. Brackett's playlist because he was in high school when this song came out and I know how much he loves the '90s.  He told me it was his favorite era of music.  Just listening to this song I can immediately picture Eddie Vedder wearing a flannel shirt and throwing his hair all around.  I think Mr. Brackett would enjoy rocking out to this song while driving his truck through the back roads of Temple, playing the bass line on the steering wheel.

You have a day to study for Roots Quiz 2  that will cover Roots 1-2 next TUESDAY.

And finally you have a day to start your one-page reflection essay on the Cardboard Challenge.

You have three options to choose from for your essay.

Option A. Product/Process/Outcome.  

• Describe what you made using specific, meaningful details.
• Describe how you made it by sharing specific step by step directions in what it took to make it.
• Describe how you feel about the final results by discussing what you like about your final product and what you might do differently next time or on a different iteration.

Option B.  Yourself/Others/Creativity.

• Discuss what you learned about yourself from completing the cardboard challenge, including things you didn't realize about your abilities and talents, struggles and strengths.  
• Discuss what you learned about others as a result of completing the cardboard challenge, including the experience of interviewing others and their needs or perhaps what it is like to work with a partner.
• Discuss what you've learned about the creative process and what it is like to make something for others and to make it using only a particular set of resources.

Option C.  Three Things You've Learned About Creativity

• Discuss three things you've learned about creativity from completing the cardboard challenge.

For this essay, I want you to keep it within a one-page limit, 11 or 12 point font, single spaced.  (Don't play around with the fonts to make it seem like you wrote more than you did.  That's not the point.  Also: super annoying.)  The point is to use specific details to get your ideas across to your reader in a short amount of space.  

Here's what I'll be assessing (grading):

Your Details (writing) How well did you use specifics to show exactly what you mean?

Your Organization (writing) How well did you use paragraphs to organize your thoughts and ideas?

Your Voice (writing) How well does your personality come through in your writing?

Your MUGS (MUGS - mechanics, usage, grammar, spelling) 

Your Timeliness (Due next Thursday, Oct 22)

SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

Blog.  Get caught up with your evidence.  At minimal, post your 5 Card Flickr from Week One, your playlist from others for Week Two, pictures/notes/plans from Cardboard Challenge for Week 3, and then your finished Cardboard Challenge or more pictures/notes/plans for Week 4.  Those are the required posts and the thinking I most want/need to see.

Study.  Roots Quiz 2 . Tuesday.

Know the Roots Quiz 2 (lists 1 & 2)& What They Means.

Other Evidence of Learning:  In addition to the taking the quiz, you may want to create a roots product that demonstrates your understanding of the roots and what they mean.  Some of us struggle with quizzes as a way of proving we know something, but if we get a chance to use our knowledge, we knock it out of the park.  Consider writing a story, a set of instructions, making a video, recording a podcast, building something on Minecraft or in LEGO, recording a song, drawing a comic strip, or some other way of showing me that you know those roots and what they mean in a way that shows you truly understand.

You may want to make one of these for Roots 1 as well. 

Due. Tuesday 10.20.15 

Pop Culture: Making Movie Magic Happen (Sorta.)

Making the Movie Magic Happen. (Sorta.)

Stage 1. After watching a couple of clips under Mr. Ryder’s tutelage, try your hand at storyboarding, directing and cinematography.

1. In groups of one, two or three, choose a film from the  AFI Top 100 - 10th Anniversary list that you have seen or at least sorta kinda “know.” (This list is due for an update in 2017.  I’m curious to see what happens  . . .)
2. Find a clip of a well-known scene from that film online.  They are out there.
3. Using either people or LEGO minifigs and either digital photography or sketching, recreate that scene shot-by-shot, angle-by-angle
4. As you are producing that recreation, think about the placement of the camera, the framing, the movement.  Do your best to create as honest a reproduction as possible.  The point?  To see if you can see filmmaking from a creator’s point of view and become more aware of how the filmmaker’s convince their audiences to see and think about the subject matter in a particular way.

Which takes us to Stage 2.

After recreating that scene to develop a sense of how it all “works” in a finished product, use your skills to tell the following story.

Choose and recreate the camera angles to the best of your abilities from the following sources:

http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-camera-shots-styles/p1

Great tool because it shows you examples from actual films

http://www.lssc.edu/faculty/matthew_w_kennedy/Shared%20Documents/ENC%201101/Film%20Terms.pdf

Fantastic explanation of camera angles

http://www.thestoryboardartist.com/Site/Film.html

Several great examples of storyboarding at work

Stage 3. #ShowYourWork by Creating a Google Presentation, Prezi, or other slideshow to show how your team did.   Post that to each of your blogs.

Due at the midpoint of next class for sharing and feedback.

SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

Blog: 3+ Posts

Curate: 1 Pin on Pinterest.

Critical Creativity Options.

Option 1.  Soundtrack a Clip. Choose a clip from MovieClips.com or use one from our class folder and link/embed a song that suits it, a song that transforms it, and a song that's completely inappropriate for it.  Explain your thinking.

Option 2.  Score a clip.  Choose a clip from MovieClips.com or use one from our class folder and use Garageband,Soundation, live instrumentation/vocals, or another tool to design a score.  Explain your thinking.

Option 3.  Six Shot Story.  Tell a complete story using six different camera angles.  You may choose to create this as a video or as a storyboard.

REQUIRED BLOG POST.  Rose. Bud. Thorn. Read One of the Articles Above and Complete a Rose/Bud/Thorn Graphic Organizer over that article.  Post the results of your thinking on your blog.

AP Lit: Design Challenge: Prufrock Remixed

Design Challenge: Prufrockian Remixing.

How might we remix “Prufrock” into a derivative work (meaning, it is based on/inspired by an original) that reflects the poetic and design qualities and intentions of T.S. Eliot’s original?

DISCOVER.

Last class you did just this.  You spent a day exploring Prufrock and discussing and figuring.

Today, before you start empathizing and experimenting, take a moment to refresh your thinking with this spidea web.

Recreate this on paper in front of you.  When you think of what you’ve done with “Prufrock” so far, what immediately springs to mind.  5 min.  No more.

Follow this up quickly with an I NOTICE/I WISH/I WONDER over “Prufrock.”  Again, quick.  5 min.  Rekindle what you’ve already discovered.  

EMPATHIZE.

Work as a whole class on this.  Someone has to volunteer to be interviewed about their thoughts and feelings about “Prufrock.”  Here’s the thing.  It isn’t a lecture on Prufrock.  They must be asked questions by the other members of the class.  5 min interviewing one student.  

Then choose another.  Grand total.  10 minutes.

As you are taking notes during the interview, use this empathy map tool.  Consider what they are saying and doing as they are talking, and imagine what they might be thinking and feeling based on that.

This is your first twenty minutes of class.

EXPERIMENT!

Print off copies of “Prufrock.”   Cut it up.  Make it bigger.   Rewrite.  Move it around.  Remember in a remix you can add layers upon layers, bring in new, add your own.

There’s butcher paper in the lockers in the hallway.  Use it.  There’s stuff in the closet.  Use it.  There are LEGOs and Jenga blocks and who knows what? Use whatever you have and need.

The key?  Making sure it embodies the spirit and intention of the original while still seeming like a whole new work.

Inform your experimentation with what others have told you, what you’ve discovered about Prufrock.

Be wild.  Be free.  Try things.  See what happens.  Take lots and lots of pictures.  Put them on your blog.  Not because it is required but because it matters and it helps.  Please share them with me as well.

PRODUCE.

For next class, bring a working iteration of your remix for discussion, feedback, exploration.  We’ll be using the feedback wheel.  The what?  Next week we learn about the feedback wheel

Also, next week, we’ll  read and annotate  articles I will be sending to you about Prufrock and Eliot.  What do they uncover that we hadn’t?  How does your remixing experience lend itself to that sorts of thinking?

SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

Blog. 3+ Posts.

Req'd Critical Creativity.  Literary Emoji.  Choose any of our works from this year and express them in emoji form.  Or use symbols of your own.  Explain your thinking.  

Read & Respond.  How to Read Lit Like a Prof.  Is It a Symbol?

Post on your thoughts on Foster's ideas on your blog.

Essay Revisions. If you are intending to revise your  synthesis essay, you may want to get on it.  

I will only accept revisions up to October 27.  If you complete a revision, you must also submit a Revision Submission Form.

Due.  As many times as possible between now and Oct. 27.

Blogging.  If you revise your posts or if you post late, please use the fill tool on the blog tracker to turn that box, Green.  You can revise your blog posts 

Read & Design. Indie Book Project.

Due. Wednesday & Thursday.  November 4 & 5.