Use documentary filmmaking in any subject area of high school.

1. USING DOCUMENTARY
FILMMAKING IN THE
CLASSROOM
PART I

2. Dan Sadicario - My Info
• My personal channel:
https://vimeo.com/gusandwespro
ductions/videos
• Video production club at MICDS:
https://www.youtube.com/channe
l/UCQ5b-BTmuqOJhv2NgOARGBg
• Email: dsadicario@micds.org
• School: MICDS

3. http://billgentile.com/films/c
igars.html (play on I.E.)

4. Objectives for Part I – Paradigm
1. Why video and not an essay?
2. DOCUMENT …ary
3. How Do I Structure My Video?
4. Types of Shots
5. How to Shoot
6. Interviewing
7. Liabilities
8. Think film, not documentary.

5. 1. Why Video?

6. Why should students produce
documentaries? What would
students have to gain from such
an experience? How would this
serve them in the long term?
1. Why Video?

7. Next is a video that shows how
another school used documentary
filmmaking in the science classroom
to transform their learning. Each group
of students tried to answer a
challenging questions like “Do dry-
erase markers release harmful
V.O.C.s?
Skip to 2:35!!!

8. “KQED In the Classroom: Crissy Field Center”
Skip to 2:35!!!

9. “KQED In the Classroom: Crissy Field Center”
• “Make [presentation of information] a lot tighter”
• “Message [will] come across a lot more clearly”
• “Students have a chance to work on their…organizational skills.”

10. Where could video production
fit in the curriculum?
1. Why Video?

11. Ideas for Each Subject Area
For digital copy of document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aYq9CHZsleQrStDNOHE3QQabk
S-N0EvxEfaoLODjlGk/edit?usp=sharing

12. “Weather Versus Climate Change” (National Geographic)

13. “Dam it, Tulsa! Fix the River” C-SPAN StudentCam 2014 1st prize winner
The theme for 2015 was “The Three Branches and You”

14. “Video speaks volumes: A strong message in 60 seconds can
potentially say far more than 1,500 words of text. Let’s see
CEOs George Paz of Express-Scripts, Hugh Grant of Monsanto,
Energizer’s Ward Klein talking about their vision…Remember
the “I’m a Mormon” campaign from the Church of Jesus Christ
Latter-Day Saints? Very strong stuff.”
Aaron Perlut, Forbes Magazine
December 2011
http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2011/12/06/st-louis-doesnt-suck/2/

15. Why Use Documentary Video in the
Classroom?
• Authentic engagement. Leverage the simple fact that “each approach
to video production” is “adopted enthusiastically by students”
(Brooke).
• Video production provides another way to learn (instead of essay,
test, presentation, etc.).
• Document learning. Improve metacognition.
• Authentic engagement and reinforcing ideas places everything
learned in long-term memory.
• Improve critical analysis skills around consumption of media.

16. 1. Why Video? – Enduring
Understandings:
• “I can think critically about the media—related to science, politics,
history, etc.—that I consume.”
• “I can use story structure to effectively communicate my ideas.”
• “I can identify various documentary styles and use them to help me
communicate my ideas.”
• “I can identify and use camera angles and editing as a language.”
• “I can ____________________________________.”

17. Now it’s clear WHERE (in the
curriculum) and WHY we should
use video…
1. Why Video?

18. …but how do we make these
videos?
1. Why Video?

19. 2. DOCUMENT …ary
The best, most underused method of video production in the classroom
is using video to document learning.

20. WARNING
Documentaries do not take writing and just film it. You are not
translating an essay. They also won’t work just because they’re visual. It
needs some balance.

21. Balance ideas and action
• Visual Essay
• Not very visual
• Takes an essay and films it.
• Mostly “talking heads” and
narration with static images.
• Audience will tune out quickly if
you take an essay topic and try to
make it visual. Even people who
like Jane Austen do not think,
“Yay! I’ve always wanted to see a
documentary titled “Women in
Literature: Past vs. Present”!
• Visual Story (about the topic or
about your own learning on the
topic)
• Naturally more engaging
• Story generates momentum and
suspense, even if it’s just to see
the student complete her art
project that we started the video
with.
• Can still incorporate argument
found in a visual essay.

22. Have students document
and share the journey of
learning.
If students don’t want to or can’t
make a visual story about their
topic…

23. DOCUMENT
EVERYTHIN
G

24. “Mobile technologies—from smartphones
to laptops—possess…media-authoring
approaches that make qualitative
formative assessment more accessible
and the processes of learning more
audible and visible.”
- from The Qualitative Formative Assessment Toolkit: Document
Learning with Mobile Technology

25. Methods of documentation:
1. Photos and Video
1. Of people and places …related to the topic
2. Of self (vlogging) …about what you are learning
3. Interviews with others …about the topic
4. Objects …related to the topic
5. Paper notes …on the topic
6. What’s under the microscope …that’s related to the topic
2. Screenshots of research
3. Screencasts or research
4. Audio recordings of inner thoughts
5. Audio recordings of phone calls
6. ????

26. Don’t just record the interview.
Record the phone call where you
ask the person for an interview.

27. "A Love Story 8 Years in the Making " by Casey Neistat

28. The process is the product.
And the product is a
documentation of learning, a
collection of artifacts gathered up
throughout the process.

29. "justa_gal" by Emily Lee

30. In this mode, students are
enthusiastically asking, “What are the
things I am doing that show
learning?”
Imagine a whole class of
students taking on a new unit or new
class or new grade level after being in
that frame of mind.

32. Now it’s clear WHERE and WHY
and HOW we should use video…
1I. DOCUMENT…ary

33. …but how do we make these
videos …not suck?
1I. DOCUMENT…ary

34. 3. How Do I Structure My
Video?
Or “Using STORY to Make a Documentary Interesting”

35. THE
CONTROLLING
IDEA

36. “The controlling idea is like
the thread that holds the pearls
(the shots and the scenes) together.
You take away the controlling idea,
and you just have a bunch of pearls
on the floor. If you can’t tell me
your controlling idea in one
sentence, you’re going to
have problems.”
-Bill Gentile, documentary
filmmaker for PBS

37. “If you can’t tell me your controlling
idea in one sentence, you’re going
to have problems.”

38. STORY ARC
“Digressions”
“Moving Now”

39. “Concrete Tomato” by Dan Sadicario

40. Works Cited
• http://www.edutopia.org/blog/qfat-document-learning-mobile-technology-reshan-
richards
• http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Brooke-Video.html
• http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110520221324/glee/images/2/26/Fat_unicorn.jp
g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qmLZuF3rQw
• http://media4.onsugar.com/files/2013/11/15/636/n/1922398/4ebb15cda77b0281_chris
-pratt-ellen.xxxlarge/i/Chris-Pratt-Interview-Ellen-Show-Nov-2013-Video.jpg
• http://www.blainefranger.com/blog/uploaded_images/14_hawaii_MG_8486.jpg
• http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110520221324/glee/images/2/26/Fat_unicorn.jp
g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qmLZuF3rQw
• http://media4.onsugar.com/files/2013/11/15/636/n/1922398/4ebb15cda77b0281_chris
-pratt-ellen.xxxlarge/i/Chris-Pratt-Interview-Ellen-Show-Nov-2013-Video.jpg
• http://www.blainefranger.com/blog/uploaded_images/14_hawaii_MG_8486.jpg