3 point lighting video

Found this video from Izzy Video on 3 point lighting. I like it because it so clearly shows the effect of each of the three lights: key, fill and back. Just discovered Izzy Video site and will be exploring it a bit in the days to come. Looks like there may be a more interesting content available here but majority is available for members only.


Three Point Lighting - The best home videos are here

Sound Effects

I often tell my video production students about a documentary I saw that had a short segment describing how they got the sound effects for Star Wars. Essentially some guys went out and recorded various sounds in the world and then used them as the basis for the effects in the film. The one I always remember is a man with headphones and a recorder hitting the guy wire for a structure. That sound eventually became the laser blast sound you hear in the movie. I encourage them to be creative in their projects and not just use the same canned sounds that everyone else uses.

My enthusiasm falls on deaf ears. If I'm not going to grade them on it, assign it or twist their little adolescent arms and walk them on their tiptoes over to the sound equipment, it's not going to happen. The other video teacher and I have been talking a lot lately about how our students are doing great with the visual aspect of their projects but tend to ignore the sound. So, I've been thinking about ways I can get them to start listening. Paying attention to the sound levels. Maybe build an assignment around creating sound effects as the first step towards building an audio awareness of their work.

So, I was pleased to see this Guide to Sound Effects. It will be a part of my new improved lessons on sound next year.

[Update: Found this site about the man who did those star wars effects, Ben Burtt]

[via Make]

[Image: "Headphones, glasses, smile": Flickr: Uploaded on June 10, 2007 by allaboutgeorge: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allaboutgeorge/540043362/: Creative Commons]

Tape Measure Basics

Did you ever have one of those "dotty" relatives who talked to themselves while they worked?

We'd giggle about how Uncle Sam would be talking to his tools and describing to the tool what he was going to do before doing it. Now that I've taught for a few years I realize that this was a great teaching technique. I use it all the time now and will often think out loud so my students can hear my thought process. It makes me sound a little dotty and I'm sure my kids giggle behind my back too. I started doing this when I was a Social Studies teacher and would talk to the text book's author and ask him questions as though he were there in the room. I'd admonish my students to develop a two-way relationship with their textbook. "There is a person behind those words, learn to talk to him. Ask her questions!"(I'd like to take credit for coming up with this idea but I heard it in a workshop.)

I use this often with my kids as I talk myself through the steps it takes me to accomplish something. I find when I don't do this, what I've done looks like magic. Like it just happens. I had a friend once in frustration say to me after I solved a technical problem she was having, "How did you do that? Do you want to keep me stupid?" I realized that I had done all my thinking in my head and it just looked like magic. I'm trying to do think outloud more with the adults around me but for some reason I feel more self-conscious with my peers. Maybe I don't want them to think I'm dotty?

I wish my dad had talked to himself more while I was around. I think maybe I would have learned more as I followed him around the construction sites where he worked. I think we would all do better with a few more dotty adults hanging around. But, if you are short on dotty relatives take a look at this site, Remodeling for Geeks. I read the posts regularly to pick up a few of those tidbits of wisdom I missed while growing up. He has a couple of posts that explain tape measures. I thought when I saw this, "I know how to measure." Well guess I had a few things to learn.......if Dad had only talked to his tape measure!

[Image captured from Remodling for Geeks: http://theheadlemur.typepad.com]/remodeling_for_geeks/]

The Groucho Walk

Another little tid-bit I picked up at the Videomaker conference last week.

If you need to walk and film at the same time and don't have access to a truck or any kind of stabilizer. Walk like Groucho Marx. The exaggerated walk helps steady the shot.

I looked for an example of this on the web for you folks who are too young to remember a Marx Brothers film. No luck. I did find a few references to this style of walking for people in law enforcement or the military who are shooting a gun. It does the same thing....keeps your upper body stable.

Essentially, keep your knees bent and your torso a little lower to the ground. Then walk. It looks weird but it works. I've included another tutorial from Videomaker today describing some other techniques for keeping your camera steady.



While searching for the Groucho Walk, I did spend a lot of time reading about Groucho Marx and watching some clips of his movies. It was a fun search. I'll leave you with a few quotes:

“One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know.”

“If you've heard this story before, don't stop me, because I'd like to hear it again.”

“I was going to thrash them within an inch of their lives, but I didn't have a tape measure”

“If I held you any closer I would be on the other side of you.”

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

[Image captured at http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/shokoff/Filmhome.htm]
[Quotes gathered from ThinkExist.com: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/Groucho_Marx/]

Better photos through composition

Quick tutorial on improving photos through composition. The author give two easy techniques: one with your camera and the other with your photo editor.


Show it to your students and set them loose for a fast lesson on your first day back after suffering the indignities of a nasty stomach virus.









[Image: Captured from Information Addicts: Change Your View, Change Your Composition: http://www.informationaddicts.com/change-your-view-change-your-composition]

Improve your videos

Five quick and easy tricks your students can use to improve their videos explained in this short piece posted on Instructables. All cheap. All student accessible. It might even get them thinking about other ways they could improve their videos with readily available materials. Heck, they could even create their own how-to video!



Kipkay's Video Tricks & Tips! - video powered by Metacafe

[Original Source: Lifehacker: Improve Your Videos or Photos with Five Cheap Tricks: http://lifehacker.com/351727/improve-your-videos-or-photos-with-five-cheap-tricks]
[Image: Captured from video: Kipkay's Video Tips & Tricks: Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Kipkays-Video-Tips--Tricks/]

How To: Limit a Google Search to EDU sites

I was reminded of this trick while browsing Lifehacker. You can limit your search results in Google to show only educational (.edu) sites.

To do this, type the following into Google:

site:.edu "search topic"

Lets say I wanted some photos that were royalty free or free for educational use. It might be helpful to limit my search to edu sites so I type in:

site:.edu photo

I did this and discovered this cool gallery of crocodile photos sponsored by the University of Florida that are free for educational or non-profit use.

That's where this neat picture was hiding.

[Image: King, F. Wayne. "American crocodile, Crocodylus acutus.." Crocodilian Photo Gallery. 1996?. Florida Museum of Natural History. 9 Oct 2007 .}

Give Blogging a Try

Several years ago I did a presentation for the technology support group in my school district on how to create a personal blog using Google's Blogger. Many of us were excited on how this tool could be used in education and wanted to get it into teacher's hands. On that same day, the district coordinators passed out a book, The World is Flat, to use as a discussion starter at our monthly meetings for the rest of the year. Since we were learning about Blogs, I volunteered to create one where we could share our thoughts on the book in between our meetings. It was a success in that everyone had a chance to post and comment on a working blog. It was a worthwhile experience and I learned a lot as the moderator.

Blogging never seemed to catch on in our district after that initial push. I have been told by teachers that they thought it was a "good idea, but":

"Its too hard."

"I don't know how to do it"

"Seems like it will take too much time."

I think it is a valuable tool and want to offer a few resources today that may encourage you to explore it's use in your classroom.

First, there are many possibilities available to you in creating a blog. I like and use Blogger because it is easy to setup and maintain. There are other options though and here is a partial listing of some of the blogging programs available. My district started using Gaggle this year for student email and if you have access to that program, it has a new blogging feature.

Second, I wanted to gather some sites together with suggestions on what to do with your blog once you have it up and running.

• Edublog has an article on "10 Ways to Use Your Edublog"
• Distributed Teaching and Learning. Nice explanation of the idea of "scribe posts". Daily class notes that are posted each day by the students.
  
• “Let’s see if I can start a log…” Long post by Will Richardson who writes about his experience setting up classroom blogs since 2001.
• Blogging 101: Web Logs go to school: Article on CNET about blogging in education.
• Anne Davis, from Georgia Stage University, writes about Rationale for Educational Blogging. She is one of this year's presenters at K12 Online Conference and will be giving a related presentation: Learn to Blog: Blog to Learn.
  

Third, here is a sampling of classroom blogs I found online.

• Room 9's Writing Spot: (Primary)
  
• Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog: (Primary)
  
• Critical Issues in Literature Block 3: (High school)
• Web Pages and Portfolios: (High school)
  

I'm not the first to promote blogging to teachers and there is a plethora of information on the internet. I gathered and reviewed all this information in an evenings time. Every time I go back to the web to check something out for this post, I find another item I want to include. For example, I found this site that lists resources and examples for potential bloggers.

Pick a program. Start small. Give it a try.

[image:© Radu Razvan - Fotolia.com]

HowTo: Extract pictures from a PowerPoint presentation

This dilemma came up a couple of times last year at my school. Person comes to me in a rush and wants to get a picture out of PowerPoint. In both cases, since time was an issue, I just grabbed a screenshot. I promised myself that someday I would find out how to do this, but it has never made it to the top of my to-do list.

When I stumbled across this post I thought, "Aha! I knew there had to be an easy way!" Export the PowerPoint as a web page and the pictures will all be put in a file. Simple. Easy to do.

Go to this article, Extract Pictures from PowerPoint Photo Slideshows - Simple Hack to get a detailed explanation. While you are there, browse around Digital Inspiration. You're bound to have one or two "aha" moments yourself.

"Extract Pictures from PowerPoint Photo Slideshows." Digital Inspiration. 2007. Digital Inspiration. 16 Sep 2007 .