Short Film Script & Storyboard Student Feedback

In class I'm teaching students the process of creating a short film. We learned story structure and the required elements needed in Acts I, II, and III. Then they wrote their story in script format, which they found challenging. Last night they sketched their storyboards in preparation for filming. I have about 75 students creating a video and to give individual feedback on all of them would take too much class time.

So today, to be efficient in getting students feedback, I had each student share Act I of their storyboards. I told them that Act I was the most important part of their film and if you don't engage and connect with the audience, you won't have an audience for Act II & III.

This is how we gave feedback today in class while each student took about three minutes to explain Act I. With 24 students per class and 80 minutes of time, students were able to present and get effective feedback :
  • Students sketch their storyboards, take photos of the pages, and I project them on the screen
  • While presenting, the other students use my Google Doc form to give feedback
  • I am also giving feedback on the form & grading their presentation
  • After the student presents, they go and see the student comments for immidiate feedback

 

High Quality Audio Recording (with H4n)


In computer class the students are applying camera and lighting techniques to make music videos while editing in GarageBand and iMovie/Premiere. Over Christmas break in Hawaii I met up with my good friend Brad and my brother-in-law Chris to talk filming equipment. The H4n recorder was discussed since they both use it for their work in film (check out Brad's gear and his audio recommendations at http://hawaiishoots.com/gear/).

Yesterday my student Insoo recorded his guitar section of his song with the H4n and the quality turned out really well.

"Fix You" (Erica) was recorded by plugging the guitar directly into the H4n while "Milleniums" used the H4n's microphone while placed on the tripod (see image below). Feel free to compare the sound quality of the two.