INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENT

(Choose one of the following - or come up with something new - but let us know first!)

  • Commercials are often the best “stories” told in 30 seconds or less.  Ask students to find broadcast commercials (on Utube, etc.) that they feel tell the most compelling stories the best stories and post them on our site.  Each commercial should have a storyline, characters and a conclusion.  The same can be done with MTV shorts. Similarly, the worst commercials could be posted.  Students should write at least one line of commentary explaining what they did/did not like about each clip.

  • We need story ideas for docs made from the footage.   It could be broken down into 30 sec, 60 sec, 1 minute, 3 minute, etc. slots.  For example:

    • 60 second:

      • Make a PSA that explains some aspect of the situation in Darfur or a refugee camp to children from grades 1-6.

      • Make a donor reel to convince people to give money (or simply to learn more about) Darfur.

    • 3 minute:

      • Make a 3 minute “Join the Army” spot convincing college grads to volunteer to work in Sudan for three months.

      • Choose one aspect of Sudanese culture (i.e. weddings) and describe it in a thorough, educational, and entertaining way.

      • Cut a news piece that CNN might run.

      • Cut a human-interest piece that Good Morning America would pick up.

      • Create a science/nature based short that might fit on Nat. Geographic's’s Wild Chronicles.

    • 5-10 minute:

      • Produce a piece exploring what the Sudanese can teach us (Westerners).  We are so used to seeing them as “victims” and ourselves as “saviors” but Darfurians have a resilience and strength that we could learn from.  This angle would truly astonish an audience who was expecting another Poor Africa doc…

      • Read through the transcripts and find one pivotal sentence (Alfadil explaining why the Sudanese have so many children) and build around it.  Or find one shot (the refugee boy playing with the bright plastic toy gun) as the center of its own story.

      • Choose an issue relevant to Darfur or the camps and cut a compelling short for a congressional hearing.

      • Create a short for your local science/history museum.

    • 15-30 minute:

      • A holistic view of life in a Sudanese refugee camp.

      • Put together a 5-minute piece about Sudan or Chad (i.e., Jeda, the 16-year-old volleyball player and her dream to become a doctor or teacher).  Invite local Sudanese to view your cut and then film their reactions and/or interview them.

  • Podcasting has become very easy in Final Cut Studio.  A weekly news podcast about Sudan would be fantastic addition to the project.  Have students check the papers, write up a brief summary, read it in and upload.  Ask other project schools to email stories they come across each week.  Here’s a recent example:

Some of you may have read that Somali pirates hijacked a tanker off the east coast of Africa and discovered – to their surprise – that it was filled with grenade launchers, munitions, and 30 tanks.  The pirates were thrilled.  Needless to say, the US (and Russian) governments were not.  A two-day chase ensued.  The story was picked up by the global press and an interesting fact came out -although the shipment was originally listed as going to Kenya, it was apparently on its way to… Sudan.

(NOTE: The Study school in Canada is already working on this for 2008-2009. They would love to have other schools join them!)

  • We badly need a workflow flowchart.  Something that starts with “Students get footage” and goes through steps to the final product.  If several different teachers or students do this for different projects then people can compare strategies.  We will post them and teachers can add/annotate on the website.

  • For those with website editing experience, we need to post the instructions and supporting materials and make them downloadable. 

  • A listserv for staff to support each other.

  • Another listserv for key student issues

  • Find trailers, shorts, student and professional video stories on the web that have interesting editing techniques or ideas and post them on the site.

  • And, of course, curricular modules.  I’ve had quite a few requests for this already.  Choose a self-contained piece of the footage (wedding, butcher-surgeon, etc.) and come up with an educational module that a teacher can use to turn that footage into a project.

  • We desperately need educational curriculum to go with the tape summaries and transcripts.  If schools start to pool what they create then we will quickly have a library of choices and resources.

  • Background and supporting information:  URLs for other relevant sites, movies to watch, books to read, etc.

  • For teachers mostly:  I am putting together a database of information on participating schools.  Anyone who has a good working knowledge of Access, I would very much appreciate your advice.

  • We also need to revise our pre/post-project evaluation form to see where we succeeded and where we can improve.

  • A technical advisor for each software package being used within the project (FCP, FCE, Avid, Sony Vegas, etc.)

  • More ideas for this list.