Thursday, June 17, 2010

Postproduction Values, or It's All in How You Edit

My son recently finished a film course at the Jacob Burns Media Arts Center. They were nice enough to set up some classes for homeschoolers (read: before 3pm), so I figured this would be a good opportunity for Chase to learn about one of his interests. He had a great time! He wasn't so crazy about being filmed, but he enjoyed working behind the lens and editing. The six students were broken up into groups of two to work on editing and adding sound effects. On the final day, parents were able to watch their movies.

It was fun to see how each of the groups decided to edit the same raw footage. Each movie told the same story, but depending on which scenes were left in and what sounds were chosen for the background, you ended with a very different impression of the story. My son used a heartbeat sound to show tension when the characters were hiding from a man they thought was a killer. Another movie used suspenseful music for this same scene. The third left out the scene altogether. These choices affect how the viewer reacts to the scene.

With all of the attention radical unschooling has received lately in shows like Good Morning America and Nightline, I felt like this little film course and the work these children did took on greater meaning for me. After all, life is about our editing choices. What we choose to highlight in a situation--how we talk about the events of our days, choosing a lighthearted soundtrack full of happy, fast paced flutes and piccolos or the pensive sad tones of strings--this is what makes the difference in how we remember and what we choose to forget.

5 comments:

Inner Elder said...

What a great analogy! I agree. And Chase, way to go - I am so proud of you. Love, Mom/Grandma

Stephanie said...

That is a beautiful analogy -- very thought-provoking!

Barbara Frank said...

Nice post! I like your analogy.

Our daughter took a similar class several years ago. Evidently she remembered it all, because she recently made a video with her brother and everyone commented on how well-edited it was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FXtvlcvd18

(Our son is speech-delayed but he loves to act!)

Barb
www.barbarafrankonline.com

Vicki said...

Have I told you lately that I love you? I am so glad you can so nicely state that which seems to be so misunderstood by most. So many times I 'feel' I must edit what I say about my son's life: You let him choose his hair style and don't make him cut it ever? You let him decide what to read, eat, sleep??? You must be a terrible parent! Yeah, yeah...I've heard it all, but then they spend five minutes talking to him... ;-)

Today I read a bunch of post from people all over this country in a Mensa group I'm in. I was amazed at how many parents moved into homeschooling/unschooling because it was breaking their hearts as their children were being trained into apathy by third grade. The longer the parents waited to pull their children, the longer it took to bring them back into joyous living. I found it soul lifting to learn I'm not the only parent who choose to remove my child from the "system" so as they could truly enjoy learning.

You, Cristina, are far smarter then I! You never inflicted the suffering onto your kids and therefore, they never needed to be revived.

OH! I love the new look! It's clean and pretty and easy on the eyes! LOVE IT!!

Kez said...

Love your way of looking at things :)

I'm pretty sure my son would love to do a course like that! I often find weird & wonderful videos on my camera that he's taken :)

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