Using Music in Student Movies (Australia)

During our digital storytelling workshops many teachers ask us about the use of music in student-created movies and digital stories.  Generally if the soundtrack is only going to be used for assessment purposes it is copyright exempt under the "fair use in education" rule (Australian law), however as soon as you plan to screen the production in public (even if it a free event to parents) you must get permissions.

Have you thought about getting students to create their own soundtracks? Garageband and Audacity are two programmes to consider. Another idea is to access the music created at your school by students - check out your music department and you may be surprised at how many soundtracks are available that your school holds the copyright for. Undertaking a collaborative exercise with music students creating a soundtrack for the video production is a fabulous and authentic experience for all involved.  

It is important to discuss copyright issues with your students during the production of any movies and digital stories that use soundtracks, whether they have created their own or whether they are using other people's, and to ensure they make a mention of the soundtrack and owner in the credits.

If you are using Finn Cragg's resources you will, by virtue of your unlimited education-site license, be able to utilise the image and audio files contained in the packs for all education and school screening purposes. We are also happy for schools to screen their Finn Cragg productions for fund raising events and to copy their productions into their student digital portfolios. Just give us a thanks in the credits!

We are not the only artists who allow this type of use and you can source other soundtracks from artists who are happy for people to have unlimited "open" use of their work through Creative Commons. You can find this information on the internet.

For some more information about using music in student productions check out http://www.smartcopying.edu.au.

What's so great about Digital Storytelling!

Okay, so what's so great about digital storytelling? Well, anyone with access to a computer can self-publish their own digital story. It might take the form of a personal account, creative narrative, short film, animatic or slideshow. Most digital stories are produced as a short film, usually around 3 to 5 minutes long and is visually rich, with image that sequence the storyline, backed by a meaninful soundtrack or voice-over. The images most often used include digital photos, scanned artwork, digital art and design.

If you have a Microsoft Computer you can use freely available programmes like Microsoft's Power Point, Movie Maker or Photo Story 3. Apple Mac users can use iPhoto and iMovie and they include some great templates that take all the hard work out of designing a layout for you!

The best stories are those that have a personal, unusual or interesting storyline, great images, enriched narrative and powerful soundtrack.

When students use the Finn Cragg images to remix into their own creative digital stories, I am amazed at how diverse their stories are, considering they are obtaining their pictures from the same bank of images. It goes to show just how creative our kids are and how powerful the editing process is. We have seen some excellent examples of student texts produced that show very clever choices of audio and a thoughtful selection of images to enhance their stories, many which have been taken with their own digital cameras.

Check out our website www.finncragg.com in the section titled Resources < Student Samples.

If you are already using Finn Cragg's multimedia resources we would love to see what you have produced whether it is a movie, digital story, comic or other publication.

Collaborative Learning with IWB's and Finn Cragg's Emu

By using an IWB connected to a DVD Player or computer you can immediately conduct a range of collaborative learning lessons developing audio and visual literacy and establishing the foundations for creative story writing.

Here is a sample procedure plan which scaffolds learning, spring boarding from viewing Finn Cragg’s “EMU and The Flying Doctor” animation to developing creative interpretations and animation critiques highlighting the importance of audio on a visual narrative, introducing story boarding, writing and creating digital stories. Finn Cragg’s stimulating animated content and storyboard resources, together with the IWB enable the story creation process to be taught and for a group-devised narrative to be created with ease.

The teacher or student scribe writes directly to the IWB screen utilising the Finn Cragg multimedia - storyboards or stills. Each page should be saved as it is “written” by the class so the young storytellers can keep a copy of the story they have created.

1. Set up your equipment Use a DVD player or computer that can play the DVD connected to the IWB. Test all is working prior to the lesson.
2. Finn Cragg’s “EMU and the Flying Doctor” DVD has two animation choices that can be played – the “Country” and the “Club Mix”. They are the same animation, which runs for approximately 5 minutes, but each is set to a different soundtrack.
3. Play the first animation.
4. Discuss the story with the class e.g. “What was that about?” "Who were the characters?" What did they do?" "What parts did you like the best?"
   Many students will show a high level of existing knowledge about animations and multimedia. Build upon this knowledge and develop new insights, understandings and guide critical analysis.
5. The animated story is set to a cinematic soundtrack (with no character speaking) enabling wide interpretative possibilities for the students. This enables them to understand how variations exist within audiences where viewers respond differently to the same production. Discuss the importance of sound in movies. Perhaps play the soundtrack without the visuals and identify sound effects, recalling what part of the movie they were linked with.
6. Play the second animation. Discuss the ways in which this one may seem to be different than the first version, and how the different audio track changes the pace, mood and style of the story. "Which one do they like the best?" "Why?" "Which would be more suitable to be played at an Australia Day ceremony?" "Which would be more appealing to a teenage audience?"
7. Find out which version the students prefer. Play it again.
8. Discuss further points the students wish to raise.
9. Introduce the importance of Storyboards by shwoing the on-screen storyboard stills. These 20 storyboard frames reflect each sequence of the story.
10. Tab through each of the 20 frames to show how the storyboard provides a visual summary of the animated story.
11. Discuss the difference between character dialogue writing and writing a narration, by giving an example on the first storyboard slide. Get input from the class to decide on what will work best for this first slide. Choose a scribe (or teacher to scribe) and invite ideas for each storyboard with appropriate dialogue and narration. You will find that students begin to develop a back-story, coing to an agreement about the names of the characters, enriching their vocabulary. Older students may benefit from utilising a thesaurus. Collaborative storywriting is a rich and authentic classroom task, which the students will thoroughly enjoy. If you want to take it further you could go to Step 12.
12. Utilising the on-screen slides of the 3D stills, the class can now develop a comic-style Digital Tale by using speech bubbles.
13. To change the story, the images can be re-sequenced or entirely new images added either from the Random stills included or from other external sources. To customise a picture, draw directly on the image with a programme like Microsoft Paint, KidsPix or Adobe PhotoShop as marks can be made to alter any of Finn Cragg images because the usual copyright restrictions have been lifted for use in digital storytelling education.
    
    

Student Stories and Remixes

Check out the video bar on the right hand side of this blog, or search You Tube for examples of digital stories and mini-movies made by students using Finn Cragg's multimedia resources. We have plenty of examples from primary through to secondary level and in various subject areas ranging from English to Media and the arts. If you are having trouble finding the samples send me an email lyn@finncragg.com.

A bit of a background: CARAVAN

Caravan, the story, explores a range of themes including aging, relationships, personalities, trust, fantasy, adventure, the past, present and the future (all this, and more, in just five minutes). Because the animated story is dialogue free, and set to an emotionally-driven cinematic soundtrack it is open to interpretation and can be studied from the aspects of the narrative construction through to the physical construction of the animation.
When I first met Martin Davidson, I was impressed with his mix of talents. His ability to design and develop all aspects of an animated production reveals a new breed of story teller; one who has the new generation skills that enable a story to be conceived, developed, created and told as an engaging self-contained 3D animation. Digital authors like Martin will become more prevalent as students graduate with this mix of talents that combine engineering and scientific process thinking with artistic expression. Martin synthesises the talents of story writing, design, 3D CGI animation and sound track production into a cohesive, charming narrative.
While new generation self-publishers have ready avenues to screen their mini-productions through the ever-growing internet video sites where short home-made videos are submitted and watched by millions every day, most of these home baked productions reflect poorly conceived themes, few storylines and substandard production skills. Nevertheless they obviously amuse and certainly attract attention due to their novelty and the desire for young producers to “show and tell.” How long this fascination will hold is anyone’s guess. The sheer effort it takes to wade through the rubbish to find a glimmer of brilliance is definitely not for the time poor. More importantly is the fact that our youth are busily making these expressions which means that teachers need to take heed.
The challenge for educators who do exert some influence over new talent is to harness this evident love of production and provide the necessary learning foundations that will ultimately improve the output, starting with a focus on how to engage an audience and enable a message to move, educate and entertain. By arming students with good quality learning experiences, strong literacy foundations and critical skills their productions will reflect this increased knowledge and strength in storytelling.
Having worked closely with Martin Davidson, a man who many have described as the consummate story teller, I have experienced first-hand how one person can tell a simple story that is visually powerful, even without dialogue. The powerful soundtrack created for Caravan is being used by teachers to expose students to the role of sound in enhancing a narrative and connecting audiences.

Analysing Finn Cragg's CARAVAN Animation: Using Four Resources Approach

ANALYSING CARAVAN – USING THE FOUR RESOURCES APPROACH
These ideas are from Finn Cragg’s teacher workshop “e-Merging Storytellers” at National ATOM Conference 2006, facilitated by Lyn Hawkins, Finn Cragg lyn@finncragg.com based on Freebody, P., & Luke, A. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect: Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(7), 7-16 and structured in line with the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Guide www.ltag.education.tas.gov.au).

Text Participating Questions:
· Prior to watching, predict what you think this animation might be about by looking at the packaging or opening screen and title, or the image from the opening scene?
· Does this animation remind you of something that has happened to you?
· What did you feel as you watched the animation?
· What would you do in this situation?
· How do you feel about the story?
· What extra or new information does the animation give you?
· Are the characters like anyone you know?
· What are the characters thinking or feeling? How do you know that?
· What might have happened to these characters before this? Develop a prequel, storyboard the scenes. Create it.
· What might happen next? What gives you this idea?
· What do you think the next scene will look like? Create it.
· If you could ask the old lady in the animation a question, what would it be?
· If you could ask the old man in the animation a question, what would it be?

Code Breaking Questions:
· How did you work out what the story was about?
· Which aspects of Caravan are symbolic and in what way?
· What is the role of sound in the animation?
· Which other symbols and codes could be used in a story like this?
· Are there any patterns you can identify in Caravan?
· How is the lighting used differently throughout the story?
· What can you tell about the characters even though they don’t speak - how?
· Which scenes have the greatest impact and why?
· Is there an image in the story that is a close up, medium shot or long shot that creates special meaning in the story?
· In what way has colour and texture been used in this animation?
· How has design help create the story e.g. the interior of the Caravan or the caravan itself?
· Choose a scene that appeals to you and explain what is happening in this image and why you like it?
· What do you notice about the body language, facial expressions, clothing and behaviour of the characters?
· What is the meaning of a Caravan journey in the Australian culture?

Text Using Questions:
· What do you notice about the way this animation looks and sounds?
· How is this animation created?
· Which special features does this animation have?
· What is the purpose of this animation?
· In what ways is this animation like others you have seen?
· In what ways is this animated story different from a written story, a comic and/or a movie?
· Does this animation inform you? How?
· What words would you use in this animation? Develop the storyboard interpretations and create dialogue and narrative thinking about intended audience, message and meaning.
· What title would you give it?
· Create a web page, printed advertisement, brochure, poster, media release or commercial for the animation.
· How would the text be different if you were to create a poem or short story inspired by the images? Create one.
· What title would you give this?
· Choose your favourite image or scene and justify why this is your favourite.

Text Analysing Questions
· What do you notice about the way this animation looks?
· What genre would you describe Caravan to be?
· What opinions has the digital author/animator expressed? Why do you think that?
· What is fact and what is opinion in this text?
· What would the story be like if the main characters were young and not old? (or of a different culture?)
· Whose story is or is not being told in the text? Why?
· Is the composer of this text being fair? Explain.
· In whose interest is this text?
· How is the animator trying to make you feel? Why?
· How would this text be different if told in another place or time?
· Who does this text reject, silence or marginalise?
· Focus on the image of the old lady sitting on the thruster, reflecting (or another interesting image). Why do you think the animator created this image? What does it say to you?
· What view of the world and values does the animator assume that the reader or viewer holds? How do you know?
· How does the animation construct a version of reality?
· How does the animation use intertextuality to create its meaning? Give examples.
· Have you changed your opinion about specific people or events after watching Caravan?
· Having critically examined this text, are there any actions you’re going to take or things you would like to do?


NOTES ABOUT CARAVAN:

The five minute animated story is about an elderly couple venturing beyond the confines of their caravan, facing their fears and fragility by reveling in the freedom of space. The animation is accompanied by storyboards, soundtrack, still and animated clips that can be imported in editing programmes, along with original artwork. It is written and created by digital author Martin Davidson and published by Finn Cragg. For more details and a preview see www.finncragg.com or email service@finncragg.com.