This week, I had the opportunity to assist in an English classroom for upper school sophomores. The students were given the opportunity to either perform a scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, or record and edit a video of it. Before the class, Teacher D briefed me on the exercise and explained how she had already chosen the groups and the scenes that the students were to act out. She also mentioned that students in the past had always chosen to make videos, even though she believed the live performance to be easier given the time frame. (Students had two lessons to complete their work.)
And she proved correct in her prediction of what the students were going to pick. The vote for creating video projects proved overwhelming; students were enthused by the idea of making a movie. But in helping students plan out their projects, I also found that Teacher D was right with regards to her assumption that the live performance would have proved an easier task.
Though the majority of students were familiar with using iMovie (they had created personal projects prior to this one that involved video-editing software), it did not seem as though they were aware of filmic conventions — essential in the production of a short, narrative film. The planning stage had the majority of students thinking about who was to play each character, what the props were going to look like, and how they were going to costume themselves. But was missing from this planning was the consideration of how to actually shoot the sequences. Upon asking the students about what kinds of shots they were going to use and how they were going to put the narrative together, I received a lot of blank stares.
This made me consider why the students chose to use the filmic medium to present their scenes. It seems as though the idea of using new technology proved a novelty to them. The students seemed to be excited because making the movie seemed, in the words of one student, “really cool and fun… better than doing a boring performance… I hate acting”. Further, I think that making a film project seemed less serious than a full-on performance — not the case at all, but because films are “exciting” for them, they just seemed more fun to do.
But what are the implications? Personally, I think that it is essential to explain the construction and conventions of a medium before pushing students right in. Though I did not get the chance to watch the students actually create these films, I anticipate that they could have struggled to think about what shots to use and how to put them together. Given the one period that was allotted to them to shoot the film, the projects could have gone either way.
Tags: English, Fieldnotes, iMovie, Macbeth, Upper School