#MediaMonday: Visual Poetry

Good Morning Everyone,

As many of you will only have your students for a few days this week (if even at all) I wanted to send out a quick lesson that you could plug in anywhere to bring you one step closer to roasted turkey, loud family members, and that regret that sets in after returning to the desert table for the third time simply because you are not feeling "too bad". 

Here is the lesson: Thanksgiving Visual Poetry Short Film

Visual poetry is a specific type of documentary where you arrange your narrative around visually appealing images and that collection of the images tells the story. Thanksgiving, for most, is all about a collection of many things and not just one moment. Therefore, assign your students to do the following:

Make a list of their favorite parts of Thanksgiving

Identify a visual representation of each of their "favorite parts of Thanksgiving"

i.e. If they like "eating", then a visual representation can be the table, the turkey, rolls, pie, etc. 

Turn the visual representations into a storyboard or a shot list, identifying exactly what each shot is going to be.

Tool around freemusicarchive.org or another royalty-free site and find a instrumental song that represents the tone of Thanksgiving. 

During Thanksgiving, have them film their shot lists on their phones, getting all of the planned shots and maybe some additional ones. 

Encourage your students to use whatever editing software is the most readily available (maybe even a phone editor) and cut their visual poetry docs together over break.

Remember to edit the shoots to your pre-chosen song.

I would also recommend keeping these under a minute. 

When they all get back from break, share their docs with the group. 

NOTE: I recommend not allowing students to ask questions to the filmmaker but simply discuss how meaning was constructed. This allows students to dig into the pieces and find meaning instead of having the creator fill in all of the blanks. 

Enjoy the docs (and the break) and I will talk to you all soon!

Josh Cantrell