Feb. 27 -- Two film festival things looming . . .

We have two film festivals on the docket right now. The MCPS Festival at Blake has a March 6 deadline with the exception of the Five-Day Film.

Next week is the 5-Day Film Challenge.

The categories are: Thriller, Sci-Fi, Super Hero, Time Travel, Musical and Buddy Movie. The video will be 4 minutes MAXIMUM.

On Monday morning, we will get the required 2 lines of dialogue AND the prop.

These must be in your film. All music must be royalty free or original. Otherwise, you are disqualified.

So the challenge is to write, shoot and edit a four-min. film in five days. Are you up for this?

Paint Branch has 8 teams already set up. Blake will have at least 3x that number. We will discuss teams on Friday.

Feb. 27 - MCPS Environmental Film Festival

Click here for info on the Environmental Film Festival that the county puts on.

We generally do very well at this festival with environmental shorts. Start planning for that NOW.

Ms. Greer
Silver Spring, Md.

Feb 25 - Today and Block Day

Pippin starts on Friday. Potential for many stories on the actors, the tech crew, etc.

We are going to shoot our PSAs today.

There is no time left. Deadlines are a friend sometimes.

Before the end of the quarter you will have shot a news package and a PSA.

Tonight is senior night. We need people to shoot that.

Friday we have two playoff games. Girls at B-CC and Boys at Whitman. We need people to shoot that.

Sports always turns into a beautiful news package. So maybe step up and think about taking that on.

Some of you will be doing special other projects for the competition (notably stop-motion or fiction or the five-day challenge). Everyone will be responsible for the PSA AND a news pacakage AND a special project before the end of the nine weeks.

Ms. Greer
Silver Spring, Md.

Feb 19 - PSA

Please look at your handout.

You will also get a storyboard for planning.

This is commit time.

Due Date: Friday end of school day.

PSA is done by every student in television production. It is a summative grade. 40 points.

You do not get a camera to go and shoot until you have turned in a good idea with a storyboard.

Here is a cool example that is pretty simple to do.

Another one is here.

Ms. Greer
Silver Spring, Md.

Jan. 18 - Snow Days make us lose momentum for competition

Let's get our act together today.

1. Make sure that your video scavenger hunt is uploaded to YouTube and the link was emailed to Joannagreer@mac.com. Include all members of your group in your email with their whole name.

2. Fill out the paper that I give you with your comments.

3. Bocce Ball video needs to be uploaded to the Buffalo (you all need to learn how to deposit your media there).

We have, however, had a tough time getting everyone access. That should be fixed today. So I want everyone to have it loaded to the Buffalo by the end of day tomorrow.

4. The next assignment is the public service announcement. You will be doing this on your own.

You can hire any actors or tech crew you would like.

They must be either :30 seconds OR 1 minute long. EXACTLY.

Ms. Greer
Silver Spring, Md.

Feb 6 and 7 -- Read this or . . .

As many of you heard, I am out the next two days in training to learn how to better do documentaries at Duke University (Go Terps!). I expect you to stay on task in my absence.

So . . . what are your tasks you might ask?

1. Get the bocce ball tape in order. I understand that you cannot tape your audio today or tomorrow unless you use your phones. So, you must have everything ready EXCEPT the audio which you will add in on Monday at end of class.
So write up your audio script and my advice is to keep it simple. I will be looking for simplicity, energy and good game explanations.
This is a formative grade of 25 points. New students who are just learning will be given some slack on my expectations, but do the best that you can.

2. Current Events Quiz. Every Friday. This week is different, however.
You are going to look at our news from some other perspectives on the following web sites. You will cruise around in these sites looking for what you think are important stories. Then you will write a current events quiz of 10 questions.
NOTE: ANYONE WHO COPIES DOING THIS WILL GET A ZERO.
I will be taking your test when I get back on Monday.
Turn your quiz into the sub before the end of the period on Friday. 10 pts. formative. Any question I miss you get an additional point.
BUT THE QUIZ MUST BE REASONABLE TO GET THE POINT.

3. You all know about The New York Times and The Washington Post as good sources for news.
But there are others. Especially from people who may have a different perspective. Here are the links to some of them:

Click here for the BBC.

Click here for the German and mid-European perspective.

Click here for The Guardian (they are the ones who have brought us much of the info from Mr. Snowden, the NSA leaker.

Click here for alternative news.

Click here for news from the Middle East.

Click here for another source of news that Bill Moyers claims he is dependent upon.

I offer these to you to look for ideas for your PSA's, too. Looks like they have plenty of environmental news if that is your choice.

Ms. Greer
Silver Spring, Md.

February 3 - Formative Grade (20 points)

First up, the Super Bowl was disappointing ad-wise. However, there is one Budweiser commercial that is great with storytelling.

You must watch this and take notes of all the techniques that the storytellers used to make this work. Write at least 20 techniques down and turn in for a formative grade. 20 points. I want a hard copy that shows you took notes while you watched the video. Turn in before the end of class today.

These techniques will make you better at media and will increase our competitive edge when we go to the Media Festival.

Secondly, Continue refining your bocce ball video. If you are finished, please call me over to watch it on your computer and grade it.

Last, the following are videos you should look at to increase your skills. Watch them and pay attention to how they were shot and the story they tell.

Check out Eddy Alvarez here.

Click here for the GoPro link.

Click here for a piece on aging and dance.

Ms. Greer
Silver Spring, Md.