Media Art: How we use media in class

Here's a short video created entirely on the iPhone using Vine, Relay, & Instagram with students from media art and the art honor society in school yesterday showing how Mr. Needles classes uses media in innovative ways to engage students in the classroom and community.

Media Arts: Extra Credit

This month's extra credit assignment for Media Arts class is to see and write a short review of the film Boyhood by Richard Linklater and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater and Ethan Hawke.  The film was made over a period of 12 years and follows characters as they grow up through elementary, middle, and high school and what they deal with in the process.  It's extremely innovative in its scope and is a must see film for any student of the medium.  the extra credit is due on October 1.

Media Arts: Welcome, lets get global!

Welcome to all of the new students in Mr. Needles media arts classes this semester!  In this class we'll be taking part in a very special program from the Global Nomads Group entitled Global Citizens in Action.  The program uses new media to open an exchange between classroom in Smithtown with classes in Pakistan and Afghanistan and we'll be using SKYPE and videoconferencing to actually talk in person live with classes and have an ongoing conversation.

Our first video conference is going to be Tuesday, February 4 at 7:20am (aka the 2nd day of class) which means that we have a bit of important preparation to take care of on our first day!  The theme of the first exchange will be understanding each other's worldviews but before we begin we need to talk about how to have a successful video conference across the world and take a brief survey to understand a bit about what we know and how we feel now.

Media Art: The White House Film Festival Submissions

One of our final assignments in Media Art class is to create an entry for the new The White House Film Festival using all the tools we learned in class.  for this assignment students were given create freedom in interpreting how to best illustrate STEAM in schools and how it might be important in the future of their education.  Above is a terrific example from Allie who used clips of our recent SKYPE and Google Hangout sessions along with examples from our ongoing Japan Society program Going Global in her piece, great job!  Make sure you films are totally completed by Thursday this week (we may have quite a bit of snow coming our way so you might want to bring some material home to finish your projects)! 

Media Art: School Shorts

Today we are going to look at some really successful short films about school in preparation for our work on the White House Film Festival.  Above is a short from the This American Life series on Showtime, one of my all-time favorites.  The short has a great true story illustrated with Chris Ware's drawings animated by John Kuramoto.  It is a professional example by should help giving you an idea of a different approach to your short.

Welcome to 2014!

Welcome back everyone (for at least a day anyhow) but there are only 14 school days left of the quarter and in some cases the class! Keeping that in mind, here's a project we will be working on next week that you should consider before we begin:



THE WHITE HOUSE FILM FESTIVAL- due January 29, 2014
films must be 3 minutes or less

THE PRESIDENT HAS AN ASSIGNMENT FOR YOU
Our schools are more high-tech than ever. There are laptops in nearly every classroom. You can take an online course on Japanese -- and then video chat with a kid from Japan. You can learn about geometry through an app on your iPad. So, what does it all mean?
We’re looking for videos that highlight the power of technology in schools.
Your film should address at least one of the following themes:

1. How you currently use technology in your classroom or school.
2. The role technology will play in education in the future.

Here are some topics that you may want to consider as idea starters when deciding what your video could be.
How does technology help with:

• Personalized Learning
• Online Learning
• Global Collaboration
• Student Creativity
• Making and Tinkering
• Project Based Learning
• Critical Thinking

Consider showing the following in your video.
These are examples only:

• The use of technology as a creation tool
• The use of technology in new and innovative ways
• The use of technology to access high quality online content and resources

Media: Filmmaking Basics

Today in media arts class we began going over the basic film making terminology and discussing how a film or television show is made.  We'll be using much the same process in class with all of our projects including our next one, the montage project, which will help you get introduced to the equipment.  Above is one of my favorite film montage segments from the Pixar film UP which shows the relationship between the main character Carl and his wife Ellie.

Media and Art Honor Society: Spring field trip

This Friday is our Media & Art Honor Society spring field trip and one of the show's we'll be seeing is JR's.  Above is a great video showing how he did the Times Square pasting last week.  Make sure you have you permission slip and check by tomorrow if you plan on joining us, it should be fun and informative!

Media Arts: Going Global- Our town

Today we will continue working on the Going Global project and in Media Arts class we will work on arranging the photographs that we've taken of our town and local sights in Photoshop and then posting them to the social network to show the students in Japan and Pakistan what our community is like.  Above is a great photo Don took last week of the St. James General Store which, aside from being a popular local landmark, is the U.S.'s oldest continuously operational general store.

Skype talk with screenwriter Kevin Bisch

Yesterday we had a fantastic and candid talk with screenwriter and Smithtown alum Kevin Bisch via Skype in the classroom.  Kevin discussed his days at Smithtown East, how he broke into the business, his professional advice, and the story of his first big film Hitch as well as answering questions from students.  Above is a short snippet from the hour long discussion which proved to be both a terrific learning experience as well as a fascinating story!

Animating the Alphabet

Mr. Needles media arts classes are working on creating an alphabet animation using hand drawn frames. Each student will create a 50 frame animation based on a letter they are given and morph images that begin with that letter into their sequence (Letter A: Apples, Alligators, Andrew Jackson). All of the letter sequences will be combined into a full animation of the alphabet which can be used to teach elementary school students next year.

Here's an example of a finished storyboard


Here's an example of a finished name credit and below is an example of what the final individual animated segment looks like.