4 The ingredients of a docutube
Let’s imagine that your young people have made an intellectual link between past and present and decided the central message they want their docutube to convey. They are making good progress: they now have the intellectual foundation for their docutube. It is now time to help your young people think about how they will convert their idea into audio-visual film.
Activity 5
Timing: Allow about 15–20 minutes for this activity
You are now going to watch again the short film about the ‘Planning’ phase which was at the start of this session. This film follows young people through the process of planning in Granada, Spain; Leuven, Belgium; and London, United Kingdom. As you watch the video, in the box below note down any specific advice which is shared about planning a docutube.
You will then explore some of these issues in more depth.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1 (repeated)
Transcript: Video 1 (repeated)
STUDENT 1:
The thing I found most surprising is how much planning there has to be, how much you have to think about what you're doing and the work that goes into it before even starting.
STUDENT 2:
We're just trying to keep it simple, not go into too much detail.
STUDENT 3:
Plan out everything because three minutes isn't a long time.
NARRATOR:
In Granada, the students have already decided on their line of inquiry. Now they must work out how to turn it into a film.
NADIA HINDI:
I think that learning about the past and the present through making videos is very powerful because it makes them actively engaged in the process, in the whole process.
NARRATOR:
In Leuven, the students are learning how important it is to consider the messages in pictures as well as words.
INSTRUCTOR 1:
First thing I'm going to start with is we're going to talk a little bit about vloggers and vlogging, OK?
KAREL VAN NIEUWENHUYSE:
RETOPEA chose vlogging in the plan phase because in this 21st century, we no longer live in a verbal culture, but we live in a visual culture. We live in a world of images. And moreover, the medium of vlogging forces young people to develop very clear and very articulate opinion.
NADIA HINDI:
We have to think clearly what is the message, what is the topic they want to transmit through the clippings, and only in three minutes. So they really have to be clear about their ideas.
STUDENT 4:
I think we should do both perspectives.
GAIL BLOCK:
Young people have to think really hard about the ingredients of the film. So that's the location-- where are they going to be filming? The people-- who are they going to point the camera at? Props-- do they need any props?
NARRATOR:
In London, they're thinking about the practicalities of who, what, and where they can film.
ANNIE POWELL:
It's not raining. You can go outside. You can go into the playground. You can use the breakout areas.
All I needed to do really was give them those ideas of where they might film. They then brought in their ideas of how they were going to tell their story. And in fact, they were trying to cram lots in. But they were quite disciplined about it. They recognised early on that they couldn't do everything.
STUDENT 5:
While we've done that scene and we're about to go to the chapel, we should film ourselves going there.
STUDENT 6:
Yeah, but before they have to-- we have to see what we're doing.
STUDENT 5:
Oh.
[LAUGHTER]
NARRATOR:
Sometimes it helps to get your ideas down on paper.
INSTRUCTOR 1:
What I'd like you to do is to start putting together this simple shooting script. So on this side, we're going to see what the shots are. On this side, we're going to have the audio. What this gives you is some sort of plan.
STUDENT 7:
You have to visually already know what kind of story you want to tell, select images you want to film even before you're actually doing it. So it is mentally a task as well.
STUDENT 8:
I think we have all very different ideas, and to bring all these ideas together, I think it's difficult. We don't have any experience, and the ideas are really abstract. So we are looking for something more concrete, and we think we found it now.
NARRATOR:
Conversations range widely. But in the end, the groups must find something they can point a camera at. It's a process of refining and looking for the essence of what they want to say.
STUDENT 2:
I would say, keep it simple, definitely, because as soon as you try to overcomplicate things, you're just going to get stuck.
ANNIE POWELL:
They had to keep it very, very focused, and they had to focus on what the story was that they were telling. And that was really important to keep it very, very tight.
NARRATOR:
At the culmination of the plan stage, the young people are asked to pitch their ideas.
KAREL VAN NIEUWENHUYSE:
In order to facilitate your thinking, I am going to ask you to pitch your story to me. The main worry should be what kind of story do I want to tell.
NARRATOR:
During the pitch, educators are looking for a well-structured story that uses pictures as well as words.
STUDENT 7:
We were thinking about Leuven, the setting we were in. And there are a lot of religious buildings and street names, which got us thinking, why are certain symbols of religion a problem and certain symbols are not?
KAREL VAN NIEUWENHUYSE:
And that's a very nice, surprising angle. We all know the street names. And all of the sudden, you start to think about it and reflect about it. So, great, yeah.
ANNIE POWELL:
That sense of pressure that they've got to get it ready and there's going to be a pitch, it builds the excitement, but it really focuses their minds.
STUDENT 9:
It questions our society as a whole. Why haven't we reached a point where everyone can live in peace?
GAIL BLOCK:
Intellectually, it's really making them think about ideas as translating them into a visual format.
NADIA HINDI:
They have to think about not only the message that they want to transmit, but also how to make it original, creative.
NARRATOR:
By the time they are issued with cameras, the young people have learned a lot about each other's points of view.
KAREL VAN NIEUWENHUYSE:
It is very important that young people learn to listen to each other-- to, well, to take someone else's perspective and to really try to understand because only then, only when we try to understand one another, we can move forward and try to come to more shared opinions or peaceful coexistence.
Video 1 (repeated)
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Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
Discussion
Here are some of the pieces of advice which might have stood out to you. You might have thought of others.
- Think about how to tell your story visually.
- Ask yourself what is the message, what is the topic?
- You can’t do everything in a film – 3 minutes is not a long time.
- Get your ideas down on paper first.
- Keep it simple.
Keeping the narrative straightforward
As one of the young people said: three minutes is not a long time! You will be surprised how quickly three minutes are filled up. Therefore, you will need to keep bringing the young people back to their central message. What is the essence of what they are trying to convey? How can their narrative clearly and concisely present this message?
From the video, you will have got the message that careful planning is essential to the docutube process. You will now go into more detail about different aspects of this.