documentary entry nhd

DocumentariesDocumentariesProducing Quality

Terry Kidd, HISD CurriculumTerry Kidd, HISD Curriculum

•http://hisdsocialstudies.wikispaces.com•http://hisdsocialstudies.wikispaces.com

History Fair Theme

• Innovation in History: Impact and Change, will challenge your students to uncover innovations that have changed history.

• As the students select different research topics, they must decide if and how certain innovations have changed history.


Questions to Consider• Why did this innovation happen at this particular time and in this

particular place?

• In what ways was the innovation new?

• What need in society did the innovation fill and what changes occurred to society because of the innovation?

• What benefits did the innovation provide, and to whom?

• How did people react initially, in the short term (within a few years), and over the longer term (in later years), to the new idea, arrangement, organization, or technology?

• How did it change people’s ideas, scientific knowledge, everyday behavior, political processes, etc.


The Challenges • Allow students the opportunity to seek

meaningful connections with the history fair theme as they produce a quality documentary for competition.

• This is accomplished through knowing the content, the technology, and the history fair guidelines.


Elements of A Quality Documentary

Audience - Stories have a particular audience in mind.

Purpose - Stories are trying to accomplish a task (inform, educate, entertain)

Content - Content must be meaningful. Content adds to the story.

Voice - Stories are told from a specific perspectives and uses the tellers voice to enrich the story.

Technology - Technology is used to extend the story (ie. graphics, audio, and video).

Connections - Good stories connect with the participants.

Economy - Stories tell enough to get the point across and no more.


Telling the Story

• A good documentary also uses: – Seamless integration of the narrative – There is a connect with the content

• The narratives know and understand the materials

– Includes a combination of medias including quality graphics that relate and video clips.


Planning Steps• Brainstorm an idea for your story.

• Consider audience and purpose.

• Develop a narrative script.

• Create a simple storyboard to determine the sequence of the story.

• Collect or create images for the story

• Identify music for soundtrack


• Photo Story 3 (Free from Microsoft)http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

• Movie Maker (Free from Microsoft)http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx

• Audio - GoldWave (Free from Goldwave)http://www.goldwave.com/

• System Requirements (Requires Windows XP & Windows Media Player 10) http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/

sysreqs.mspx

Tools for Creating Documentaries


Finding Images & Audio on the Web

Image Search Engines• Google• Picsearch• AltaVista• Library of Congress• Digital History

Audio Search Engines

• AltaVista

• Singing Fish


A Few Words about Copyright

Disclaimer: Provide source attribution and a credit/reference slide.


Friendly Tips• Make good friends with both the tech apps and the

media arts teacher.

• Continue to use the Innovations in History Guideline as your framework as you help students create products.

• Work with your students to understand it is about the quality of the historical content and less about the bells and whistles of technology

documentary entry nhd

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