I assume that everyone older than me makes more money than I do and they smoked in High School. I also assume that everyone younger than me hated Seinfeld, but loved Friends and they also know more about technology than I do. Buckingham warned me a few times not to assume the expertise of the student’s technological ability.
In reference to media production, Buckingham said, “the majority of software programs students might use are designed for professionals, and are very time-consuming to learn.” In any situation that I have been working with high school or younger students, we have used very simple amateur editing programs, so this wasn’t really an issue, but I mention it here because I have noticed an interesting omission from the book. During my undergraduate in Film, I took two classes on the technical aspect of an editing program: Beginning and Advanced Final Cut. I didn’t learn anything in those classes because they were either teaching me things I already knew or things I didn’t know I needed to know. Because, in my experience, you understand the theory of something before you care how to do it. And shortcuts and key functions are not something I store away for later use.
There is a lot of discussion on the social benefits and the process of using technology and I agree that the final product may not be the true reward of the project, but I wish a bit more would have been made of the theory of production and storytelling with technology. Not that Buckingham needed to go over the institutionalized modes of representation, but I would have like a little pitch for understanding the form.
I believe that this is what leads to what Buckingham warns about later. The idea that the technology makes things look good and it is easy to cover up bad video (he is referring to Pop music videos specifically), so nobody cares about the mistakes. Buckingham is pleading for more knowledge on the part of the educator as well as more collaboration with peers so that everyone can learn together.
My fear is that we will lose the story. The BYU film department excels with story and helping its student to not be distracted by the spectacle, but to really look deep to find the theme and meaning.
I doubt I will ever spend time in my classroom doing much of a tutorial. People younger than me know more about technology than I do anyway. Also, they need to know why before they know how. This isn’t a rule, but it goes along with Buckingham’s idea on interactivity. The student needs to realize how many decisions they have the power to make. The consumer will interpret their product and they should at least have a basic educated idea of why they made those decisions. I think it will be hard for me to go through the film process with a student and still have them respond with “I don’t know.”
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Note: the words "word" and "court" nor this note were included in the word count.
1 comment:
Jeff, I would take your concept further regarding the "knowing why before how" because it has been my experience that it isn't even a matter of knowing "why" in the theoretical sense but more so knowing why because you "need to know" how to do something. Being taught how to use any program that I have used in the past has not been as helpful as it would have been to be told, "okay, here's your project - figure out the best way to do it" and then be given tutelage as you go along and have questions. Of course, you should know how to use the technology in its simplest forms (once upon a time I did technical support and I learned very quickly that some people did not understand what it meant to open up Internet Explorer or double click) before you get started but I believe that it is the hands on, getting in there and being creative and saying, "Oh man, I want to do this one thing but I don't know how" that really gets you learning.
The idea that we will lose the story isn't necessarily a bad thing, but your purpose had better be clear behind your use of narrative media in a non-narrative way. If you're doing something with the sole purpose of "expressing" than you aren't really doing much at all. However, if there is a clear purpose behind your use of media, I think it is fine to lose the story. Of course, I'm also of the mindset like Picasso - if you've ever seen his early works of realism, the man knew how to paint! Knowing how to follow conventions and do them well gives more leeway for being "out of the box." My opinion, of course.
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