Making Book Trailers

This summer I am taking a course through Simmons in creating book trailers. I am learning about tools that are new to me, considering what to include and what to leave out and am newly impressed with how music changes the tone of a video. 

Here is a first try. I am hoping to join with students to make book trailers for the 2014 - 2015 nominees for the Massachusetts Children's Book Awards. 
Making book trailers is fun and rewarding. It's also time consuming. While I hope to create plenty of my own, enlisting students to make them seems like a good idea. 

 

Why Do You Deserve to Win?

Over the past summer I enjoyed things I never had time for during the school year – sleeping in to 6:00 a.m., sitting in the park for hours and enjoying the breeze and reality t.v.

One show in particular has sparked my interest – Project Runway. I have a passion for fiber arts and this show expands my vision. While I watch the show with the purpose of exploring a passion, my librarian brain will kick in and one thing keeps nagging at me.

Imagine the scene: Three designers exhausted, yet exhilarated after their emotional runway shows during Olympus Fashion Week stand in the spotlight of The Runway. They stand before the judges who will tell them who will win an incredible, life changing career package. The judges deliver their impressions of the collections – both the good and the bad. Here is the moment that grabs me every time. One of the jusdges asks:

“Why do you deserve to win?”

A simple question. The question should be easy to answer for someone who believes in their passion. It should be easy for someone who has spent months putting together the collections. They have certainly had time to ponder the question as they sew. They have seen the work of the other competitors. They have worked with them closely and had opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the other two on the runway. It should be a piece of cake to say a few sentences that sum up their strengths and merits.

But they can’t.

For the most part they fumble. I’ve heard their responses. They run along these lines:

“Because I’ve wanted it since I was five years old.”
“Because I’ve come this far.”

“Because I’ll crumple up and die if I don’t.”

“Because I need the money.”

“Because this is my only chance to put out my own line.”

“Because I want it so badly I can taste it.”

These answers do not address the question. One wonders whether it is the pressure, the lack of sleep, the intense emotional punch of the experience that throws them off course. I know I couldn’t survive their schedule. Still, could it be that they are not prepared to explain themselves?

As librarians and educators preparing our students for the 21^st century these answers make me feel a recommitment to teaching children skills to help them present themselves so that when they are asked “Why should you win?” the answer has more to do with assessing their achievements and little to do with desires and feelings. While feelings and desires drive us to learn, grow and develop ourselves, they are not a great persuasive argument for landing a job, an award or a prize.

Those designers who substituted their feelings for a carefully polished artist’s statement, lost the opportunity to sell themselves and make the judges see their vision.

Need ideas and resources for writing your artist statement? There are two resources I recommend. I’d rather be in the Studio!: The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self Promotion by Alyson B. Stanfield is chock full of insightful, practical information about artist promotion that can be put into motion. Stanfield is active on twitter at @abstanfield and runs workshops through her blog.

Another great resource is Writing the Artist Statement by Ariane Goodwin. This is a very different book. More introspective, almost meditative, the book is a set of writing exercises designed to help the artist to understand their work before writing the statement.

Both of these books have inspired my thinking. I hope you will find them helpful as well.

So you have done a great job doing whatever you do. Why do you deserve to win?

Online Safety and Euphemisms

Sometimes the way we talk to children amuses me. For example, people have no trouble seeing a child in a grocery store/park/church/zoo and asking “How old are you?” will become angry when the child asks the same question. “Children today have no manners!” humph.

It is no laughing matter, however, that children today have many different configurations of living arrangements. As the custodian of a great percentage of a child’s waking hours, those of us who work with them struggle to always find words that will embrace and affirm all of the children in our care. Instead of saying “Have your Mom read this to you” as teachers may have years ago, we now go through all kinds of verbal gymnastics to be inclusive. I, for one, think this is a good thing, even if it can get silly at times.

One of the terms that makes me giggle is “trusted adult.” We say things like “Get your trusted adult’s permission before using the Internet” or “Your trusted adult must sign this permission form.” I can imagine the people children identify as “trusted adult” might shift from day to day depending on who lets them watch TV or stay up late or have cake and ice cream. Still, the phrase is valuable because it describes not only a relationship of power, but also one of trust. You can’t always trust the people in charge of you. This term may empower children to seek out and engage in conversation with those who are trustworthy. Sometimes children understand the issues more than we would imagine.

The term also made me think of all the adults who are posting about children in their online interactions. They may or may not be blood relations. They may or may not be a family. They may be entrusted with the safety and well being of the child for part of the day. What information are the adults divulging that is detrimental to the safety of the children in their care? Many of us think long and hard before doing anything to compromise the identities of the children in our care.

One day I decided that if we are asking children to have trusted adults, we should step up to the plate and trust the children as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating letting them cross the street alone or make unguided decisions about meal choices. Yet children are worthy of trust and need to have opportunities to rise to the expectations. That is why you will see me post about my trusted teen (TT), my trusted middle-schooler (TMS), my trusted kindergartener (TK), my trusted preschooler (TPSK) and my trusted toddler (TTOD). I’m thinking about posting about my trusted retiree (TR) as well.

It sounds silly when you put them all together this way, but I feel we should be consistent with the terms we expect children to use and the terms we use to post about them. I want children to hear that they are worthy of trust, to feel empowered and to learn that they are not just helpless, dependent beings. They are also capable of being trusted, being dependable and being active members of their community. I also want them to know that I care about their privacy and safety. The best way I can let them know it is to demonstrate it in the way I share information related to them.

Six Degrees of Separation

Art by Deborah Davidson

http://etegamibydosankodebbie.blogspot.com/

This week seems to have been a test of the theory of “six degrees of separation” for me. If you aren’t familiar with Frigyes Karinthy’s theory, it states that people are so connected that there are only about six threads between any two people in the world. I can see how Karinthy’s background could lead him to this conclusion. He was an author, playwright, poet, journalist and translator. Not only would the type of activity he engaged in provide a life of voluminous contacts, but the types of activities he engaged in were those which consisted of making connections. If the only activity in his biography was “translator” that alone would explain his belief in the nature of connection.

Debbie Davidson read the poem I included in my last post and asked permission to create art for it. Imagine that! In fact she made two versions. I like them both so much that I included one here and the other at the head of the last post. Debbie is one of those marvelous people who can take a less than perfect situation and mill what positive there is to be had from it. I know I said this in the last post, but I’ll repeat myself. If you haven’t checked out her blog, Etegami by Dosanko Debbie and her series on “Humanizing the Quake” you are missing out on pure beauty. I feel so humbled to have such beautiful artwork inspired by my writing and to read her thoughts on my poem. Heady stuff.

I also heard from Ann Dixon, Alaskan children’s book author. Amidst the back and forth of catching up with each other, I found out about her blog, Kid Lit North: Where Ravens Roam and Writers Dream It introduces books about northern climates and sheds light on places and events I can only dream about. Years ago during an emergency landing in Anchorage and subsequent surprise overnight stay there, my eyes were opened to the beauty of Alaska. I had always wanted to return, though I prefer to make it a planned visit next time. Through Ann’s books, website and blog I catch a glimpse of the trip I would like to take.

Last Sunday, I headed into Boston to the Boston Museum of Science to see the exhibit “Race: Are We So Different?” It was a thought-provoking exhibit questioning the notion of race. Though many of the things I saw and heard were issues I had given thought to and pursued through reading, the way the exhibit was put together brought ideas together in a powerful way. It is clear that we are all more closely related than we may think at first. The reflections people offered about the richness of their heritage was inspiring, moving and sometimes humorous. The lines between us blur. There are only 12 letters between I and U. I would highly recommend this exhibit.

I also saw the movie “Australia” in the IMAX theatre. The film focused on how Australia and Antarctica were at one time joined and how one became a cold barren land while the other became a harsh desert climate. I learned plenty from the film, including the surprising information that kangaroos and koalas are descendants of the same animal. I also learned about the profusion of pelicans during years of plenty. The connection between life and the land is intricate and integral.

Still, I was disappointed not to see more of the vibrant wildlife that fellow participants of MoP (Month of Poetry) featured in their poetry or conversations. In the evening, I spent time chatting with Australian children’s book writers Kat Apel and Jo Hart about the wildlife they see where they live. I should have known…how can a continent so large and diverse be introduced in a mere 50 minutes? Granted, there is much truth to what the film asserts, but I was looking for a more inclusive view of Australia. One which included the gamut of climates, flora and fauna.

Later in the week, I had an experience that really ties it all together. The power of the internet in connecting us is something we take for granted, but sometimes it is borne out in ways that delight and amaze. When Debbie sent me the first illustration I asked her a bold question – did she know a friend of mine who was rumored to live in her neck of the world. Turns out she didn’t, but a friend did and so after many years I’m back in touch with a dear friend. It was a delightful and awe inspiring experience. I’ve never met Debbie. Just made her acquaintance on twitter a month or two ago. The world is a small and big place. We are connected to each other. Thank goodness. Thank goodness.

Using YouTube to Enhance Appreciation of Picture Books

When I started this blog as a project associated with the 23 Things course, I set up a YouTube account, played with it and dropped it. From time to time I thought about the account and how convenient it would be to get it back up and running. It would be a lot easier to tag the videos I enjoy and have them all in one spot. So this evening I logged back in and worked on my channel. While it is really in the infancy stage, I hope that I can use this channel as a resource that people can go to to find videos connected with children's literature.

The main thought I had this evening was to collect trailers for book which we have looked at for the Mock Caldecott. These trailers sometimes give insight into methods used for creating the illustrations, the inspiration for the story or other interesting details. I think that our Mock Caldecott participants will enjoy using this. While I was at it I thought of several other applications such as author/illustrator interviews, and trailers for movies made from books. I will be adding to this resource. If you are interested in looking at my channel, you can find it at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/purpleglassesclub

The Web – A Maze of Letters and Numbers

I’m still reading I’d rather be in the Studio!: The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion by Alyson B. Stanfield and probably will be for some time. It is one of those books you read and re-read. After reading a passage you digest, try your hand at it and come back to refine your thinking post-experience.

Something Stanfield wrote has me doing a lot of thinking. She mentions, in passing, that everything you do online is “text-based.” As teachers/librarians/parents/members of society we talk about, often bemoaning, children’s lack of attention these days. Often times the reason for this is attributed to digital media and the access to video games, television programming which caters to the rapid fire of visual stimulation. The internet is often thought of as a vast warehouse of multimedia which is dominated by visual and auditory stimulus. In truth, the dominant paradigm is actually text. Everything is linked through the use of text. Everything must be searched for using text – alpha numerically. The common way of searching does not involve drawing a shape on the screen and having the computer search for everything which shares that shape. It involves typing in words which will be used as search terms. Think of how difficult it would be to narrow down searches if they were done by shape, color or sound. Perhaps using SMARTPHONE technology would allow you to take a picture and search for iterations of that picture. That might be more successful. Still, it seems to me the tagging we do is more efficient than pictorial searching ever could be.

The old adage “a pictures is worth a thousand words” is alright as long as you do not expect my 1,000 words to be the same as yours. A picture of any celebrity will inspire admiration in some, loathing in others and a perplexed look in someone who has no context for the individual. We interpret visual stimuli based on our own experiences, values and needs. Let’s face it, when a teenage girl and her parent go shopping one of them will look at a skirt and think it is too long. The other will think it is a wash cloth. Visual images are not static in interpretation. Truth be told, neither are words.

I’m willing to be educated about the possibilities of visual search engines. My search on the web didn’t show me anything which I thought looked close to giving the kind of results we now get with text based search engines. I’m sure Steve Jobs is working on it.

Ultimately what this means is – writing really matters in a digital world. Content is the base, the backbone, the jumping spot. Years ago I was talking to a family member who is very tech saavy. He told me that he had thought about starting a website and then realized that a good website has to have more than cool stuff. A meaningful website needs to have a purpose. It needs to have content. So do we in creating one. Content is the stuff which holds all the glitter together. Without it even beautiful images are adrift. Looking on Bing’s Visual Search I was struck by this. The photograph of Queen Elizabeth II without the text “world leaders” could possibly be link to biographical information about the Queen, the royal family or great hats. The text clues us into the values that the designer used when the page was formed. In creating content critical thinking is imperative. Text sure helps.

Our efforts toward strengthening ELA skills in students should not waver in the face of the digital paradigm. No. Our resolve to maintain high expectations for reading and writing throughout this time of technological growth must not be shaken. The format for many of the things we take for granted will change. The degree to which this comes to pass is really anyone’s guess. However, whether interacting with bound books, ebooks or web content, students need the skills of reading for comprehension (not just decoding), writing and creating content using their critical thinking skills to be successful players in the digital arena.

My Phone - the iPhone

After much thinking, researching and drooling, I finally purchased an iPhone. That was about 3 weeks ago. It’s funny. The day I bought it, I really didn’t have time to explore it. In fact, I couldn’t even make a phone call. Each day I’ve learned something new and discovered a new way to make this piece of equipment work for me.


The other day I went to the doctor and had to wait for a lengthy amount of time. Now I can enjoy doing nothing as much as anyone, but I had a great deal of work to do for school, including developing lesson plans. So I sat in the waiting room with my plan book and pencil. I got to the point when I needed to know the state standards to go with the plans. So I whipped out my iPhone, pulled up the DESE page and found the standards I wanted to use. I know that I could have taken notes on the computer, but I’ll freely admit that I wrote them in pencil on the paper. Not a remarkable use of technology, perhaps. However, what was significant was that I was able to use that time to move forward with the tasks I needed to accomplish despite the rearrangement of my schedule. Some people will tell me that it would have been better if I had just relaxed. Getting my work done while waiting gave me the opportunity to relax at home with people I want to relax with. More to the point, I was able to use the time wisely and avoid getting nervous, fidgety or mad.

I'm starting to understand more of what David Weinberger was talking about in Everything is Miscellaneous. (see my post Book Which Changed Everything) The opportunities for interconnectivity and immediacy are exponential.

Teens Discuss Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk with two middle school students who had just seen Percy Jackson and the Olympians – The Lightning Thief. Both of these students were enthusiasts of the books. They have both read all the books in the series and the supplementary books. Multiple times. I have heard their fervor in looking forward to the movie. The level of anticipation for this event was extreme. Their attitude after watching it was… how do I say it nicely? Not so enthusiastic.


For a period of time which lasted for longer than the duration of the movie in question, these two intelligent teens deconstructed the film. They quoted specific parts of the book and how the movie reinterpreted the scenes. Well, they did not use those words. They did not always use words I can put in print. The changes in plot, age, hair color, scenery, character, personality and technological advances were all roundly abused. They were especially disparaging of Grover’s lack of Rasta hat and that there was no mention of enchiladas. I played the devil’s advocate and asked why they thought the film makers made the decisions they made. I posed questions of audience, economic considerations, and time factors. They rallied with their own opinions about why certain decisions were made, made assessments about whether the decision could be tolerated or not and ventured to suggest alternative solutions to the problem.

It was bound to happen. When you love a series of books as much as they do you are bound to have issues with any interpretation.

What struck me was how well they were able to perform the tasks outlined in our state standards for ELA (English Language Arts) particularly General Strand 26 – Analysis of Media. (see page 95 of the frameworks) They were doing a thorough job of analyzing media, plot, characterization, visual literacy and numerous other things I haven’t thought of. Too bad their teachers couldn’t hear them in action covering standards which they sometimes fail to come up to on standardized tests.

We are preparing our students with 21st Century Skills to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Standards for the 21st Century Learner were designed to address this. So many of the very things we want our students to accomplish were played out in front of me. I found myself feeling confident that our youth can navigate these waters. In many cases they can do it better than we can, if we will only step out of their way and let them achieve. On their own terms. Which is what we are preparing them for anyway. Let’s face it. We are openly acknowledging that we are preparing today’s students for a world which is changing so rapidly that it does not exist yet. We are preparing them for careers which have not have been thought of yet. That’s what P21 is all about. So they need that independence of mind and the ability to make connections. The challenge is to guide in ways which encourage this type of conversation. I have not mastered this. Not yet. But I have taken up the quest.

When I asked them whether they want to see the next movie in the series, as they assured me there would be one, they both gave an emphatic “Yes”. They are eager to begin the act of analysis and curious to see how the film makers will tackle the challenges they have presented themselves by messing with the story as outlined in the books. Do I have confidence in these youth? A resounding yes and I am just as interested in seeing how they navigate the challenges of their story which will be messed with by the advances in technology which will surely come.