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Archive for the ‘Media Literacy’ Category

Saul Bass: Visual Innovator

Posted in Animation, Chapter 1, Chapter 5, Chapter 8, Media Literacy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2012| 2 Comments »

Poster created from iconic images by artist Saul Bass

Just recently a definitive, in-depth book on the design work of artist Saul Bass has been released: Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design (by Jennifer Bass and Pat Kirkham).  Bass was a true media innovator and through his work one can observe the synergy between text, composition, color, movement, and other visual elements at the core of effective communication.

Bass’s work has provided inspiration for generations of design professionals, advertisers, and filmmakers.  The dynamism of his designs were key as filmmakers invigorated the function and importance of title sequences in movies, and his work helped to usher in the mid-century modern style that has seen a renaissance in recent years, from advertising to graphic novels to animation.

Bass’s storyboard for the infamous and extremely influential shower murder scene from Psycho is highlighted in Chapter 1 of Moving Images (see Figure 1-36).  The half-hour movie Bass on Titles provides a good overview of his work and viewpoints on the craft of movie titles, such as his groundbreaking work for a number of Alfred Hitchcock films (such as Psycho, Vertigo, and North by Northwest), Scorsese movies (including Goodfellas, Cape Fear, and The Age of Innocence), and many others including The Man with the Golden Arm and Cowboy.  His work can provide examples for many aspects of the essential questions in Moving Images, including motion picture forms in Chapter 5 and the full production process in Chapter 8.

As a final point, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design features a superb foreword by Martin Scorsese – to add to the list of his exceptional work in this vein, including the moving piece he wrote for the DVD release of the Beatles’ movie Help, directed by Richard Lester.

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British Perspective on Media Literacy

Posted in Chapter 5, Media Literacy, tagged , , , on October 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This recent column in The Guardian by Cary Bazalgette, former head of education at the British Film Institute, points out the need to establish media literacy in our schools, and, just as importantly, to put in place the tools for educators and students to develop abilities as media creators.  The quotes in the article are from Don Boyd, a British producer (including Derek Jarman’s War Requiem, featured in Moving Images Chapter 5) and director (mostly documentaries and made-for-TV projects), who has also been part of a panel that has reviewed curricular approaches to media teaching in Britain.

British Film Institute: see Moving Images Chapter 5, Personal Expression and Studio Production, p. 172

According to Boyd,  “the study of film is as important as literature and science,” and he calls for “a system to empower schools to teach film” as “one vital responsibility.”  The article also tells us that “Boyd cites ‘the intellectual heritage’ of film, saying ‘kids can benefit from its history in the way they might study the Renaissance in art.'”  Author Cary Bazalgette adds, “He’s right: but most teachers don’t know how to teach film in its own right.”

 

Well, let’s get these people copies of Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media!  

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Common Core State Standards and Media Literacy Education: Initial Thoughts

Posted in Media Literacy, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 29, 2011| 2 Comments »

Common Core State Standards Initiative

Many educators across the country have been, are, or will be busy reading, dissecting, evaluating, and debating the Common Core State Standards as a new guide to developing benchmarks, lessons, and assessments across K-12 curricula.

The development of higher order thinking – as reflected in reading and writing, analysis and creation – is at the core of the CCSS.  As one reads through the standards, it is clear that the development of a framework for evaluating and creating media – whether print or non-print – is at the core of the skills highlighted in the standards.  These skills are the cornerstones to every chapter in Moving Images, and this should be seen as welcome news by the National Association of Media Literacy Education and other groups that have developed standards for media literacy based on higher-order skills.

Specifically, in the Anchor Standards, media educators must note a standard listed under “Integration of Knowledge and Ideas”:  “(7) Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.”  In addition, the use of technology is noted in numerous anchor standards, particularly “digital sources,” and comparison and contrast with visual media is noted in multiple anchor standards.  In the Speaking and Listening Standards, under the section of “Comprehension and Collaboration” students are asked to “(2) Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g. visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.”  This mirrors common media literacy education standards such as those established by NAMLE, and these goals reflect many of the essential questions posed in Moving Images, such as those investigated in Chapters 1, 5, and 6.

There are clearly countless questions and challenges that exist and will arise for educators as they wrestle with this major new mandate.  In particular, the stress on non-fiction texts already has many English teachers concerned about the effects of implementing these goals on the study of literature, and the lack of effective integration of creativity in these goals is also a source of profound frustration for many educators.

Update: here are articles and perspectives from Education Week on current status of CCSS.  And here is a Common Core photo blog.

Update 2: Here is a more recent blog post about the CCSS for a presentation I made at the 2013 Northeast Media Literacy Conference.

Update 3: Here are resources by PBS’s LearningMedia initiative that provide information and materials related to media literacy and implementing the Common Core.

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2011 Media Literacy Education National Conference

Posted in General Information, Media Literacy on July 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This weekend is the bi-annual NAMLE conference in Philadelphia.  At the conference, I will be delivering a presentation titled “Contexts, Connections, Collaboration: Integrating Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving in Media Literacy Education.”

One particularly exciting aspect of the event is that one of the keynote speakers is Douglas Rushkoff, who is a leading figure in media studies.  In fact, a documentary that he hosted for PBS is one I have used many times: “The Merchants of Cool.”  I highly recommend this piece for secondary school media teachers or communications professors.

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