With more exciting news in our Resources category (such as the Prelinger Archives and Portraits of America posts this year), the Library of Congress has announced that the National Screening Room is now online and features extensive resources for media literacy education. Many items from this vital national archive are now accessible to the general public and classrooms across the country (and world). As noted in an article by CBS News, among its highlights are: the classic Edwin S. Porter short The Great Train Robbery (featured for study in Chapter 2), the 1953 feature The Hitch-Hiker by Ida Lupino (a prime director for study with Chapter 5), and a wide variety of diverse types of media such as advertisements, PSAs, and home movies that are discussed in such posts as What Exactly is that Movie? on mediateacher.net and in our investigations of motion picture language and screenwriting throughout Moving Images.
Archive for the ‘Resources’ Category
Media Literacy and Social Studies: Portraits of America
Posted in Chapter 6, Resources, Social Studies, tagged Film Foundation, Library of Congress, Portraits of America: Democracy on Film, The Story of Movies on July 10, 2018| Leave a Comment »
This year, Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation has added a new initiative to its The Story of Movies educational program: Portraits of America: Democracy on Film. This eight-section curriculum was developed by the Film Foundation in partnership with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and with support from the Library of Congress. Its modules include such themes as The Immigrant Experience, The American Laborer, The American Woman, and Politicians and Demagogues. Here are articles on the initiative from Indie Wire and Market Watch.
Prelinger Archives
Posted in Chapter 5, Resources, tagged Archival Footage, Open Culture, Prelinger Archives, Public Domain on May 5, 2018| Leave a Comment »
In the What Exactly is that Movie? post on mediateacher.net, you can read about tricky-to-categorize media messages that have evolved over the past 120 years or so. Recently, an extensive and very unique archive of very diverse movies was opened to the public: the Prelinger Archives. This incredible media archive is “a collection of over 60,000 ‘ephemeral’ (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films [which holds] approximately 11,000 digitized and videotape titles (all originally derived from film) and a large collection of home movies, amateur and industrial films acquired since 2002” (from Prelinger Archives “About” page). The media material here can provide a wide range of uses for the development of editing or vfx skills and as a treasure-trove of footage for use in original projects of all sorts. Here is an article about the archive from Open Culture, or you can go directly to the Prelinger Archives.
Resources for a New Semester, Part 6
Posted in Chapter 7, Resources on September 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »
There are many Crash Course videos from PBS Digital Studios, starting with one that builds on the Screenwriting Resources posts here at mediateacher.net: Screenplays. It reviews the standard basic “rules” seen in screenwriting manuals, although you will of course want to turn soon to Chapter 7 of Moving Images to dig in well and be inspired about the possibilities and standards in writing for moviemaking.
There are also pieces on the invention of the movie camera, sound, independent cinema, many on film history, and numerous others.
State of the Process 3: Arcane Cathodes
Posted in Chapter 2, Resources, tagged Cathode Ray Tube, Chi-Tien Lui, Jaime Joyce, Television, TV repair on December 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Wondering what to do with the old curved-screen TV in the corner of the cellar or the school’s repurposed A/V closet? Maybe it’s time for an art installation — although you may need the “arcane knowledge” (as NYTimes reporter Jaime Joyce puts it) of a TV repairman (well, at least one as masterful as Chi-Tien Lui).
State of the Process 2: Analogue Resources
Posted in Chapter 2, Resources, tagged Analogue Filmmaking, Celluloid, Film Education, Film Lab, Mono No Aware, Steve Cossman on December 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »
In earlier posts, mediateacher.net has discussed the relationship of celluloid-based moviemaking, film history, and digital technologies in such posts as The “Film” Word: Language and Moving Images, State of the Process: Digital and Film (concerning the then-recent documentary Side by Side and related topics), Thinking about Light: Emmanuel Lubezki Interviews & State of Cinematography (which is definitely one of this blog’s most visited posts), and Thinking about Light 2.
In news from this year related to the availability and use of celluloid-based filmmaking, the non-profit cinema-arts organization Mono No Aware is working to build the first non-profit motion picture lab in America. This Brooklyn-based group recently celebrated the ten-year anniversary of its annual festival which features multi-media performances that incorporate Super 8, 16mm, 35mm film, or altered light projections. Mono No Aware, founded by Steve Cossman, offers workshops on a variety of analogue filmmaking and processing techniques, and the organization has been visiting schools for a number of years to teach young people about analogue motion pictures. For those interested in verifying that projected strips of images that move in front of us are, indeed, very much alive and inspiring a new generation of moviemakers, multimedia artists, and movie-lovers, check out this piece from Daily Vice.
Digital Cinematography Resources
Posted in Chapter 4, Resources, tagged Carol, Chris Weaver, Ed Lachman, Filmmakeriq, John Hess, Robert Richardson, Side by Side on March 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Ed Lachman with Cate Blanchette and Rooney Mara
In earlier posts, mediateacher has highlighted resources for screenwriting, editing, sound, and much more, and of course there have been discussions of cinematography, such as upon the release of the documentary Side by Side. Here are some excellent cinematography resources: this 20-minute film and accompanying tutorial by John Hess of filmmakeriq.com about color and digital cinematography; the “Through the Lens Film School” blog by Chris Weaver that offers pretty easy-to-follow lighting tutorials and general tips; and, finally, an interesting “food for thought” page from Deadline magazine prompted by statements by DPs Robert Richardson and Ed Lachman (who shot Carol on 16mm!) about what is really happening these days in the world of VFX-driven cinematography.
