Video has a lot of potential in the art classroom to excite, engage and inspire students. I believe video is particularly fit to teach students how to engage in multi-step digital processes. Many students are accustomed to the immediacy of digital forms. While movie making has qualities of immediacy, it is truly a process based form. Students must learn to be patient just like how they learn to be patient for their tactile art projects with paint drying or clay going in the kiln. The process of making movies generally requires four steps: planning, shooting, editing and presenting. Students must learn how to be considerate and thoughtful throughout each of these steps. One step can not happen without completing the other. However, each step has it's own exciting element that encourages students to move forward in the process.
I also believe video is great to use in the classroom because it is familiar. We are surrounded by videos every day. Students watch videos all the time on social media. Teaching students what the process of making or editing movies is automatically relevant in their lives. There is so much potential to engage students by showing some of their favorite videos and asking them to view it through a different "lens". How did the artist make this video? What angles are you noticing? Did the artist change the colors? How do you think the artist achieved that effect? By taking a form of entertainment and transforming it into an object worth studying, students will feel affirmed in their artistic taste and become more knowledgable of the media that surrounds them every day.
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