Story Through Word and Image

Visual Storytelling: The Digital Video Documentary

CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a core theatre and film course for undergraduate, primarily freshmen, students by Susan M. Abbey, MFA, at Humboldt State University. This text provides specific approaches on how to create a documentary video using easily accessible recording tools. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was because this useful text is only available online. All students access the text as a PDF.

About the Textbook

VISUAL STORYTELLING: The Digital Video Documentary

Description: This text offers beginning film students low-budget approaches for creating captivating real-life stories using easily accessible digital tools such as cellphones. The author, in her introduction, discusses the growing use of digital videos as a way of connecting people through personal stories. The text is divided into five chapters. Chapter one describes specific ways of shooting the footage, including basic cinematography techniques, a checklist of standard shots, and effective ways to capture the subject in an engaging way. Chapter two covers the need to develop listening skills as an both the interviewer and audio recorder. Chapter three focuses on how and where to find engaging stories, while chapter four covers the ethics involved in telling another's story. Finally, Chapter 5 talks about how to organize and edit the footage. She includes an appendix with links and resources at the end of the text.

Author:

Nancy Kalow - Duke University

Supplemental resources:

No specific external material was used.

Cost Savings:

Because there was no other book used for this class, we can only estimate the approximate student savings. The average Film and Theatre Arts textbooks sell for $30-$75. With the median price, therefore at $52.50 and since I teach about 60 students each year, this could be an annual savings for students of $3,150.

Format:

The book is only available as a PDF.

Accessibility and diversity statement:

The publisher does not provide either accessibility or diversity information.

License:

Visual Storytelling is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. This means you can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and you can remix, transform, and build upon the material. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

About the Course

TA 104: Story Through Word & Image

Description: Universal and archetypal principles of story with an emphasis on using images and words for creating stories for film and theatre.

Prerequisites: None

GE credit: 4 units. Required course for film and theatre majors and minors.

Learning outcomes:

They can demonstrate the knowledge of the basic elements and function of story and its application ranging from education to entertainment.
They can explain the importance of film and theatre to understanding the human experience.
They can define and apply archetypal images, characters, and stories to projects.
They can interpret and analyze their creative ability and process.
They can understand and verbally articulate the power of visual storytelling in theatre and film.
They can demonstrate how to create a complete story through word and image in theatre and film projects.
They will develop a beginning vocabulary of film and theatre.
They can analyze the commonality and distinction of story in theatre and film.
They will develop an awareness of the relationship between story and power as it relates to class, race, gender, ethnicity, and politics.
They can explain the elements of and the universality of story and the distinct expressions from other cultures around the world.
They will have practiced the skills of collaboration to a project.
Most students are freshmen, with a few transfer sophomores and juniors.

Teaching and learning impacts:

Collaborate more with other faculty: Yes
Use wider range of teaching materials: No
Student learning improved: Yes
Student retention improved: Unsure
Any unexpected results: No

The instructor and students work with film and theatre faculty for technical and artistic support on each project.

The students' video projects were stronger both technically and in content than the final products of past semesters.

Sample assignment and syllabus:

Sample Assignment
This is the video project I used for Fall 2015.

Sample Syllabus
This is the syllabus for the Fall 2015 class.

Textbook Adoption

OER Adoption Process

Nancy Kalow's text is only available online. Rather than make the text use optional for the course, I made it a requirement. While working on the Video Documentary Team Project, which is the final major assignment for the course, the students were assigned specific chapters in the text that corresponded with the stage(s) of their projects. Tests were given to encourage the reading. I knew the text would be very helpful to their process, but the students from past classes did not read or use the text as a tool because it wasn't required reading.

Student access:

Students access the book online. Some opted to copy the text (43 pages) on their own.

Student feedback:

In an informal discussion with the class, the students concurred the text was extremely valuable as a tool for their Video Documentary Team Project. Had it not been required reading, they would not have used it.

Some actual student comments include:

"The text was totally helpful."
"I was so excited to not have to pay for it!"

Susan McMurray Abbey, MFA

I am a Theatre, Film, and Dance adjunct faculty member at Humboldt State University. I teach courses in Acting Technique, Voice and Movement, Story Content and Development, and Film Festival Development and Production.

I believe students learn best by doing. My pedagogy has changed over the years to design more creative projects which bring the concepts I am teaching into a creative product-whether it be an acting scene or monologue, a short theatre production, or a video story.

Theatre and film are both collaborative art forms, so I include processes which are team-based learning driven. I encourage the risk of failure and teach how to succeed and fail well and that the learning is in the process. The product is the living feedback on how well the challenges during the process were met, both as a creative team and as individuals.

Positivity and support form the nest of creativity. Students in my courses discover they are in a safe environment for personal growth and artistic development. I encourage them to see themselves more as continual learners, with less and less ego attached to their work, and more and more creative risk-taking.