For the past few weeks, the Walt Whitman Video Club has been up in the “secret” fourth floor tv studio, utilizing the blue screen. We love it up there! It feels like a real production studio. Since we have been doing so many stop-motion videos, we watched a real Hollywood stop-motion animation, The Corpse Bride by Tim Burton. Here, Claire and Jailene review the film and Claire also gives an exclusive director’s interview on her film, The Pink House- all while learning about blue screening!
One day, The Walt Whitman Video Club made chalk drawings on the neighborhood sidewalks. Here is one by Claire and Berlie. Although Claire and Berlie were not thinking of it at the time, they later said that the story reminded them of the earthquake in Haiti; many other students had a similar reaction. As the sun set in Flatbush, night also fell in the chalk drawing, adding to the symbolism and power of story.
This fall, we have been discussing the themes of identity and community. We have done projects focusing on names- what they mean and where they are from. Here is a chalk drawing animation by Latea, Denisia, and Barbara in which their names and identities are expressed though design and color (not to mention matching shoes), and music.
We had the pleasure of hosting class 803 and 804 at the college this month! Thank you Mr. Thornhill and Ms. Caughman for making these trips possible. The kids had a great time exploring the campus and doing the scavenger hunt, as well as doing arts workshops with Miss Arin…check out some of the photos:
Inspired by a myth about the sun and the moon, as well as a commercial that features a certain Ozzy Osbourne song, the students at MS 246 created this AWESOME animation. We spent a day cutting out shapes for our scenes, which turned into a nice day at the park (except for some brief inclement weather). The next day we animated the scene by using frame by frame animation. At the end of the day, some really adorable monsters showed up and ate everything in the scene.
In order to better understand the visual language of cinema, the Video Club at MS 246 learned about the different types of shots there are in video, such as high angle, pan, and extreme close up. We also discussed the different emotional and psychological effects these shots have on the viewer. Then the students took to the neighborhood streets and the school’s hallways in a scavenger hunt for the different types of shots. It was fun to be in front of the camera as well as behind the camera. Here is a compilation of some of their findings, many of them beautifully composed and lit.
This week in Video Club we created our own alphabet with “found letters,” which we then turned into our names. We also found out the origins of our names, for example, “Denisia” comes from the Latin Dionysos or Dionysus, referring to the Greek god. In Art Club, we also played around with our names, but this time on T-Shirts. Thanks Miss Arin and Miss O!
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