Civic Media – Drew University Participatory Archive

The Civic Media Project (under construction)

using media to tell local stories, amplify community voices, and encourage civic engagement

The Civic Media Project (CMP) provides free technical tutorials, lesson plans, and curated resources for teaching socially engaged documentary filmmaking to high school-aged students. Our mission is to promote the use of recorded sound and video to tell local stories, amplify community voices, and encourage civic participation through media practice. Drew University students designed all lesson plans, tutorials, and classroom exercises on this site.

CMP was launched in 2022 by Professor Jeremy Blatter as part of Civic Media (MCOM305)–a community-based learning course at Drew University–and in partnership with CinemaEd, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and Orange High School in East Orange, NJ.

Tutorials and Lesson Plans

Planning Interviews

This activity focuses on planning and practicing interview questions, including how to phrase questions and elicit meaningful responses from subjects.

Interviews are a great way to gather information on a topic through a personal lens. This lesson will teach students how to avoid “leading questions” and frame interview questions that elicit thoughtful, honest responses and dialogue.

Learning Objectives

Students will sharpen their verbal communication skills
Student will learn to design well-constructed interviews and avoid leading questions
Students will understand the importance of interviews to documentary storytelling

STEP 1: View tutorial vido

Show the video below to your class or group

STEP 2: Brainstorming

Divide the class/group into teams. Give each team poster paper and markers to create Venn diagrams addressing a question such as the following: In what ways has COVID impacted your life?

Consider both the negative and positive effects of the issue in filling in the Venn diagram.

STEP 3: Crafting interview questions

Have each team write 4-6 interview questions based on their brainstorming session. Review the tutorial video for tips on how to write to interview questions.

STEP 4. Conducting interview

Time permitting, teams may take turn interviewing members of other teams using the questions they created.

Lesson Plans/Workshop Designs

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Step 1: Watch your film and create an audio description script

Create a new document for your script

While watching your film make detailed notes....

Describe actions, setting, and character details

Carefully describe the actions of the characters without interrupting any of the dialogue or flow of the film. Make sure to emphasize who you are speaking about and what their actions, surroundings, and attitudes are. Be creative with your descriptions.

Record the audio description

coming soon

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Planning Interviews (under construction) [Workshop A]

This workshop focuses on planning and practicing interview questions including how to phrase questions and elicit meaningful responses from subjects.

Learning Objectives

Directions

Interview Style (under construction) [Workshop B]

student A

student B

student C

student D

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The Importance of B-roll in Documentary (under construction)

This workshop will introduce the basics of B-roll emphasizing both the technical aspects of shooting B-roll and understanding the importance of B-roll in making your own documentary.

Learning Objectives

Teach students how to shoot relevant b-roll for a doc they'd like to make
Help students gain an understanding of how b-roll contributes to a narrative, as well as how quality b-roll shots help engage the audience or create certain emotions
Teach students how to think smarter not harder about what shots they take and how they can use them in videos
Teach students the difference between "good" B-roll shots and "bad" B-roll shots as well as the importance of shot selection in relation to storytelling

Activity Directions

Step 1

Introduce ourselves to the class, touch on the school we go to and what majors we are taking. This will hopefully spark some conversation and questions with the students about the upcoming assignment.

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

The Civic Media Project (under construction)

using media to tell local stories, amplify community voices, and encourage civic engagement

Tutorials and Lesson Plans

Kellum Foster-Palmer

Eden Linton

Sami Ishaq

Planning Interviews

Learning Objectives

Lesson Plans/Workshop Designs

Step 1: Watch your film and create an audio description script

Planning Interviews (under construction) [Workshop A]

Learning Objectives

Directions

Interview Style (under construction) [Workshop B]

student A

student B

student C

student D

The Importance of B-roll in Documentary (under construction)

Learning Objectives

Activity Directions

References