We are going on to workshop 3 at the main library. Normally the regular teen workshops happen on Tuesday, so we were a little unsure about turn out and participation on Thursdays. The workshops are open to all teens between ages of 14-19 (give or take), but out of convenience most of the youth who participate are coming from schools within walking distance to the library. A group of 7 ‘regulars’ came to the first class- we had a very animated discussion about media- likes and dislikes… we watched a few videos made by prior participants and I showed Contra which seems to be a good way to explain metaphor in imagery. We had time for an image scavenger hunt and pizza!

I was a little unsure about dividing the class over 4 weeks (we meet on Thursdays from 4-6) because of the drop off of students- but I must say with the commitment of this group, so far it has worked out very well. I’ve had the help of Colette, Mendal, and the Aurora, the teen coordinator so it’s been a really smooth and enjoyable experience.
Overall we broke the class down like this:

Day 1: Intro to project (I now have a PPT with images!)- Watch some videos, discuss- do the image scavenger hunt exercise.

Day 2: Writing exercise. We used the prompt: How are our private selves, or how we think of who we are- different from our public/superficial selves? What role does the media play in shaping these perceptions. They were really excited to write- this was a dream… and after about 20 minutes, we all shared and started brainstorming imagery. We worked on the storyboards- and took the last 30 minutes to go out and film.

Day 3: Finish recording the Voiceover and start editing… Take time to reflect on the process.

Day 4: I plan to bring the Van to the front of the library and screen the videos to the public. I think this will be a really great closing!

Tagged: Follow The Van!