Chapter Four



Application to the Video Curriculum at Gavilan College



Abstract:



This final chapter describes how a traditional television production classes were modified to achieve a broader set of outcomes. The specific institutional context is described along with the experience with student responses that motivated an updated approach.



Table of Contents:

Why Teach Video Production?

Institutional Context

Technical Infrastructure at Gavilan College

Video Technology

Computers and Network

Curricular Context for Video Production Classes

Initial Instructional Approach

Problems with Initial Approach

Solutions

Post Gutenburg Resources

References

Pedagogy's hardest lesson (the point where theory and practice collapse upon each other and action can begin) is simply that we must begin to act wherever and from whatever position we find ourselves. (Sholle & Denski, 1994, p.152)



Why teach video production?



With the emphasis on the pragmatic and authentic that threads through the prior chapters, we must reiterate that the realization of vocational ambitions is only one of several benefits provided by classes in video production. Only a small percentage of students are likely to go on to work in media production, but the process of learning video production skills provides benefits that are at least equal to those derived from traditional print based academic courses.

Video production cultivates communications skills on two levels. The obvious first level is the communication with the audience which is the goal of any video production. The second crucial level of communication (that many may not have considered) is the communication among the crew that is required to complete the production. This communication is both spoken and written in the form of scripts, rundowns, crew lists, etc. Individuals of diverse talents and backgrounds are required to organize themselves and work together to achieve a common outcome. Since this occurs on a project basis, groups form, create a work, disband, and reform in a dynamic process that is fueled by interpersonal communication.

The video production process employs a similar methodology to writing research papers, except that it is more complex and usually less solitary. It involves the same stages of research and planning, execution, and editing. It has the same purpose of communicating to a reader. ("Reader" here is used in the broad postmodernist sense.) The ability to work in teams, communicate with others, and to plan execute and deliver projects are skills that are broadly transferable to nearly every type of job and even into family and community life. The transferability of these skills that are advanced in media production classes can be enhanced by a Teledramatic emphasis on the core storytelling skills which have persisted for centuries and transcend the media being employed.

Media production classes create a complex working environment which exercises skills acquired in other classes. Writing is put to use in scripting, organizing, and evaluating projects, as well as in preparing on screen text. Principles of fact finding, evaluation, and intellectual integrity that are learned in research writing and journalism are also put to work. Numeration is employed in editing and scheduling. Graphic design and visual composition are put to use. Computer skills are exercised. When there is this kind of crossover of skills from class to class students gain a sense of the relevance of their learning, and the knowledge acquired is not the type that is put away in a box in the top of the closet with the mortar board and diploma. It is put to work throughout the student's lifetime.

The video media are especially suited to providing a broadly useful foundation. Videotape provides instant feedback while acquiring skills that are easily transferable to work in film & multimedia. Using both sight and sound, seeing and hearing, video has the ability to engage individuals of many different learning styles. It is a nexus for diversity. In the same way that a portfolio provides a gathering point for discussion, video brings together individuals from the whole continuum of artists, technicians, and audience onto a complex, rich, inclusive stage that constitutes a community.

The aspect of personal enrichment and self knowledge should not be ignored. Educational experience is often simply an exploration of personal capacities that gives a person a better understanding of themselves without leading to any more concrete goal.



Institutional Context



When designing a curricular approach, and educator must take into account the nature of the student body as well as the community and institutional context. The Gavilan College video courses are taught on the main campus in a bucolic location just south of Gilroy, California. There are satellite campuses in Hollister and Morgan Hill. The college serves students from those communities and outlying areas, as well as San Juan Bautista and the southern part of Santa Clara county (San Jose). Gavilan is a 2 year California community college with an enrollment in 1999 of 4,481 students, equaling 1,443 Full Time Equivalents. The average age is 31.8 years old, with 60% female and 40% male. The student body is about 44% White and 44% Latino, the remaining groups in order of size being Decline to State, Asian & Pacific Islander, African American, and American Indian-Alaskan.

The economic background of students ranges from residents of the prosperous Silicon Valley to immigrant agricultural workers who are the first in their family to attend college.

Broderick (2000) further reveals:

The feeder high schools have a higher than average failure/dropout rate and have low state achievement test scores. According to 1998 Management Information Systems data, the college has a 30% or higher D, F, W grade distribution rate in the vast majority of its general education and transferable level courses. These rates indicate the diversity of academic abilities and also indicate the presence of a large developmental student population.

Gavilan College is not alone in this. In a study of developmental students in higher education it was found that the percentage of this student group has been consistently rising. (Thompson, 1998) This study also noted that within this group, the enrollment of women over age 25 increased from 879 in 1970 to 3,627 in 1990. Also the enrollment of minorities increased from 15.7% in 1976 to 22.5% in 1992. What proportion plan to transfer?

Enrollment in the video production classes does not reflect the overall demographic distribution of the campus. So far, the observed percentage of women, Latinos, and older students has usually been smaller than the campus average.

The lack of older students can probably be attributed to the fact that these are daytime classes. It is the evening classes (many of which are conducted on the convenient satellite campuses) that attract more of the older students who have work and family commitments during the day. For 3 semesters this instructor assembled a group of such students for evening classes under the umbrella of the Theater 23 - Independent studies classes which are posted in the class schedule.

One can only speculate about the smaller proportion of women, but it is a reality of television production that I have observed throughout my career, first as a university student around 1970, continuing through training in electronics technology at a community college in the late 1970's, and following through years of work in commercial television broadcasting. (During the 1980's the broadcasting industry responded to pressure from the federal government and made efforts to hire more women & minorities.) Indeed, there was once an "old boy" comradery in broadcasting that would have been uncomfortable for many women to enter.

Reflecting the change in consciousness of both men and women in recent decades, the gender balance of the media production workplace has improved greatly, and will continue to improve as long as confident, competent women pursue a growing role in media businesses.

The presumed technical nature of video production is probably one factor that has discouraged the participation of women. However, there seems to be some change underway in the anti-technological acculturation of girls. With the advent of personal computers and other digital devices technology tools are becoming more pervasive and unavoidable. This may be creating situations in which girls are more likely to experience success with technology earlier in life. Even though in the minority, the current female students in the video classes are not tentative and are not any more intimidated by technology than any other neophyte. Nor is there much tendency among their male peers to limit them "because they are girls." In addition, the presumption that video production is a purely technical endeavor reflects a poor understanding of the variety of skills required to complete a media work. Organizational abilities, writing, promotions, and entrepreneurship are among the crucial contributions to a media endeavor that require little direct technical expertise.

It remains for instructors of media production to be conscious of the residual gender bias in our culture and sensitive to how this may discourage female students. This can actually get more difficult as the situation improves because the bias becomes more subtle.

Reasons for the lower enrollment of Latino students again are somewhat speculative. This analysis is complicated by the fact that the word "Latino" covers a diverse spectrum from students with Latino surnames who don't speak Spanish and have little or no knowledge of their family's geographic past to recent immigrants from any number of continents, countries, and cultures. In some cases language may be a problem. Even if an instructor is not fluent in Spanish, using a few technical terms in Spanish may help, and using an occasional Spanish phrase in conversation can set an atmosphere that not only creates increased comfort for Hispanic students, but can foster an interchange that can be beneficial to all students, since many non-Spanish speakers are concurrently enrolled in Spanish classes. This also enhances the perception of the interdisciplinary relevance of classes.

When instructors notice a student having difficulty reading technical material they can guide the student to campus tutorial services.

Additional tactics are to make sure Spanish fonts are available on computers and character generators, to explicitly note the acceptability of doing video projects in Spanish or with dual language tracks. Any instructor wishing to remain relevant to current business trends should explore the employment opportunities in Spanish language media, and describe the opportunities afforded to the bilingual in areas such as voice-over dubbing, multilingual audio tracks, and translation for media, as well as management and international business.

Many Latino students, encouraged by their families, have a very pragmatic approach to education. Their concern is "how quickly will this education get me a job and how much will it pay?" For many of these it may seem like too much of a stretch to see themselves as capable of working in the "glamorous"media production industries, at least until they have had a chance to find their own empowerment in the field. The value of these classes then must be stated in terms of their fulfillment of associate degree or transfer requirements combined with the powerful advancement of communications skills that they offer.

Overcoming the initial reluctance of women and Latinos to enroll in the classes is an issue of promotions and perceptions that is beyond a part time instructor. Recommendations would include targeted outreach to the feeder high schools, and design of promotional events and materials to encourage these under-represented students to take a second look at programs they may have dismissed.

Once the students are in the classes, the remedies are very similar whether a student's difficulty is due to gender, race, language, economic background, or any other factor. On an individual basis, if an instructor hears a student making statements such as "I'm not technical" or observed difficulties operating a piece of equipment, that is a cue to supply remedial support for that student outside the scrutiny of the entire class.

The general goal of increasing the students' teamwork skills calls for the explicit establishment of a class value system that includes tolerance for all - a value system that will be an asset in the workplace. An instructor should be alert to individuals, and should intervene if incidents occur that are reducing opportunities for any student. Allowing an antagonistic atmosphere to prevail, however subtle, can only create what Dewey (1935, p. 48) called "negative learning." Quality video art can not be produced in a contentious or oppressive environment. The culture of production is as important as the technology.



Technological Infrastructure at Gavilan College



Video technology:

Gavilan college has a 6 year old well equipped video facility. There is a studio space of about 1700 square feet with 2 studio cameras, a fully equipped lighting grid, and a fully wired audio system including an intercom system.

The control room is a mostly analog system based on a Grass Valley 100 video switcher. Two SVHS video cassette recorders for playback and one for record can be controlled by a Sony RM-500 linear edit controller, allowing the facility to be used both for live studio productions and as a post production editing facility. A Microsoft Windows based character generator provides a bridge to the digital world, since it can input computer graphic files as well as performing the usual text functions. A 24 input audio mixer and the lighting control board complete the control room complement.

Three SVHS field cameras with tripods are currently available for student use. The English department has three Digital 8 cameras with tripods for checkout to students in the film appreciation classes. Some students own or have access to consumer camcorders of many different formats; these can be plugged into the studio system for making SVHS dubs or editing directly (though not synchronized for live switching). The college also has 2 "prosumer" level 3 chip Sony DV-CAM camcorders, one of which is dedicated to faculty/staff use, the other is available for advanced student use.

The television studio floor currently doubles as a digital editing suite, housing two Casablanca Avio editors and a five year old Avid Media Suite Pro editing system. The Media Suite Pro is a highly capable system which provides advanced students with professional level training, but because of its age it remains something of a closed system. It is unable to support the CODECs required to import and export most current file formats for digital video and streaming video.

In addition to functioning as a conventional television studio, this facility also performs smart classroom and presentation functions. With the use of discarded equipment from elsewhere and the assistance of the sole media technician on campus, a projection screen and data projector was installed. In combination with a networked PC this enables large screen presentations of video playback, interactive CD-ROMs, and Internet sources.



Computers and network:

The college has an intranet with CAT-5 Ethernet connections available in most classrooms and offices. This is served by ??? XXX connections that link the Morgan Hill and Hollister campuses, as well as a XXX center in downtown Gilroy.

The network is supported by a heroically small staff including one full time Management Information Systems director, and four part time personnel: a network administrator (one day a week), two PC support persons, and a web developer.

Three computer labs are available to students on the main campus. XX computers are available in the library. drop-in computer lab is located in the library complex.



Curricular Context for Video Production Classes

Three classes in video production are available to Gavilan students, listed as Theater classes within the Fine Arts department. Theater 16 -- Introduction to Televison Production is the beginning class which introduces the broad field of video production, including reference to film production and new media production techniques. Theater 17A - Television & Video Production Workshop provides time for students to develop a greater depth and breadth of production skills. Theater 16 is listed as an advisory to this course (as opposed to a firm prerequisite). Students who have media experience from other places may be admitted without having taken Theater 16. Theater 17B - Television & Video Workshop is a repeatable class that meets at the same time as the 17A Class. 17B students are expected to attain excellence in a chosen specialty such as videography or draw upon their broad experience to function in more managerial roles such as directing and producing. There is also an emphasis on preparing a professional demonstration videotape of the type used in a job search and in applications to impacted university programs.

Students also have the option of taking Independent Study classes for one or two units, and an Internship class.

These classes are required for Associates of Arts degrees in Media Arts (especially with the Video Arts/Technical Production option) and Performing Arts (which has a television option).They are transferrable to the California State University system.

Gavilan College is in the process of developing a multimedia program. Presumably video production classes will have a place in that curriculum.



Initial Instructional approach



The initial approach to teaching the video classes could be described as a transitional project based approach applied at the classroom level. It followed a traditional pattern that is found in numerous textbooks, including the text chosen for these courses: Video Basics 2, written by Herbert Zettl of San Francisco State University. These texts are typically strictly oriented toward the television industry, with no specific reference to film. Digital tools and techniques are beginning to be integrated into new editions, but with little reference to New Media production techniques or re-purposing issues.

Delivery of the content of the courses was in a traditional format of lecture, quizzes, and culminating exams. This was based on a three step assumption that seemed quite logical. In step one information was delivered through lectures on each topic, accompanied by textbook reading assignments. In the class following each lecture a short quiz was given to reinforce the learning and diagnose the class's level of retention. This system of content delivery occupied about one half of the semester. Even that seemed highly condensed, since there was an urgency to fit as much depth on all the production topics as possible into one semester. (Typically only about half the students from the introductory class continue into the advanced class.) Missing from typical video production textbooks are extensive discussions of scriptwriting, the history of electronic media, and the critical aspects of media literacy. As a result, script writing and media history were added as topics in this first step, adding to the volume of lecture.

Step two was application of the knowledge from step one to produce video projects. This project work was begun after the "information banking"sequence. As much as possible project ideas originated with the students. Specific project topics were assigned only when students were unable to generate their own ideas. Students worked with broadly defined project criteria in production teams which they formed themselves.

Step three was evaluation of the project work. Evaluative discussions with the production teams were ongoing throughout the production process. Final evaluations occurred in the last day of class, the final exam period, while viewing the projects in a large screen presentation environment with the whole class present. The instructor elicited discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the projects based on the broad criteria outlined in the initial assignment. Discussion was led to cover value issues such as the actual effect of the content compared to its intended effect and its relation to an authentic purposeful context such as entertainment for a target audience or product for a client.

In reality the evaluative discussions during the production process proved to be the most effective - the final exam period is not long enough to allow for both viewing of videos and extensive discussion. Students frequently are not finished with projects early enough to permit a leisurely viewing of a final cut.



Problems with initial approach



In reality the effectiveness of the lecture/quiz method was extremely variable from semester to semester, but never very high, even in its stated goal of information banking. At its best it still left open the question of the utility of the knowledge that was delivered and regurgitated in that way. Abstract reading and written multiple choice and fill in the blank quizzes often did not seem to translate well into productive video production activity, verifying Gardner's assertion that "Standardized tests that require only short answers present a situation that does not exist outside of school; life does not present itself in multiple choice formats. Outside of school, individuals mostly carry out projects. . ." (In Siegel & Shaughnessy, 1994) Preparation for lectures advanced the instructor's education much more than the students'.

This intuition is supported by the fact that students often turn in quizzes which do not use the correct terminology, but use idiosyncratic words that make it clear that they actually understand the concepts and techniques that were demonstrated in class. In addition, many students who do poorly in all written work and avoid it as much as possible still complete excellent video projects. While, as part of the academic community it is important to encourage higher levels of print literacy in students, it is especially urgent in media classes to assure that print is not the only way to acquire knowledge and demonstrate competency.

The most significant problem with the lecture/quiz approach was the pattern of passive listening that it set up. By the time they reach college most students are conditioned to that type of "sage on the stage" learning environment. Though they are often discontent with it and deeply skeptical of its utility, it is a familiar and comfortable habit. Pupils and instructors know how to behave in such a context without having to think about it. Setting out chairs all facing a whiteboard elicits a pattern of behavior that has enormous inertia, and allowing that pattern to be established in the first weeks of the introductory class creates an overwhelming difficulty when moving on to step two, the authentic work that requires independent teams of students working simultaneously.

The task is not merely to pass on video production information. The real challenge is to define and foster a culture of active students who employ individual initiative, breaking patterns that have been learned over the twelve formative years of their previous education.

For the most part these are students who are in their first or second semester of college. There is a significant difference between this and their prior educational experience, but there are few external clues to indicate the difference - it appears to be the same whiteboard and desk environment that they knew in high school. However, the college level of education is voluntary, and that has many implications. College students are required to plan their academic path more than they ever have before, and the consequences of their educational performance -- their transcript -- follows them throughout their life in a way that their high school performance does not. Most are only vaguely aware of this changed reality. New student orientation is not effective in helping them to recognize the new circumstance, and at the community college level many students do not have family members with college experience to guide them. In addition students have the challenge & temptation of the new freedom to attend or not attend class.

This is a delicate transitional time for students. Their early college experience can be a great opportunity, a stimulus that leads them to greater sense of self worth, economic prosperity, and usefulness to society - but without adequate guidance it can simply be a trap that only serves to eliminate the unwary, dooming them to educational failure and cutting them off from educational opportunity for years, if not a lifetime. Society is not served by the failure of individuals.

The transition to college can also be difficult for the older returning student. They also may not have family experience to help orient them to college life, and may be returning to school tentatively with a certain amount of fear, possibly with unsatisfactory memories of prior academic experiences. There may be some awkwardness in being in class with younger people. On the positive side older students usually have more initiative, better attendance, and less difficulty brainstorming interesting video projects - in fact in many cases their reason for taking the course is to have access to equipment and learn the skills to pursue a project that they already have in mind.

With the initial approach to the video production classes, the transition from the beginning class to the workshop class tended to be especially abrupt. Without a philosophy and pattern of individual initiative adequately established in the first class, some students excelled in the workshop classes, and some drifted unproductively.



Solutions



In order to improve the effectiveness of these video production classes for this student body, it has been necessary to unburden the introductory class from some of the depth and detail in the technical topics that is suggested by the textbooks, especially since other topics that are neglected have been added. Topics are now presented in shorter lectures. If more time is required to adequately cover all aspects of a topic it is broken down into smaller units and delivered over a period of days instead of one long chalk talk that extends over a whole class or class and a half.

In the introductory class, as the instructor made efforts to change the initial approach to include more student activity earlier, a time pressure was created that made it more difficult to cover every topic in one semester. Editing was often slighted. The process of compacting and modularizing lectures also included a clarification of the focus of the class. Three core areas - pre-production, videography/sound techniques, and editing - became the emphasis, presented at a concise level that insured the balanced completion of the production cycle in a single semester. This is a level of work that creates an understanding of the whole process, and fosters an uncommon degree of skill at the vernacular camcorder level (or somewhat above, since editing is involved). In one semester this approach carries a student well beyond the unstudied average.

In the advanced class instructor evaluations and student self-evaluations provide a guide to in depth re-visitations of topics as needed to give these committed students the depth and breadth needed to function in professional work. Whole class lectures, focus group discussions, or individual assignments are the tools to this end.



Post Gutenberg Resources

As a crucial part of this modified approach, a richer, broader array of resources is provided to the students and they are made to realize their own responsibility to access these resources to actively achieve the class outcomes.

All these resources are available all the time, and students are expected to achieve the outcomes in each topic even if the general class discussion has moved on to other topics. It is necessary to repetitively make this reality explicit because many students are conditioned by experiences in other classes in which teachers close the door at the beginning of class to deny admission to tardy students and refuse to accept late assignments. Admittedly the lackadaisical behavior of many of the students makes this approach tempting, but it's industrial, one-speed-fits-all assumption is especially unsuitable for media education. It allows both teacher and student to evade teaching and learning simply by passing a deadline. The video classes are constructed, as much as possible, to implement the democratic belief that anyone can learn anything, given enough time and resources. (Spady & Marshall, 1991)

In addition to the conventional textbook, students have access to a class web site and two interactive CD-ROMs.

The extensive class web site contains all the information that would normally be presented in handouts: syllabi, schedules, assignments (including the fairly complex description of criteria for video assignments), bibliography, topical handouts, blank forms for tape logs and equipment checkout forms, examples of script formats, proposals, producer's rundowns, etc. In addition there are condensed tutorial materials on topics that are not covered adequately in the textbooks, such as pre-production and scriptwriting, as well as information on textbook topics that is specific to the hardware and working environment of this campus. The instructor's e-mail address provides students with an additional way of interacting with the teacher.

This web based resource is available to students who have Internet access at home, in the library and computer labs on campus, and in Internet cafes around the world. The dog can't eat it. Students have access to printers in the campus computer labs to print out pages if they prefer to have the information in print form.

The web site is used during lectures projected on a large screen in the video studio, similar to the way whiteboards, overhead projectors, or PowerPoint presentations are done. The same networked computer is available at all times for remedial discussions when students ask questions that reveal that they need repetition on any of the topics.

Two tutorial CD-ROMs are currently used as a specific part of the curriculum, while numerous other CD-ROMs are available for use in classroom demonstrations. These latter are typically corporate promotional and sales CDs that are used to explore production job opportunities and the spectrum of the media production industries. They serve as examples of different graphic design styles, approaches to interactivity, and the types of projects that graduates might work on.

The first of the tutorial CD-ROMs is Zettl's Video Lab (Zettl, 1995), which is constructed to accompany the textbook. Like the textbook it is oriented specifically toward television production. The other tutorial CD, How to Make Your Movie (Grlic, 1997), has a film orientation. The presentation of both these resources enhances the Teledramatic cross-industry scope of the courses.

While the CDs are available for students to "read" in their entirety if they wish, they are primarily assigned in topical sections as are textbook readings. These CDs, for example, contain excellent hands-on interactive demonstrations of videographic/cinematographic topics such as exposure and depth of field, wherein students can change f-stops and see the results on screen. In on screen lighting demonstrations they can click to turn on or off a key light, fill light, etc. to see the effect. Whereas a classroom demonstration is only available once during a semester, these interactive demonstrations can be accessed repeatedly.

In the spirit of an inclusive, Teledramatic, integrated curriculum this array of instructive media provides multiple benefits: