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Course, Subject

Music, The Arts (1996)

Description

5th grade band students made a music video using a recording of their own performance and video of them acting. The students analyzed a music video to discover the elements they would need in their video. They wrote the script, decided on costumes and props, planned scenes, helped each other with acting, and assembled the final video using Microsoft Movie Maker. Many of the students had experience acting in school musicals; none had experience using Movie Maker.

Website(s)

Microsoft Movie Maker

Duration

Seven sessions after school, 35-minutes each.

Essential Questions

How do we make a music video?

Assessment

Attached Checklist

We created this checklist as a class after brainstorming all the things that we saw in a music video and all the things we wanted to have in our video. They are pretty much in the order we needed to accomplish them in order to create the video. The list was useful to refer to at the beginning and end of each class to see what we had accomplished and what we needed to do next. When the video was finished we revisited the checklist to be sure we had completed all the steps and had all the necessary elements in our video. I would tell the students, "we will know we're done when we have completed all the things on our list."

• Music Video Checklist.doc

Student Work

See attached video

• Final Movie.wmv

Procedure

Day 1 : SMART Board room

1. How do you make a music video? Use attached SMART Board file
2. Watch video and list elements
3. Order the elements
4. Make a checklist for the video, this will be the assessment, did we do all these things?

Day 2: SMART Board room

1. Listen to the music we will use, our recording of Yankee Doodle
2. Read the lyrics to Yankee Doodle and brainstorm a plot for our video
3. Ideas for four scenes based on our plot ideas
4. What characters will we need?

Day 3 : SMART Board room

1. Write out the plot for each scene, plan the action
2. Decide what costumes and props we will need.
3. Assign each student's responsibility for costumes and props

Day 4 : On stage, with village background

1. Change into costumes
2. Practice scenes one and two
3. Record several takes of scenes one and two

Day 5 : On stage

1. Change into costumes.
2. Practice scene three.
3. Record scene three.
4. Record video of students playing their instruments in the band room.

Day 6 : SMART Board room

1. Introduction to Movie Maker, adding sound, video, transitions, show sample video
2. Add our video clips to the music, decide what order we want

Day 7 : SMART Board room

1. Review video
2. Add transitions, effects, title, and credits
3. Final viewing and make any necessary changes
4. Review checklist; did we follow all the steps?

• Music Video.notebook

Related Resources

• Recording of the band performing Yankee Doodle
• Digital video camera
• Microsoft Movie Maker software
• SMART Board set-up
• Costumes and props
• Background

Modifications

No modifications were necessary

Reflections and Feedback

I am pleased with the final product and glad the students had the opportunity to make this video. I would like to have made the process more technology heavy for the students and have them manipulate the technology on a more individual level. This project worked as a group project and the students are very proud of their work, but the next time I do this project I will likely make it more individual. It would be nice for each student to have all the raw materials necessary to make the video at his/her disposal and allow each student to make a video on his/her own. This would allow for a more complete experience and certainly some very diverse projects.

The students loved the creative aspects of the project from writing the plot to choosing costumes to deciding how to act. This was a very wide open project in terms of where the students wanted to take it; they really had creative control over the product they were creating. This level of choice often made it difficult to keep the class on track. It was easy to get stuck in endless brainstorming without settling on a path we wanted to follow. Balancing the creativity of the students with the need to have a coherent direction for the project was often difficult.

Vocabulary

Scene, plot, props, director

Related Academic Standards

New York State

ARTS.M.I.2.1.D Students identify a community-based musical interest or role and explain the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to pursue the interest or adopt the role.

ARTS.T.I.1.1.E Students identify and use, in individual and group experiences, some of the roles, processes, and actions for performing and creating theatre pieces and improvisational drama within the school/community, and discuss ways to improve them.

MST2.I.IS.1.1 Students use a range of equipment and software to integrate several forms of information in order to create good quality audio, video, graphic, and text-based presentations.