Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Part A: Resource and footage review

45 minutes

Part B: Archival documentary storyboard

35 minutes

Part C: Archival documentary production work

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will...

understand the process of selection and omission to construct meaning for an audience in an archival documentary
understand the scope of the production work completed by Shark Island Productions when they produced The Final Quarter
develop their editing and media production skills.

Students can...

contribute a planned storyboard for one part of the group documentary
work with their group to achieve an overview of the project
produce and edit their 1-minute section of the documentary
cooperate within their group and make a dedicated contribution that assists the group to create an excellent archival documentary
research archival footage to effectively manipulate a message for their chosen audience.

Part A: Resource and footage review

Step 1

Explain to students that in this lesson they will be finishing their production work on a group archival documentary and each student will be responsible for editing together one minute of footage to contribute to their group project.

Step 2

Hand out the Student Worksheet and invite students to write their answers to the following questions:

How did you find your homework task? Were you able to find suitable resources on your group’s chosen topic?
What resources did you find most useful?
What challenges did you encounter?
What questions do you have about finding archival footage?
What skills can you bring to your group project today?

Step 3

Invite students to share some of their thoughts around the homework task and how they found it collecting archival materials for use in their production.

Step 4

Invite students to sit in their production groups if they aren’t already. Invite students to share any new archival footage they have found and consider what else they might need to add to complete the project.

Students can also review the work they did on their shared online document from the last lesson. Each student can add any new information, ideas or resources/footage to the planning document.

Extension option: Advanced students might find it useful at this stage to ‘code’ the resources/footage into type, content and audience impact (e.g. shock, sadden, inspire, motivate). This can help them work out which items might fit together to create the greatest flow and mood.

Part B: Archival documentary storyboard

Step 1

Show students this image of Ian Darling and Sally Fryer with their wall-based storyboard for The Final Quarter:

Step 2

Play this video of Ian Darling and Sally Fryer discussing their storyboard:

TFQ On Storyboards (https://vimeo.com/390664092/9a0a42b31c)

Allow students an opportunity to discuss key points from the video. You might like to watch the clip a second time while students note down specific information that was included on the storyboard for The Final Quarter.

Step 3

Explain to students that their archival documentary will need to be broken down into four main sections:

INTRODUCTION: What is the issue?
- Grab the audience’s attention in the opening sequence and provide opening credits.
EXPLANATION: Why is this issue important? Why should it matter to you?
- Provide factual information about the issue.
EXPLORATION: What are the various angles on the issue? What are the effects of the issue?
- Develop an understanding of different perspectives on the issue, interviews, etc.
CONCLUSION: What do we think about it? Is there anything you can do about it?
- Leave the audience feeling informed about the issue and ready to take a side on the issue. Perhaps even include a ‘call to action’.

Step 4

Allow students a few minutes to distribute the sections of the production between team members so that each group member has one area of responsibility. Make sure students understand that each section should go for 60-90 seconds.

Note: If your groups have more or less than four members, you might invite them to develop an extra minute of Exploration, or combine the Introduction and Explanation sections into one and put the credits in the Conclusion. This will distribute the workload more evenly. If you have students who require additional support, you could pair them up with other students to work on a section together.

Step 5

Distribute several filing cards or Archival Storyboard Worksheets to each student. Ensure students understand how to use a storyboard and the different information that should go into it. Refer to the Teacher Content Information on ‘Storyboards’ for more information and video resources that might be useful.

Step 6

Direct students’ attention to the ‘Rough Outline Planner’ on the Student Worksheet and explain they will need to use this to decide on the footage, music, mood and editing effects they want to use. The Rough Outline Planner asks the following questions:

What pieces of archival footage will you use?
What music would you like to use in this section?
What mood are you trying to create for the audience?
What editing effects, titles/graphics would you use?

Note: In order to make sure students are on the right track and have an even distribution of work, you might like to review their rough outlines before they get started on their storyboards. This can also be a good time to ensure each student is challenging themselves at the right level for them.

Step 7

Invite students to go on with their Storyboards once they have completed their ‘Rough Outline Planner’.

Remind students that their storyboards need to reflect the existing footage they have collected and they will not be shooting any new material. The only new materials they can insert are music, sound effects, titles and graphics.

Each student should create a storyboard for 60-90 seconds of the project. Give students at least 25 minutes to do this.

Step 8

Invite the students to get back into their groups and lay out their storyboards side by side. Students should reflect on what is missing or what needs to be cut in order to get their message across to the intended audience. They should spend some time going through the storyboards to make sure there is nothing overlapping and there is a good flow and sequence.

Students can give fellow group members constructive feedback and consider the music they might like to use for their finished film. You might like to limit each group to using two different music works in their production.

Repeated musical themes and consistent graphics templates can be a good way to bring the various sections of the film together and create congruence. You might like to remind them of the torn newspaper headlines and dictionary definitions used in The Final Quarter as an example.

Students might find these links useful:

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/
Free footage https://www.videvo.net/stock-video-footage/
Find newspaper headlines/articles https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/
Music https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/
National Film and Sound Archives https://www.youtube.com/user/FILMAUSTRALIA/videos
Royalty/copyright-free footage https://www.videvo.net/stock-video-footage/australia/, https://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchives

Differentiated Learning Opportunity: Some students might find it overwhelming to work with a vast range of resources so to target their work, you could get them to focus on using only the four artefacts they found in their homework activity. Students can then storyboard how they would use only the four artefacts and consider how to edit them together to evoke mood and meaning for the audience. Of course, this will depend on the quality of, and relationship between, the resources they have collected, so you will need to use your discretion.

Part C: Archival documentary production work

Step 1

Ensure students each have access to a device and suitable editing software. Students can begin to work on their individual segment of their archival documentary. They should use their storyboards as an editing guide.

Support students to capture or download the various resources/footage to save them time so they can focus on the editing itself. If there is some footage that is not downloadable, you can use a screen-recording software, but remind students about copyright responsibilities and explain that this is not a suitable approach for any works published publicly or developed outside of the classroom.

Step 2

Once students have created their individual segments, they will need to export their files and send them to one device where the group can edit them together into one piece. Mention to students that it might work best to leave any musical soundtracks off their individual clips and lay them over the finished product to create continuity.

Assist students to export their files in the same quality and file type in order to ensure consistency throughout the production.

Step 3

Hold a class screening of the group archival documentaries. You might like to do this at the ‘rough cut’ stage so students can provide each other with feedback and make enhancements to their projects over a more extended timeframe.

For extra extension, you might like to review the rough cuts against the storyboards and support students to improve their storyboarding and editing processes.

Reflection

Invite students to complete the following questions on their Student Worksheet:

What were some challenges you faced in creating your archival documentary?
What changes would you make to your finished product if you were able to produce it again?
What are you most pleased/proud about with your archival documentary?
What do you think are some of the advantages of making an archival documentary?
What other insights have you gained about archival documentary filmmaking?
Thinking back to The Final Quarter, what kinds of challenges do you think Shark Island Productions might have faced whilst making their film?

Differentiated Learning

Extension

The activities in this lesson will automatically extend stronger students by allowing them to produce a more sophisticated product.
In Part A, advanced students might find it useful to ‘code’ the resources/footage into type, content and audience impact (e.g. shock, sadden, inspire, motivate). This can help them work out which items might fit together to create the greatest flow and mood.
In Part C, you might like to review the students’ rough cuts against their storyboards and support them to improve their storyboarding and editing processes.
Students could refine their documentaries and host a screening for the broader school community. Alternatively, they could upload them to a private link (such as YouTube) and share with their school community (remember that to stay within copyright laws, the films should not be published publicly).
Students could create a poster which advertises their archival documentary.
Each group could create a ‘Making of’ voice recording or film where they interview each other about the making of their archival documentary and why they felt the message was important to convey to audiences.

Provisions for Learning Support

Consider selecting the groups so you can mix weaker students with stronger ones to facilitate peer coaching and learning.
You might like to prepare folders with topics and clips already selected for students to choose from.
Ideas for the archival documentary could be recorded in audio form rather than writing.
Students who struggle to work in groups may prefer to work in a pair or individually.
In Part C, support students to capture or download the various resources/footage to save them time so they can focus on the editing itself.
In Part C, assist students to export their files in the same quality and file type in order to ensure consistency throughout the production.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

The Final Quarter - Making An Archival Documentary

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

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