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bowtiesnmusicals · 1 year

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Here is my recap of the Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) episode of the podcast.

Jenna did a Dory impression. It was funny.

They said Jayma is one of their favorite people. That she is the sweetest, funniest, and cutest.

Kevin said they learned a lot talking to Jayma.

There was a lot they didn’t know and they laughed a lot.

They learned about some people’s journeys to glee.

Jenna said Jayma was really funny and hopefully you peed before you listened to this episode.

Jayma was sick for weeks before Snixxmas. She’s fine now.

Jayma wanted to be on the podcast. They joked that she forced them to let her be on it.

She was doing press and she still gets asked about Glee. They asked if she was going to be on the podcast.

Jayma says she get her intel from the podcast.

Jayma met Matt before the show. They did another pilot together probably two years before Glee.

The pilot was called Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office. They were sort of like love interests on the show.

Jayma thought they would never cast them together again. The pilot was never picked up.

Jayma auditioned for Glee. She was a newlywed in Canada. She thought the script was good. She flew back and auditioned.

She went into a room with a table to do her audition and had to sing. She thought it was a really bad audition.

Jayma sang Toucha Toucha Touch Me during her audition.

Jayma says she is not really a singer.

She had done Rocky Horror in Los Angeles.

I’m Not Getting Married in one of the hardest Broadway songs. Jayma thought she couldn’t do it. She thought it was impossible. It took a lot of recording. She kept getting stuck at the candlesticks part.

Jayma got to do some cool musical numbers.

You’re All The World To Me was memorable because of the rotating box they filmed in for that number. They had to take Dramamine because of the motion sickness from dancing in the box.

Jayma thought she was hallucinating because Baby Spice was on set during one of the rehearsals.

The box is called a gimble box.

Kevin was excited about the gimble box because he had seen it in a NYSNC music video.

He was also excited about meeting Baby Spice.

Baby Spice was on set because she was interviewing the cast for a special on Sky Tv for Glee.

Every time Jayma did a musical number it gave her clarity on what the rest of the cast was always doing and even more respect for them.

Kevin said that Jenna and him felt that way whenever they had more then two lines in a scene.

Kevin and Jayma had a contest at one point to see who was the most expensive extra for an episode.

Kevin said he laughed so hard when he got to work with Dot and Jayma. He said Jayma is one of the funniest and wittiest person he knows. He said Naya and Jayma have the quickest wit.

Jayma and her husband could have their own sitcom.

Jayma embarrassed her son for the first time. He didn’t want her to come to school.

Jayma said her son is funny. He tries to make his friends laugh. He likes physical comedy.

He watched Jayma in Disenchanted. He didn’t know if he was acted to watch his mom in a movie. He told her not to come home wearing her big blonde wig. At the end of the movie he said good job mom.

Working with Adam Shankman was fun. He is a ball of energy.

Adam directed the Rocky Horror episode.

Jayma said the funniest was Amber and Chord. She handed Mercedes a pamphlet that said your a hoe and Sam one that said so you are in love with a two timing hoe.

There are so many good ones.

Jayma likes character stuff. She said this was one of best jobs she had because it was all set up for that. They always had the perfect props. It felt like everyone from hair, makeup, and costuming was influencing her character in the best way possible.

Kevin texted Ryan to ask who came up with the pamphlets and it was Ian Brennan.

Emma had the best wardrobe of the entire show.

Emma wore a pencil skirt during her audition.

The costume was all Lou Eyrich and Ryan.

Jayma’s said at times Glee felt like a blur. She remembers the first 13 the most. They were special because they hadn’t aired yet and they were kind of in a bubble.

She was doing a lot of new things at the time. She was newly married and had just bought a house.

She knew this was really special and felt thankful to be a part of it.

Kevin’s all time favorite scene is Emma in the car singing All By Myself.

Jayma thought that moments where we see a different side to Emma were nice.

She loved when Emma calls Will a slut.

The pulled out al the stops for the All By Myself clip.

She loved sitting in the auditorium watching the cast sing.

Jayma didn’t know that John Stamos would be on the show. It was a funny little poke.

Working with John Stamos and Gwyneth Paltrow was memorable.

Jayma made a joke that they were trying to keep her away from anyone famous to keep her from drooling on them.

Jayma said it was very hard doing stuff with Jane.

Jane does not break.

Kevin doesn’t think Jayma broke during the show.

Jenna loved when Matt broke because he has a boisterous laugh.

Kevin said he was intimated to work with Jayma and Jane.

Everyone respected and admired each other.

Kevin brought his friends to see a movie that had Jayma and Tom Cruise in it.

Jenna’s favorite Emma lines right now have to do with Ken Tanaka. Kevin likes the line about not having a gag reflex.

Jayma loved all the innocent stuff about Emma.

She liked doing Afternoon Delight.

Everyone had the flu during Hello/Goodbye and they were all vomiting when they filmed this scene.

The did some of the greatest hits from Mattress.

Jayma thinks Ian Brenna wrote for Emma.

She has noticed more people are watching Glee again. It tends to be teenage kids coming up to her. She said its lovely that people are watching it and its found a new audience.

Jayma said the feeling glee left her with is happiness. It’s always been a special experience that she got to be a part of and it massively influenced her life in all he most wonderful ways. It’s been a life changer for her.

There were times early on that getting noticed in public was overwhelming to her.

Glee will be one of the most incredible things that she has ever been a part of and she is supremely grateful for it.

Jenna calls her daughter weird nicknames and realized she was using nicknames from Glee that Ken would call Emma.

#and that’s what you really missed #atwyrm #jenna ushkowitz #kevin mchale #jayma mays #glee #podcast

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thegeekyzoologist · 3 years

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My opinion on Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (SPOILERS)

Like many people interested in the Jurassic franchise, I binge-watched that show back in september and here are my thoughts. First of all, I precise that I had no expectations for the series as the combo Jurassic World + kid show didn’t attracted me at all, and the trailers have done nothing but confirm my fears.

Let’s start by the positive: - Amidst the cringefest that the first episodes were, the scenes with Darius back home stand out from the rest by their quality as they are centred more on drama and character development and not on clumsy comedy like the scenes on Nublar. The idea of getting an access to Jurassic World and Camp Cretaceous as a reward for beating that virtual reality game reminded me the recruitment of Eli Wallace by the SGC at the very beginning of Stargate Universe. - Starting from the beginning of the season’s second half, the series gets better and a little more mature in its unfolding and writing, up to the point where it doesn’t seem targeted for young children but rather young teens. Some dumb scenes remain however (like the one of the geneticist Eddie, abandoned in the lab with the sole company of his birthday cake). - There is a few action and suspenseful scenes that aren’t bad in the second half with, among other things, a hide-and-seek game with the Indominus amidst the containers, a part in the tunnels that can remind some people of Telltale’s game, a monorail attack by the pteranodons which should have deserved a live-action treatment, and a climax in a storage area where the protagonists have to use their wits in order to defeat the carnotaur and escape from the underground network. On the matter of the carnotaur, one can note a nice paleontological reference with its difficulty to turn when it is chasing prey. - Of all of the characters, Roxie is the most realistic, responsible and reasonable one (and the only tolerable one in the first episodes). And let’s bring now the negative aspects: - On the matter of the original soundtrack, I don’t remember any of the original themes sadly. As I had the same problem when I viewed The Witcher though (I didn’t liked its first season but I rather well appreciated its soundtrack following a separated listening), I will wait for the release of the soundtrack before criticizing it further. - The first episodes are a total farce with a succession of all kinds of nonsenses with the bunch of stereotypical buffoons that the kids are that are involved in stupid acts by the night of their first day, acts that fall under Reversed Darwinism (the survival of the most idiotic like Grant would say in Jurassic Park 3) and that gave me the desire to give some slaps and send those Kennys to a firing squad (for the crimes of property destruction and, above all, endangering dinosaurs and employees); the infringements during the activities of hygiene and security rules that are applied in many theme parks and laboratories around the world (with the kids wandering around in the lab and touching to everything in a total dissidence; running down a zipline and brushing past brachiosaurs...); the counsellor Dave which talks to Wu like if he was an old pal of his while Wu is one of the highest corporate executive around and someone famous and respected in-universe; Wu being depicted with the subtlety of a fat beer-drunk sea lion (with his mannerisms and attitude worthy of a James Bond villain, we know right away that he is bad); cartoony action scenes (I mean bloody hell. Look at that Parasaurolophus that jumps off the jeep’s roof like he was a fookin’ kangaroo while the jeep itself wasn’t miraculously crushed under the hadrosaur’s weight); the employees and the park’s security being shitty (one enter so easily in the underground network that Biosyn could organise rave parties there right under InGen’s nose; Darius and Kenji being left with no supervision in the middle of the jungle while they are supposed to shovel shit as a punishment); the dinosaurs that passes too as incompetent for failing to kill the kids while such situations in real-life or in the first films would have unforgiving or barely forgiving but only at a certain cost. - Despite the ordeals they are going through, the kids seems to be never traumatised or at least shaken like the Murphys, Kelly Malcolm or Maisie were respectively in JP, TLW and FK since here, they seems to be in shock for a moment or two before starting again to squabble or quipping once they are away from danger. - At the end of the monorail attack scene, I thought that the writers had the balls to kill off Ben and I would have tipped my hat to this narrative decision and give more credit to this kid show if we didn’t had the reveal at the end that he was still alive. At the end, we just got another Billy Brennan situation. - Bumby is useless in this season, aside from encouraging toy sales and being the show’s cute caution and still, it’s relative as her closeups along with Brooklynn’s rapy face in episode 2 have scared me more than the predators’ attacks in the season’s second half. And her growth rate is so fucked up as she hatch in episode 2 before reappearing in episode 5 I think which is supposed to be set two days later, where she is already the size of a bulldog. And the scene where she cries while the kids are being kicked off the lab (for understandable reasons) is so ridiculous... - Aside from in the action and suspenseful scenes mentioned above in the positive aspects, the use and depicting of dinosaurs is either anecdotal, either WTF with the Sinoceratops being almost as gentle as a lamb (try to do with a hippo or a rhino what the Kennys did with the sino, I wouldn’t mind some funny antics...). I’m not a fan of the bioluminescent Parasaurolophus and their scene either. It seems like they wanted to copy the Na’vi River Journey’s attraction from Animal Kingdom in Orlando, with semi-aquatic parasaurs worthy of some outdated depictions from the last century. - Visually speaking, the universe and the artistic direction are poor. The jungle has the same look everywhere on the island (with trees of average height being relatively spaced from one another while the ground is covered with grass) and its scenery never seem foreboding or ominous while Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna were, in some way, entire characters in the films that sometimes aroused an eerie sense of mystery and danger, at east in the original trilogy and Fallen Kingdom. The park itself is quite empty too, even before the evacuation. There is only scene with a large amount of people and the latter seems to all share the same model and the same animation in addition of being blurred (probably as a camouflage for the lack of budget) and we don’t believe in this world as nothing grand comes out of the visited locations (aside from maybe the eponymous Camp Cretaceous) and that everything seems so bland, with even the employees being of the same corpulence, age group and behaviour except for a few exceptions. - Finally, let’s discuss about the coherence with the Jurassic World film, of which this show is supposed be a canon interquel. Even though if there is several nods to some of the latter’s events (Masrani’s helicopter is seen a couple of times; the Kennys take the ACU’s van; they walk past Zach and Gray’s destroyed gyrosphere and the killed ankylosaur’s body...) as well as other materials of the franchise, including JP3 and Masrani Global website, like if the show wanted to tell us “Hey look! I did my homework!” in order to please the fans. It’s one thing to make references to the rest of the saga and it’s easy actually, but it’s another to use them for something else than just fan-service. Despite all this, Camp Cretaceous has its share of inconsistencies with Jurassic World. I won’t list them all since it wouldn’t be that interesting but among other things, we have the mention of fences falling apart across the entire island while nothing like this happened in JW (it seems they mixed up the JP and JW incidents) or at least not on this scale; the kids visit a lab somewhere north of the park whose existence seems a bit off as the Innovation Center’s lab can do everything that lab does, in addition of housing Wu’s secret lab; the surroundings of the mosasaur lagoon which seems empty by the end of the afternoon while chronologically speaking, the scene is supposed to happen just after the pterosaurs attack (and thus the area should be crawling with employees that are looking for eventual late visitors, or the still running security cameras could have spotted the kids) and why did those foolish Kennys didn’t thought of going to the nearby hotels right after the ordeal with the mosasaur instead of hanging around in the bleachers up until sunset, hotels where a large number of visitors are supposed to be found up until quite late in the night according to the Jurassic World film? Anyway, Camp Cretaceous might have got a kick up the backside halfway through and the quality of the episodes did increased little by little but the whole season stays nevertheless mediocre and the viewing of the series is honestly quite dispensable, especially if you were disappointed by the Jurassic World films. Some will probably tell me that I’m being too hard with a kids show but actually, the fact that it is targeted for kids is no excuse for some flaws like a lack of ambition in the artistic direction, the shitty humour or the wtf scenes. Whether a work is for adults, for all audiences, or for kids, the creative investment and the work quality should stay the same.

#jurassic #jurassicworld #jurassic park #jurassic world camp cretaceous #camp cretaceous

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papermoonloveslucy · 7 years

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LUCY AND MISS SHELLEY WINTERS

S1;E4 ~ October 14, 1968

Directed by Jack Donohue ~ Written by Milt Josefsberg and Ray Singer

Synopsis

Shelley Winters needs to slim down before filming her new picture, so Lucy is employed as her private secretary and diet coach.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carter), Gale Gordon (Harrison Otis Carter)

Lucie Arnaz (Kim Carter) and Desi Arnaz Jr. (Craig Carter) do not appear in this episode.

Guest Cast

Shelley Winters (Shelley Summers) was born Shirley Schrift in 1920 (some sources list 1922) in Illinois. Her screen acting career began in 1943 under the name Shelley Winter (no ‘s’). It culminated in two Oscars for Best Supporting Actress in the films The Diary of Anne Frank in 1960 and A Patch of Blue in 1966. She also won a 1964 Emmy. One of her final roles was as Nana Mary on TV's “Roseanne.” Winters was married four times and known for her brash sexuality. She had an uncredited role in the 1946 Lucille Ball film Two Smart People. She died in 2006.

Bartlett Robinson (C.B. Wellborn) had played Mr. Wilkins in “Lucy Gets Trapped” (TLS S6;E2). This is his only appearance on “Here's Lucy.” He died in 1986.

The title refers to her as “Miss Shelley Winters” just as she was billed in the 1955 film The Big Knife when she was between husbands having divorced Vittorio Gassman in 1954 and not married Anthony Franciosa until 1957. During “Here's Lucy” she was also single, having divorced Franciosa in 1960 and not remarrying until the day before her death in 2006. The original title of the episode was “Lucy and Chubby.”

This was the first time Shelley Winters guest starred on a sitcom. She is the first guest-star on “Here’s Lucy” to have won a competitive acting Oscar at the time of her appearance (The Diary of Ann Frank in 1959). She was followed by:

Elizabeth Taylor - who earned an Oscar in 1960 and appeared on the show in 1970

Ginger Rogers - who earned an Oscar in 1940 and appeared on the show in 1971

Helen Hayes - who earned Oscars in 1931 and 1970 and appeared on the show in 1972. Hayes has the distinction of being the only multiple Oscar winner on the series as well as the only actor playing a distinctly different character than herself without her name in the title. [Winters plays Shelley Summers, and essentially is different from Winters in name only!]

William Holden holds this same distinction on “I Love Lucy” and Ed Begley Sr. on “The Lucy Show.”

As the episode opens, Lucy is listening to Harry on the dicta-phone and decides to try out the newfangled recording machine for herself, first quoting a bit of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, then singing “The Man I Love,” a torch song by George and Ira Gershwin. The song was written for, but deleted from, the 1924 Broadway musical Lady Be Good.

Overhearing Lucy sing into the dicta-phone, Harry quips “Thank you, Tiny Tim!” Tiny Tim (born Herbert Buckingham Khaury in 1932) was a singer and ukulele player known for his cover of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.” He was a regular cast member on “Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In” which aired opposite “Here's Lucy” on NBC.

Harry reminds Lucy that “This is a business office, not Tin Pan Alley!” Tin Pan Alley is the name given an area of New York City where music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the late 19th century and early 20th century had their businesses. The origins of the name Tin Pan Alley are unclear but one account claims that it was a derogatory reference to the sound of many pianos playing (comparing them to the banging of tin pans).

Once Lucy leaves the office to get Harry's lunch, Harry also uses the dicta-phone to record himself. He sings “Shortnin' Bread” by James Whitcomb Riley in 1900. The song was famously sung by Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz in “Ethel's Home Town” (ILL S4;E15) in 1955.

Satisfied with the sound of his voice on the playback, he remarks “Wayne Newton eat your heart out!” Wayne Newton (born 1942) is a singer and entertainer who played a version of himself on “Lucy Discovers Wayne Newton” (TLS S4;E14). He will make two appearances as himself on “Here's Lucy.”

Lucy is looking forward to meeting movie producer C.B. Wellborn (no doubt named after Cecil B. DeMille), because she says hopes to break into show business, something Lucy Carter has in common with the other Lucy characters. “After all, lots of people are discovered in drug stores and elevators...” This is a reference to the legendary but apocryphal story that actress Lana Turner was discovered at Schwab's Drugstore in Hollywood. In “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL S4;E18) Lucy went down to Schwab's to be discovered but all she discovered was a stomach ache from too many ice cream sodas. Dorothy Lamour was an elevator operator in Chicago when she was discovered.

When Lucy theatrically plays up to Mr. Wellborn, Harry says to her “That will be all, Theda Bara.” Theodosia Burr Goodman (aka Theda Bara, 1885–1955) was a silent film and stage actress. She was the first to play Cleopatra on film in 1917 (now lost). Lucy played Cleopatra on the very first color filmed “The Lucy Show” in 1963, in which Lucy was also compared to Theda Bara.

On the mantle of Summers' apartment is a photo of Shelley Winters from the 1950 film Frenchie. She glances guiltily at the photo when she is about to overeat.

Summers brags about having two Oscars, just like Shelley Winters. Wild in the Street starring Shelley Winters had opened in late May 1968. In December 1968 Winters opened in the film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell starring Gina Lollobrigida.

Shelly Winters' dresses were padded to make her appear bigger then she really was. This is done so that in the final scene she appears thinner in her new black dress.

Shelley hides food all over her apartment:

A box of candy in the chandelier

A banana in a framed fruit basket

A bowl of spaghetti from the TV (which is actually a mini-fridge)

A whole pizza pie on the turntable of the stereo

The scene is underscored with Theremin music, which is an electronic instrument mainly used during dream sequences and in sci-fi and horror movies. It was first used to underscore Lucy Ricardo's dream of Ricky's infidelity in “Lucy and the Dummy” (ILL S5;E3). It was also used in “Lucy Gets Mooney Fired” (TLS S6;E9) when Lucy Carmichael and Mr. Mooney are 'gaslighting' Mr. Cheever into rehiring him!

When Lucy catches her with the pizza, she claims it is a Dean Martin record and sings “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore!” “That's Amore” was written by Harry Martin and Jack Brooks and recorded by Dean Martin in 1953. “Amore” means “love” in Italian. Dean Martin guest starred on “The Lucy Show” in 1966 playing himself and his stunt double, Eddie Feldman.

Lucy discovers a rope of sausages hidden in the sofa cushion that Shelley claims are her love beads! Love beads were a necklaces worn by hippies in the 1960s as a symbol of peace and goodwill.

Shelley humorously remarks “Honey, they invented CinemaScope to get my hips in the screen!“ CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens used from 1953 to 1967 for shooting widescreen movies. Its creation in 1953 by 20th Century Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection. The anamorphic lens allowed the process to create an image almost twice as wide as the previously common format. Winters' first CinemaScope film was I Died A Thousand Times in 1955.

When Lucy bumps into Shelley and says she didn't see her, Shelley replies “Baby, on a clear day you can see me from Catalina!” The Island of Catalina off the California coast has been used as a punchline in “Lucy and Tennessee Ernie Ford” (TLS S5;E21) when the bell captain smugly says of a swanky hotel penthouse “On a clear day you can see Catalina.” This same claim was made about the Cugamonga high rise apartment in “Lucy Helps the Countess” (TLS S4;E8). In reality, it is highly unlikely (even on a rare smog-free day) to be able to see Catalina from Los Angeles, which is nearly sixty miles away.

The episode allows Winters to stretch her comic abilities. The script assigns her all the physical comedy that would normally be done by Lucy. Like Ball, Winters is game for anything and pulls it off.

Other Hollywood stars have had their surnames slightly altered for their appearances, such as Joan Blondell (Joan Brennan) and Mel Torme (Mel Tinker).

Callbacks

Preparing to make a home cooked meal for a hot date behind roommate Viv’s back, Lucy hides food all over the house in “Lucy Builds a Rumpus Room” (TLS S1;E11) just like Lucy Ricardo did when she faked a hunger strike in “Lucy Gets a Paris Gown” (ILL S5;E20).

Lucy Carmichael dieted and exercised at a fat farm in “Lucy and the Countess Lose Weight” (TLS S3;E21) in 1965. They wear pink sweat suits just like Shelley Winters!

Lucy Ricardo tried to lose weight to get into Ricky's act (and a tight costume) in “The Diet” (ILL S1;E3) in 1951. I wonder if Lucy Ricardo’s workout clothes are also pink?

“Lucy and Miss Shelley Winters” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

Oddly, Shelley Winters is basically playing herself, so it is unclear why she had to be re-named Shelley Summers. Many “Lucy” guest stars have used their own names and played very different versions of themselves on screen (Wayne Newton and Joan Crawford, for example). This episode may be considered politically incorrect in today’s society, which seeks to celebrate the fuller figured woman and not measure acceptance by body size.

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growthvue · 6 years

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Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Joe Brennan on episode 297 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Digital filmmaking can successfully be integrated into any class. Learn practical tips and ideas from Joe Brennan for making movies in the classroom.

Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online PD courses for K-12 teachers. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout for 20% off any course.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e297

Date: April 24, 2018

Vicki: Let’s talk about making videos with kids!

Today we’re talking with an expert on the subject, Joe Brennan Creativity and Innovation Specialist. He is in Illinois.

Joe, where do we start, making videos with kids?

Where do you start?

Joe: Anywhere you want to.

I’m a big proponent of using it in any classroom, with any subject.

I teach a graduate class, and I challenge my teachers to do it, regardless of what they teach. The math teachers, the science teachers, the PE teachers complain that it just wouldn’t work in their discipline. After a couple of weeks they figure out, it can!

Vicki: Give me an example.

What would be an example of a video you’ve seen in math or in history?

Give us an example of a video in an unlikely subject

Joe: One of my favorite ones in math that a teacher did was the division sign as Eeyore. It starts out with lonely division sign perched on a chair, I guess.

And it says, [delivered in an Eeyore voice] “Nobody likes me. Every time a teacher says we’re going to divide, there’s a groan in the room.”

Vicki: (laughs)

Joe: Then he kind of becomes the division sign, and describes what you have to do when you divide, and how it’s the opposite of multiplication and things like that. It just kind of puts a human voice (not necessarily a face) on it. But he talks about the application.

So that was, I think, a fourth grade or fifth-grade math teacher.

Vicki: Think about it. I make videos in my classroom and digital film and… you know.

You want to have a purpose, though. So how does a teacher start off finding a purpose, and then helping their kids plan out their video?

How does a teacher begin to structure the purpose and the plan?

Joe: Well… Do they want to review? Do they want to introduce something?

It depends on what class it is.

I go right back to the writing process with this. Whichever model your school uses to teach kids how to write, I always boil it down to the “Tell ‘ems” method.

Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em.

Tell ‘em what you told them.

You’ve got the introduction, body, and the conclusion sort of thing.

But you can do that visually, and it’s much more memorable for the kids when they kind of see it and hear it at the same time.

I downplay using music. It can really be a crutch. We don’t want to make music videos.

Vicki: Joe, take us through an example of how you’ve coached a teacher recently through this process of making videos with their class, and the objectives that you covered.

Give us an example of how you coached some video projects

Joe: We try to employ PBL tactics, whether we’re 100% PBL or not is up for discussion.

But I have a fifth-grade class that just finished that just finished reading Night of the Twisters.

They made videos on disaster preparedness — tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, you name it.

My favorite ones are the ones where the kids kind of do a newscast. They’re at a desk like you see on the nightly news, and then they go to a reporter on the street.

The use a little green screen.

They could be in an earthquake. They could be in a flood. They could be in a hurricane.

Then they talk about what people have in their preparedness kit.

I forget what else they pick up from the novel, but they employ all those things.

I guess there’s a little aspect of a book report in there. There’s a big aspect of current events, and kids making an argument, presenting themselves, public speaking.

Vicki: So, they’ve decided their topic.

How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Are you big on scripting? Storyboarding? How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Joe: The quickest, easiest thing to do is shoot and edit on the computer, iPad, whatever your device is going to be.

The big thing is preparing.

So it’s a pay me now, pay me later, or pay me much later sort of a thing.

We want a script. We want a storyboard.

Of course, you can edit things in post [production.]

But the more you can line up ahead of time, the more you know what’s coming, and what each team member’s part is going to be.

Kids take turns behind the camera or in front of the camera. Or they’re on the side doing some sort of coaching or moving props in.

But definitely, you want a storyboard. You want a script. Keep those separate.

I also like Jason Ohler’s storymap idea

http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/assessmentWIX.cfm

You can almost simply that using the story spine sort of thing, “Once upon a time… Something happened… Because of that…. Then that…” And eventually, you come to the conclusion.

Vicki: You know, the scripting and the storyboarding is something the students really — I know in my classroom — they’ll fight me on it!. But it just HAS to be there. Otherwise, you just end up with a mess.

I don’t know why kids think that they’re just going to go to the next viral YouTube video.

Kids think they can just point and shoot without a plan

And it just doesn’t work that way, does it, Joe?

Joe: Exactly. It’s just like stream of consciousness writing.

Vicki: Yeah.

Joe: If you didn’t have an outline or do a first draft before you put pen to paper, or started typing… it shows.

Vicki: It does. It just turns into a mess!

I think it’s just when we start with video — and I made that mistake early on — I guess it’s kind of ignorance, in some ways. We just don’t know better. Once you know better, you guide your kids through the scripting, through the storyboarding, or use Jason Ohler’s storymap idea.

Hardware and software choices?

And then what do your students shoot on? My students shoot on — I have a Gimble, and they put their phones in it, and we usually rip off of their iPhones or their Droids and we pull it into something called Pinnacle Studio.

So what do you use with kids?

Joe: Oh, Pinnacle Studio. Nice!

We use iPads and iMovie.

Vicki: Awesome! And iMovie is incredible.

So actually shooting on the iPad, and then pulling it right into iMovie, huh?

Joe: Right, and they also have the Do Ink green screen program.

Green screen options

Vicki: Ohhhh! So where’s your green screen at your school?

Joe: Anywhere we want it to be.

Vicki: So is it moveable?

Joe: This was such a big hit with our five language arts teachers that they got their own green screen. I have a portable one I lend out from my center. I also have two green walls in my studio technology office area. They can shoot anywhere.

One of my favorite pictures is — we have an open balcony area, and we’ve got three green screens set up — and kids are using both sides of them at the same time.

Vicki: Wow! Well, how’s that for audio, though, huh?

Joe: Well, that’s a challenge!

Vicki: (laughs)

Tips for overcoming problems with background audio noise

Joe: They have also learned the trick that you don’t have to get the dialogue. You can do a great job with narration. Tell the first person’s story, and your character could be in the picture which your voice is coming sort of in retrospect.

If you watch young Sheldon, I kind of like the way the old Sheldon talks about what Sheldon is going on in the show.

Vicki: Yeah. When you do have actors and you do have audio, that tends to be the most difficult piece of what I do with my students, is capturing that audio. We actually invested in a road microphone set which is pretty expensive to be able to capture that. But it is so difficult to get good sound off your set, isn’t it?

Joe: It is. It is.

I’ve got some iRig mics that — when the kids do their news broadcast sort of thing, they can use. But the more I can get them to narrate their story, have live actors, or have pictures they borrowed from the internet with historical people… and then do a narration in post and use one of the nice microphones or at least get closer to their iPad in a more contained area where they don’t have a lot of the background noise…works much, much better.

And also it helps to make a shorter story.

Shorter is better, and concise is nice.

Really, you just don’t want kids to make something that’s more than three minutes.

And if they can do it in 60 or 90 seconds, that’s even better.

If you’re not fighting dialogue, and people working through their lines — if somebody’s doing it with a narration, you can get the same amount of information, or more information in that short time period.

Vicki: Joe, as we finish up, what’s the simplest way to start?

Simplest way to get up and running?

Joe: You just do it.

But you’ve got to prepare. You’ve got to get that script. You’ve got to get a storyboard, with an idea of what your pictures are going to be. If you’re going to borrow things from the internet or use still pictures or use something else besides live video, get all that stuff lined up first.

Vicki: OK, teachers! So making videos, making digital film is an incredible way to really enhance learning in every subject.

In my own classroom, it’s one of the most exciting things that we do. I’ve actually added another digital film project this spring, just because my students are really in to making digital videos.

It does take a little bit of work, though, and you do have to plan ahead.

Thanks, Joe, for this great advice to help us make better videos with our kids!

Joe: My pleasure!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

After seeing how well video making worked for his Spanish students, Joe moved from the Spanish classroom to an AV/Media Coordinator position. He is an American Film Institute Screen Educator and an Apple Distinguished Educator. He is currently serving as the Creativity & Innovation Specialist at Meridian Middle School in Buffalo Grove, IL as well as teaching in the Wilkes University Instructional Media Program.

Blog: http://joebrennan.us/Digital_Storytelling/Handouts.html

Twitter: @joebjr

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Making Better Videos and Movies with Students appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students published first on https://getnewdlbusiness.tumblr.com/

0 notes

succeedly · 6 years

Text

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Joe Brennan on episode 297 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Digital filmmaking can successfully be integrated into any class. Learn practical tips and ideas from Joe Brennan for making movies in the classroom.

Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online PD courses for K-12 teachers. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout for 20% off any course.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e297

Date: April 24, 2018

Vicki: Let’s talk about making videos with kids!

Today we’re talking with an expert on the subject, Joe Brennan Creativity and Innovation Specialist. He is in Illinois.

Joe, where do we start, making videos with kids?

Where do you start?

Joe: Anywhere you want to.

I’m a big proponent of using it in any classroom, with any subject.

Vicki: Give me an example.

What would be an example of a video you’ve seen in math or in history?

Give us an example of a video in an unlikely subject

Joe: One of my favorite ones in math that a teacher did was the division sign as Eeyore. It starts out with lonely division sign perched on a chair, I guess.

And it says, [delivered in an Eeyore voice] “Nobody likes me. Every time a teacher says we’re going to divide, there’s a groan in the room.”

Vicki: (laughs)

So that was, I think, a fourth grade or fifth-grade math teacher.

Vicki: Think about it. I make videos in my classroom and digital film and… you know.

You want to have a purpose, though. So how does a teacher start off finding a purpose, and then helping their kids plan out their video?

How does a teacher begin to structure the purpose and the plan?

Joe: Well… Do they want to review? Do they want to introduce something?

It depends on what class it is.

I go right back to the writing process with this. Whichever model your school uses to teach kids how to write, I always boil it down to the “Tell ‘ems” method.

Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em.

Tell ‘em what you told them.

You’ve got the introduction, body, and the conclusion sort of thing.

But you can do that visually, and it’s much more memorable for the kids when they kind of see it and hear it at the same time.

I downplay using music. It can really be a crutch. We don’t want to make music videos.

Vicki: Joe, take us through an example of how you’ve coached a teacher recently through this process of making videos with their class, and the objectives that you covered.

Give us an example of how you coached some video projects

Joe: We try to employ PBL tactics, whether we’re 100% PBL or not is up for discussion.

But I have a fifth-grade class that just finished that just finished reading Night of the Twisters.

They made videos on disaster preparedness — tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, you name it.

My favorite ones are the ones where the kids kind of do a newscast. They’re at a desk like you see on the nightly news, and then they go to a reporter on the street.

The use a little green screen.

They could be in an earthquake. They could be in a flood. They could be in a hurricane.

Then they talk about what people have in their preparedness kit.

I forget what else they pick up from the novel, but they employ all those things.

I guess there’s a little aspect of a book report in there. There’s a big aspect of current events, and kids making an argument, presenting themselves, public speaking.

Vicki: So, they’ve decided their topic.

How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Are you big on scripting? Storyboarding? How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Joe: The quickest, easiest thing to do is shoot and edit on the computer, iPad, whatever your device is going to be.

The big thing is preparing.

So it’s a pay me now, pay me later, or pay me much later sort of a thing.

We want a script. We want a storyboard.

Of course, you can edit things in post [production.]

But the more you can line up ahead of time, the more you know what’s coming, and what each team member’s part is going to be.

Kids take turns behind the camera or in front of the camera. Or they’re on the side doing some sort of coaching or moving props in.

But definitely, you want a storyboard. You want a script. Keep those separate.

I also like Jason Ohler’s storymap idea

http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/assessmentWIX.cfm

You can almost simply that using the story spine sort of thing, “Once upon a time… Something happened… Because of that…. Then that…” And eventually, you come to the conclusion.

I don’t know why kids think that they’re just going to go to the next viral YouTube video.

Kids think they can just point and shoot without a plan

And it just doesn’t work that way, does it, Joe?

Joe: Exactly. It’s just like stream of consciousness writing.

Vicki: Yeah.

Joe: If you didn’t have an outline or do a first draft before you put pen to paper, or started typing… it shows.

Vicki: It does. It just turns into a mess!

Hardware and software choices?

So what do you use with kids?

Joe: Oh, Pinnacle Studio. Nice!

We use iPads and iMovie.

Vicki: Awesome! And iMovie is incredible.

So actually shooting on the iPad, and then pulling it right into iMovie, huh?

Joe: Right, and they also have the Do Ink green screen program.

Green screen options

Vicki: Ohhhh! So where’s your green screen at your school?

Joe: Anywhere we want it to be.

Vicki: So is it moveable?

One of my favorite pictures is — we have an open balcony area, and we’ve got three green screens set up — and kids are using both sides of them at the same time.

Vicki: Wow! Well, how’s that for audio, though, huh?

Joe: Well, that’s a challenge!

Vicki: (laughs)

Tips for overcoming problems with background audio noise

If you watch young Sheldon, I kind of like the way the old Sheldon talks about what Sheldon is going on in the show.

Joe: It is. It is.

And also it helps to make a shorter story.

Shorter is better, and concise is nice.

Really, you just don’t want kids to make something that’s more than three minutes.

And if they can do it in 60 or 90 seconds, that’s even better.

Vicki: Joe, as we finish up, what’s the simplest way to start?

Simplest way to get up and running?

Joe: You just do it.

Vicki: OK, teachers! So making videos, making digital film is an incredible way to really enhance learning in every subject.

It does take a little bit of work, though, and you do have to plan ahead.

Thanks, Joe, for this great advice to help us make better videos with our kids!

Joe: My pleasure!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

Blog: http://joebrennan.us/Digital_Storytelling/Handouts.html

Twitter: @joebjr

The post Making Better Videos and Movies with Students appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students published first on https://getnewcourse.tumblr.com/

0 notes

patriciaanderson357-blog · 6 years

Text

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Joe Brennan on episode 297 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Digital filmmaking can successfully be integrated into any class. Learn practical tips and ideas from Joe Brennan for making movies in the classroom.

Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online PD courses for K-12 teachers. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout for 20% off any course.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e297

Date: April 24, 2018

Vicki: Let’s talk about making videos with kids!

Today we’re talking with an expert on the subject, Joe Brennan Creativity and Innovation Specialist. He is in Illinois.

Joe, where do we start, making videos with kids?

Where do you start?

Joe: Anywhere you want to.

I’m a big proponent of using it in any classroom, with any subject.

Vicki: Give me an example.

What would be an example of a video you’ve seen in math or in history?

Give us an example of a video in an unlikely subject

Joe: One of my favorite ones in math that a teacher did was the division sign as Eeyore. It starts out with lonely division sign perched on a chair, I guess.

And it says, [delivered in an Eeyore voice] “Nobody likes me. Every time a teacher says we’re going to divide, there’s a groan in the room.”

Vicki: (laughs)

So that was, I think, a fourth grade or fifth-grade math teacher.

Vicki: Think about it. I make videos in my classroom and digital film and… you know.

You want to have a purpose, though. So how does a teacher start off finding a purpose, and then helping their kids plan out their video?

How does a teacher begin to structure the purpose and the plan?

Joe: Well… Do they want to review? Do they want to introduce something?

It depends on what class it is.

I go right back to the writing process with this. Whichever model your school uses to teach kids how to write, I always boil it down to the “Tell ‘ems” method.

Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em.

Tell ‘em what you told them.

You’ve got the introduction, body, and the conclusion sort of thing.

But you can do that visually, and it’s much more memorable for the kids when they kind of see it and hear it at the same time.

I downplay using music. It can really be a crutch. We don’t want to make music videos.

Vicki: Joe, take us through an example of how you’ve coached a teacher recently through this process of making videos with their class, and the objectives that you covered.

Give us an example of how you coached some video projects

Joe: We try to employ PBL tactics, whether we’re 100% PBL or not is up for discussion.

But I have a fifth-grade class that just finished that just finished reading Night of the Twisters.

They made videos on disaster preparedness — tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, you name it.

My favorite ones are the ones where the kids kind of do a newscast. They’re at a desk like you see on the nightly news, and then they go to a reporter on the street.

The use a little green screen.

They could be in an earthquake. They could be in a flood. They could be in a hurricane.

Then they talk about what people have in their preparedness kit.

I forget what else they pick up from the novel, but they employ all those things.

I guess there’s a little aspect of a book report in there. There’s a big aspect of current events, and kids making an argument, presenting themselves, public speaking.

Vicki: So, they’ve decided their topic.

How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Are you big on scripting? Storyboarding? How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Joe: The quickest, easiest thing to do is shoot and edit on the computer, iPad, whatever your device is going to be.

The big thing is preparing.

So it’s a pay me now, pay me later, or pay me much later sort of a thing.

We want a script. We want a storyboard.

Of course, you can edit things in post [production.]

But the more you can line up ahead of time, the more you know what’s coming, and what each team member’s part is going to be.

Kids take turns behind the camera or in front of the camera. Or they’re on the side doing some sort of coaching or moving props in.

But definitely, you want a storyboard. You want a script. Keep those separate.

I also like Jason Ohler’s storymap idea

http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/assessmentWIX.cfm

You can almost simply that using the story spine sort of thing, “Once upon a time… Something happened… Because of that…. Then that…” And eventually, you come to the conclusion.

I don’t know why kids think that they’re just going to go to the next viral YouTube video.

Kids think they can just point and shoot without a plan

And it just doesn’t work that way, does it, Joe?

Joe: Exactly. It’s just like stream of consciousness writing.

Vicki: Yeah.

Joe: If you didn’t have an outline or do a first draft before you put pen to paper, or started typing… it shows.

Vicki: It does. It just turns into a mess!

Hardware and software choices?

So what do you use with kids?

Joe: Oh, Pinnacle Studio. Nice!

We use iPads and iMovie.

Vicki: Awesome! And iMovie is incredible.

So actually shooting on the iPad, and then pulling it right into iMovie, huh?

Joe: Right, and they also have the Do Ink green screen program.

Green screen options

Vicki: Ohhhh! So where’s your green screen at your school?

Joe: Anywhere we want it to be.

Vicki: So is it moveable?

One of my favorite pictures is — we have an open balcony area, and we’ve got three green screens set up — and kids are using both sides of them at the same time.

Vicki: Wow! Well, how’s that for audio, though, huh?

Joe: Well, that’s a challenge!

Vicki: (laughs)

Tips for overcoming problems with background audio noise

If you watch young Sheldon, I kind of like the way the old Sheldon talks about what Sheldon is going on in the show.

Joe: It is. It is.

And also it helps to make a shorter story.

Shorter is better, and concise is nice.

Really, you just don’t want kids to make something that’s more than three minutes.

And if they can do it in 60 or 90 seconds, that’s even better.

Vicki: Joe, as we finish up, what’s the simplest way to start?

Simplest way to get up and running?

Joe: You just do it.

Vicki: OK, teachers! So making videos, making digital film is an incredible way to really enhance learning in every subject.

It does take a little bit of work, though, and you do have to plan ahead.

Thanks, Joe, for this great advice to help us make better videos with our kids!

Joe: My pleasure!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

Blog: http://joebrennan.us/Digital_Storytelling/Handouts.html

Twitter: @joebjr

The post Making Better Videos and Movies with Students appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

0 notes

athena29stone · 6 years

Text

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Joe Brennan on episode 297 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Digital filmmaking can successfully be integrated into any class. Learn practical tips and ideas from Joe Brennan for making movies in the classroom.

Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online PD courses for K-12 teachers. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout for 20% off any course.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e297

Date: April 24, 2018

Vicki: Let’s talk about making videos with kids!

Today we’re talking with an expert on the subject, Joe Brennan Creativity and Innovation Specialist. He is in Illinois.

Joe, where do we start, making videos with kids?

Where do you start?

Joe: Anywhere you want to.

I’m a big proponent of using it in any classroom, with any subject.

Vicki: Give me an example.

What would be an example of a video you’ve seen in math or in history?

Give us an example of a video in an unlikely subject

Joe: One of my favorite ones in math that a teacher did was the division sign as Eeyore. It starts out with lonely division sign perched on a chair, I guess.

And it says, [delivered in an Eeyore voice] “Nobody likes me. Every time a teacher says we’re going to divide, there’s a groan in the room.”

Vicki: (laughs)

So that was, I think, a fourth grade or fifth-grade math teacher.

Vicki: Think about it. I make videos in my classroom and digital film and… you know.

You want to have a purpose, though. So how does a teacher start off finding a purpose, and then helping their kids plan out their video?

How does a teacher begin to structure the purpose and the plan?

Joe: Well… Do they want to review? Do they want to introduce something?

It depends on what class it is.

I go right back to the writing process with this. Whichever model your school uses to teach kids how to write, I always boil it down to the “Tell ‘ems” method.

Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em.

Tell ‘em what you told them.

You’ve got the introduction, body, and the conclusion sort of thing.

But you can do that visually, and it’s much more memorable for the kids when they kind of see it and hear it at the same time.

I downplay using music. It can really be a crutch. We don’t want to make music videos.

Vicki: Joe, take us through an example of how you’ve coached a teacher recently through this process of making videos with their class, and the objectives that you covered.

Give us an example of how you coached some video projects

Joe: We try to employ PBL tactics, whether we’re 100% PBL or not is up for discussion.

But I have a fifth-grade class that just finished that just finished reading Night of the Twisters.

They made videos on disaster preparedness — tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, you name it.

My favorite ones are the ones where the kids kind of do a newscast. They’re at a desk like you see on the nightly news, and then they go to a reporter on the street.

The use a little green screen.

They could be in an earthquake. They could be in a flood. They could be in a hurricane.

Then they talk about what people have in their preparedness kit.

I forget what else they pick up from the novel, but they employ all those things.

I guess there’s a little aspect of a book report in there. There’s a big aspect of current events, and kids making an argument, presenting themselves, public speaking.

Vicki: So, they’ve decided their topic.

How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Are you big on scripting? Storyboarding? How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Joe: The quickest, easiest thing to do is shoot and edit on the computer, iPad, whatever your device is going to be.

The big thing is preparing.

So it’s a pay me now, pay me later, or pay me much later sort of a thing.

We want a script. We want a storyboard.

Of course, you can edit things in post [production.]

But the more you can line up ahead of time, the more you know what’s coming, and what each team member’s part is going to be.

Kids take turns behind the camera or in front of the camera. Or they’re on the side doing some sort of coaching or moving props in.

But definitely, you want a storyboard. You want a script. Keep those separate.

I also like Jason Ohler’s storymap idea

http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/assessmentWIX.cfm

You can almost simply that using the story spine sort of thing, “Once upon a time… Something happened… Because of that…. Then that…” And eventually, you come to the conclusion.

I don’t know why kids think that they’re just going to go to the next viral YouTube video.

Kids think they can just point and shoot without a plan

And it just doesn’t work that way, does it, Joe?

Joe: Exactly. It’s just like stream of consciousness writing.

Vicki: Yeah.

Joe: If you didn’t have an outline or do a first draft before you put pen to paper, or started typing… it shows.

Vicki: It does. It just turns into a mess!

Hardware and software choices?

So what do you use with kids?

Joe: Oh, Pinnacle Studio. Nice!

We use iPads and iMovie.

Vicki: Awesome! And iMovie is incredible.

So actually shooting on the iPad, and then pulling it right into iMovie, huh?

Joe: Right, and they also have the Do Ink green screen program.

Green screen options

Vicki: Ohhhh! So where’s your green screen at your school?

Joe: Anywhere we want it to be.

Vicki: So is it moveable?

One of my favorite pictures is — we have an open balcony area, and we’ve got three green screens set up — and kids are using both sides of them at the same time.

Vicki: Wow! Well, how’s that for audio, though, huh?

Joe: Well, that’s a challenge!

Vicki: (laughs)

Tips for overcoming problems with background audio noise

If you watch young Sheldon, I kind of like the way the old Sheldon talks about what Sheldon is going on in the show.

Joe: It is. It is.

And also it helps to make a shorter story.

Shorter is better, and concise is nice.

Really, you just don’t want kids to make something that’s more than three minutes.

And if they can do it in 60 or 90 seconds, that’s even better.

Vicki: Joe, as we finish up, what’s the simplest way to start?

Simplest way to get up and running?

Joe: You just do it.

Vicki: OK, teachers! So making videos, making digital film is an incredible way to really enhance learning in every subject.

It does take a little bit of work, though, and you do have to plan ahead.

Thanks, Joe, for this great advice to help us make better videos with our kids!

Joe: My pleasure!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

Blog: http://joebrennan.us/Digital_Storytelling/Handouts.html

Twitter: @joebjr

The post Making Better Videos and Movies with Students appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e297/

0 notes

aira26soonas · 6 years

Text

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Joe Brennan on episode 297 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Digital filmmaking can successfully be integrated into any class. Learn practical tips and ideas from Joe Brennan for making movies in the classroom.

Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online PD courses for K-12 teachers. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout for 20% off any course.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e297

Date: April 24, 2018

Vicki: Let’s talk about making videos with kids!

Today we’re talking with an expert on the subject, Joe Brennan Creativity and Innovation Specialist. He is in Illinois.

Joe, where do we start, making videos with kids?

Where do you start?

Joe: Anywhere you want to.

I’m a big proponent of using it in any classroom, with any subject.

Vicki: Give me an example.

What would be an example of a video you’ve seen in math or in history?

Give us an example of a video in an unlikely subject

Joe: One of my favorite ones in math that a teacher did was the division sign as Eeyore. It starts out with lonely division sign perched on a chair, I guess.

And it says, [delivered in an Eeyore voice] “Nobody likes me. Every time a teacher says we’re going to divide, there’s a groan in the room.”

Vicki: (laughs)

So that was, I think, a fourth grade or fifth-grade math teacher.

Vicki: Think about it. I make videos in my classroom and digital film and… you know.

You want to have a purpose, though. So how does a teacher start off finding a purpose, and then helping their kids plan out their video?

How does a teacher begin to structure the purpose and the plan?

Joe: Well… Do they want to review? Do they want to introduce something?

It depends on what class it is.

I go right back to the writing process with this. Whichever model your school uses to teach kids how to write, I always boil it down to the “Tell ‘ems” method.

Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em.

Tell ‘em what you told them.

You’ve got the introduction, body, and the conclusion sort of thing.

But you can do that visually, and it’s much more memorable for the kids when they kind of see it and hear it at the same time.

I downplay using music. It can really be a crutch. We don’t want to make music videos.

Vicki: Joe, take us through an example of how you’ve coached a teacher recently through this process of making videos with their class, and the objectives that you covered.

Give us an example of how you coached some video projects

Joe: We try to employ PBL tactics, whether we’re 100% PBL or not is up for discussion.

But I have a fifth-grade class that just finished that just finished reading Night of the Twisters.

They made videos on disaster preparedness — tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, you name it.

My favorite ones are the ones where the kids kind of do a newscast. They’re at a desk like you see on the nightly news, and then they go to a reporter on the street.

The use a little green screen.

They could be in an earthquake. They could be in a flood. They could be in a hurricane.

Then they talk about what people have in their preparedness kit.

I forget what else they pick up from the novel, but they employ all those things.

I guess there’s a little aspect of a book report in there. There’s a big aspect of current events, and kids making an argument, presenting themselves, public speaking.

Vicki: So, they’ve decided their topic.

How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Are you big on scripting? Storyboarding? How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Joe: The quickest, easiest thing to do is shoot and edit on the computer, iPad, whatever your device is going to be.

The big thing is preparing.

So it’s a pay me now, pay me later, or pay me much later sort of a thing.

We want a script. We want a storyboard.

Of course, you can edit things in post [production.]

But the more you can line up ahead of time, the more you know what’s coming, and what each team member’s part is going to be.

Kids take turns behind the camera or in front of the camera. Or they’re on the side doing some sort of coaching or moving props in.

But definitely, you want a storyboard. You want a script. Keep those separate.

I also like Jason Ohler’s storymap idea

http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/assessmentWIX.cfm

You can almost simply that using the story spine sort of thing, “Once upon a time… Something happened… Because of that…. Then that…” And eventually, you come to the conclusion.

I don’t know why kids think that they’re just going to go to the next viral YouTube video.

Kids think they can just point and shoot without a plan

And it just doesn’t work that way, does it, Joe?

Joe: Exactly. It’s just like stream of consciousness writing.

Vicki: Yeah.

Joe: If you didn’t have an outline or do a first draft before you put pen to paper, or started typing… it shows.

Vicki: It does. It just turns into a mess!

Hardware and software choices?

So what do you use with kids?

Joe: Oh, Pinnacle Studio. Nice!

We use iPads and iMovie.

Vicki: Awesome! And iMovie is incredible.

So actually shooting on the iPad, and then pulling it right into iMovie, huh?

Joe: Right, and they also have the Do Ink green screen program.

Green screen options

Vicki: Ohhhh! So where’s your green screen at your school?

Joe: Anywhere we want it to be.

Vicki: So is it moveable?

One of my favorite pictures is — we have an open balcony area, and we’ve got three green screens set up — and kids are using both sides of them at the same time.

Vicki: Wow! Well, how’s that for audio, though, huh?

Joe: Well, that’s a challenge!

Vicki: (laughs)

Tips for overcoming problems with background audio noise

If you watch young Sheldon, I kind of like the way the old Sheldon talks about what Sheldon is going on in the show.

Joe: It is. It is.

And also it helps to make a shorter story.

Shorter is better, and concise is nice.

Really, you just don’t want kids to make something that’s more than three minutes.

And if they can do it in 60 or 90 seconds, that’s even better.

Vicki: Joe, as we finish up, what’s the simplest way to start?

Simplest way to get up and running?

Joe: You just do it.

Vicki: OK, teachers! So making videos, making digital film is an incredible way to really enhance learning in every subject.

It does take a little bit of work, though, and you do have to plan ahead.

Thanks, Joe, for this great advice to help us make better videos with our kids!

Joe: My pleasure!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

Blog: http://joebrennan.us/Digital_Storytelling/Handouts.html

Twitter: @joebjr

The post Making Better Videos and Movies with Students appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e297/

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ralph31ortiz · 6 years

Text

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Joe Brennan on episode 297 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Digital filmmaking can successfully be integrated into any class. Learn practical tips and ideas from Joe Brennan for making movies in the classroom.

Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online PD courses for K-12 teachers. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout for 20% off any course.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Making Better Videos and Movies with Students

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e297

Date: April 24, 2018

Vicki: Let’s talk about making videos with kids!

Today we’re talking with an expert on the subject, Joe Brennan Creativity and Innovation Specialist. He is in Illinois.

Joe, where do we start, making videos with kids?

Where do you start?

Joe: Anywhere you want to.

I’m a big proponent of using it in any classroom, with any subject.

Vicki: Give me an example.

What would be an example of a video you’ve seen in math or in history?

Give us an example of a video in an unlikely subject

Joe: One of my favorite ones in math that a teacher did was the division sign as Eeyore. It starts out with lonely division sign perched on a chair, I guess.

And it says, [delivered in an Eeyore voice] “Nobody likes me. Every time a teacher says we’re going to divide, there’s a groan in the room.”

Vicki: (laughs)

So that was, I think, a fourth grade or fifth-grade math teacher.

Vicki: Think about it. I make videos in my classroom and digital film and… you know.

You want to have a purpose, though. So how does a teacher start off finding a purpose, and then helping their kids plan out their video?

How does a teacher begin to structure the purpose and the plan?

Joe: Well… Do they want to review? Do they want to introduce something?

It depends on what class it is.

I go right back to the writing process with this. Whichever model your school uses to teach kids how to write, I always boil it down to the “Tell ‘ems” method.

Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em.

Tell ‘em what you told them.

You’ve got the introduction, body, and the conclusion sort of thing.

But you can do that visually, and it’s much more memorable for the kids when they kind of see it and hear it at the same time.

I downplay using music. It can really be a crutch. We don’t want to make music videos.

Vicki: Joe, take us through an example of how you’ve coached a teacher recently through this process of making videos with their class, and the objectives that you covered.

Give us an example of how you coached some video projects

Joe: We try to employ PBL tactics, whether we’re 100% PBL or not is up for discussion.

But I have a fifth-grade class that just finished that just finished reading Night of the Twisters.

They made videos on disaster preparedness — tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, you name it.

My favorite ones are the ones where the kids kind of do a newscast. They’re at a desk like you see on the nightly news, and then they go to a reporter on the street.

The use a little green screen.

They could be in an earthquake. They could be in a flood. They could be in a hurricane.

Then they talk about what people have in their preparedness kit.

I forget what else they pick up from the novel, but they employ all those things.

I guess there’s a little aspect of a book report in there. There’s a big aspect of current events, and kids making an argument, presenting themselves, public speaking.

Vicki: So, they’ve decided their topic.

How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Are you big on scripting? Storyboarding? How do you help them get ready to shoot?

Joe: The quickest, easiest thing to do is shoot and edit on the computer, iPad, whatever your device is going to be.

The big thing is preparing.

So it’s a pay me now, pay me later, or pay me much later sort of a thing.

We want a script. We want a storyboard.

Of course, you can edit things in post [production.]

But the more you can line up ahead of time, the more you know what’s coming, and what each team member’s part is going to be.

Kids take turns behind the camera or in front of the camera. Or they’re on the side doing some sort of coaching or moving props in.

But definitely, you want a storyboard. You want a script. Keep those separate.

I also like Jason Ohler’s storymap idea

http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/assessmentWIX.cfm

You can almost simply that using the story spine sort of thing, “Once upon a time… Something happened… Because of that…. Then that…” And eventually, you come to the conclusion.

I don’t know why kids think that they’re just going to go to the next viral YouTube video.

Kids think they can just point and shoot without a plan

And it just doesn’t work that way, does it, Joe?

Joe: Exactly. It’s just like stream of consciousness writing.

Vicki: Yeah.

Joe: If you didn’t have an outline or do a first draft before you put pen to paper, or started typing… it shows.

Vicki: It does. It just turns into a mess!

Hardware and software choices?

So what do you use with kids?

Joe: Oh, Pinnacle Studio. Nice!

We use iPads and iMovie.

Vicki: Awesome! And iMovie is incredible.

So actually shooting on the iPad, and then pulling it right into iMovie, huh?

Joe: Right, and they also have the Do Ink green screen program.

Green screen options

Vicki: Ohhhh! So where’s your green screen at your school?

Joe: Anywhere we want it to be.

Vicki: So is it moveable?

One of my favorite pictures is — we have an open balcony area, and we’ve got three green screens set up — and kids are using both sides of them at the same time.

Vicki: Wow! Well, how’s that for audio, though, huh?

Joe: Well, that’s a challenge!

Vicki: (laughs)

Tips for overcoming problems with background audio noise

If you watch young Sheldon, I kind of like the way the old Sheldon talks about what Sheldon is going on in the show.

Joe: It is. It is.

And also it helps to make a shorter story.

Shorter is better, and concise is nice.

Really, you just don’t want kids to make something that’s more than three minutes.

And if they can do it in 60 or 90 seconds, that’s even better.

Vicki: Joe, as we finish up, what’s the simplest way to start?

Simplest way to get up and running?

Joe: You just do it.

Vicki: OK, teachers! So making videos, making digital film is an incredible way to really enhance learning in every subject.

It does take a little bit of work, though, and you do have to plan ahead.

Thanks, Joe, for this great advice to help us make better videos with our kids!

Joe: My pleasure!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

Blog: http://joebrennan.us/Digital_Storytelling/Handouts.html

Twitter: @joebjr

The post Making Better Videos and Movies with Students appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e297/

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stcrlghts · 7 years

Photo

Bones Series Finale Recap - via Entertainment Weekly

I’m not entirely kidding when I say I didn’t think this day would come — the last Bones episode. Bones seemed poised to outlive us all. But it’s also a show about the basic biological truth that everything ends, coupled with the reminder that it’s up to us, for the duration of our little lives, to find the joy in that. And there’s plenty of joy in this episode. A few endings, too. Maybe.

We pick up in the bombed-out Jeffersonian, making dreams come true for David Boreanaz, who directed this hour. (He’s always said he wanted to drive a tank through the lab; they blew it up instead. You get what you need.) Booth, Hodgins, and Angela are quick to pull themselves out of the rubble, leading to a nice — in a this-is-already-ripping-my-heart-out kind of way — moment between Hodgins and Angela, who lean on each other as they worry about their baby. And while I’m glad this isn’t how it happened, since it’s probably not how science works, did anyone else half-expect Hodgins to be able to walk again after the blast? It was a bomb that put him in that wheelchair to begin with.

But it turns out two bombs don’t cancel each other out; they just make a bigger mess. Booth finds Brennan face down in the rubble outside what used to be her office. As he begs his wife to stay with him, he calls her “Temperance” for the first time in a while, which is fine, it’s fine, I’m FINE, OKAY. Brennan coughs and opens her eyes. Everybody breathe.

But something’s not right; she feels “different,” and she’s struggling to focus. There’s a paper in her pocket with the names of four bones written on it. “I don’t know what that means,” Brennan says — by far the most terrifying utterance of that phrase ever on this show. She clarifies: She knows they’re bones, but she doesn’t remember their significance to the case.

Brennan’s brain isn’t cooperating. When Angela, looking almost as worried about Brennan as she is about her child, enlists her help to check on the baby, Brennan is surprised to learn that a stethoscope and a beaker can be used as a makeshift fetal Doppler, even though she’s the one who taught Hodgins that trick in the first place. Afraid and frustrated with herself, she takes longer than usual to find what she’s listening for, but she does find it: a steady baby heartbeat. The women take a moment out from panicking to hold hands, because these last two episodes are really doing justice to their friendship.

Meanwhile, Booth and Hodgins are looking for another way out. There isn’t one (“ironically, for safety”), so Booth, desperate to get Brennan some help, grabs the bomb he managed to defuse. He’s ready to blow his way out of here, but this building literally just exploded; it can’t withstand another blast. “You don’t have to be a hero!” Hodgins yells. That’s usually Brennan’s line. Booth wouldn’t be Booth if he didn’t do the hero thing, but he doesn’t do himself or anyone else any favors when he carries helping people like a burden.

Hodgins rolls his way over to his friend and offers an olive branch, admitting that some of his insults about Booth’s sniper past may have been off base: “Killing Kovac’s father, that was the right thing to do.” I’m not sure I needed our big moment between these two to involve Hodgins endorsing an old war; I was happy just to see them fight again. But it is a truth universally acknowledged that pseudo-arguments between Booth and Hodgins must end in That Face David Boreanaz Makes When Booth Is Secretly Very Touched. And it is a truth unique to this finale that those apologies must then be interrupted by rescue crews tunneling into their workplace.

The Jeffersonian Four are free, much to poor Cam’s relief (get her a thicker shock blanket, stat), but Brennan isn’t out of the woods. Her CT scan doesn’t show any internal bleeding, but there’s a contusion, annnd for the first time in her life, Brennan doesn’t understand the medical jargon, so let’s cut to the chase: Brennan’s memories are fine, but her ability to process complex information has been compromised.

The idea that she’s lost her ability to do what she does better than anyone else is, well, too complex for Brennan to process. So she does as she always does and gets back to work, insisting that they don’t have time to waste if they want to catch Kovac before he strikes again. But she’s going to have to call in some reinforcements; every bone in the lab has been shaken out of its storage drawer. The bone room is just a huge pile o’ bones. It is haunting.

Squinterns new and old, with doctorates and without, gather at the lab to sort through the bones and find the body they were investigating before the blast. They tell Brennan about “irregular projections” on sharp ribs like it means something, but she doesn’t understand anymore, not that she’ll let that stop her from setting the young scientists straight on her anthropological past. When Wendell compares the lab to a mass grave, Brennan shuts him down with a story of the horrors she’s witnessed. The bomb can take her intellect, but it can’t take her reverence for life.

It can’t take her memories with her students, either. Arastoo asks if she’s getting any better, and Brennan takes a moment to prove to her old interns that her memory is not the problem here. She remembers watching Cam propose to Arastoo, the cigarette Wendell tucked behind his ear, Clark’s “mawkish” book (poor Clark), “chirping” (tweeting) with Jessica… “And I remember fighting off attackers with you by my side,” she tells Daisy. Daisy nods: “In the Maluku Islands.” Brennan shakes her head: “I was thinking of the motorcycle bar.” Cut to Wendell looking delightfully confused — a perfect comic beat in the middle of a speech that had me in tears.

“I remember the day each of you was hired,” Brennan says. “I remember the name of every victim I’ve ever identified. I remember just how meaningful this work can be. But I don’t remember how to do it.”

Wow. Emily Deschanel told me that filming this scene really got to her, and it’s not hard to see why; I cried again just typing that quote. Brennan still remembers the name of every victim she ever identified. That’s so Brennan, and while I’m not at all surprised, it feels like we’re years past the last time she said anything like that. She used to worry that dead people were the only ones she could connect with; now, Brennan’s empathy for the victim goes hand-in-hand with her love for a group of (very much not dead) people she once tried not to get attached to.

It would all be uplifting if not for the head trauma. Is there anything worse than staring at the life you’re supposed to have and not being able to live it? (Brennan and Booth circa seasons 1 through 6 would say no.) Brennan asks the interns to give her some time alone with the bones, which has always been her thing, but it doesn’t help, and she misses the obvious idea to compare them to X-rays of the victim’s skeleton. So she goes where she always does when nothing makes sense: straight to Booth.

“So much of my life,” Brennan confesses to her husband in his office, “my intelligence is all I’ve had. I may not have had a family, but I understood things that nobody else could. My brain, the way I think, is who I am. Who I was… I mean, if the thing that made me me is gone, who am I?”

This is where the whole idea behind this episode starts falling into place: The last story Bones wants to tell is the story of who Brennan is. It’s a parallel to the first season finale, when she learned that her parents weren’t who she thought she was; her birth name wasn’t even Temperance Brennan. As she recited her name to herself, Booth came up behind her: “I know who you are.” Now, he sits down with his wife to remind her that’s still true.

“You’re the woman I love,” Booth says. “You’re the one who kissed me outside of a pool house when it was pouring rain, took me to shoot tommy guns on Valentine’s Day. That’s who you are. You’re the one who proposed to me with a stick of beef jerky in her hand even though you’re a vegetarian. You’re the Roxie to my Tony. You’re the Wanda to my Buck. Who else is gonna sing ‘Hot Blooded’ with me? And besides, we are way better than Mulder and Scully.”

(It should be noted that at this, I stopped crying long enough to full-on gasp, “You did not.” But, you know, A+ callback to the pilot, courtesy of David Boreanaz. And there’s no denying that Booth and Brennan are getting a much better send-off than Mulder and Scully have ever gotten.)

Then, because Booth and Brennan fell in love on the job, Booth answers the question she didn’t ask: He loves her even if they can’t do this job together. In that sense, this scene also has echoes of the season 7 finale, when Brennan assured Booth that she wasn’t just with him because they had a child together. Family and work are too important to each of them to be excuses.

Anyway, speaking of work, the investigation is still happening. Unlike Booth and Brennan, I cannot emphasize enough how much I’m not paying attention to it. Which is a compliment! The Gravedigger herself could claw her way out of the grave, and I would not have the emotional energy for her headless ass right now. The case in this episode is literally life or death, and it’s woven organically into the story, but it also unfolds in as little screen time as possible because Bones understands our priorities. We just got two speeches that were basically just lists of callbacks! I’m busy.

Here’s what you need to know: Booth, who has not worn a suit this whole episode, and long may his FBI T-shirt reign, did this investigation a real solid when he defused that bomb. The killer set it without gloves, and Hodgins is able to pull DNA from an epithelial cell — it’s a partial match to, get this, Mark Kovac. Since Kovac was still in jail when the bombs were set, his accomplice must be a relative. Booth’s magical gut instinct figures it out instantly: The accomplice is Jeannine. She’s not actually Kovac’s wife; she’s his sister.

When Booth and Brennan call her out on her deception, she keeps up the innocent act long enough to ask, “You’re accusing me of incest?” setting up Booth for this chestnut: “No, we’re accusing you of murder.” Brennan launches herself at Jeannine, yelling that she killed Max, but Jeannine tries to pin it all on Booth, as if he doesn’t pin enough on himself. He killed her father, so she killed Brennan’s. First of all, Jeannine, what did Brennan ever do to you?

Sister-wife clams up, but the squinterns are having some luck back at the lab, where Hodgins urges them to take everything they’ve learned and solve this case for Brennan. She said in the season 10 finale that she’d never be able to step away from her work without knowing the lab was in capable hands, and as sad as it is that she can’t solve this case, it’s still her victory that the squinterns can. They notice that the four bones Brennan noted show signs of lead poisoning, meaning the victim grew up somewhere remote — Kovac escaped with this particular prisoner because he had a place to hide. By taking a sample of tooth enamel, they find where that is.

One last time (at least on our screens), Booth and Brennan charge into danger. On the drive out to the farm where Kovac is hiding, Booth apologizes for inadvertently starting all of this, but his wife won’t hear it. After all these years, they’ve finally found the right balance between guilt and accountability: Booth takes responsibility for every shot he ever took, even though he was following orders, and Brennan tells him that she stands beside his choices. Then he asks Brennan to stay in the car, which has never once worked before, but ya gotta love him for trying. “Where you go, I go,” Brennan insists. No matter what state her brain is in, that never changes.

The partners share a casual pre-shootout kiss when they roll up to the farm with the rest of the FBI team, and Brennan lives out her season 1 dream of getting to carry a very big gun. (It’s so big! Is she certified for this? Does the FBI just give anybody an automatic weapon now?) They take out one of Kovac’s men, but Kovac is still on the loose, and I mean that in the most absurd way: He’s just doing circles on the lawn in a jeep. Why?! I Do Not Care.

Kovac makes a run at Booth, who rolls out of the way but hurts his hand in the process, and listen, no one has ever been so extra about a hand injury. Our former Army Ranger falls to the ground as soon as he and Brennan get away from the car, so Brennan takes a knee beside her dramatic husband and studies his wrist. A light bulb goes off: She knows what’s wrong. She rattles off some bone science and snaps his wrist right back into place, because nothing brings Brennan back to herself like having to fix Booth. She lights up — she did it.

When Booth’s hand was hurt, my first thought was that it should have been his heart to balance out Brennan’s brain, but it couldn’t be his heart because then he’d be dead. Now I think his hand might actually be a more fitting counterpoint: Booth, as a sniper, and Brennan, as a scientist, have both allowed their steady hand and sharp mind, respectively, to define them at times. But they’re both more than that. I was worried for a little while that by taking away Brennan’s intellect, this episode was going to suggest that Brennan needed to change while Booth didn’t — that in the debate between heart and brains, the scales had just tipped in favor of the heart.

But even without her ability to look at a bone and know how someone died, Brennan is still defined by her brain. She leans on her memories with her coworkers and with Booth, so her unique, logical approach to empathy is still intact. This episode had to walk a delicate line: affirm Brennan as a whole person with more to offer than her ability to solve crimes while still celebrating the intelligence that sets her apart. I believe that it did that, especially because Brennan gets that intelligence back. It’s an important part of her; it’s just not the only part.

Meanwhile, Mark’s still driving that jeep. He takes another run at Booth and Brennan, and Booth shoots him square in the head, right where he shot the shooting range target in the scene that we all know is the reason the pilot got picked up to series. The jeep drives off an embankment and crashes into a bunch of barrels; Booth and Brennan watch the explosion like they’re taking in a nice fireworks show.

There are still 11 full minutes left in this episode, and nothing bad happens in any of them because this is Bones, and Bones loves us. Back at the Bureau, Caroline bustles into Booth’s office and, as always, speaks for us all: “You and your damn sense of duty. Do you have any idea how stressful it is for me to have such a brave friend?” Amen. But she’s just going to have to live with that stress; Booth has no plans to ever stop nearly getting killed. At least he’ll have Aubrey with him — Uncle Aub got an offer to take over for a retiring agent, meaning he gets the same promotion, but in D.C. And Booth and Brennan get to keep their babysitter.

On his way out of the office, Aubrey runs into Karen, who heard about his breakup and decided to send him a consolation gift: two buckets of fried chicken. He invites her to join him, and you just know they’re going to get together. I tried for about two seconds not to find this adorable, but I do — and not even necessarily because they’re cute (but they are! Sue me) but because this is the most Bones thing. These people aren’t allowed to date outside the team, and these people must date.

Back at the lab, Brennan gives Cam, Angela, and Hodgins the good news: The doctor says her agnosia is almost gone, and she’s going to be okay. Cam’s news is a little less happy — repair work on the lab starts tomorrow, so they’ve only got today to pack up their things — but these people just survived an explosion, so putting a few things into boxes doesn’t seem so bad. They study their burned-out but still sunny husk of a lab and get meta, in the way all TV series finales must. “They won’t change it much, will they?” Angela asks.

“They try not to,” Cam answers, “but you know how it is.”

Bones has always been good at finding the bright side of change, but as Angela said in the season 5 finale, that doesn’t always have to mean picking a fight with your old life. As the team packs up, we get the chance to say goodbye to that life: Hodgins’ rubber band ball (which he throws away along with the band on his wrist), the book of Farsi poems Arastoo wrote Cam, a photo of Max on Brennan’s wedding day, the dolphin he left at her mother’s grave (now on a necklace), a photo of Hodgins and Zack in the season 1 Christmas episode, the salt and pepper shakers Cam shares with Michelle… It’s a lot. Moby sings in the background (I’ll decide at a moment’s time/ to turn away/ leave it all behind).

Hodgins and Angela stumble upon a project they’ve been working on, and the team gathers to look: It’s a pop-up children’s book about all of them, but they’re farm animals for some reason. It’s a little out-of-left-field but very cute. More importantly, Cam has a confession: Her six-month leave of absence isn’t a European vacation after all. She and Arastoo have petitioned to adopt three brothers, who look to be teens or pre-teens, out of foster care, and they want to give the family time to settle in. They are perfect humans! Brennan already knew this, and the look of appreciation she, as a foster child, gives Cam is the perfect wrap on their relationship.

And there’s one more surprise: The position of interim director of the lab goes to Hodgins. Jack Hodgins is officially king of the lab.

That brings us to our last Bones scene, set to John Lennon (out the blue you came to me/ and blew away life’s misery). Booth — wearing his cocky belt buckle — strolls up to a bench in the Jeffersonian garden and sits beside Brennan, who isn’t quite ready to leave the lab. (Booth says it’ll be back up and running in a couple of weeks, which seems… optimistic?) “It’s a special place,” she says. That it is.

As if we hadn’t all cried enough at callbacks already (not that I’m complaining), Booth rummages through the things Brennan is bringing home from the lab. She’s got Sweets’ book, cueing up one last look back on the team’s baby duck. She’s got Jasper, the toy pig Booth gave Brennan to comfort her after she took her first life. It’s Brennan’s turn to dangle him in Booth’s direction now. And she’s got a drawing Parker gave her 11 years ago. He told her he liked her. Like father, like son.

The last thing in Brennan’s bag is one analog clock, lightly singed, frozen at 4:47. It stopped when the bombs went off, and Brennan wants to hang it in her new office. “Why would you want to be reminded of the moment when everything almost ended, Bones?” Booth asks. Brennan smiles: “Because it didn’t.”

I don’t know about you all, but this is the only resolution I needed to the “mystery” of 4:47, which has been popping up in Booth and Brennan’s lives for years. The meaning that matters is the meaning they take from it, which is also a good lesson to take from this finale: Everything ends, but endings are rarely absolute. Brennan said it to Angela in season 1: “Nothing in this universe happens just once.” For Booth and Brennan, 4:47 is what keeps happening, usually when they’re on the precipice: of losing each other (season 4 finale), leaving each other (season 5 finale), or getting together (after Vincent’s death). They could have ended, but they never did.

With that, the partners hold each other’s gazes for a while and then set off to retrieve their kids from the diner, bickering all the way. In the place where they chased each other and then got married, in an image that echoes the end of the pilot, Booth and Brennan walk off into the night to keep solving murders.

Bits and pieces:

• Hodgins thinks their baby is going to be a boy; do we think he’s right? • All these years, Angela’s been listening to Hodgins’ conspiracy theories. He’s never loved her more. • I tried making an anagram out of the four bones Brennan made note of, and I only got as far as “Cam naps.” Let Cam nap. • The fact that everyone gets to keep working together has me very emotional. • Check out Emily Deschanel’s thoughts on this finale here and co-showrunner Michael Peterson’s thoughts here. And thanks for joining all these years. It’s been a pleasure. • “Squints of the world unite, baby.”

#IF YOU THINK IM OVER THAT SERIES FINALE #GUESS AGAIN BECAUSE ILL NEVER BE OVER IT #AND THIS ARTICLE PRETTY MUCH SUMMED UP HOW I FELT #bones #temperance brennan #seeley booth #camille saroyan #jack hodgins #angela montenegro #shows

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