AFI Screen Education

We just wanted to take a moment from our testing of our new soon to be released video sharing site AFI ScreenNation (more on that later) to plug some upcoming conference workshops and sessions.

We’re proud to present for the first time the classic 1-day ScreenEd workshop at the California Computer Using Educators Conference in Palm Springs on

Thursday March 6th 8:30-4:30.

Additionally, we have a 1-hour informational concurrent session on Friday, March 7th from 3-4pm at the Convention Center.

Seats are still available for the workshop.

Click here for registration info.

Heading to San Antonio for NECC this summer? Don’t leave town without checking out our concurrent session on

Wednesday, July 2nd 1:30 -2:30 .

We’ll have lots of new resources and goodies to preview and showcase including an update on the launch of ScreenNation and a new series of tutorial videos.

Click here for more info.

Question: When do we usually see video cameras? Weddings, births, birthday parties, school and sporting events come to mind. Now ask yourself how often you actually sit down and watch those videos. How often can you get someone else to watch? Are these videos interesting? Do all those long continuous shots, wild moves and dizzying zooms make for compelling viewing? This ‘default mode’ for shooting video create the visual equivalent of a run-on sentence. This is because most people use their home video cameras to document an event rather than tell a story.

The irony of this situation is that most people living in western culture during the last 50 years have learned to decode and understand a nearly continuous and increasingly sophisticated stream of visual information. Visual language, with its unique vocabulary and grammar, is effortlessly comprehended by even the youngest members of our society. So, with all the prior knowledge and experience gained from years of watching TV and movies, why do most home movies look like home movies?

It’s a matter of literacy.

Although we quickly learn to read the visual language around us, “writing” visually (by accessing screen vocabulary and grammar to communicate rather than to just comprehend) is a skill typically reserved for highly trained media professionals and enthusiasts. The AFI Screen Education process begins by bridging that visual literacy gap in a transformational way. By accessing prior knowledge, and engaging as a group to construct and define criteria for what makes good visual storytelling, Screen Education teachers and students bridge that visual literacy gap—a first step in engaging with filmmaking as part of mainstream curriculum.

It begins with The Door Scene.

Resources and instructions for using The Door Scene and all of the LIGHTS, CAMERA, EDUCATION! series can be found at AFI.edu, the Screen Ed website and by searching “AFI” on Discovery Education streaming .

We get all kinds of inquiries at the Screen Ed Center from educators and students with basic filmmaking & equipment questions or for tips in using the LIGHTS, CAMERA, EDUCATION! resource, even sometimes about the AFI 100 Years/100 Movies series.

Occasionally we get a question that gives us pause, and also allows the staff here to reflect on why we love movies! Like this question from Charles, an 11th grader in Conneticut who asks:

“I recently got into a heated debate with several students on which movie was better. Pulp Fiction or The Princess Bride. I was amazed to see how many people stand behind The Princess Bride. Could you please end our debate by telling me what movie is better and why? I still can’t believe this is a real topic of discussion. ” -Charles E.

I hope we never stop arguing and debating about our favorite movies so I didn’t settle the issue. Instead we tried to give Charles and his friends something to think about…

Ultimately, the question of which is the best of anything is a very personal one, especially in the subjective area of the creative arts. I’m not surprised that these two films are being debated in this way. Both THE PRINCESS BRIDE and PULP FICTION are films that have their origins in different types of mythology. BRIDE represents the kind of fairy tale mythology that speaks to America’s shared European roots while FICTION represents a more modern-era American mythos, detective and action novels of the 30’s &40s, and popular culture of the post-50’s era. The archetypes represented in both films also speak to our shared understanding of story and character, from the princess in distress, Buttercup and Mia Wallace to the dark hero Wesley and Vincent Vega, even Indigo Montoya and Butch, as the ‘loner on a mission’. Both movies tell great old stories in engaging ways.

To pick a favorite of these great movies, is tough. I’d look at two factors, first how the basic crafts of filmmaking and storytelling are applied in both movies. Second, which of these films would you send out on the next space probe to represent the best of humanity? In my opinion THE PRINCESS BRIDE wins on both counts. The technical challenges of BRIDE I think trump FICTION, you need not look much further than the duel sequence between Wesley and Indigo to get a taste of the old style swashbuckling films, somehow Vincent & Mia’s dance contest performance don’t rise to that level of grand cinematic storytelling.

The main point that I think distinguishes BRIDE is that the entire story is told by a grandfather to his grandson. Peter Falk’s patient reading of the story to a first skeptical Fred Savage who starts the movie playing video games eventually gives in to the joy of the story and the low tech medium it was related from, the written word…a book. One generation telling stories to the next is how we as humans pass on knowledge and and build civilizations.

Charles, for these reasons and many others, given the choice of which film entertains but also speaks to the best of what humanity has to offer, THE PRINCESS BRIDE would be my choice to open the 1st cineplex on Mars.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE is #88 on the AFI 100 Years/100 Passions list of great American love stories of all time.

PULP FICTION is #94 on the AFI Top 100 and#53 on the AFI 100 Thrills lists.

Since launching the Lights, Camera, Education! resource last year on Discovery’s unitedstreaming.com, we’ve been thrilled at how educators have made use of the materials. Teachers all over the country are using the process and videos to enhance how they teach with videos but are also leading local professional development workshops, teaching their colleagues ‘The Door Scene’ as a means of fostering greater visual literacy and greater cooperation.

Just last weekend as AFI’s Frank Guttler was leading a 1 day workshop for both students and teachers at the International Student Media Festival in Anaheim California; Joe Brennan Discovery Star and Apple ADE was at the Sedona Center for Art and Technology in Arizona teaching ‘Lights, Camera, Education!’.

Elaine Plybon, a Texas alumni of the workshop held at the AFI Dallas Film Festival in March has been using the Screen Ed materials in her Irvine Texas USD development workshops and recently presented the first virtual AFI Lights, Camera, Education! workshop in Second Life! (More on that soon)

Joe Brennan has been an early adopter of the Screen Ed Process and the Lights, Camera, Education! series, his blog posts are a great guide to the using, learning and teaching with the AFI materials. His wisdom can be accessed at his LCE! blog.

Watch this space for more news, stories and tips for using the AFI Screen Ed process and Lights, Camera, Education! in your classrooms and professional development workshops.