Gaia & Genesis online clips, and Sex & Ethics review...

Click your way in this direction:
http://www.ethicsonline.co.uk/pages/environmental.html
And you'll find five clips, one from each of the five films that make up the Gaia & Genesis DVD.

...

Then head over here:
http://news.reonline.org.uk/article.php?34
And you'll find a review of the Sex & Ethics DVD, an excerpt of which is below.

"‘Neat’ is an expression that was perhaps overused by students when I was at university, but it is one that I am more than willing to use for this DVD. It is not only neat but it is also simple, user-friendly and self-contained. You have everything needed to enliven your teaching of one particular unit from the A2 Religious Ethics syllabus, namely ‘sexual ethics’..."

Sex & Ethics has had a lot of positive feedback since its release, so hopefully Gaia & Genesis will follow suit.

Sexual Ethics DVD - more feedback...

Just swung by Ethics Online to see if there were any new responses from those who had purchased the DVD, and indeed there was:

“A must-have resource for any RE Department.”

...and...

“This DVD will definitely help students develop their knowledge and understanding of sexual ethics. It has been lovingly crafted by Joe Jenkins, a master at producing workaday resources for hard-pressed teachers at both GCSE and A Level.”

... ... ... ... ...

As for the new educational DVD we're working on, it's coming along nicely - I'm currently doing the last of the five main films (after which there will be five short chunks of corresponding student discussion to do, as well as finishing touches to all the five main films).

Obviously as a result of my recent operation I've not been able to work on it for the last 2 or 3 weeks, but I've gotten back (gently) into the saddle and have resumed work on the last film left to edit. It's coming along well, and is probably the most complex of all the films (in terms of editing together), but also one of the ones which has afforded me the most creative freedom (in terms of trying out some new ideas, and indeed learning a couple of new editing skills).

Anyway, onwards...

Sex & Ethics DVD - another review...

Another nice little review about the Sex & Ethics DVD that I was involved with last year (currently being followed-up by this new one about the environment).

"Making applied ethics, relevant, interesting and thought provoking for teenagers is not an easy task, but this DVD manages to do all three. An excellent multi-media teaching resource and well worth the price of a few text books"

Andrew Pearce, Principal Religious Studies Examiner

I'd also been hearing from Joe about comments he's been given about the DVD, and how people have been impressed with the over all presentation of it - i.e. it's not just some boring trudge through facts and figures, visually speaking - instead it's visually engaging.

I'm pleased that other people are seeing that, as from my side as the dude who filmed and edited it, I wanted to make it visually appealing, as I knew full well from my own experience in school, how boring these educational videos can be if they're not engaging.

From students as well, we've heard good things about it - the visual style changes frequently throughout, in that there's always something new to look at. We mixed a variety of things together, photographs, stock footage (from many eras of public domain videos, or the excellent Global Cuts website), and things we filmed - which included students in a group debating directly about the issues being discussed (a great way to help the students in other schools get that start for their own discussions, rather than everyone sitting quietly not wanting to say anything - again, I've seen that when I was at school - students just need that little push), and also filming "scenarios" as I liked to call them.

Scenarios (made up of stuff we filmed, and using a wide variety of disparate stock footage) that related to the issues at hand, and which were presented in different ways, some of which were quite striking from a visual stand point - lots of colour, lots of imagery, and liberal use of compositing - or, for the laymen out there, simply getting two layers of video and putting one on top of the other to create an interesting look for the segment.

And of course - for these scenarios - Magic Bullet really came in handy. I'm a big proponent of colouring video, and it really does help make the visuals more engaging - if you can keep the students looking at the screen, they'll keep their ears listening to what's being said.

It certainly seems that we have succeeded in keeping the students engaged with this Sex & Ethics DVD, so I'm quite chuffed that it's doing well. The link for it can be found on the right. www.ethicsonline.co.uk

Sex & Ethics DVD...

As I've blogged about a bit on here before, last year I shot & edited an educational DVD called Sex & Ethics, which is now available to schools via www.ethicsonline.co.uk (linked to over on the right hand side).

Anyway - I just noticed a bit of feedback about the DVD, which I thought I'd share here too:

"Sex and Ethics DVD is a tremendous resource that students will find educational and engaging. Each ethical theory is presented clearly with an appealing visual interpretation and is followed by well informed, wide ranging and thought provoking student discussions. This is an invaluable resource that will help teachers help students write detailed, accurate and evaluative essays. Highly recommended."

Judy Grill, Head of Religious Studies, Churcher's College, Petersfield

Many thanks for the kind words.

How's the writing going? Good! So it is...

Been a while since my last script update, it's going swimmingly however, so that's good.

I'm currently on page 94, the first act has been given the polishing treatment, and I'm now about to embark on polishing up what I've got of act two so far.

Yes, page 94 and still in act two - but remember than act one took more pages than usual, just because of the sheer volume of detail to explain. However, act two thus far - between page 49 and 94, a lot has happened - I've even added scenes that just sprung to mind and weren't planned at all.

As I'd said before, part of my planning for the script involved a brainstorm layout of the entire script in its simplest form, on which were eight segments. Five of those eight segments are now done, and there's one more to do to finish off act two.

But, I'm going to hold up for a moment, go back to page 49, and work my way through - fettling away, trimming any extraneous fat, adding anything I've neglected, or what have you. I've really gotten into this script writing lark recently, so it's all flowing very freely now, it feels great to be writing this well, especially after I had such a prolonged period of writer's block/malaise prior to finally opening up Final Draft and setting to work.

So yeah, I'll polish up what I've got of act two so far (three of four segments), and once that fettling is done, I'll finish act two and either A) continue into the third act, or B) fettle that one remaining segment of act two.

How long is that fourth of four act two segments gotta be? No more than 15 pages, I don't want to go any higher than 109 pages for the end of act two - and ideally, a little bit shorter than that.

For the script over all, an absolute maximum of 139 pages is my target, but ideally I'd like to clock in at 130 pages...told you it was a zombie epic.

It's been enjoyable to work on this second act, having spent a fair amount of time plugging away at the first act, which was mainly about one thing, whereas act two has a whole variety of stuff going on. There's action, there's a lot more dialogue, there's different locations, there's new ideas, there are montage moments (I need to show the passage of time at certain points, which helps make the whole situation - and certain things that happen during act two - more believable).

So yep - going rather well indeed. I don't know when I might get it finished to the 'draft 1.5' standard that I seek, but it might not take too long - but on the other hand, the Xmas season is coming up shortly - will I get it done before then? Unlikely. Will I get it done before New Year's? More likely, but perhaps not a sure thing. Mid-January would be an easy target to achieve mind you, but I'll hopefully finish it earlier than that.

There's still some final editing to do on Sexual Ethics Part One (the second part will be sometime later, possibly winter 2009), and the next educational DVD I'll be setting to work on hasn't gotten going yet beyond script pondering, so I've got a nice relaxed gap in my day-to-day schedule to really seize the opportunity and write like the wind - in fact, this time last year I was in the midst of writing Generation Procrastination, which became a 90 page graduate comedy...with a surprising (to me) amount of romantic comedy elements ... but surrounded by swearing and discussion about things like public toilets.

Indeed ... anyway, onwards to Final Draft, version number unknown!