Video assignment - Ethnography project PDF

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Ethnography project...

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Anthropology 111

Introduction to Anthropology Video Ethnography Assignment

This form explains the video ethnography assignment for Anthropology 111. This will be done in groups of no more than five and no fewer than three, and will take the entire semester to complete. It will be worth 20% of your overall grade and will be graded in stages. Each stage gives you the opportunity to earn points toward your grade; there are 100 total points. 1. Stage One (due September 3rd): every one individually must prepare a short, written statement with the following structure: "I want to understand how people who are [group X] do [behavior Y]” Group X may be any group (a gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, culture, nationality) to whom the student does not belong. You are not allowed to use children, the mentally challenged, prison inmates or other vulnerable populations as your group. If you are unsure if your group is appropriate, check with your TA. Behavior Y can be any behavior that you are comfortable talking to people about and possibly observing them do. It can be about something that people eat, how they dress, what they believe in, how they speak, what they value, but it must be an activity that you do not understand and that you did not grow up doing or doing in the same way. It cannot be anything illegal, sexual, or insulting to the people in question. Anthropologists study all human behaviors—the only thing that matters is that you genuinely want to understand and are sympathetic to their personal concerns. PITCH MEETING: Students must share their statement with the class. This is your “pitch meeting” for your idea. You are trying to recruit others to join you as your film crew. A maximum of five will be selected in each section as the content for group projects. Students with roughly the same idea will fall into the same groups. ROLES: The student(s) who developed the initial idea is officially the “Director” or “co-Director” and the rest of the team are your film crew. Some students, based on their skills and level of interest, may elect to be your actors, camera operators, the animation team, cinematographers, musicians, researchers for archive footage and so on. That is up to the group and their collaborative efforts to realize the Director’s vision. 2. Stage Two (due in class September 10th): every group must have an initial draft of their storyboard for the first two minutes of their film. Some resources they may use for this purpose include: https://www.storyboardthat.com/ https://boords.com/ https://www.canva.com/create/storyboards/ https://theplot.io/ Storyboards will be shared in class as students learn about editing video footage. Each storyboard is graded out of a total 10 points.

3. Stage Three (due September 17th): every group must have at least one minute of their video recorded that demonstrates editing. Each vide must include 1. Whatever initial title you’ve given the film, that 2. Cuts to, 3. The start of the film (which can consist of narration over moving or still images, a staged scene, archival footage, animation and/or more text that), followed by 4. At least one more cut (whether to another scene or a continuation of the same scene). Each video is graded out of a total 20 points.

4. Stage Four (due September 24th): every group must submit a final storyboard with the entirety of their proposed film outlined and arranged into planned “shots.” Each storyboard must include a proposal to do an interview with someone and/or an observation of someone who belongs to Group X and does Activity Y. By this time, students are expected to have found at least one person who fits these criteria who has agreed to appear in the film for this purpose (the TAs can help with this). Students may interview and/or observe more people, including people who are not in Group X or who are and do not engage in Activity Y in the same way. As many as ten people can be interviewed and/or observed over the course of the semester, but keep in mind that the more people you interview (whether sitting down with them for a long period or asking random people on the street) the less time you can give to any one person. Each final storyboard is graded out of a total 15 points. 5. Stage Five (due October 8th): every group must submit a revised storyboard, based on the discussion of the previous week. The revised storyboard must show plans to incorporate 1. Some reflection on why the filmmakers want to know about this form of difference (in a group to which they do not belong) and, more broadly, the political and ethical consequences of representing these differences for diverse audiences and 2. include a discussion of why group X does activity Y – what does it mean to them and where does it come from? This proposed explanation may include a focus on the views of those interviewed, historical research on its origins, or proposed evolutionary/cultural/social explanations. Each revised storyboard is graded out of a total 5 points. 6. Stage Six (due November 19th): every group must submit a draft version of their videos. Each video must be at least five minutes long, demonstrate editing, interviewing/observing, narrative flow (from storyboarding) and critical reflection on the politics of representation. Each draft video is graded out of a total 20 points. TAs will respond with comments for final edits and revisions a week later (before Thanksgiving Break). 7. Stage Seven (due December 3rd): final videos must be submitted to your TA as requested by them. TAs then select the best videos in each section, with input from students if they so choose. Each final video is graded out of a total of 30 points. The best 10-25 videos from the semester will then be uploaded to a dedicated YouTube channel. Voting opens then to the class as a whole. The top three most upvoted videos win a prize (they will have the option of not taking the final exam) and they will win an opportunity to work on their films in the following semester to submit to amateur film competitions. Voting closes by December 10th and winners will be notified....