In the current information age, the movement from page to screen is a shift that opens up a new way to present our thoughts. For example, we can present our writing in video nowadays, which is called as video composing. Honestly speaking, I have never tried video composing before. Until today, reading After Digital Storytelling: Video Composing in the New Media Age written by Tim and Megan, I felt like my horizon got broadened. There was a paragraph impressed me most, “our focus should not rest on the fact that new media tools shift traditional notions of text-based practices, but rather must encompass the realization that an important set of new processes intrinsically tied to new technologies has come to light. In short, their research calls us to recognize that to make new media is to enact new methods of composing that are specific to new forms.” This sounds like a piece of advice for writing teacher who teaches video composing for me, and it is this piece of advice trigger my thoughts on what I should do if I will teach video composing in the future.
First of all, I should realize what difficulties students might meet in the process of video composing. There are two cases involved in After Digital Storytelling: Video Composing in the New Media Age. One is with Candice, and the other one is with Katie. Although the number of examples is very limited, there is much indication that we can get from them. Except for texts, some students might be unable to express their thought by other modalities. In Katie’s case, Katie feel uncomfortable by in engaging with the visual as a mode of conveying meaning. Spending lots of time showing text slides in the video and only using still pictures all reveal Katie’s uneasiness. Even students who are willing to express their thought in multimodalities, it doesn’t mean they can finish the video composing successfully. For example, they might discover new theme and reaches a new conclusion which is different from their original written script. As stated in Candice’s case, Candice meets a crisis in making a film because she discovers that her mother and she was so alike, and the new thought is opposite with her previous judgment on her relationship with her mother. Most students can be impeded in front of those difficulties, and it is teacher’s responsibility to help explore what the process of video composing should be.
Video composing is a process that requires working with all the modes, such as alphabetic text, still/moving image, and escapes the tidy confines of a sequential model. A video is not a translation or transformation of written script, but rather a way to generate new meaning. At the very beginning, teachers should work with the students to assess the multiple meaning-making modes, and students are the one who need to decide how those modes can be synthesized to create synchronous effect. What students should keep in mind is that video composing is not a liner process. On the contrary, it is a recursive process, where students can revisit and revise their original ideas. Moreover, students need to learn adjust the progression as they build new insights of their own experiences.
The basic understanding that every video composer should hold is that except for texts, all the other modes can also be used to convey meaning. Modes should not treated as tools to edit our video, but they should be used to “write” our video. Whether it is video composing or composing in other forms, they are a process of writing not a product of writing. As a teacher, they are more willing to see how students keeps improving in the writing, rather than where students achieves at the end.
Works Cited:
Fulwiler,
M., & Middleton, K. (2012). After digital storytelling: Video composing in
the new 74 media age. Computers and Composition, 29(1), 39–50.
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