http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=40972d9b9d641614befb

Reflection on Sunshine & Hair:

This was perhaps one of the most difficult things I have had to produce. However, I had to try to tell the story. The production of this video found me laughing, crying, learning and amazing how quickly I picked some editing tools up and how frustrated it can be to storyboard and produce a video of 3-5 minutes.

The idea was the easiest , it seemed. However, I quickly learned the advantage to storyboarding prior to writing. I had so much information that it was hard for me to conceive where I was going.

Oddly enough, I knew where I wanted to begin and end. Getting there in the middle was the most challenging. This adventure gave me a perspective of why and how important it is to have the various different people involved in the production of video or film; the director, the writer, the editor, the cinematographer, and etc.

I was fortunate to sit and talk with a film maker who had a film entered in the Anchorage Film Festival. He gave me some ideas after I had discussed my storyboard. Yet, even after feeling energized by that conversation, when I began to work on the project, it even evolved and grew more.

There was things lost in the editing. Comprises due to time and priority of images. The funny thing is I have taken songs and thrown pictures together and have done what I thought was amazing job on those. However, I learned in this process, the reason that seemed so easy is that the song was the storyboard. Tight and boundaries set. When you are writer and editor and director all in one, there are often internal conflicts of melding images and words and emotions all together.

There were some technical editing glitches that I think will get better with practice. The story is told, but I will continue to search inside myself for a more developed product. One I can send to friends on the anniversary of Snuggles’ passing.

I found the overall production a challenge; emotionally and technically. It was a difficult task at a different time in my personal life (beside the subject matter of the film). I hope that I can continue to find ways to incorporate this technique with my students who are autistic. They have challenges using language to tell their stories, however, the melding of music, small phrases and words and images, may be just what they need to be able to tell their stories.