Great animation with conservation message

My first cartoon strip

Today, I found a website that is the closest thing to what I have envisioned for Podclasstv. Check out www.toondoo.com
I was just telling Mark about my ideas for podclasstv a couple days ago...and here they are on toondoo, but they are customizable cartoon stips, instead of customizable documentaries. I want to create my site with documentaries without animations...Think of my zebra film without the animation. What if kids could select the animations like they select characters and backgrounds from the palettes on toondoo. I am very excited by this toodoo website and a little frustrated. I want to create a children's participatory documentary website, but I fear someone will or has beaten me to it.

But, it was fun making the comic strip.

Children's Documentary

I was doing some research today on fun kid's films, and I ran across a couple clips from a kid's doc called "The Riddle in a Bottle". I have actually met this brother/sister children's documentary duo (Sisbro Studios) a while back at one of the wildlife film festivals.


I love how they use music. Here's a clip from another of their films, "Lost in the Woods":

Thesis outline

Here's my rough thesis outline.

Moving Beyond Broadcast: Making a Children's Documentary for the New Media Landscape

I. Introduction
a. Background “Why don’t we ride zebras”
b. My Trials and Tribulations with New Media

II. New Media
a. Definition of New Media
i. History of New Media
ii. Old vs. New Media
b. New Media Today
i. Successful Sites
1. FreeRice.com
2. World Without Oil
ii. The Future of New Media
1. Interactivity
2. Virtual Reality
3. Convergent Culture

III. How Children Learn
a. School
i. History
ii. Innovations
iii. Challenges
1. Education Standards
2. No Child Left Behind
b. Children’s Television
i. History
1. Winky Dink
2. Sesame Steet
ii. Learning from TV
1. Blue’s Clues
iii. Studies on the Effect of TV on Children
c. Internet
i. Social Networks
ii. Blogging
d. Video Game
i. Traditional Video Games
ii. Online games
iii. Mobile games
iv. Educational games

IV. Moving Beyond Broadcast
a. History of Imagery
b. Traditional Documentary Model with Outreach
c. Emerging Interactive Model

V. My Ideal Vision for my Zebra Film
a. Interactive Documentary/Website
i. Children insert their own vision into the video
1. create music
2. create animation
3. add footage
4. edit online
5. green screen
ii. Combine learning with a video game that creates social awareness
1. Kid’s win animal kibble to donate to animal shelters as they answer questions correctly
b. Education
i. Lesson plans co-inside with education standards
ii. Develop supplemental materials for learning science outside of school
1. girl scouts
2. after school programs
3. pre school

VI. What the Future Could Hold for New Media and Documentary

Sorry for the lack of formatting. When I finish my masters, one of the things I want to do is learn HTML.

Other things on the top of my list:
1. Incorporate SmithWalker Productions and create a website outlining our services (videography, editing, web design, animation, still photography, new media museum/non profit consulting, and science web writing.
2. Start shooting and selling stock HD footage
3. Find programmer and educator to help make my thesis ideas a reality
4. Make my next kid's film for PodclassTV on primates
5. Make a film for CurrentTV on cell phones
6. Learn Flash Action Scripts

Predicting the next 5,000 days of the Web video

This is a video from a TED conference. Pretty mind-blowing ideas.

New Media Book List, Thesis Titles, and Montana

I bought my plane ticket today. I do my defense in Bozeman on December 15th. I better get writing! But I have to decide on a thesis first. I need a thesis that encompasses new media, outreach, science, interactivity, documentary, the making of my zebra film, video games, and children's education. Here's a few thesis titles I have come up with:

1. "From Broadcast to Podcast: The Evolution of New Media and Documentary"

2. "New Media: Is it a new technology? Is it a new mode? Or is it the future of documentary?"

3. "Moving Beyond Broadcast, Making Outreach and Interactivity Core to Nonfiction Filmmaking"

4. "What's black and white, and interactive all over? A new media film on zebras."

5. "Moving Beyond Broadcast: Making a Children's Film for the New Media Landscape"

I am leaning towards 3 or 5.

A few books arrived today from the Amazon fairy. Hopefully they will help me hone in my thesis.

Children's Learning From Education: Sesame Street and Beyond

Good Video Games plus Good Learning

Education: The Emperor's New Clothes

The Unfinished Quest: The Plight of Progressive Science Education in the Age of Standards

Free-Choice Science Education: How We Learn Outside of School

Children, Adolescents, and the Media

Unfortunately, the more I read, the more I end up having to revise my thesis topic because I want to include yet another seemingly non-related item.

Web research

Doing a bit of research tonight.

Interesting things I have found:

1. The ASPCA
They have fabulous lesson plans for teachers on animals (I think this will come in handy for my thesis)
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=edu_lessonplans

Fun interactive game called "Woof'
http://www.aspca.org/doghouse/main.html

They List Bad Video Games for Animals
Acclaim’s Fur Fighters
Sony’s Ape Escape 2
Sunstorm Interactive’s Deer Hunter

Questionable Animal Video Games
Microsoft’s popular Zoo Tycoon (they are worried that kids will think that animals are happy in aquariums or zoos)

2. Freepoverty.com

This website donates water as you learn geography. One thing that was odd, the water non-profit they were donating to (WaterAid), asked them to stop because the "cup of water metaphor" was not sustainable enough. That blows my mind, a nonprofit turning money down. Talk about a gift horse.

I emailed my bosses suggesting we offer to make the Freepoverty.com a "water documentary". I am sure we could embrace the "cup of water" metaphor.

New animations

For all those that demanded the return of Mark's "Eanie Meanie" song, here goes! I don't have this section perfect yet. But it is to time. Now my composer can start creating the music.

Goodnight!

Alaska Halibut Fishery film

The Catch Share film we made for the Environmental Defense Fund has been a great success. They are using it to educate policy makers about Catch Shares (a fishery management tool).

This is the first time Sea Studios has included my footage in the final product. I shot all of the non-archival halibut fishing with my Sony HDV camera. Mark and I are thinking of buying a Panasonic HD camera so I can start getting paid to shoot. Plus we can sell HD stock footage.