Teaching Heroism - A Media Arts Exploration

1. BRAINSTORM and decide on ISSUE / individual or organization your team will support.

2. DECIDE on specific style & genre for your call to action MEDIA: original song / music video; PSA; Interview style Doc; Experimental short. Digital art, Blog, Poster, what ever your imagination wants to do. Research existing work for inspiration.

3. WRITE an outline for your call to action media. Determine what technology you have available to produce and complete a short piece of media to bring attention to your chosen cause.

4. RESEARCH and gather media assets. Download and organize already existing photos, video, royalty free music etc. Keep media assets organized in folders.

5. PLAN your strategy with a schedule & storyboards. LIST what needs to be shot and recorded; interviews, voice over, b-roll, original music. Schedule production days efficiently to achieve your goals.

6. ORGANIZE all footage through digital editing. Narrow down the best of what you have; video, sound bites, photographs, music and voice over.

7. FINE TUNE THE STORY. FInd the story that is in the media assets you have. Find the emotion. Editing takes time. Give yourself plenty of time to tighten the story. Make it simple.

8. SHARE work in progress with mentors and advisors. Get feedback! Go back to fine-tuning and incorporate the useful notes.

Edit and revise, Edit and revise, sweeten the audio if it is a video, examine your credits for the work. Is everything completed?

9. Make a list of credits for the project. Be sure to thank those who have helped you with the project and you can even include stills of the process in the credit space if you want to continue to share the efforts of the group making the message.

10. OUTPUT final product - Highest resolution copy possible and add to your DROPBOX, Youtube, Vimeo account

Then please share your message with MY HERO's global learning community! Check out our special awards and film festival page to see about contest opportunities and prizes.