Week 1 Session: Seeing and story

Establish a workable shooting setup and recognise the change that gives a short video a point.

22 February 2027

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Before the session#

Bring a recording device and, if possible, headphones. Watch one short video you admire twice and note where the image or sound changes.

In the session#

We unpack the Week 1 lecture, practise wide, medium and close shots, then work in pairs to record six shots of a routine changing. Keep the footage; it becomes material for next week’s review.

Afterwards#

Choose the strongest three shots and write one sentence answering: what is different by the final frame?

Reference viewing#

Watch a 60–90 second non-fiction video and list each shot change. Which change first tells you where you are?

Further reading and viewing#

These optional resources extend this week’s ideas. Take one useful observation from each resource into your viewing notebook; do not try to memorise rules.

• Composition 101: Part 1 (Videomaker) introduces composition as a storytelling decision. Use it to identify one framing choice in a short video you watch this week.
• Exploring the language of film (National Film and Sound Archive of Australia) provides a simple worksheet linking image, sound and camera movement. Use the film-language table on page 8 to annotate your Week 1 field exercise.
• Making Audio and Video Media Accessible (W3C) explains why captions, transcripts and visual description need to be considered during planning rather than added at the end. Read the overview before recording your first assessed work.

The spec

What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.

• you have a phone or camera that records video
• you can describe an ordinary routine that changes over time

Teaching team

• ZIMU LI — convenor