Sarah Novak Lerner’s Final Project, and her Tiny House Hunting object biography project use documentary film as a resource. Here she describes her process of choosing and adding film to mediathread projects.
Sara Novak Lerner
Here is a brief guide to uploading video clips in Mediathread in order to continue working on the project I began. My method wasn’t perfect, so I would encourage you to adjust it as you see fit!
Step 1: Find a Film
In order to find films, the first resource I used was the spreadsheet compiled previously by Richard Zachary, which you should have access to [it is here]. I also stumbled upon relevant material on my own; once you’re looking for it, you’d be surprised how many TV programs and movies cover topics related to the material from this class.
Step 2: Watch the Film
I found it to be helpful to first watch the film all the way through. I had a notebook by my side and I would keep track of the plot of the film and scenes that I thought could be interesting with time stamps so that I could find my way back to them later on. If I thought a scene could be good for a clip, I made a note of it.
Step 3: Film the Clip
Here I would go back to the clips I found to be interesting and select which ones I was actually going to film and post- usually between 1-4 per film. I tried to keep the clips between 2-5 minutes but there were exceptions. I was watching the movies on my laptop and the only way I was able to film clips was by using my iPhone. Other programs such as Quicktime and Transmission did not work, presumably because the companies are actively discouraging this behavior because filming the entire movie would be illegal. I found it useful to be in a quiet, dark room for filming.
Step 4: Upload the Clip
Once you have the file for the clip on your computer, you can upload it into your Mediathread project (or the project that I had already begun working on). To do this, you’ll want to get to the Mediathread homepage. After signing in, there should be a link on the upper right of the page that says “Upload from Computer”. Next you will click the “Upload Video” link that appears below, select your file, and upload. It’s worth it to rename your file right then and there to avoid future confusion as to what’s what. Once this is done, a pop-up should appear telling you that you will receive an email once your file is ready.
Step 5: Put the Clip In Context
Once the clip is ready, you can open up the project that you’re working on. The clip should be in your collection on the right-hand column of your assignment once you click “edit”. At this stage, I would provide a brief, one sentence description of the film itself which I kept in the upper portion of my project in alphabetical order with the other films I used. I would then select the lecture(s) that I thought were best for the clip. I had all the lectures listed in the file in chronological order according to when they occurred during the semester. By clicking the little film-reel-with-arrow icon to the left of the name of the clip, I would add the link to the clip under the name of the lecture(s). I would then provide a brief description of the clip, noting which lectures it could be useful for.
I believe that’s it! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at sen2128@columbia.edu. Good luck!