Life in a Lens

We are drawn to images they help you remember, John Medina writes that we remember 65% of  information given when accompanied by images. Interestingly a revision specialist came into a school I worked at. He told the pupils a story (another great tool to aid memory) and showed them images of the main points in the story. Once finished he asked them to list all 12 points in order, which they all did. He used images as an anchor for the important information.  It was about 8 years ago but I can still visualise the images today especially the monkey eating ice cream in a hot air balloon. As images are so important for our brain it is important that we understand a little about how we can use them. In the MYP curriculum we teach a film unit where we encourage the pupils to tell stories through images and sound (the sound tracks are composed by the pupils) without the use of dialogue. We look at camera angles and the position of the people in the scenes, as Garr Reynolds discusses understanding techniques such as rule of thirds and the placement of objects in a scene is essential to understanding an audience's reaction to the images and visual media.  We often look at this short film.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKZQzaahN3cThere is no one obvious story, so there is always a great discussion as the pupils try to interpret it; dissecting the images used to construct their version of reality. They try to read and interpret what they think the director wished to communicate. Through this process they can begin to see the impact that the choice of image can have and the effect it has on different people. Here are the films they have produced.  I was impressed with their work as they had a limited amount of time to plan and create the final pieces. They really considered each shot and thought about not only the story line, but also the emotion they wanted the audience to feel. This also links to one of my very first Coetail ambitions which was to put the pupils work on YouTube. It has been sitting there waiting for me as they finished at the end of last year and have now progressed to the IB or APs, but I wanted to ensure I had their permission before making it live. So here it is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBUK6z5Pr8c&feature=youtu.beHowever, images can also be a fickle friend and I wonder about the premise that images foster effective communication. I would like to add a caveat. I think that when used effectively images can foster effective communication, however badly chosen images or grossly manipulated images can also lead to messages being misinterpreted and communication being ineffective. I also wonder how far will we go for an image. In a world where images and the sharing of images is a daily occurrence, do we discuss the integrity of taking the image, using the image and when should we act rather than watch through our lens!For me nothing sums this up more than this heart breaking piece which always makes me question my own actions and makes me consider is the image worth this!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrsQ3wdeDlU