Text Features of Video

	Images are composed or framed with a particular intent. As a result, we see an interpretation rather than reality. (There is no peripheral vision in television.)
	Video screen format is usually 4 units wide by 3 units high.
	The juxtaposition of images creates a meaning which the individual images alone might not convey.
	The videographer or filmmaker creates a reality which might not actually exist. Communication is carried by still and moving images, layers of audio, and some print. Shots and accompanying audio are frequently small 3-5 second chunks of video similar to a sentence. A Sequence of shots and accompanying audio work together to build meaning, similar to a paragraph. A scene is all the shots or sequences in one geographic location or time. A set of sequences or scenes works together to build the whole message, similar to a book or chapter of a book.

Students bring their experience and prior knowledge to the viewing experience

The student viewer brings prior knowledge and experience with the medium and topic from direct and indirect sources. The student brings interest, questions and curiosity to the experience of reading and interpreting video.

• The experience of watching video generally engages the emotions first and the intellect secondarily.
• Learning to monitor, question and think about what is being viewed, and understanding how the crafted message creates the responses that it does, is part of students' growing critical literacy.

Students experience and come to understand and critique their world and ideas in a variety of ways. Learning to read print and visual information in a range of formats supports this global understanding when skilled teachers work from an expanded notion of text. Higher levels of literacy develop from print literacy. Print literacy supports students' abilities to read and write the World.

To help students to become more conscious of how video messages work, try the sample, Cat Herders. Adapt the activity for use with your students and use a wide range of video texts.

Cat Herders

Electronic Data Systems, EDS, an information technology service company needed a way to communicate to potential business partners that it provides  "the right strategies, solutions, services and products to help our clients succeed in the digital economy." EDS' first-ever Super Bowl ad spot brought to life the expression "like herding cats" -- a phrase often used in technology circles to describe the difficulty of managing the seemingly unmanageable.

This activity is one way to help students to understand how the text features of video are used by an ad developer and interpreted by the students to create the message.

Click Cat Herders to Begin.