Is it about the film or it's trailer?

Last night an anonymous commenter on my blog posted this comment in response to my post yesterday questioning whether "Superman" is an appropriate metaphor for school reform:

Wow. Do your research. The film is not funded by the Heritage Foundation. When you see the film you will learn that Superman comes from a quote by Geoffrey Canada. The metaphor for the film is the lottery for kids to get into great schools. The fact that we place kids futures to chance is completely unacceptable.

You can read my post and my response to that comment here. This comment's phrase, "when you see the film you will learn," and my own statement in my post that I would, "hold off judgment until I see the film," got me thinking this morning about whether either phrase is rooted in proper thinking. Conventionally we would say it is important to hold out judgment until we see that which we are critiquing but is it really the film that is the real message here that needs critiquing or is it the trailer and other marketing tools? I bet a very small fraction of the people who see the trailer of a documentary actually go see the film but they do see and hear what is in the trailer. Therefore, if a documentary film does have a political agenda it's message will be more sharply defined in that trailer. In the case of Waiting for Superman that message is that our school system sucks (blame the teachers), we need to improve reading and math scores (narrow the curriculum so we can demand complacency), economic despair is the result of damage schools do (not Wall Street or crooked politicians), and lottery schools (charters) are the only "great schools" for poor kids (because they serve corporate interests).



Once the trailer has been seen by many many people it doesn't matter if anyone goes to see it in the theater or matter whether the actual documentary in its full-length presents an accurate and unbiased account of it's subject. Once the trailer has been distributed the film has done it's job for it's financiers.

Film Idea about Disruptive Innovation - Part 1

Scene One:

The film opens with a first person shot of me walking my dogs. The audio is a speech from Ken Robinson's TED Talk. This goes on for about 5 minutes until I take my iPod out of my pocket and reveal that the audio is from the downloaded video I have been listening to on my walk)






(Scene cuts seamlessly to a small segment of the video synced with no cut in the audio.)

Dog footage to be shot with my Flip camera.
TED footage to be ripped from YouTube.

(This video of me walking my dogs will get recycled throughout the film whenever I use my voice as narration. This image will be symbolic of progress and change as the dogs, while I encourage them to go where I want, pull me forward in a not entirely controlled path.)


(Scene cuts to me putting away my coat, walking downstairs and plugging my iPod into my computer.)


Scene in my entry way to be shot with my Flip Camera
Scene at my desk to be shot with a webcam

(Audio fades over the webcam image of myself sitting down to my laptop then cuts to a screencast of myself checking my RSS reader, commenting on blogs, checking Twitter updates, and reviewing the feed from my del.icio.us network.)

Screencast to be shot with Camstudio

(voice over screencast)

Me: This is part of my daily routine. Each night, after I put my daughters to bed (insert clips of putting my 3year old and infant to bed) and my wife goes to sleep I walk my dogs and listen to podcasts. This is my daily zen moment. It is a time I feel like I can think more clearly. I never set out on my walks with any particular agenda in mind. I often let the voices on the iPod set that for me. This is when I take a step back and try to look at things from an outside or big picture perspective. Then, when I get home and plug my iPod back into the computer I slip into my PLN of education bloggers, teachers who find their voice online and connect with ideas and people. Many of these people are average employees at the schools where they work but online their ideas and thoughts make some celebrities. (slowly fade in the song "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane) This place is the fertile garden that is growing the ideas and momentum for the next wave of change in education. It is a sophisticated flash mob that when unleashed will disrupt everything we have come to understand about schools, learning, teaching, and education. Alice is coming back from the looking glass and is bringing Wonderland with her.

Switch to an Animoto video similar to this one showcasing seminal blog posts about 21st century learning.



Scene Two:
(Scene two cuts to me coming home from work. My wife is watching the news and my daughter is playing in the living room.)

Sheri: Did you hear? Macy's is closing 11 stores.
Me: Wow! First Daytons sells their stores to Marshal Fields, then Marshal fields goes under and Macy's takes over, now Macy's is in trouble.
Sheri: People just can't afford to shop at those fancy stores anymore.
Me: Yeah, when was the last time we bought anything there? We go to Walmart and Target every week but I can't recall the last time I shopped at one of those stores.
Sheri: Too expensive. They don't sell what we need either.



...Stay Tuned for more