TED-Ed
Why Should You Read Kurt Vonnegut?
In the midst of darkness, there's hope. A video lesson shares key themes found in Kurt Vonnegut's writing, including the idea of hope in darkness. After watching the video, viewers take a short quiz to test their understanding, answer...
PBS
Ready Player One
Ready Player One has been praised as a novel that captures the vitality, the allure, and the essence of the virtual reality experience. Speakers in a short video share their rationale for why Ernest Clines' dystopian novel should be...
Crash Course
To Film School or Not To Film School
Conservatory approach or liberal arts film approach? Or self-taught? That is the question prospective filmmakers must decide when considering a film school. A helpful video ponders whether it's better to study a single craft within the...
Crash Course
Designing the World of Film
Some jobs in film production are more obvious than others. The director directs, the cinematographer films, and the special effects people create those tricky effects. But who designs the mise-en-scene, who structures the set, and who...
British Council
Romeo and Juliet
An engaging video featuring William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is accompanied by six activities designed to reinforce vocabulary, story elements, and comprehension. Scholars match words to pictures, place events in sequential order,...
Crash Course
The Language of Film
New ventures and new technologies require new ways of referring to things. In stepped Edwin S. Porter, whose films Life of an American Fireman and The Great Train Robbery used parallel action and cross-cutting to develop his...
Crash Course
The Silent Era
Young filmmakers watch a short overview of the major studios, players, and political events of the period between 1894 and 1929. In addition, the video narrator briefly outlines the Hollywood scandals that lead to the development of the...
Crash Course
Dissecting The Camera
An episode of a film history playlist looks at camera technology and the roles of the various operators. The narrator presents an overview of different types of film camera lenses, apertures, shutter speed, frame rates, ISO, and codex....
Crash Course
Sound Production
Movies have come a long way since the first talkies. The credits that roll at the end of a movie lists a bewildering number of titles for those involved in sound production. Learn everything you want to know about what these roles entail...
Crash Course
Special Effects
Special effects have come along way since the spectacular illusions of Georges Melies. Young filmmakers learn about the three major types of special effects: mechanical or practical effects, optical effects, and computer-generated imagery.
Crash Course
The Editor
The job of the editor is surely one of the most demanding in film production. Viewers of an episode from a film production playlist are introduced to the editor's many responsibilities, the history of editing, and the various types...
Crash Course
Producers
Everyone knows that films have producers, but not everyone knows exactly what a producer does. An informative video explains what an executive producer, line producer, senior producer do, who can end up with an honorary producer credit,...
Crash Course
The Director
Who's the most important person on a film set? The legendary actor? The influential producer? The head electrician? Or the person who needs to understand the roles of all three? A Crash Course video on film production focuses...
Be Smart
Why Do We Have To Sleep?
Humans are the only mammals who delay sleep. Viewers learn this and other interesting facts in a video that explores sleep in humans. The narrator also discusses how lights affect our sleep, the importance of sleep, and how...