Description

You will hold the camera down at dog’s height (about 1 1/2 feet) and have it become a dog. The camera goes left and right, stops and looks at things, then goes on a mission. All the people the camera approaches treat it like a dog: Some people are scared, some annoyed. Some try to shoo it away.

Dogs have a much keener sense of smell than people. When the “dog” (camera) “sniffs” (focuses on) an object, it will know what it is. This pops up in the dog’s mind as a Picture in Picture in the video. The dog finds something it doesn’t recognize and searches until it finds what it is.

Give the dog a challenge. Have the dog solve a problem. Perhaps it sees a math problem and finds the solution. For example, if someone is confused while building a fence, the dog might “see” the formula for perimeter from a math book. In science, it could “see” the appropriate flower for a plant, a predator for each animal it sniffs, or whatever other kind of interrelation you can think of.

Planning and Preparing the Video

Decide on what person, place, or thing your dog will track down. Find several examples that the dog recognizes, and one that it wants to find.

For this example, we will have the dog track down a piece of hot dog stuck to a shoe. You may choose anything, person, place, or thing you want. Because our dog will be using his nose, we will have leaves as examples to show what an expert sniffer our dog is. Collect examples of leaves from around the school. For this example you will need:

(1) plant leaf
(2) tree leaf

You must also get video or still images of

(1) the tree the leaf came from
(2) the plant the leaves came from
(3) two different pictures of dogs
(4) a person’ foot in a shoe
(5) a hot dog
Decide where your dog will go.

In this example, the dog will go around the outside of the school, through the front door, and across the hallway to the playground.
Recruit your actors

Have people ready to react to the camera as though it were a dog. When you walk around with the camera, everyone must know what you are doing.

Before shooting the video
Know the places where your “dog” will go and where he will find things. In this case, the dog will begin around the building, across the lawn, onto sidewalk, up the steps into the school, and through the school to the playground where the flowerbed of daisies are (or whatever you have outside or inside your school). The dog will stop to find things to sniff at the following key spots:

corner of the building
tree or bush
lawn
sidewalk
a dark spot on the front steps (Don’t make a dark spot! Use one that is already there.)
the lunch area
Put the tree leaf on the lawn, the plant leaf on the sidewalk.

Shooting the video
Hold the video camera at about knee level. If you want, have someone be the dog — panting while the camera records. Walk the camera to the corner of the building. Spend a few seconds looking at the corner (have your “dog” make sniffing noises). Stop at each of the key spots (and sniff). Be sure to spend time on the leaves. Also spend time on the spot on the front steps. After the dog finds this spot, it will head immediately toward the lunchroom. Don’t turn off the camera! Keep recording the entire time. You will make this video in one “take” (one single recording).

Move the camera inside. People will react to the dog — pet it, run from it, etc. Move into the lunch area. The dog will cause a commotion here! Finally, “find” the person’s shoe with a piece of hot dog stuck to it. (We’re pretending the person stepped on it and didn’t know it was there.) Think of a way for your dog to grab the hot dog. Everyone yells as it runs back toward the door. Now you can turn off the camera.

Next, videotape your “pick up shots.”

the tree the leaf came from
the plant the leaves came from
two different picture of dogs
a persons’ foot in a shoe
a hot dog
If you can’t find dogs, trees, or plants to videotape, download images from the Internet (see the lesson "It Came from Outer Space" about downloading if you don’t know how). You can find wonderful pictures of dogs at www.akc.org. The American Kennel Club has pictures of every known breed.