Big Picture Hack Visual Storytelling In this session we are going to look at hacks that use pictures, film and other media to remake reading into a piece of visual storytelling.

How many different ways can you think of? When are pictures used to tell stories instead of (or as well as) words? How many different ways can you think of? Answers: Manga, photojournalism, comics, photographs, games, social media tools like Storify. The comic in this slide was made by Reading Hack Comic-in-Residence Claude TC, commissioned by a young person who tweeted the story Metaphor.

Hack: an activity with reading at its heart. Choose your hack Hack: an activity with reading at its heart. Scroll through the hacks and choose one you want to do

A Thousand Words Goosebumps? Joy? Terror? Take a photo that shows in just one image what the entire book made you feel. Hack description: Take a photo that summarises exactly how a book make you feel Time it takes: 20 mins What you need: - cameras/iPads/smartphones How you do it: Discuss a recent book or read with a friend or in small groups. After each person has shared their book, get a friend to hold up a camera and ask them, How did it make you feel? Take a photo. Share your photos with other young people in the group. Can they guess the feeling the book inspired? Images: By Camdiluv ♥ from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Six Picture Story Summarise a book in six words and six photos. Here’s an example from young people in Warrington… Hack description: Summarise the plot or motto of a book in six photos Time it takes: 30-45 mins This is a twist on the Six Word Story, made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s six word story: For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never worn What you need: Pens and paper Camera/ipad/smart phone Photograph props Computer How you do it: Show your group the Six Word Photo Story from young people at Warrington Library. You can also see it here: http://launchpadweb.tumblr.com/post/76332996906/the-6-word-photostory   Ask your young people to write their own six word story. Get them to work as a group for teamwork skills. Hand out cameras/ipads or ask young people to use their phones. They can also search for images on Google. Take or choose six photos that tell a Six Word Photo Story summarising the book Create a display of your Six Word Photo Stories or share your work on social media sites.

Bookface Hack description: Merge life and art by using a book to take clever picture of yourself. Add your bookface shot to all the bookface art out there on Instagram and Twitter. Time it takes: 30-45 mins What you need: Smart phones/cameras Books! How you do it: 1. Get Inspiration. Put Bookface into Google Images and look at some examples. Check out BookFace on Instagram: https://instagram.com/explore/tags/bookface Get ideas from this blog: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/fashion/oh-those-clever-librarians-and-their-bookface.html?_r=0 2. Send young people in groups or individually to browse the library shelves for books. Ask them to take out a couple of books with covers that they think could interact in an amusing way with a person in a photograph. 3. When they have collected some titles, ask them to spend 5 minutes looking at the books, reading the back cover and first page. 4.Ask young people to introduce the books they have chosen, giving a summary of what the book appears to be about and explaining why they have chosen it for Bookface. 5.Using smart phones or cameras take a couple of Bookface shots. 6. Print and put them up around your library or classroom. Share them on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #bookface and #HackReading. Image Source: Biblioteca Pública Iu Bohigas de Salt on Flickr

Escaped Story Stop-Motion Use Instagram to make a story escape from the pages in a Stop Motion Instagram Check out one made by Instagrammer-in-Residence Emma Healey and commissioned by young people. Hack description: Make a story escape from the pages with Instagram Time it takes: 1 hour What you need: Smart phones with Instagram – most young people will have this and be familiar with it. Books Craft material such as coloured paper and pens, scissors, sellotape Optional: Props such as Lego figures, Plasticine How you do it: Get inspired: Click on the pictures in the slide or visit here: https://instagram.com/p/j1ylmzHyb3/?taken-by=readinghackers Ask your group to think about which book or characters they’d like to bring to life. Ideally you’ll have a copy of the book to feature in the animation. They don’t have to choose a book they’ve all read. It could be a book they choose from a selection you give them. Make sure they have five minutes to read the back cover, and the first few pages or chapter. In small groups or pairs, brainstorm a short animation (you’ll have about 10-15 seconds!) that captures the story. Get making. Use craft materials or props to make the story escape from the pages. Film using Instagram stop-motion feature. Share on social media.

Book Trailer Cinema Use your phone or a digital camera to make a trailer for a book. You can act it out, use props, illustrations and photography. Check out some examples of the trailer for The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Hack description: Learn new digital skills by creating a book trailer for a favourite book. Time it takes: this is a long activity taking up to 4 hours. You may wish to run it over 3 sessions (as suggested below). Turn it into a hack project by hosting a screening of your group’s book trailers, or a Book Trailer Cinema event. Find this activity as a hack project here [link to Book Trailer Cinema Hack project] What is a book trailer? A book trailer is exactly like a film trailer, except it encourages someone to read a book rather than watch a film What you need: Video cameras/ipads/smart phones Editing software – imovie for Mac/ipads or Windows Movie Maker for PCs are both very good. Youtube also has simple editing functions. A3 paper for story boards Books! How you do it:   Session 1: 1. Begin by introducing young people to book trailers. This is the official book trailer for The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4BCKLbRHTM And here are some fan film versions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK4wVLlmR6U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYVpNSwksss 2. Watch the book trailers and ask your group to think about what makes a good book trailer. Things to think about include the book’s title and author, quotes from the book, a good soundtrack, striking images, positive quotes from readers/fans and a call to action (i.e. read the book!). 3. Ask your group to think about which book they’d like to make a trailer for. It should be a book that everyone has read or can read before work starts. 4. Ask your group to discuss how they’ll bring their book to life. Hand out A3 paper for them to plan out a storyboard. Young people simply need to divide the paper into 9 boxes, and sketch out up to 9 key scenes or moments for their trailer. Session 2: 5. Turn the storyboard into a script. They will also need to work out their roles in the trailer. Encourage your group to think about props, scenery and costumes. 5. Hand out video cameras/ipads and get young people to start filming. Suggest that one person films whilst someone else acts as the director. Session 3: 6. Young people can now edit their video clips into one long video using either imovie, Windows Movie Player or YouTube. Add sound effects and music. Copyright free sound effects can be downloaded from here: http://www.soungle.com/ 7. Share your finished video on social media sites and don’t forget to tweet a link to the author in question! Useful information: A beginner’s guide to using iMovie on a Mac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCq2ncg7Mqg A beginner’s guide to using iMovie on an iPad: http://scratched.media.mit.edu/resources/all A beginner’s guide to using Windows Movie Maker on a PC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZXK68NS7gU Copyright free sound effects can be downloaded from here: http://www.soungle.com/

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