Town and Country Learning Center

A rap-themed video that demonstrates how kids within an affordable housing community collaborate with each other, co-create with university students, and authentically showcase their activities in their afterschool program.

Introduction

This was a 10-week group video project related to participatory design, ethnographic studies, and media production within a college Communications course called Practicum in New Media and Community Life.

This project and the course was situated around assisting an afterschool program within an affordable housing community called Town and Country Learning Center (TCLC).

Project Objective

Within a group of seven, our group had to co-create a video with the kids at TCLC that captures their everyday activities within their time at the afterschool program.

My Role

  1. I was primarily responsible in managing all aspects of media production and video editing.
  2. I supported the team by joining them in weekly in-person meetups with the afterschool supervisor and kids.

My Contributions

  1. I independently managed video and audio equipment that was brought to TCLC so that video footage would be consistently captured.
    I even taught my teammates and the kids on how to properly use the equipment.
  2. To facilitate and democratize the video editing process for my teammates, I organized a document with detailed instructions to have them generate necessary metadata from the video footage to make the process of finding specific footage more efficient.
  3. From the video editing process, I published and presented different drafts of the video to stakeholders, other classmates, the kids themselves, and other community members in TCLC to encourage open feedback about the video drafts that informed video draft iterations.

I interacted with...

  1. former UC San Diego teammates - Stephen Luxford, Emily Hardy, Esau Carpenter, Emily Beihold, Jessica Tran, Wayne Phung, Avery Gildner
  2. a professor within the college Communications course - Camille Campion
  3. the afterschool program supervisor at TCLC - Veverly Anderson (Ms. V)
  4. several kids at the afterschool program

Primary Research

I Visited and Journaled My Experiences in the Afterschool Program

During eight weekly visits, I participated in the group's in-person engagement with the kids and local community members at TCLC to understand them, their lived experiences of TCLC, and the social environments and constructs surrounding them.

I did weekly journaled reflections of my visits.

Digitized journal entries in Google Docs for each weekly visit.

I Identified Insights, Problem Spaces, and Ideas for An Inclusive, Kid-Friendly Video Production Process

Around the third visit when my team members presented three ideas of possible kid-centered group activities to the TCLC supervisor, Ms. V, she refuted some of the ideas because of these considerations:

  1. The ideas haven't encouraged the kids across different intelligence levels to have a collected interest to be challenged and to think.
  2. The ideas didn't establish an inclusive common ground for both outspoken and more quieter kids to participate.
  3. The ideas may encourage negative social and power dynamics among the kids, due to different levels of activity engagement.

Key Insights

  1. There were abstract, complex social relationships in play; such as how other people, resources, and technology shape and enhance both an individual and commmunity's experiences of engaging in daily afterschool activities.
  2. It was important that our group's execution and audio/video recording of kid-centered activities portrayed kids as both actors and, more importantly, co-creators/directors of how they authentically represented their afterschool community.
  3. During internal team meetings, there was so much focus around supporting the day-to-day after school activities for the kids that there was not enough focus around how getting the video portion of the project done.

I Introduced Video Equipment to Kids and my Team Members

During the third visit and onwards, I decided to bring a camcorder to my visits to have the kids learn how to use them. Under my close supervision and discretion, I instructed them how to properly handle and use the camcorder.

Because the kids wanted a seamless plug-and-play experience using the camcorder, I automated the settings within the camcorder to make it easier for them to capture moments while ensuring usable footage will be reliably produced.

One of the kids holding the camcorder in front of an iPhone camera.

Observations

These were my journaled quotes highlighting the kids' behavior with the camcorder usage.

“Jayden had a bit of fun with it as he wanted to record Esau singing in front of the camera for a brief moment. He was fixated on the monitor as he attempted to emulate some more close up shots”

“[I had] Jose's interests and curiosity for the camcorder in mind,...Unlike the other kids, he seemed to have his hands more steadily on the camcorder, even when I quickly went over how to use the camcorder's main controls...”

“Jose started to point the camcorder at me and wanted to interview me. At that moment, that was another surprise that I had not expected, as I thought this sort of interaction would not have happened so soon until I established more rapport with him...”

“If our group can moderate and harness the benefits of self-directed play and exploration...we can easily guide the kids to more frequently share their insights of their own lives embedded within TCLC and the creation of our group's project.”

A Rap That Inspired the Video Theme

My other teammates really liked the way one particular kid, named Qhadafi, shared his song lyrics that were related to the Town and Country Center. This would inform the theme behind the rest of the videos that I created.

Qhadafi free-style rapping and reading song lyrics to my teammates from a piece of paper as I record on the side.

First Draft & Iterations

Here is a 1-minute first draft, which includes an audio recording of Qhadafi's rap with footage related to the different group activities amongst team members and kids.

Feedback

  1. Ms. V and Professor Campion liked how the video authentically captured a story of representing the kids at TCLC.
  2. Some of the kids liked how they were a part of the video and how they represented themselves.

Three Areas of Improvement

Better Inclusivity and Representation of Voices

Despite the good variety of clips that attempted to showcase most of the kids, the rap portion of the video only showcased Qhadafi, which isn't representative of everyone from TCLC.

A small section of freestyle lyrics that Qhadafi made. No one else participating in rapping within the video.

Better Cohesion Between Song Lyrics and Video Clips Shown

Although the first draft intended to have diverse video clips the activities and kids involved at TCLC, the rap lyrics were not at all aligned with the video clips.

There wasn't a coherent connection between the mentioned rap lyrics and the clips that were shown.

Improved Portrayal of the Kids as Co-Creators of Their Activities

There was room to not only subjectively evaluate the video clips deemed best for the narrative, but to capture a more authentic experience of how the kids' contributed to the video production process.

To go beyond selecting video clips that best represent the narrative behind the video would be to also present the kids' contributions to the video production process.

Iterating via Group Recording Sessions

With the proper training and guidance that I provided, my teammates were able to facilitate recording sessions with the kids and enable other kids to take a more active role in operating the equipment themselves.

Both my teammates and the kids would use the audio recorders to record the kids' rap voiceovers or help capture video footage of the sessions.

Second Draft & Iterations

I edited the second draft of the video, with the help my teammates to sort through and describe the footage. This draft attempted the following improvements:

  1. more behind-the-scenes footage of kids co-creating the video production process
  2. more kids included in all of the rap lyric parts
  3. reducing audio noise for improved audio quality

More Feedback Captured

I documented feedback after presenting the second draft to various people, and grouped them based on what aspects of the video people (dis)liked and areas of improvements to explore.

These people included other classmates in the Practicum course, professor Campion, the kids at TCLC, and the supervisor (Ms. V) at TCLC.

What People Liked About the Video

  1. There were plenty of video clips to show team's involvement with the kids.
  2. Video was inclusive of other people involved in TCLC (like Ms. V, Professor Campion, and my team members who were in the video.
  3. Video clearly demonstrated the kids using the camera and their involvement in the video production process.

Aspects for Further Improvement

  1. Lingering audio issues (such as audio pops that occurred (audio issues that should be examined and remedied).
  2. A specific kid wanted to be in the video, but accidentally wasn't. Other kids could have been included as well.
  3. More subtitles and corrections to kids' names.

A more comprehensive list can be viewed in this document.

Final Video

The final video is six and a half minutes long, titled Town and Country Learning Center, aimed to showcase the kids's experiences and activities in their afterschool program at TCLC as well as their process for creating the video.

With more post-production editing, subtitles were included, audio volume and noise from some of the kids was mediated to the best of my ability, and other edits were implemented in place.

Rap-Themed Song

2 minutes of video clips that highlight memorable moments of the kids, Ms. V., Professor Camille Campion, and my group members.

Kids' audio recordings of some portion of the rap lyrics are made from a diverse pool of kids who participated in the recording sessions to further demonstrate an inclusive community and typical behaviors that the kids experience in relation to the narrative.

Behind the Scenes Look

About 50 seconds was dedicated to the production of the rap video that isn't normally portrayed. This was to demonstrate how the kids actually handled the media equipment and participate in audio recording sessions such that they took on the role as not just the actors, but active co-creators who wanted to collaborate with our group members and be active contributors to the production of the video.

Bloopers!

About 1 minute and 20 seconds attempt to humorously capture memorable moments from the kids that revolve around some of the activities that they do, whether on a typical day or with some of the pre-planned activities that they did with some of the buddies.

Final Results

The final draft was showcased in a studio room with a projector screen on UC San Diego campus during a time where Ms. V, Professor Campion, and the kids went on a field trip to tour the campus grounds. After screening it, the kids wondered why not all of the voices seemed to be included within the rap, and our group explained about the logistics of the sounds that we recorded. Overall, everyone had many different moments of laughter and joy throughout the final screening of the video.

The final draft was also submitted as the final assignment for the communication course. Ms. V has been granted permission to view the video so that she could potentially use it for a future grand opening of TCLC. Professor Campion also has the final draft of the video, which will hopefully be used for future quarters as a reference for other students to look at.

Reflection

Visiting the kids each week reminded me of the experiences, blessings, and tribulations that I had to face when I was just like them. I felt humbled and appreciative of the opportunity for each week to see my team members interact with the kids while I was able to record those small, yet timeless moments from the kids at TCLC.

The effort that I placed into organizing the media equipment, post-production logistics, and making snacks (for one of the weeks) kept me motivated to make a video that will leave the kids hopeful for more experiences to document their activities.

I learned a lot from working with my team members in empathizing with the whimsical needs and attitudes the kids had each week during our group discussions before and after our visits. With their guidance and help, I learned the impact of youth empowerment and appreciated more of what a community is all about within TCLC.