PRODUCTIONS
The First Filming. Preparing for the first scene is, from left to right: Sylvia Fuhrken, Costume Designer; Amanda Gardner, creator; Victor Larsen, Set Designer; and Marcos Luna Hoyas, Cinematographer. The far right shadow is of the actor, Noah Adler. 15 April 2018.
The Dickinson Homestead. Two friends (Victoria Scott & Amanda Gardner) in Emily’s yard. August 2018.
Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s house, a landmark no American woman should ever miss. Sign reads, “Promoter of the first woman’s rights convention lived here. Convention was held across the river. State Department of Education, 1937.
the prototype
how do we love thee?
The idea was simple: put students in the place where the author lived and worked and loved and maybe, just maybe, those students would be able to relate to the one who create the words.
And if they could relate, maybe they would then be motivated to read the words that English teachers foist upon them, words that require that phones are silenced and pages turned not swiped.
But why stop there? A camera in a location? Already being done. So, we decided to add a script that would serve to allow students to overhear stories of the author — for this first one, Elizabeth Barrett Browning — and determine, for self, who she was.
So actors, crew, location, and more time than I knew possible, and we have a prototype CVR curriculum, a subject for Amanda’s dissertation study, and the start of a new way of learning.
the in-process
i choose just a crown
In case you weren’t aware, Amanda, the one who merged this new medium with curricular purpose, loves Emily Dickinson. Amanda’s fascination with the poet has not waned in over two decades — if anything, it’s grown. Not only did she conceive of this curriculum because she was thinking of how her students would have responded to Emily if they had been able to stand in the poet’s room, but she did a week road trip from Texas to Amherst via Minnesota so she could drop off her cat and pick up her friend (see photo at left) to run her idea by those who dedicate their lives to the restoration and preservation of Emily’s work and home.
At present, Amanda’s in the middle of writing a proposal for the Dickinson Board to ask for access to the entire property. If granted, it will allow her and her team to create an experience for students everywhere to stand in the places Emily stood, to talk to the people Emily knew, and to be, just for a moment, back in time with the poet.
You can join her on her journey from student to entrepreneur by reading her blog, following her podcast, supporting her efforts. It’s going to be an amazing trip.
the potentials
location, location, location
The entire process fo production at Education CVR is founded on access to location and ubiquity in education. Our prototype (which we didn’t know was to be a prototype at the time) was filmed on Elizabeth Barrett Browning because the idea was conceived where the largest collection of Elizabeth and Robert Browning work in the world is housed, Baylor University and “How Do I Love Thee” is taught around the world.
Our next is Dickinson because of Amanda’s affinity for the poet. However, more than that, Emily is, like Thoreau, tied to her location. Emily’s home is part of her myth - the birds she wrote about perched on those trees, the robin was on her walk, the carriage stopped in front of that yellow house on Main Street and her window looks out over that street and up into town — all of Amherst under her gaze.
We want to create experiences in places where teachers want to take their students - in places where we can purposefully and carefully craft the empathetic power of cinematic virtual reality into experiences that open students to the wonder of the word.