Steve Douglass is a role model for educators worldwide, as he develops new ways of teaching filmmaking/storytelling using mobile filmmaking as a medium for motivation and inspiration. Cirina Catania, OWC Host, spends a lively hour with him and you will certainly be entertained. How does he teach? What does he teach? And what are the results? For one, a coveted first prize at the recent All American High School Film Festival. Steve's efforts are enthusiastically supported by several sponsors, including the folks at Other World Computing (OWC) led by Larry O'Connor, and the team at Apple. Join us. This will be fun!







In This Episode



00:07 - Cirina introduces Steve Douglass, a teacher of media at the Lake Forest High School in Chicago. In this episode, Cirina and Steve put an emphasis on mobile filmmaking and why it's making a huge buzz with Gen Zs. 06:59 - Cirina and Steve reminisce about outdated, manual techniques and processes in the media. Also, how easy kids today have it thanks to technology. 11:29 - Steve shares his class curriculum and what he likes his students to focus on when it comes to creating remarkable and meaningful films.16:31 - Steve introduces Chicago Summer Stories, what it's about, and how it started. 26:52 - Steve summarizes a community project he worked on with his students and about how local businesses in their area were affected by COVID-19.30:44 - Steve explains how he organizes his students' tasks from pre-production to post-production.37:00 - Steve muses about how social media plays a massive role in Gen Zs' lives and how they can utilize it to create art and meaningful stories.39:10 - Cirina asks Steve about the changes and challenges of online homeschooling because of the pandemic.46:34 - Cirina wishes more people were like Steve, and share their knowledge with younger generations, so the art stays alive and continuously expanding.51:50 - Steve shares where people can find Chicago Summer Stories and St. Louis Summer Stories to learn more about filmmaking.



Jump to Links and Resources







Transcript



Today we're talking with Steve Douglass, who teaches on the North Shore of Chicago, at Lake Forest High School. He teaches media, and at the moment, he's putting an emphasis on mobile filmmaking, which might be surprising to you for a media teacher at a major high school. He has a background in production at ESPN for many years. And he left ESPN and moved to St. Louis, where he began taking a lot of courses and getting qualified to teach at both high school and the college level. Steve, thank you for being here with us. You were at ESPN for many years, and I've heard that many, many times. I'm really curious about what you did there and what your specialty was.



Well, thank you so much, first of all, for having me. We were on a panel together in Final Cut Pro. 



Yeah, it was fun. 



Amazing experience, but also like being on that panel with such distinguished folks. And then, like, clearly everyone knew you. And I was like, "This is amazing. I can't wait to have this conversation." Because everyone respected what you do, so you were there. And thank you so much for sharing this space because this is an exciting time for education. It really is a dynamic time. And I think it's great. Honestly, I think there's a lot of wins and a lot of good stuff, which we'll get to. But yeah, it all kind of starts back at ESPN. That was my dream job. I was very fortunate to get there when I was 22, just out of undergrad. I went to Bristol, Connecticut, where everything is still shot to this day, where they cut Sports Center, Baseball Tonight, all the different highlight shows, and I was one of about 150 people that applied. And they said, "Yeah, come on in, we'll do it," after a two-hour interview, it was insane. No benefits, and the highest cost of living state in the country, in Connecticut at the time. And it was sink or swim for six months. And so I learned from the best how to be able to cu...