NEWS
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
October 1, 2009
MOUNT DIABLO, CA. Dave, a middle-aged amateur astronomer, stands in a parking lot at Mount Diablo State Park, describing the difference between craters on the moon and the lunar maria, or "seas". It is dusk, and a small audience braves the high wind on the mountaintop, listening to his lecture and waiting for the moon to rise into telescope viewing range. It takes Dave's loudest speaking voice and the full force of his personality to keep the shivering audience engaged. Suddenly, a man shouts from the back of the group, "The Apollo landings were a hoax! Everyone knows that!" Dave turns his attention to confront the heckler while his audience titters and laughs. The man dismisses Dave's calm answers with more and more illogical claims about government conspiracies and faked photographs. The audience drifts off to the warmth of their cars, forgetting they came to view the moon through Dave's telescope. His attempt at broadening the appeal of astronomy through public outreach ends in an impossible dispute with a lone, ranting critic.
The non-profit Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) is one of the nation's leading astronomy and space science education organizations. The society manages the NASA Night Sky Network, an education program that supports astronomy clubs who teach the public about astronomy. Flying Moose Pictures has a long collaboration with ASP, and has completed over two-dozen projects for their various programs, educating over 1,000,000 Americans about astronomy. For the latest production, The Moose produced a series of trainings videos to motivate and train amateur astronomers like Dave in doing public outreach.
The Moose developed five "Sharing the Universe" scripts in collaboration with ASP, mixing an entertaining combination of right way/wrong way comic skits, passionate interviews with real astronomers, and detailed presentations by an engaging host. The videos include:
- Getting started with outreach - inspiring interviews with expert presenters and comic monologues explaining why amateurs are afraid of speaking to the public.
- Handling difficult questions - how to handle the heckler who insists the Earth is only 6000 years old or the audience member who wants to talk endlessly about himself. Featuring anecdotes from experienced presenters about their worst hecklers and how they handled them.
- How to say I don't know - There will always be something beyond the scope of even an expert presenter. Amateurs learn to use what they do know to put a question into context, and how to assist the audience in finding out more about the topic.
- Connecting with kids - Kids love astronomy, but can be easily bored or disruptive. Presenters discover how to involve kids in a presentation by encouraging them to participate as they learn.
- How to get wow! (when not showing Saturn) - Amateurs learn to tell stories about the universe, instead of burying their audience with technical details. They are encouraged to use the Night Sky network Tookits to augment their presentations with fun props and hands-on activities.
In order to test and develop the scripts before production, The Moose auditioned and cast actors, rehearsed them, and presented a "script in hand" reading before a critical audience of astronomy professionals and amateurs. An extensive feedback session with the audience yielded many constructive comments which were then incorporated into the script.
ASP wanted to engage the audience by capturing enthusiastic interviews with amateur astronomers who were already experts in public outreach. These experts typically present to the public at evening "star parties", which begin at dusk and continue into the night. In order to economically simulate interviewing the amateurs at a dark star party, they were shot in front of a Green Screen, then composited with a star party background plate.
The Sharing the Universe videos, shot in HD, are distributed on the web to over 250 amateur astronomy clubs throughout the United States. Reaction to the videos has been enthusiastic, and accompanied by requests for more videos on additional topics.
The full set of videos may be viewed at: www.astrosociety,org/SharingTheUniverse
Contact Flying Moose Pictures to find out how visual storytelling can work for your firm.
