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Ministry of Education.

Learning task 2

Oral responses and listening

  1. Listen to all student reviews.
  2. The idea is to try to get students to ListenForTheElements (Word 32KB) and to hear why they were particularly good or successful.
  3. Students need to record details of elements of film. Under each heading of Acting, Setting, Music, Camera shots, Special Effects, Editing, Theme and Costume, students should have written 3 sentences or quotes that have been made by their classmate about that particular element.
  4. The title of the film should be underlined at the end of each sentence. See ListeningHandout (Word 31KB) .

This may take 1 to 2 periods depending on the size of the class. The teacher should collect the completed student listening handouts, to make sure they have listened for the elements of film and then give back to students.

Genre

  1. Write up the titles of the films people spoke about in the previous lesson. Ask students to try and classify them under the headings of humour or comedy, horror, thriller, drama or fantasy.
  2. At the end of this exercise give students Genre crossword (Word 30KB) . (See Genre Crossword Solutions (Word 20KB) ).
  3. The Conceptmap (Word 61KB) is a way of helping students to see what a film reviewer does, his/her audience and to enforce some of the things they may write about (elements of film and words they use to describe films).
  4. Give out VocabActivity (Word 50KB) to take home and study in preparation for the next lesson.

Vocabulary cluster

This is a Word Clusters (Word 50KB) . Students work in pairs to group the words under six or seven different headings. They glue their groups of words onto A3 paper. There is no definite right or wrong group, as long as students can justify their choice to you.

Cinematography - language of film

Before looking at elements of film, spend some time on cinematography (Word 2MB) . This is a useful handout for students to recognise the different types of shots used in film and the effect of these. I suggest it would be good to give students the handout and provide a focus for individual reading. This could be some simple questions, eg.

  1. Skim the text - what do you think the text is about?
  2. Read the text carefully. What were two things you found interesting or learnt that you didn't know before?
  3. After reading the text, ask the question. Was the text about the things you had predicted?

Elements of film

One way to get students thinking about elements of film is to show them 'small snippets' of film and to ask questions. It is particularly valuable to show a film that has two versions made. Compare the first version with the re-make. How are they different in setting, costume, music, camera work or special effects?

For example:

  • Compare an earlier film of Titanic to the re-make Titanic, or compare an earlier Romeo and Juliet with the re-make.
  • Show Jaws without the music then with music. Is it scary? Is it real? Discuss the importance of the music in making the 'piece of plastic' seem life threatening and believable.
  • Show the 'race scene' in Cool Runnings - look specifically at sound and camera movement.
  • Show the start of Braveheart - the scenery, the background, the close up shots and the panning.

Published on: 13 Jul 2009

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