Learning Intention: To develop deeper understanding of your chosen text and develop your understanding of visual language techniques.
Success Criteria: you will have been successful when you have:
you have close viewed your chosen text
you have identified FOUR key film techniques such as dialogue, soundtrack, costume and cinematography
you have used discussed how these film techniques work, and work together, to help convey the director's message (theme)
Absolutely nothing is put into a film by accident. Every tiny detail adds to a greater purpose.
Close viewing means to watch a short film or a scene from a full length film and "pull it apart."
To "close view" it means to pick out the techniques that the director has used and explore the effect that has on us as an audience.
READ: Click on the pop out below to read the task for what you are supposed to do.
READ: Very simply put, your mission is to:
Watch a film in class with your teacher
Pick a scene of no longer than 5 minutes, your teacher will either give you a list or allow you to choose you own
You then need to pick the 4 most powerful techniques used in that scene and analyse them.
WRITE: In your digital exercise book, write what you are supposed to do.
READ: the exemplars, click on the link provided here.
You will notice that ALL of these exemplars do the following:
Identify the film, director, scene and techniques
Provide clear and specific examples of each of the techniques
Discusses the effect of these techniques on the audience
Relates the use of these techniques to the director's purpose
A MERIT requires you do all of this PLUS to make links between the techniques and their effects
An EXCELLENCE requires you to do all of the above PLUS discuss the scene/techniques importance to the film as a whole and/or make connections to the real world
WRITE: In your digital exercise book, write down what you have to do to get to achieved, merit or excellence.
WATCH/READ: The slide show to the right that shows you how to work out the theme of your chosen film. It also shows you in depth explanations of how film techniques work to create effects.
IMPORTANT NOTE: this presentation only discusses the use of film techniques and their effects in a general manner. When discussing your film you must be specific in your explanations. For example, instead of just saying "shows emotion" you need to NAME and explain which specific emotion.
EXAMPLE: "In The Lion King's opening scene, a close up camera shot is used on Mufasa and Sarabi's faces to show their facial expressions. Their eyes are bright and they are smiling and looking at Simba with a lot of love. This shows us they are feeling happy to be parents and are proud of their newborn son, Simba."
WRITE: In your digital exercise book, write down each key technique, a definition, an example (which can be a picture) and the effect of the technique in your example. The first one has been done for you.
Taika Waititi is a New Zealand director who has made many famous films
READ/WATCH: these these sources
WRITE: in your digital exercise book, write about what motivates Taika Waitit to direct his films and what stylistic features we can expect to see in them.
WATCH: the film for the first time
WRITE: In your digital exercise book, complete these tasks:
Write down what the film is about and what happens in the story.
Write down five words that describe how you feel after you have watched this film. For example, sad, happy. These adjectives will become your tools for discussing the impact on the audience. So always keep them in front of you.
Figure out of the theme. What's this story about? To do this, work through these questions:
Who's the main protagonist (good character)?
What challenges do they face?
How do they face these challenges?
How do they change over the course of the narrative (story)?
What main ideas are thrown up by the adventures of the protagonist and what do you learn about these ideas?
Character map - using Google Draw, write down each of the characters as you come across them. Draw arrows between the characters to denote their relationships and add in adjectives that describe each character and at least one quote for each characters. Download as a jPeg file and insert into your digital exercise book.
CHOOSE: Choose a scene - don't overthink this, just choose the one that you remember best - there's a reason that you remember it.
WATCH: Watch your chosen scene over and over, filling in one row in the digital exercise book at a time.
For example, if I was doing "camera shots". I would watch it twice for examples, once for the effect on the audience and then once for the director's purpose, don't forget to go back to the Google Slide presentation to help you.
Taking notes is very straightforward. The table in your digital exercise book is designed to help you get the all the necessary information you need recorded down.
Consider the following questions when developing a written response:
1. What is the name of this film and who directed it?
2. What is the theme of this film and how do I know this?
3. What happened in the scene I will be talking about?
4. Which 4 techniques BEST show the theme/emotion of the scene?
5. What are some examples of each of those techniques?
6. What was their effect on me as an audience member? (Did it make me feel or think differently about something?)
7. Can I explain why the director chose to use these techniques?
Below is a scaffold for how you could write/talk about your scene, if you prefer to just use the questions above that’s fine too
Introduction:
The film that I have studied is….
It is directed by….
It’s main message is…
The scene I am going to be discussing is...(give a brief overview of what happens in this scene and what it's message is)
The four techniques that work together to show this message are…
Discussion of the techniques:
The first technique [director’s name] uses is…
An example of this is…
[Director’s name] uses this to show…
This [technique’s name] makes the audience understand that...[what about the character or theme?]
The second technique [director’s name] uses is…
An example of this is…
*Does it combine with the first technique to emphasize the audience’s understanding?? If so, use linking words e.g. reinforces, emphasises
[Director’s name] uses this to show…
This [technique’s name] makes the audience understand that...[what about the character or theme?]
The third technique [director’s name] uses is…
An example of this is…
*Does it combine with any of the other techniques to emphasize the audience’s understanding?? If so, use linking words e.g. reinforces, emphasises
[Director’s name] uses this to show…
This [technique’s name] makes the audience understand that...[what about the character or theme?]
The fourth technique [director’s name] uses is…
An example of this is…
*Does it combine with any of the other techniques to emphasize the audience’s understanding?? If so, use linking words e.g. reinforces, emphasises
[Director’s name] uses this to show…
This [technique’s name] makes the audience understand that...[what about the character or theme?]
Conclusion:
[Director’s name] uses [list the four techniques you’ve talked about] to show [what about their film].
These techniques have combined by [Director’s name] to…
They have made me realise [what about the real world that you live in? A life lesson?]
CHECK: On the last page of your digital exercise book there is a checklist to help you make sure you have everything you need in your assessment before submitting it for marking.
Read through your essay to see if you tick off all of the boxes.
If you haven't, go back and add in what is missing.
**Take your time doing your final checks of your work. You absolutely need to put your best foot forward when you hand in your work, so take your time now.
Copy and paste your completed essay into the ASSESSMENT: CLOSE VIEWING in the Google Classroom and hit 'submit'.