Module Title: Understanding the Language of Film
Time Frame: 1 to 3 class periods
Grade Level:  Grades 9-12

Module Overview: Students will examine a scene from a film; be able to understand 
"the language of film;" create original storyboards. 

Possible Text Sets:
Great Films and How to Teach Them William Costanzo  NCTE, ISBN: 0-8141-3909-4
Reel Images Film and Television (2nd Ed) Barrie McMahon, Robyn Quin ISBN: 0-7329-2944-X
Teaching Scriptwriting, Screenplays and Storyboards for Film & TV Production
BFI, ISBN 0-85170-974-5
Understanding Film Texts Meaning and Experience BFI  ISBN 0-85170-799-8
How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, and Multimedia: Language, History, Theory
James Monaco, Oxford University Press; ISBN: 019503869X  
Film Art, An Introduction (5th Ed) David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson  McGraw Hill College Div; ISBN: 0070066345

ELA Standards: Communication-Viewing
C3  The student will comprehend and analyze information he or she receives from nonprint sources.
E4-C3.1  Demonstrate the ability to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the techniques used in 
nonprint sources for a particular audience.
E3-C3.3 Demonstrate the ability to identify the aesthetic effects that appear in nonprint sources 
and to evaluate the techniques used to create them.
E4-C3.4 Demonstrate the ability to make predictions, to distinguish between fact and opinion, 
to compare and contrast information and ideas, and to make inferences with regard to what he or she has viewed.

Focus Standards:

2. students will understand and comprehend the various “languages of film"

3. students will think differently about how films are made

4. students will create a storyboard from a film scene.

Culminating Assessment:
Student Rubric For Analyzing Film Scene

Instruction:
1. Students will be learning about the tools used by those who make motion pictures. When students
read, they create an image using their imaginations. But in film, many of those image decisions have already
been made by those who create the film.

It will be important for students to understand some of the roles in motion picture making and how each
person contributes to the "language of the film."

On the board, or an overhead transparency, the teacher should make a list of the roles:

Director 
Camera operator
Sound Operator
Music Composer
Editor
Art/Set Director

Students should brainstorm and make a list of everything they understand each person is
responsible for performing.  For example, the art/set director creates storyboards for what
the film might look like, based on his/her reading of the script. That person then is in charge
of the overall look of the film, creating the sets and all of the accoutrements involved.

Another example: for the camera operator, the teacher might ask students to explain all of the ways
that a film or video camera can be used. Answers might include:  the camera has a lens that can
zoom in close or pull out to a wide shot; the camera itself might be physically moved along a track
to follow action;  the camera can be placed high or low in order to gain a certain perspective.

The following websites might be helpful here as student reading or simply background:
Cinema: How Hollywood Films are made   http://www.learner.org/exhibits/cinema/
Teacher Guide: Academy Award series    http://www.oscars.org/teachersguide/
Additional resources can be found here   http://medialit.med.sc.edu/motionpictures.htm

2. How movies create meaning.
Every decision made in making a film is made for a purpose. What follows is a simplified explanation.
When a film opens, usually the director, in consultation with the camera operator decides to use
what is called a WIDE shot, which is meant to ESTABLISH the location in the eyes of the viewer.
The shot might be a scene of the skyline of a major city with some recognizable building or sign,
thus telling the viewer: this takes place in New York City, for example.

Similarly, where the director puts the camera also communicates meaning:
With the camera low-shooting UP on a person- it gives the audience the impression that someone is larger, towering, more important or powerful
With the camera high-shooting DOWN on a person- it gives the audience the impression that someone is smaller, less significant, helpless, or vulnerable 

The following websites might be helpful here as student reading or simply background:
Camera shots:  http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks4/media/camshots.html
Film shots- use of the camera  http://www.filmeducation.org/secondary/concept/filmlang/docs/lang4.html
Additional resources:  http://medialit.med.sc.edu/CAMERASHOTS.htm

In the same way, MUSIC and EDITING can evoke emotions and create meaning in movies.
The following websites might be helpful here as student reading or simply background:
http://medialit.med.sc.edu/MUSIC.htm
http://medialit.med.sc.edu/editing.htm

The teacher can decide to assign different "languages of film" to different students, who may
then be responsible for analyzing a film scene from their unique perspective.

3. Showing a film clip: To Kill A Mockingbird
For this portion of the lesson, the teacher will need the 1962 Universal movie "To Kill A Mockingbird."
The teacher should cue the tape up past the opening credits to where the camera is in the treetops
and the dialogue begins. The scene ends when Scout tells her father, Atticus, that Jem is up in the tree.

A number of key questions can be used here, as a handout or simply written on the board:
Who is being heard/speaking?
Who is this woman?
Where is the scene taking place? (name of city and state)
What is the relationship between the girl seen in the tire swing and the narrator?
How does the art/set director help us believe it is Depression era Alabama?
Where is the little girl and what is she doing when we first see her?
What is she wearing?
Who is the farmer and what is he doing at her house?
What can you tell about the man the narrator calls Atticus?
What can you assume about the production decision for the farmer to stand at the bottom of the steps
while Atticus stands at the top of the steps?

The next scene to be used corresponds to the accompanying rubric. Teachers should cue the tape or DVD
to the chapter called "A Sound In The Night."  Atticus has left Jem alone on the front porch of their house.
The teacher should let the scene run for about three minutes, until Jem runs back home and the music is
more upbeat.

A number of key questions can be used here, as a handout or simply written on the board:
Describe the look on Jem's face?
Where is the camera?
Is this closeup effective? Explain.
Do you think Jem is comfortable at home alone?
Describe the music used here.
Make a list of all of the sound effects heard in this scene.
Describe how the music changes near the end of this scene and its effects.

4. Making a storyboard: To Kill A Mockingbird
Now that students have explored both the language of film and several scenes from the film, it is time
for them to become art directors. This article may be especially helpful in understanding storyboarding:
http://tre.ngfl.gov.uk/uploads/materials/12106/storyboard.pdf

Groups of students should be given blank storyboard forms. They can
be downloaded here:  http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonplans/persuasivewriting/pdf/Storybd.pdf
They should be given a handout from the To Kill A Mockingbird screenplay. For your convenience
that scene can be found here: (print this out horizontally so that it fits onto one page)
http://medialit.med.sc.edu/TKAMBedside.htm

The scene begins at the top of page 13:  INTERIOR: SCOUT's ROOM. NIGHT.
The scene ends in the middle of page 14: (Atticus goes out)

Using only the downloaded screenplay page, students will create the STORYBOARD of this scene.
They should understand that they are to depict EACH camera shot AND explain any camera moves
or special instructions in the spaces under each frame.

After completing their storyboards, groups may present their direction of the scene to the entire class.
And the teacher may decide to cue up the VHS/DVD to the actual scene, labeled: Atticus' Watch.

NOTE: this lesson plan was created specifically for the SC State Department of Education
by media educator Frank Baker.