Using the additional materials

All the films are supported with learning materials which can be accessed from the relevant film page. You could use these resources either to provide additional insights into the media concepts (categories, language, representation, messages, audiences and institutions) or to mirror and shed light on the pre-production, production and post-production cycle of film-making. In the latter framework the resources can be broken down as follows:

The activities suggested below can be used in either approach.

Scripts

Scripts are the backbone of a film - they provide the framework around which the shooting of the film is built. They are also referred to as screenplays. A script not only provides dialogue (and may provide no dialogue), it indicates the structure of the story, the setting and characters, who is in the frame when, and so on.

Media language

Scripts have their own layout conventions, and in studying a script students can identify which parts of the script relate to description, dialogue and directions for technicians (such as camera operators and editors). It may be useful to compare a film script with a play script, highlighting how the scenes are numbered, the use of abbreviations such as INT (for interior) and EXT (exterior), references to location and time, and so on. A film tends to use much less dialogue than a play and contains directions for actions and camera movements.

  • After analysing the layout of a script, students could write their own.
  • Alternatively you could give students an incomplete script to finish.

This kind of activity helps students to become familiar with the conventions of scriptwriting and appreciate some of the broader issues of film language, particularly relating image to word, sequencing scenes, aspects of mise-en-scène and so on.

Accident; Jus' Gaps

  • Photocopy two or three pages of the script and ask students to visualise it and perhaps storyboard it. Then watch the relevant sequence from the film: discuss how the script has been realised visually and to what extent it met students' expectations.

7.35 in the Morning

  • Write a film script using the lyrics and referring to the film.
  • Write the script for the scene immediately preceding the woman's entry into the café.
  • Select another poem or song and write a film script based on it (as a starting point for practical production work).

Media categories/Forms and conventions

Looking at film scripts can help students to develop their appreciation of the forms and conventions of film and film genre. They can see how narratives are constructed; how the main plot relates to subplots, the main story to the back-story; how characters are introduced and how their characteristics are conveyed through gesture, dialogue and location. Scripts can point to the mechanisms the film-maker uses to identify the key characters and the style of the film.

Jus' Gaps; Accident

  • Ask students to scan through a script. Can they put the film into a recognisable category? If so what elements of the script provide clues to this category of film?
  • Ask students to suggest ways of amending the script to make it fall more clearly into a particular genre.

Representation

Jus' Gaps; Accident

  • Focusing on a particular character, students could identify how the representation of this character is developed through the script. How does the character relate to other characters, and how does this convey the kind of individual he/she is?
  • To what extent does the script appear to depend on stereotypes? How does the script differ in this regard compared to the actor's final performance in the film?
  • Whose point of view appears most dominant in the script? Is the same point of view maintained throughout or does it shift?

Media messages and values

Scripts can often make explicit the ideas and intentions that are only hinted at, or remain ambiguous, in a finished film. In attempting to convey their ideas as clearly as possible to directors, actors and technicians, scriptwriters often provide a lot of commentary and detail in the script. For instance, descriptions of characters are likely to emphasise their role in the narrative and their purpose in terms of conveying any themes within the film. Descriptions of settings and mise-en-scène indicate the mood that the film-maker wants to convey. Detailed scrutiny of a script, therefore, can help to bring values and messages into closer focus.

Accident

  • This script provides a detailed breakdown of how the film should be shot, how the action should roll out and what should be viewed in the frame. It can be usefully compared with the much briefer dialogue list. Both could be compared with a play script.
  • Students could read the first two pages of the script and discuss what impression of the city that the film-makers want to convey. What impressions do they present of the characters that appear in these opening shots?
Jus' Gaps
  • This script contains scenes that were altered or didn't make it into the final version of the film. Students should watch the film and compare it with the script, spot those scenes and give reasons why they think the film-maker didn't include them or altered them. Compare the results with the Adrian Browne's explanation in the interview (PDF, 86kb).
  • There is a name change in the film if you compare it to the script. Again, let the students find it and try to explain it. Compare to the interview (PDF, 86kb).
  • This is the only film that has comedy effects built into the script. Students could try to spot them, analyse what makes them funny, and try and write some funny dialogue/scenes themselves.

Storyboards

A storyboard is a sequence of frames, each of which usually represents one shot. The main function of a storyboard is to visualise the script and enable the film-maker to plan how the film will be shot - what shots will be needed to convey the story effectively. The elements within a frame can vary considerably, depending on the preferred working practices of the film-maker and the technical demands of the particular sequence for which the storyboard is intended. At the very least, a storyboard frame will contain a sketch of the envisaged shot, but some contain much more than this. A frame may include notes for the editor showing how the shots link together; there may be arrows to indicate camera movements, zooms or shifts in focus; and there may be an indication of the sound to match the image.

A storyboard helps the film-maker to work out initial ideas, transforming the words of the script into the projected images of the finished film. However, it is not simply a private visual diary for the director; it will be used as a means of communication between members of the crew. The director will view and discuss the storyboard with the director of photography, and the designers of the lighting, costumes, sets and so on. Storyboards may be shown to potential financiers, long before filming is underway, in order to convey an idea of the proposed film. At this pre-production stage the storyboard is a vitally important tool.

During production, the storyboard is used by those who position the lights, operate the cameras, arrange the sound... Even the actors may refer to the storyboard to see what the director intends for the shot. During post-production, the storyboard is used by the editor as a guide for sequencing individual shots and to clarify the intentions of the director.

By studying storyboards and comparing them with the final film - particularly by looking at screen grabs or stills from the films, students can get a sense of what the film-maker was trying to achieve, as well as the kind of planning that goes into creating a film. Studying storyboards can also highlight the following media concepts.

Media language

By examining and evaluating a frame or a sequence of frames, students can develop their understanding of how film conveys its meanings visually. Depending on the detail of the storyboard, students can see how shots have been framed and edited, and may acquire some insight into how a film-maker intended to use colour and lighting, body posture, make-up and costume, to achieve particular effects. By comparing the storyboard with the final filmed sequence, or by comparing a film still with a frame from the storyboard, students can speculate on the reasons for any differences - perhaps technical or budget restraints - and consider what has been gained or lost.

Accident

  • Hand out the storyboard extract . Students could annotate the storyboard as they watch the extract, adding information from the film.
  • Hand out a still from the film and a frame from the storyboard and ask students to annotate them, drawing out the elements of mise-en-scène and comparing the two.

Media categories /Forms and conventions

Storyboards highlight key frames, and students can investigate the elements within those frames to identify whether they borrow from the conventions of a particular genre. In broader terms, a storyboard may reveal general conventions of narrative construction: an establishing shot at the beginning of a film or sequence, for instance; and shot/reverse shot for dialogue sequences. In examining a storyboard students might identify a departure from conventions, and can discuss why the director chose to forego them.

7.35 in the Morning stills for storyboard exercise: Opening Shot (PDF, 50kb), Closing Shot (PDF, 42kb), Settings (PDF, 425kb)

  • Ask students to use these stills to construct a storyboard sequence from the film, and then discuss how the film exploits its audience's expectations of a range of genres, such as comedy, musical, thriller, mystery and romance.

Representation

Examining a storyboard or a sequence of stills can reveal how a film-maker represents a particular place, character or theme through the choice of shots.

  • Which characters appear in the central focal area, or is s/he marginalised to the side of the frame? What does this suggest about the character? Is a character usually depicted in a two-shot, or photographed alone? Again, what does this representation suggest?

A storyboard can reflect the initial ideas of the film-maker in their purest form - before any mediation, through technological, budgetary or institutional considerations, affects the film - making it possible to know and discuss the film-maker's preferred or originally intended representations of people, places and themes. Comparing how shots from the film vary from the frames of the storyboard can lead to discussion about what the director carried through of his/her initial ideas in representing particular characters.

Accident

  • Compare a couple of pages from the storyboard with relevant stills from the film. Compare whether the representation of the characters in the film was in line with the director's original vision. If not, what could account for the difference?

Messages and values

The type of shots used and the way they are juxtaposed in a film sequence can indicate the kind of message a film-maker is trying to convey.

  • Students could examine a storyboard or a sequence of shots and analyse what the film is saying about society, about different groups of people or particular issues.

Press packs

Press packs or kits contain an enormous amount of information about a film and are an important part of a film's promotional strategy. They are used to inform the media and encourage journalists to write about the film. Press packs vary enormously. While some are little more than a couple of sides of A4, or brief details on a website; others are thick, glossy publications, containing transparencies, synopses, CVs and filmographies. At the very least, a pack will contain basic details of the film, some information about the actors and director, distribution information and a still or two taken from the film. The distributors hope that the pack will influence the film will be received.

Press packs available:

Press packs provide a useful resource for examining, in particular, issues of audience and institution, and can be used to explore how other media concepts relate to these issues.

Press packs are put together by distributors and reveal a considerable amount about both the organisations which produce them and those which receive them. A press pack might reflect the size of the marketing budget for a film and can reveal a good deal about the intended audience, and the industry's conception of that audience. Press packs also suggest how the press is regarded by the film industry and by film-makers themselves, showing what they believe journalists and promoters will be interested in knowing.

  • Students could work through a pack and determine how the film is being represented to the press; do the materials suggest that the film is aimed at men or women; children or adults? They could repackage the film for another audience, designing alternative documents for the new press pack.
  • Some of the documents contained in a press pack are written so that they can easily be transformed into articles for magazines and newspapers. Students could use such a document to write a magazine feature or an interview with the director, for example, with appropriate commentary about the film running between the questions and answers.

Clearly, an expensively produced pack will reflect a different organisation, in terms of scale and values, than a more modest one. Most short films have very small budgets and are not necessarily made with any particular audience in mind.

  • Students might consider who may have received the pack, and how it may have been distributed, to initiate research into the relationships that exist between the agencies which produce films, those which distribute them and those which write about and promote them.

When promoting a film, publicists rely on audience knowledge of film conventions, so promotional materials reflect the nature and genre of the films they promote. A press pack for a comedy can be very different from that for a war film. One for a feature film with a big marketing budget is likely to be different from one for a short film. Promotional materials are important in defining the market and target audience for a film.

  • Students could compare press packs for two films on this compilation and identify key elements. Do the people who developed the packs identify the genre or category of the film to make it seem attractive to particular audiences?
  • They could compare these packs with some downloaded from the internet of mainstream films, or acquired by writing to the distributors.
  • A group of students could work collaboratively to produce press packs for one of the other films in the compilation, or for their own film.
  • Students could work through the documents of a press pack, paying particular attention to the language used, categorising each document according to its intended primary audience and purpose.

Interviews with the directors

Interviews available:

Interviews available via online:

  • Students could write an imaginary interview with the director of a film, or hot-seat a peer in the role of director, before reading an actual interview, then compare the questions asked, and the answers they anticipated. This would highlight differences and similarities between intention and effect: the issues, messages and values that an audience thinks are important and wants to talk about, as opposed to those that the film-maker and interviewer saw as being worth discussing.
  • Based on the interview and viewing the film students could write an article about the director and his/her film. They could model their articles on examples in Sunday supplements, media sections of daily papers, or popular film magazines.
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 06-Feb-2008 14:30:07 GMT