Cultural codes

• Character
• Story
• Setting

Character

The story in most films revolves around one or more characters. How they are first shown and how their traits and relationships may be gradually revealed is vital if we are to engage with them.

• Who is the main character?
• What can you tell about a character from his/her face and movements?
• What can you tell about them from what they are wearing?
• Who are the other characters?
• Which character(s) do you like/dislike?
• Are any of the characters like someone you know from another story?

Example: Tom Sweep

Ask the children to watch the film and think about the character of Tom. Partly because the fast pace of the film it can be useful to have seen the film several times After the first viewing, make a list of their comments in response to these questions:

• What do you know about Tom?
• What can you tell about him from the way he looks? Are there things you can guess about him that are not in the film?
• How old is he?
• Where did he go to school?
• What do you think he does when he's not doing his job?
• Does he live on his own or with other people?
• Draw a picture of the house where Tom lives
• Draw or write about Tom's family.
• Use the children's responses to build up a picture of what he's like. Then move on to think about his reactions and relationship to the people he meets in the street.
• We never hear Tom speak. Ask children to create a voice for him. Children will vary in their ideas about how he talks to people and this helps to build up a character study that can lead to creative writing and first person accounts.
• Watch the film again with children providing the voice of Tom as he encounters the different people on the street.
• Extension: Create a story about Tom in a different situation, eg Tom at the supermarket or on the beach. This could lead to drama activity (which could be filmed) or written story.

Story

Film is a great medium for storytelling, partly because it quickly provides a lot of visual information and can be quite condensed. It can also be open to several interpretations. A film might have quite a straightforward story structure (beginning, middle end) and plot, but also operate at a number of different levels psychologically that repeated viewing reveals bit by bit. Discussing the story collectively will help children understand that stories are often about more than a sequence of events. If you stop the film after the opening sequence (about two minutes) and talk about it, it is interesting to see how predictable (or not) it is.

• What is this film about?
• Who is this film about? Whose story is this?
• How does the story start?
• Who is telling us the story? Why?
• What do you think was the most important thing that happened in the story?
• What happens at the end of the story?
• What might happen in the story after the end of the film? (What may have happened before the film started?)

Example: Jack and the Beanstalk

This story is likely to be quite well known by the children, so extend the children's learning by beginning to explore the different ways of telling a familiar story.

• Watch the film and ask children to divide the story up into 6 or 8 parts. For example:
• Jack sells his cow
• He plants some beans
• The beanstalk grows and grows
• Jack discovers a castle in the sky
• The giant chases Jack down the beanstalk
• Jack and his mother live happily
• Ask the children to create one picture to illustrate each part. They could imitate the style of the film with cut outs, or make drawings or paintings of each part.
• Put the pictures in order and re-tell the story. Ask children to try different ways of telling the story - narrating it, creating still images from it, introducing some dialogue, role playing the characters in an improvisation, etc.
• Use the same images to tell the story from one character's point of view, eg Jack, his mother, the giant, the giant's daughter.
• Extension: Create a simple shadow puppet show to tell the story in the style of Lotte Reiniger.

Setting

A film's setting or location is where the story takes place. It is often established at the beginning of the film, but there may be several settings for the action. The setting includes time and place: it can be historical or futuristic, interior and exterior, in a particular part of the world, or somewhere non-specific. Setting can give important information about characters, affecting their behaviour and relationships. Settings can also play a role in establishing the mood and atmosphere of the film. Dark interiors or wide spacious exterior settings can create very different feelings.

• Where is the story set? How can you tell?
• Why do you think the story is set here?
• How many times does the setting change? How does it change?
• What time of day is it when the story starts/finishes?

Example: Dangle

Play the beginning of the film up to the point just before the man discovers the rope. Ask the children to discuss the setting.

• Where is the film set?
• What can you tell about the place, the time of day, time of year?
• Is the film set in the present or in the past?

Watch the film to the end. Again, talk about the setting.

• Why the film was set on the top of a hill? Out of town?
• What might have happened if it had been set somewhere else, perhaps in the middle of the town?
• Extension: Write or talk through a description of the setting that could introduce the beginning of the film and set the scene.