Combining the codes

Focusing on the Cs and Ss individually helps children to begin to analyse the impact of a film and helps them to understand how and why a film has been constructed in a particular way. They can then look at how the elements are combined to make the film effective. For example:

Setting: sound, colour, camera

The sound, camera work and colour usual combine in establishing the setting of the film. The music may be particularly evocative of a time and place; sound effects may indicate the weather or the ambience. Try listening to the soundtrack without the images and talk about what children can tell about the setting from the sounds they hear. A long shot at the beginning of the film may establish the general context in which the action takes place. As indicated above, colour might help establish time of day, interior and exterior.  

Example: A Slippery Tale

• This is a good opportunity to do an activity around the sound. Listen to the soundtrack without watching the film. Ask the children to imagine what they can see.
• The music is fluid and jolly. How does that make us feel?
• Watch the opening sequence. How does the camera establish the setting? What does it show us in the establishing shots?
• Talk about the colours used as we meet the frog and sail off down the river with him.
• Use the opening scenes as a stimulus for a mapping exercise. Create a large group painting or collage of the film's setting. Ask the children to identify the colours they need to use and think about textures that evoke the river, the riverbank, the garden. Where is the house in relation to the river? What else is around the house that we don't see in shot?

Camera: character, story

The camera work, and the way the shots are edited together, structures the story, perhaps from a particular character's point of view. A fast changing series of short shots increases the pace of a film, while a lingering close up helps build sympathy with a character.

Example: Dangle

• Watch the long held close up on the man's face just as he has pulled the rope and turned out the light. Discuss:  What does the camera show us about what the man is feeling or thinking? What does the man want to do? What will happen next?
• The camera moves from high to low angle to show us extent of the rope, vanishing into the sky. What is it telling us about the rope? Where is it from? How did it get there? What can we guess from this shot? What can't we guess?
• The camera moves from the man to the rope, to wide a landscape shot of the town below. Why is this important?  What does it suggest about what will happen if the man does what he seems to want to do? How does the story end?
• Extension: Ask children to plan the next sequence of shots that could happen after the end of the film and draw them in a storyboard.