Transcript Workshop 2011 conferencex - the Much Ado About English

Lights, camera, action!
• Having success in AS 90723: Respond
critically to oral or visual text studied
Choosing a film
• What sophisticated key ideas can be developed?
• Does the film have a recognised style?
• Is there a film guide available?
• “It would seem that many candidates relied on material
from film guides, on-line notes, on-line critical reviews and
the like. Such assistance can be of value if wisely used but
often this was not apparent. Some candidates made
reference to various concepts without any indication they
had understood the relevance of these to texts studied.”
Marker’s report 2009.
Key ideas
• Go beyond one word ideas and look for films where there are
multiple layers:
• Pan’s Labyrinth – the mirror between real life and fantasy, the
influence of art on del Toro’s vision.
• Lives of Others – the power of art to bring about change, the
suppression of the individual through a totalitarian state.
• Frida – the relationship between pain and art; the transformative
power of love, Kahlo as artist and Taymor as artist.
• How to? Use of concept circles to think of relationships, modelling,
feedback on essays.
Film guides
• Not a quick fix
• How do you go beyond the film guide?
• How do you move students to higher level thinking?
•
“…response after response contained the exact same phrases/clauses, same
sentences, same paragraphs – verbatim and ad nauseum. Candidates are being
disadvantaged because they cannot offer comments which display (any) different
or original thought, analysis, evaluation, conclusions, judgments, personal
response, critical response etc, as required by the standard. Candidates were
caught in the trap of dumping, desperately trying to tag on a limited number of
specific quotes, techniques, scenes etc which far too often did not relate, or very
tenuously related, to the topic chosen. Candidates need direction to take the time
to explore new texts, or to look in different ways at familiar, worthwhile texts.”
Marker’s report 2008.
The vocabulary of film
• To achieve success at film, students must use film
terms in their essays. This shows an understanding of
the genre of film, rather than novel, poetry etc.
• “Far too many candidates failed to allude to any filmic
techniques/conventions or have any understanding
and/or appreciation of the genre of film.” Marker’s
report 2008.
• How to? Through close reading analysis, feedback on
writing, constantly saying you will get N if you do not
use film techniques!
More sophisticated vocabulary
• Teach students how to use the words as well as
the words:
• Bildungsroman, kunstlerfilme, self reflexive,
auteur, visual palimpsest, gaze, zeitgeist, tableaux
vivant…
• How to? Model words in a sentence, model a
body paragraph or introduction using words,
quiz, fastest person to use the word in a sentence
competition, repetition, disappearing definitions.
Combining film techniques in their
analysis
•
How do film techniques work together to create the director’s vision?
•
Taymor uses Frida’s painting, “Self Portrait With Cropped Hair” to convey Frida’s inner
feelings about Diego’s disloyalty. The cantilevered long shot of Frida drinking whilst sitting on
a wooden chair conveys Frida’s emotional, dislocated state. The tilt of the camera distorts the
viewer’s image, positioning the viewer to feel Frida’s pain. This is combined with powerful
lyrical Mexican music with a lone female voice singing “La Paloma Negra” (The Black Dove) to
guitar music , highlighting her desperation. During the performance of the song, sound
effects of Frida viciously cutting her hair, punctuate the scene. This shows her violating her
beauty in order to punish Diego who loved her long hair and punishing herself in anger and
sorrow. The muted blues show her emotional distress at this point as blue is a cold
unemotional colour, in direct contrast to the passionate reds Frida is seen wearing earlier in
the film. In addition, costume has been used to show Frida rejecting the traditional Mexican
costume of bright, bold colours and donning a male trouser suit which negates her sexuality.
Through all these techniques, the viewer feels the sadness and heartache, Frida feels. The
actual painting is brought to life as Frida is shown with her head tilted and looking directly at
the camera, then slumping in her seat. This use of tableaux vivant is quite theatrical and is
evidence of Taymor’s aesthetic. As an auteur, she is rendering Kahlo’s artwork to the viewer
in her own artistic vision. Although in reality the painting was created years after Diego’s
affair with her sister, Taymor uses it in a subjective way to mark Frida’s emotional turmoil.
•
How to? Close reading, feedback on writing, discussion.
Personal response
• Capture at start of unit after first showing.
• Reiterate in close reading activities.
• Stress in feedback to body paragraph writing.
• Can be through “I” statements or through adjectives
used: “powerful”, “dynamic”, “interesting”, “thought
provoking”….
• Must take a stance on the question.
Socratic seminars
• Students get into pairs and devise questions
based on the film or a reading.
• Two circles are created – the inner circle where
students can ask their questions and discuss their
answers; the outer circle where students cannot
talk but can pass notes to the person on the inner
circle and support their partner. Students in the
outer circle can record the discussion. In the next
discussion, students change places.
Close reading
Technique:
visual/ verbal
Effect
Director’s intention/
purpose
Crane shot of La Casa Azul.
Camera moving down into
the house/ courtyard to
ground level. Men in
background moving bed.
Mexican music playing.
Words of song in English
mean: And she is the
Vibrant colours shown: particularly
blue, red, green.. Establishes Mexican
setting and focus on animals that
pervade the house and her work:
parrot, deer, peacock, monkey,
puppies. Quite exotic animals. Camera
movement draws viewer in to the
world. Cacti abundant, as well as
small statuettes showing we are in
Mexico. Bed is of significance as this is
how Frida will be transported and is
also the place where she has been
trapped. Music quite high pitched
organ music after singing: surreal,
suggesting something unusual is
happening.
The blue house was an extraordinarily
important place to Frida and was built by her
father. She lived and worked there. It now is
a museum to Frida and houses artifacts from
her life. The setting is inextricably linked to
Frida. The shot of the house combined with
the music of a woman singing in Mexican
establishes the mood and tone of the
opening – quite serious but vibrant. All
elements of the scene are reflected in Frida’s
paintings. Words of song very pertinent to
Frida. She is the bird who wants to be free
but who is caught and suffers. Her life is
“hell” due to all the pain she has endured
over the years, both physical and emotional.
Frida herself talks about not needing feet to
be able to “fly”. Flying is a sense of freedom
for her. Purpose establishes Frida’s influences
in her work, her environment and Mexican
culture.
flame
That rises up
And she is a bird
in flight
In the night
that catches fire
Hell is this heaven
Personal
response
and
judgements
Forming judgements and conclusions
• Evidence of judgements and conclusions formed
in relation to the question show a student who is
thinking and who will therefore achieve success
at level 3, as opposed to the student who dumps
notes with little direct discussion of the question.
• How to? Link in with work on research standard
and how judgements are formed by synthesising
information from across texts. Model in class
discussion. Reward in essays.
Auteur theory: an over view
Ebert, Roger. 2002.
The Great Movies.
Chicago: Broadway
Publishers.
“Auteur theory was articulated in the
1950s by French film critics, most
notably by Francois Truffaut. The
concept describes the mark of a film
director in terms of: thematic or stylistic
consistencies, personal aesthetic vision,
recurring themes, established technique,
a defined view of the world and a
significant degree of control over
production. The works of an auteur
director are stamped by the personality
and unique artistic vision of its creator,
and are as recognizable and distinctive
as the creators of any other work of art.
In auteur films, it is the director who
controls the artistic statement, takes
credit for the film, and is primarily
responsible for attracting the audience.”
Auteur theory: the critics
•
Starting in the 1960s, some film critics began criticising Auteur theory's focus on the
authorial role of the director. One reason for the backlash is the collaborative aspect of
shooting a film (one person cannot do everything) and in the theory's privileging of the
role of the director (whose name, at times, has become more important than the movie
itself). In Kael's review of Citizen Kane, a classic film for the Auteur model, she points
out how the film made extensive use of the distinctive talents of co-writer Herman J.
Mankiewicz and cinematographer Gregg Toland.
•
Notable screenwriters such as Ernest Lehman, Nicholas Kazan, Robert Riskin, and
William Goldman have publicly balked at the idea that directors are more authorial
than screenwriters, while film historian Aljean Harmetz, referring to the creative input
of producers and studio execs in classical Hollywood, argues that the Auteur Theory
"collapses against the reality of the studio system.“
•
The Auteur theory was also challenged by the influence of New Criticism, a school of
literary criticism. The New Critics argued that critics made an "intentional fallacy" when
they tried to interpret works of art by speculating about what the author meant, based
on the author's personality or life experiences. New Critics argued that that information
or speculation about an author's intention was secondary to the words on the page as
the basis of the experience of reading literature. Wikipedia.
Recognised style
•
Through genre: Does the film contain many features of the genre? The biopic, for
example, will focus on the life story of an individual and dictates that the film will
be chronological, focus on real places, people, times. How does the director
recreate this?
•
Through director/ auteur: What is their signature style? How does this film fit in
with their body of work? Concept of the “camera-pen” – director wields the
camera like a pen. Importance of mis-en-scene.
•
Auteur theory works in opposition to genre theory so there is tension between the
two. Often a director will subvert a genre convention in order to develop their own
style. Taymor, for example, uses masks and puppetry and is heavily influenced by
her background in the theatre. Hospital scene.
•
How to? Get students to draw on their own knowledge of genre and then analyse
key scenes where genre is clear or subverted in some way. Constant reference back
to style of the film.
Film Theory – developing higher level
thinking
• As well as auteur and genre theory:
• Concept of the “gaze” – Laura Mulvey -watch Bond Gaze:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfL09c4cw2I.
• Concept of self-reflexivity/ postmodernism – film draws
attention to itself, to its lack of realism. Run Lola Run,
animation. Watch Frida - postcard scene.
• Reading through different lenses: feminist, post colonial,
Freudian, Marxist….
How to write a successful essay
•
Teach a structure and teach students to go beyond the structure.
•
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•
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Introduction – define terms in the question. Take a stance.
T – thesis statement
I – implication – what does thesis mean?
E – example and analysis
R – relevance to self, wider world, question.
TIER/ TIERER/ TIERIER/ TIRERER
Conclusion – hardest – need to summarise but not using the same words.
•
“It proved very challenging for candidates to regurgitate notes; hence tenuous links and tagons within/to paragraphs were by far the most common ways candidates attempted to
address the questions. Only able candidates who actually understood and responded to the
question produced essays of quality, insight, depth and personal response.” Marker’s report
2008
Exemplars
• Get students to colour code and annotate.
• Get students to write body paragraphs and
give feedback on the body paragraph.
• As a class, write two different body
paragraphs showing two different approaches
to the same question.
Finally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLEPyg3eoog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqYiSlkvRuw
Annotate the body paragraph with thesis statement, implication,
exemplars, judgements, links to self/ wider world.
How can the paragraph be improved?
Can you apply any of the things I have covered to the film you are
currently studying?
Any questions?