Teaching Film with New Media

February 20, 2010 at 1:23 pm | Posted in Helpful Internet Services, Lesson Plan, Lesson Preparation, Praxis, Technical Skills | Leave a comment
Tags: school use, technical basics, useful URLs

“Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about.” (Steven Spielberg)

Films are part of our everyday life and culture. We associate events, emotions and memories with them. They show us unknown countries and magical places. Movies make us cry and laugh, sometimes both and they challenge our imagination again and again.

With the help of New Media it is now possible to show and work with films on a new level in the classroom. DVDs and the Internet make new teaching strategies possible.

DVD-Video

The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) is a visual data memory. It enables the consumer to watch films in different languages. Additionally it makes it possible to add different subtitles to the movie. Single sequences can be shown and analyzed. it is possible to rewind, freeze-frame or show the certain parts in slow-motion. Another advantage of the DVD-Video compared to older mass storage devices (e.g. VHS) is the fact that it almost always contains bonus features. Depending on the kind of film these are documentaries, making- ofs, interviews with actors and creators of the film. Some DVDs feature an audio commentary of the director.

By the help of DVD-Video it is now easier for teachers to structure their lesson and film viewing. If they only want to show sequences of the movie it is easily done. Additionally they can decide whether or not they will include subtitles and if they do what language they will be in.

I used the film “Atonement” on DVD in one of my English lessons. The class had read the novel by Ian McEwan beforehand. I chose only some sequences to give my students an impression and asked them to compare them with the novel they had read. I also included a task where they had to transform a dialogue of the book into a movie scene. After that we watched the film-version and compared both.

The new medium DVD-Video makes it so much easier and faster to navigate through the film and find suitable scenes. Due to the limited time available in a classroom most teacher’s tend to show only a selection of scenes, which is now easily practicable with the DVD.

Internet

Another new medium one can use for teaching movies is the Internet. No other platform enables teachers to get that much information and teaching material on new and upcoming films.

A useful site is the Internet Movie Database. Here you can find all kinds of information from cast, filming locations and movie quotes to pictures and reviews. One can find pictures of the movie and characters also on the film’s own homepage and on google pictures.

If you want to show a trailer of the film you can either check its homepage or go to YouTube.

A movie trailer is always a good way to introduce the topic. A nice alternative to a “normal” viewing: try to show it to your students either without or only with sound and let them discuss their impressions and expectations.

A useful site for teaching material is Film Education. It contains a database of films suitable for school. Each film is classified with an appropriate age level and they provide study guides.

Another possibility to teach movies is to include the original script. I chose one scene from the movie, gave the script to the students and they had to act out the scene. It was extremely fun. Afterwards we watched the corresponding movie scene and compared the different representation styles. If you are looking for scripts on the Internet, the Internet Movie Script Database or Simply Scripts are recommendable. Most of the scripts are available for free.

Working with the Internet also enables students to do their own research and e.g. create reports or Powerpoint presentations.

During my internships at school I had the chance to work with movies and New Media. It is unnecessary to stress the motivation and fun students had while working on these projects. The variety of possibilities you have to choose from makes it possible to try out and create new teaching techniques. I thinks films and New Media make teaching and learning colourful, amusing and creative but also informative.

“Movies can and do have a tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.” (Walt Disney)