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Film and the English classroom – are you ready?

Year 9 documentary film festival launch Asquith Girls, September 2011

Year 8 Film festival Loreto Normo, last Friday night

+While on prac, I had to teach a Year 9 class how to make a documentary….. They used their own laptops which had Windows Movie Maker and Adobe Suite

loaded onto them.

Assessment task: To make a short film with a voice over

Students were to make a short documentary film on a topic of interest to them. The purpose of the film was to educate, entertain and persuade the audience that we too should care about the topic of interest as well. A documentary deals with fact, not fiction, inspires people to act, has to be credible, entertaining and interesting.

The students were marked on: The technical effects they used– camera/editing/storytelling/sound/voice over/establishing sequence/titles. How well they bought together research and communicated ideas. How well their voice over provided insight into topic. How well they used persuasive language techniques.

The documentary had to be submitted with a written production log (approx 2/300 words) that summarised the production experience and identifies each student’s role.

+The unit of work covered

Outcomes: 1, 2, 3, 6-10

Class was a mixed ability class, none of whom had never made a film before.

The unit of work covered – features of documentary, storytelling, story boarding, types of shots and camera angles, interviewing techniques, gathering research, sound, editing, and voice over. Three lessons were provided for filming and editing.

Girls chose this movie to analyse and they loved it

+We did things like…

Look at the five second rule…in most films/docos, every shot lasts for a maximum of five seconds.

+Examine and discuss the sequence of shots in the shower scene in Psycho

+The students produced some amazing docos…

+I am going to focus a little on sound….

http://soundbible.com/1918-Sick-Villain.html - site for free sounds – everything from an ice cream truck to a sprinkler.

+The voice over in particular…

is a commentary spoken off screen. It can be used to:

Further your story

Allow you to comment on what is happening on the screen.

Give additional information you can’t see on the film you have shot.

Link events

Persuade your viewers to one point of view or another.

+The opening voice over of The Cove…

I do want to say that we tried to do the story legally.

Shit.

I thought of all the possibilities of what could happen,

and it kept me up at night.

 The story that Ric showed me at the beginning was just the tip of the iceberg.

 Here it is... the town of Taiji.

+Two elements – the timbre of your voice and what you are going to say

Timbre – Warming up your voice is essential.

Try some tongue twisters….Tongue twisters – read along with Rodney on the sheet provided….

Remember when recording a voice over: Speak slowly. Relax your shoulders. Breath in deeply.

Speak clearly. Take a breath, when you reach a full stop or a comma.

Speak with lots of feeling, as if you are in a confined space and you are talking to your best friend about something that matters to you.

Practice recording your voice - Blabberize

+BLABBERIZE….

Everyone go to http://blabberize.com/, select login/setup

Go to the set up section and sign in

Select MAKE

Select a picture, choose where you want the mouth to be, select microphone and record the following: Congratulations everyone – we have made it to the end! We are almost English teachers!

+That’s all folks…

http://www.wikihow.com/Record-Your-Voice-on-a-Windows-Computer

Thanks everyone!!!