Film Literacy: Instruction in Color and Sound

Victoria L. Deschere

Introduction

Literacy is the basis of education. But what sort of literacy? The ability to read, to write, to understand mathematics? Music literacy is a primary component of a classical education. Art teachers have taught visual literacy for centuries. In the digital age, what we teach is so much more than the lexical literacy of print culture. Today’s students are required to be computer literate. Delaware standards require students to learn computing, word processing and web-based skills. Being literate in the forms of communication raises a vital question in our visual age: what about film literacy?

We live in a visual world. Moving images play a huge role in our

understanding of current events as well as informing our decisions about

who we elect as our government leaders. Moving images can educate and

inform as well as entertain. In the 21st century, the ability to read

critically and evaluate moving images has become an integral part of

literacy. 1

Until the adoption of the national Common Core Curriculum, film literacy was not a component of Delaware mandated curriculum. Why not? Computers have been in households only since the late 1970s, but computer literacy is a mandated component of public education. For the last century, film and then television have become a large component of entertainment and education for almost everyone in the United States and most of the rest of the world. Film is a “medium more representative of the teenage consumer than books.” 2 We need to teach students to be more literate consumers of these influential media.

Film study should become a major part of modern curriculum if

education is serious about helping shape thinking skills required in the

new technological age. Students need help in understanding, appreciating,

and controlling the most powerful stories that enter their lives. 3

Rationale

Film is a unique structure that communicates ideas through visual, aural, kinesthetic, spatial, and temporal conventions. 4 Though this medium is complex, we often feel that we don’t need instruction; we feel we are proficient interpreters. We believe we are literate. We understand story and plot structure from our lexical literacy and generalize this skill to the screen. But there is much more to film literacy than narrative construction.

“Film stories are told in language of dreams – images, color, movement, sound and light.” 5 We intuit and infer meaning, mostly subconsciously, from music, color, and other elements of the medium, but consciously we often are unaware of the artistry, the manipulation, and the meaning behind most of the elements of film. Though most film audiences are content to be passive viewers, sitting back and enjoying the experience, they must learn film literacy to become more knowledgeable consumers.

Arguments against Film Literacy Instruction

Film’s subconscious influence on untrained viewers and the viewer’s immediate sensory response are part of the argument against teaching film literacy. Lexical elitists contend that the subconscious response needs no literateness on the part of the viewer. 6 Film manipulates the audience’s visual and auditory experience. Filmmakers dictate to viewers everything they should sense, feel, and think, forcing a single perspective and limiting the open-endedness apparently available only through lexical literacy. “[The] two media are essentially different in that the novel is linguistic, conceptual and discursive, while the film is primarily visual, perceptual and presentational.” 7 Readers are more active participants. For those who discriminate against film literacy, the novel’s superiority lies in the metamorphic, complex, self-conscious, self-reflective thought required of readers. 8 The written word challenges the author and reader with semantic meaning. Reading requires rational thought: classifying, inference-making and reasoning.

It means to uncover lies, confusions, and overgeneralizations, to detect

abuses of logic and common sense. It also means to weigh ideas, to

compare and contrast assertions, to connect one generalization to another.

To accomplish this, one must achieve a certain distance from the words

themselves, which is, in fact, encouraged by the isolated and impersonal

text. 9

From this perspective, film limits thought. 10 But if teachers taught consumers to analyze this medium critically, they would use rational thought in analyzing films they now consume passively. The medium does not reduce thinking; limited film literacy does.

Furthermore, critics of film literacy see film adaptation as destroying literature, undermining the highest form of literacy and creating “low brow entertainment.” 11 Film adaptations may be distributing literature to the masses, but in a lesser form. Critics of film adaptation cite the need to change the work when moving from a linguistic to a visual medium. Even in transpositional adaptations, where direct retelling is attempted, minor changes must be made. In the other forms of adaptation, commentary and analogy, the literary text is just a starting point for the filmmaker. The director alters the work to serve the director’s and not the author’s intentions. 12 Adaptations change the written work to suit cultural beliefs and artistic desires. 13 Film adaptation is relatively new and its study in English departments did not start until the 1960s and 70s. 14 To this day, since

films are seen as a dumbing down of great books, film literacy is still seen as a lesser literacy.

This sense of hierarchy among literacies is not uncommon. According to the Cambridge Grammar of English, “the spoken language has been downgraded and has come to be regarded as relatively inferior to written manifestations.” 15 When questioned, our Media Literacy seminar easily listed the ‘highest’ forms of literacy and the lowest. Lexical or print literacy was ranked far above film and television literacy. Some critics even refer to a “Crisis of Western Education” starting in the fifth century BCE, when oral culture changed to an alphabetic/written culture, then again in the sixteenth century, when the printing press made print material more available, still later with the addition of pictorial illustrations, and finally with the electronic revolution. 16 The core complaint is the change in the usage of language. The form of discourse altered with each modernization. “In the 1890’s that context was shattered, first by the massive intrusion of illustrations and photographs, then by the non-propositional use of language.” 17 This elitist tendency comes from an adoration of the traditional and a fear of change and not from the actual value of the literacy or medium itself. At one time lexical literacy was the newcomer threatening oral literacy. Now it is the literacy to be defended against interlopers.

We must not fear the new. Proponents of film literacy must overcome the lexical elitists’ fears and the film audience’s desire to become absorbed in a magical, thought-controlled world. Our culture is increasingly moving from word-centered to image-centered. 18 Literacy instruction must reflect that change. “Ironically, by studying films [instead of just passively watching], students will be learning the very skills that film has so badly eroded…literacy skills.” 19

Objective

This curriculum unit is designed to teach film viewers the rewards of doing more than sitting passively and being absorbed in the story. Film is an art form whose creators use techniques to influence the audience and communicate meaning. My seventh grade students have not studied film formally in school before. They do not know the visual and aural elements present in film, though they do have some exposure to music and visual arts through their general music, chorus, band and art classes. They may recognize and be able to generalize some of the common terms that traditional visual and performing arts share with film. The students will build on their knowledge of color and music learned in their related arts classes to analyze how film manipulates their emotions and thoughts. Additionally, advanced students will begin to explore other filming techniques. The unit is three weeks long with an introduction teaching about the structure and form of drama (see Appendix A for Common Core Standards addressed) with a quick overview of major film techniques. Finally, students will delve into analyzing the use of color and sound in Casey at the Bat, A Christmas Carol, The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, and The

Outsiders, all works the students read earlier in the year in the district-approved literature series. Because film literacy is not currently on the state test, this unit will be the last one taught in the school year.

Initially, the students will analyze a cartoon—an ideal choice, since everything on the screen has been intentionally created. The color palette in “Casey at the Bat” establishes setting and the role of the characters. The music defines the time period and influences the mood. Next students will analyze the 1984 version of A Christmas Carol. In the pauses between dialogue, the music swells to amplify the characters’ emotions and the mood of the scene. The color interpretation is restricted in versions of this story since filmmakers often use red and green for the season, gold for the time period, and grays for industrialized London. This mix of contrasting color schemes limits the director’s choices. But in the 1984 A Christmas Carol, color is still used to define characters and show character development. Students will move beyond analysis to production with the black and white version of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, when they will have a chance to decide how color could be added to aid the plot and define the mood.

I will use The Outsiders because Ford’s melodramatic use of color and music 20 is easy for students to interpret. However, in some scenes the color or soundtrack plays little role in the story and can be improved. Literacy involves not just reading or viewing but also producing. The students will have a production component for the assessment, improving The Outsiders. Approximately half of my students have access to cameras or phones with video recording capability. Although the sound recording devices are not very good for filmmaking, about half of the students have an mp3 or other electronic music playing device that can be used in tandem with a video recorder to create soundtracks. Our school has multiple video cameras and one boom microphone available for use. Furthermore, we have Smartboards available in every room for the watching and manipulation of visual and audio elements from the front of the room.

I teach in Redding Middle School in Middletown, DE. The school’s population is approximately one-third African American, with a few students of other minorities. Though a Title 1 school in the past, Redding has chosen to go without the monetary benefits of Title 1 at this time. Twenty percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch. All of my students have televisions and some form of movie-playing device in their homes. Their choice of programming leans toward reality teen drama and cartoons. The movie discussions in the halls, between classes, and around the lunch table usually focus on the latest heartthrob or amazing act of violence or gore. Discussions of the artistry of film are rare in or out of the classroom.

One out of every six students in seventh grade has an identified special need and an IEP. 21 I am the special education component of an inclusion partnership. I focus not only on accommodation and modification of instruction and materials but also on creation of lessons. Because this unit addresses multiple intelligences (visual, auditory, linguistic,

musical, kinesthetic, intra and interpersonal), all students have a chance to shine. Accommodations and modifications for other student populations are in the lessons.

Though color and music are the focus of this unit, I wish these elements to be a springboard for a much deeper analysis. Part of my class will need only to analyze the elements of color and music, but more advanced students will begin to question other aspects. Because I do not have a background in film literacy, I need a primer to help me understand what techniques a filmmaker could use and some reasons for their use to answer students’ questions with accuracy and knowledge. To help myself, I developed a short synopsis of the basic techniques and their possible rudimentary uses. Rules are often broken in all areas of art, including film. The synopsis below is not a bible but a structure on which to build a deeper understanding of film.

Elements of Film Literacy

Since the arrival of synchronized soundtracks, film has incorporated both visual and auditory elements. Like the other visual arts, its components include balance, shape, form, growth, space, light, color, movement, tension and expression. 22 For film these are divided into composition (framing and selecting the image), pacing and continuity (transitions and editing techniques), and cinematography (distance, angle, lighting, movement and color). 23

Purpose

These techniques are conventions of the medium that also convey meaning. “Film is a language. … [Students] analyze the purpose of a shot as well as its suggested meaning and intended effect.” 24

Conveying Story Elements

As words convey the characters, setting, and plot in a written text, film techniques communicate these same narrative components. In a book an author can describe what a character is thinking or feeling. A filmmaker must suggest the same through images and sounds. The director creates a character through choices of framing and the composition of the image. The makeup, costume, lighting, sound, angle of the camera, colors, visual symbols, and editing techniques all contribute to the audience’s understanding of the characters’ physical appearance, personality, thoughts, and reactions. 25 These techniques also help the viewer follow the plot, identify the setting, and form relationships with the characters. 26 The author can take the reader to places the character does not see or hear things the character does not hear, but the filmmaker must find a way to represent them visually and aurally. 27

Focusing Attention

The filmmaker must create a more complete environment than an author to make it believable to the viewer. A city will have other pedestrians. A house will have other sounds. Life must seem to continue around the central characters for the audience to lose themselves in the film. At the same time, the filmmaker must focus the audience’s attention on the intended elements of importance. 28 When directors use editing techniques, framing, tonal contrasts, positioning and movement subtly, audiences may not be aware that their focus is being grabbed or their attention changed. 29 These same techniques can also convey point of view.

Emotional and Mental Manipulation

Above all the filmmaker is trying to elicit an emotional or intellectual response from the viewer. “Cinema seeks to manipulate and control how the spectator feels and what he or she is thinking.” 30 An author gives descriptions of visual and aural experiences but must leave much up to the interpretation of the reader. Unlike print media, which remain linguistically open-ended, film is marked by techniques (e.g., framing, transitions, movement, color, sound) that manipulate the audience’s experience visually and aurally. 31 Literate viewers notice the connotations of meaning conveyed and can more easily chose what they will accept and reject. 32 Non-literate viewers are often unaware of the manipulation, sometimes even irritated or embarrassed to find themselves crying over a work of fiction.

Technique

Learning the techniques and components of filmmaking is the best way to become a literate audience. Though there are many techniques, all films use the basic principles of framing, camera angle, camera movement, lighting, and editing.

Framing

Though our eyes take in almost one hundred and twenty degrees, the filmmaker can select what to show the audience through the careful use of framing, which limits the image and defines the intent through inclusion and exclusion of visual information. 33 Generally, the shots are classified as extreme long, long, full, two-shot, medium, medium close up, close up, and extreme close up. 34 The industry has no set distances and portions of the body to define these terms, but they do follow common, general standards. 35

The long shot or extreme long shot is usually defined as containing the whole body or scene, giving context and setting to the plot. It is relatively impersonal 36 and can portray a character as vulnerable or isolated. 37 It allows for multiple bodies to be seen; thus, body language can be used to show relationships between characters—not just in facial expressions, like close ups. 38 The location of characters in relation to the camera and each

other can delineate importance or center of focus. In the rumble scene in The Outsiders, the Greasers are in the foreground and the Socs come to meet them. The shot shows the Greasers as standing firm and addressing the Socs as if the land were theirs. The interloping stances and comparative weakness of the Socs help the audience to identify with and root for the Greasers.

While the long shot shows the whole body, the medium shot starts generally around the waist. 39 Because more of the person is revealed 40 than in the close up, body language can still be conveyed through the arms and hand gestures, grounding the story in physical reality. 41 The medium shot most resembles our own viewpoint when speaking to others at a socially acceptable distance.

The close up or extreme close up deprives the audience of the setting, 42 the sense of the whole object or person. The portion of the object, face, or part of the face takes up more than 80% of the frame. 43 It focuses the audience’s attention on very specific details 44 and elevates their importance. 45 In real life, this closeness to another person denotes intimacy. The same is true for film. 46

Unlike the other shots, the two shot (that is two people in the same frame) balances the importance of the characters and the setting. The two people share the scene equally. 47 Directors use these for love scenes and reactions. 48

Angle

Among camera techniques, angle conveys meaning through the camera’s position above, below, or at eye level of the object and characters in the scene. The majority of the shots taken in films are at eye level. 49 Directors use high angles, placing the camera above the subject, 50 to show an object or person as weak 51 or trapped. 52 The perception is that the person is not as important as other characters shot from a different angle. 53 The opposite is true for low angle shots, in which the camera shoots from below the subject pointing upward. 54 The subject becomes strong, powerful, larger than life, even threatening. 55 Camera angle conveys point of view and can infuse a scene with drama, comedy, or psychological import. 56

Camera Movement

The audience gets a sense of participation in scenes in which the camera imitates the movement of a character. This deepens the emotional connection with the audience. Camera movement also helps establish point of view. 57 When a camera pans, it moves in a horizontal direction; when a camera tilts, it moves in a vertical direction. 58 These are simple and common camera moves. They change the focus and attention of the audience, 59 sometimes giving the viewer a sense of setting.

Rolling is used infrequently and is quite disconcerting to the audience, destroying the horizon. It is meant to unbalance them. The camera moves in a circular motion, making up become down and down become up again, much like the traditional barrel roll of a biplane in an air show. 60

Zooming does not move the camera. Instead, the lenses move to refocus the image so that it appears closer or further away. 61 More than the other techniques, the zoom creates a physical closeness to or distance from the character. 62 The opposite of zooming, tracking moves the camera to follow the action. 63 By imitating actual presence in the action, this camera movement gives the viewer the feeling of entering the scene. 64 There is more intimacy to tracking than zooming. Zooming makes the image gradually bigger or smaller but doesn’t approach it.

Lighting

Like movement, lighting draws an audience’s attention. 65 It communicates atmosphere, mood, and emotion. 66 Lighting can vary in direction, intensity, brightness, and color. High key lighting floods the scene with light, bringing a bright, cheerful, open feeling. 67 Low key lighting makes more dramatic use of shadows and darkness, 68 subordinating some details to others which are deliberately emphasized. 69 Audiences get a feeling of suspense, mystery, suspicion, and secrets. 70 In A Christmas Carol (1984), lighting is used to establish the terrifying mystery of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Directional lighting from below or the side gives the feeling of danger or evil, while lighting from the back or front gives the sense of innocence and goodness, sometimes even creating a halo of light around a character. 71 The Ghost of Christmas Past is lit from behind, making her appear ethereal.

Editing

Editing is not the final step in a movie. Film editors complete most of their work before composers start the soundtrack. The general technique of editing cuts two images together. The transition between the two can be made unobtrusive, though direct cuts, or more elaborate, through the use of fades, dissolves, or wipes. Jack Kenney uses a dissolve in “Casey at the Bat” to transition to a happier time before revealing that Casey has struck out. The insertion of a joyful scene would have been confusing if the director had not implied through his editing that the idyllic interlude was a dream or in another place.

Editing techniques manipulate setting, compressing and elongating distance and time. A flashback cuts between the present and the past. 72 Staying on a shot after a character leaves emphasizes the environment more than the character or action. 73

Editing can also manipulate the audience’s thoughts and emotions. Quickly switching between images or staying on an image longer than expected can also have an emotional

impact through the unexpected change in the rhythm of the shots, heightening anticipation or excitement. 74 Crosscutting drops the audience into the scene mid-action and creates tension and suspense. 75 Directors use the shot-reverse-shot (switching back and forth between immediately contiguous characters) mostly for intimacy and reaction in a conversation setting. The audience seems to surround the conversation. 76

Areas of Focus

Though the above techniques are common to all film, it would take a semester to teach all of these elements well. For this unit and the seventh grade mind, I will focus on two components, color and sound, though I expect to get questions about other techniques. Both color and sound can be used for many purposes: to convey story and meaning, establish mood or tone, connect or contrast different elements within a film. The symbolic nature of sound and color ties in with other expectations in the seventh grade curriculum such as analysis of figurative language and nuances of language. Furthermore, other classes (e.g., general music, chorus, band and art) have exposed the students to a basic understanding of color and sound. I can build on their background knowledge to help the students to begin to analyze film in a limited timeframe.

Color

There are three elements to color: hue, saturation, and value. The hue indicates the frequency of a color’s wavelength, its place on the visible spectrum, its warmth or coolness. The saturation of the color describes the color’s strength, brightness or intensity. Lastly, value or tone defines the degree the color is toward white or black. 77 When colors are picked to convey meaning or story, the film is said to have a color palette. 78

Films began to be shot in color in the early 1930s, 79 but satisfactory color film stock was not available until the late 1930s. 80 Forty years before the rise of color film stock, film was hand painted, frame by frame, to add color. This process was extremely tedious and time-consuming. In another pre-film stock technique, the whole film or certain sections could be washed in color and tint the entire frame or elements in the frame. This gave a monochromatic coloring effect. Walt Disney was first to use color effectively in his cartoons to increase the humor, sentiment, and violence. He established tonal schemes for his characters and scenes. 81 Before the 1960s color was used only when there was a reason; it was a more expensive process. After the 1960s the opposite was true: directors needed a reason not to use color. For example, Steven Spielberg chose to use black and white in Schindler’s List to give the sense of the time period. He added the color red to humanize the plight of the millions. He connected the audience to the little girl in the red coat, who would have been just one of the dead if not pointed out to the audience through the use of color and lack of it surrounding her. Instead of overwhelming his audience

with the death of millions, he focused our attention on one innocent to get the desired emotional response.

Purpose

Since the 1960s, color has been pervasive in film. It is in the setting, décor, costumes, makeup, and lighting. Filmmakers can’t get away from its use unless they choose to shoot in black and white. Frequently directors employ color to establish mood. 82 Color can convey happiness, depression, irritation, peace, harmony or discord in a relationship. 83 Warmer hues are commonly used for comedies, outdoor adventures, musicals, and romances; cooler hues are chosen for thrillers, science fiction, and dramas. 84 The change of intensity of a color can heighten these emotional experiences. 85 “Because of the personal association and … connotation of color, its capacity to arouse subjective responses makes it a highly important cinematic resource.” 86 This system is not perfect. A director cannot stick a color in the film and know it will get a specific emotional response. The personal connection to color is subjective. Orange may mean something totally different to you than to me. Director Sidney Lumet comments, “as long as my interpretation of a color is consistent, eventually you’ll become aware (subconsciously, I hope) of how I’m using the color and what I’m using it for.” 87

Though eliciting an emotional response is the primary role of color in film, it is not its only purpose. Color can define a character’s state of mind or personality or move the action from one time or location to another through the coloring of costumes, lighting, or sets. Viewers will suspect that a character is the jealous type if, after he watches his friend hug someone else, they can see his face aglow with a green hue. The audience knows it is midday from the bright blue sky. Later, when the sky becomes a brilliant orange, they know that the characters have talked the day away. Viewers know that Ponyboy and Johnny have left the city in The Outsiders when the washed-out darkness of the city yields to the natural tones of the country. The opposite is true too: color can tie two scenes or cuts together so they seem connected or continuous. Color can structure time and movement in film 88 as well as convey character traits, thoughts and emotions. “Color offers an immediate resonance that vivifies mood, delineates character and enhances meaning. When structured to further movement from sequence to sequence, color adds a new richness to film expression that immeasurably deepens the total work.” 89

Sound

Directors used sound in movies as early as the 1900s but did not use synchronized soundtracks in major pictures until 1927, when The Jazz Singer premiered. 90 Sound is classified as diegetic and non-diegetic. Dialogue, sound effects from visible objects, and sound effects from unseen sources are diegetic because the characters can logically hear them. The soundtrack and other sound effects without environmental sources are non-

diegetic because the characters cannot logically hear them. Directors use both kinds of sound, especially non-diegetic sound, to elicit specific reactions from the audience. 91 Visual effects, such as color, are more attention-grabbing than sound. Sound is pervasive and can easily be ignored or noticed only by the subconscious. 92

The plight of the composer is a sad one. “Millions will be listening but one never knows how many will be really listening” 93 because the soundtrack is supposed to be inconspicuous. After the movie is edited and diegetic sounds are added, the composer watches the film. He gets a breakdown of the scenes in seconds and cue sheets, which detail the physical actions and timing in the frame within a fraction of a second. The composer creates a score and records it. The music is dubbed into the movie to give the movie nuance, not to feature the music. 94 Except in musicals, concert films, and filmed operas, composers are to “add [another] layer to the drama but never call attention to themselves.” 95

Music potentially has two elements: lyrics and melody. Not all soundtracks have lyrics. Music includes three characteristics: rhythm, pitch and dynamics. 96 Rhythm deals with the tempo or speed, the consistent beat underlying the music. Pitch relates to the notes or frequency of the components of the music, and the volume is the dynamics. My students have been taught these terms in general music class, band, and chorus and will use them to support their reading of a film.

Purpose

Color and sound share common purposes in film. They create mood, delineate character, and bring movement to the setting. Sound, like color, can be telling in its absence. Silence plays just as important a role as noise if used with purpose, while the presence of music can be a neutral background filler or the continuity between scenes and tie cuts together.

Whether diegetic or non-diegetic, sounds are a quick way to reach the audience’s feelings. 97 They are a persuasive emotional experience. 98 Music provides a dramatic value, heightening emotions and closing scenes. 99 Sounds, in general, create a mood or atmosphere: comedy, sadness, nostalgia, love, hate, absurdity, terror, or tragedy. They can swell in tempo or disappear altogether and increase tension, imbue fear, and create suspense. 100

Color and sound are hard workers if put to good use, helping to tell stories and convey meaning. Their pervasive use makes them excellent choices for initial instruction in film analysis. I will do no more than preview the other filming techniques (e.g., framing, lighting, camera setup) and prompting advanced students to note the techniques’ use. My hope is that once students start to recognize the components that convey the story and meaning, they will use the other techniques to analyze film, not just the color and sound.

Strategies

Appoquinimink School District uses Learning-focused Strategies for lesson planning to help all students succeed. Beyond these strategies, I will also employ a method of watching and analyzing film promoted by The Film Foundation, IBM, and Turner Classic Movies.

Film Analysis

Educators commonly use movies as motivators to read the book or aids to help students understand their reading but rarely treat them as a legitimate art form. Often a book is read and discussed, students are tested on its contents, and then the movie is watched—end of discussion. Or worse, the book and movie are compared for content. The movie as a separate entity is never recognized but rather treated as a lesser cousin from the wrong side of the tracks. This promotes the passive viewing of a movie for both the students and teacher. 101

Proponents of film literacy, however, have urged teachers to stop using the strategy ‘read-the-book, watch-the-movie.’ They propose a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach, analyzing film for historic and cultural understanding as well as for the artistry of filmmaking. 102 The latter is the focus of this curriculum. Film, like all art, is a two-way communication. We see ourselves in art and give film a meaning through our personal experiences. At the same time, we understand ourselves, others, and the world better through art’s influence on us. 103

In order to understand the power of film properly, viewers must see films multiple times. “It is a rare person indeed who can peel away all the layers of a film in a single viewing.” 104 For the first viewing, the students should watch the movie in its entirety. This allows students access to the narrative continuity. Subconsciously audiences infer much, if not all, of the story elements, which the students will analyze during the second viewing. During the second viewing, students will view specific scenes and examine and evaluate the use of certain techniques. 105 What was the director’s motivation or purpose for using this element? 106 What did you experience and how did the filmmaker communicate that to you? Students will critique films using a structured methodology: describe, analyze, interpret, evaluate. First students will illustrate the plot using a plot diagram. Then they will analyze the way the plot was conveyed to the viewer. Third, they will summarize the meaning, central idea, or theme of the film. Finally, they will evaluate their personal response and meaning, supporting their assessment with techniques the filmmaker used to influence the viewer. 107

Learning-focused Strategy: Vocabulary

Some students who struggle don’t lack skill or intelligence but vocabulary and prior knowledge. In order to be literate in film color and sound, the students will need to know color and sound words as well as the definitions of the techniques they will encounter. Previewing vocabulary and then using it in context has a great impact on student learning. Students will listen to different notes, musical phrases, and abstract sound effects and use a word list to describe them to a partner. To develop the students’ color describing vocabulary, groups of students will be given a box of ninety-six crayons. Next to each describing word they will color in a box with a crayon that they believe matches the word. Finally they will discuss their selection with the class. In previous years, students have struggled with words to discuss mood and tone. Using a list of mood words with empty human faces and thought bubbles next to each word, the students will fill in the face with a corresponding expression and a related thought to the mood words. The class will discuss related words and consider how their connotations differ. Lastly, students will take a pictorial tour of a movie set and the filmmaking process. On their tour they will mark on their brochure vocabulary terms and their definitions. They will then conduct a semantic feature analysis of the filming techniques. Giving the students the vocabulary before they learn the skills allows them to have deeper discussions and superior analysis.

Learning-focused Strategy: Graphic Organizer

Struggling students often need help identifying the key points, visualizing abstract concepts, and organizing their thinking so that they can learn and communicate their understanding. Graphic organizers guide student thinking. When used effectively, graphic organizers produce learning effects that are substantial and long-lasting for all students. In this unit, students will use a three-column chart when analyzing color and sound.

For the color graphic organizer, the students will describe the plot points of the scene in the first column, describe the prominent colors in the second column, and comment on their effect on the viewer or story in the last column. The graphic organizer can be used left to right or right to left depending upon the thinking of the user. Students who are top-down thinkers may want to start with their reaction on the right and move toward the details that caused it. Bottom-up thinkers will probably want to start on the left, beginning with the details and moving to the reaction they caused.

In the graphic organizer for music, the first column contains plot points, the second column descriptions of music or sound, and the last column the effect on the listeners. Below the title of the second column in a smaller font will be vocabulary prompts (e.g., rhythm, volume, pitch, tone). Below the title of the third column will be written prompts for possible effects (e.g., Why play this kind of music? How does the music change from the beginning to the end of the scene? How does the music mirror the action in the scene?). Again, this organizer can be used in a left-to-right or right-to-left manner.

Lessons

Overview

The concepts described in this paper are part of a greater unit about drama encompassing the structure of drama, narrative elements in drama, and techniques used in film. For the first concept, students will explore how the structure contributes to the meaning. For the second concept, students will apply their understanding of narrative elements to the elements’ role in drama. Finally, the students will investigate the techniques directors use to create a film and the ways they convey story elements. Ultimately the students will be more literate consumers of film, television, and drama.

To activate students’ prior knowledge and tie it to the concepts to be learned, they will discuss the purpose and use of color and music in everyday life. They will answer the following questions: What is the purpose of music? Why do people listen to music? What type of music is pleasant or upsetting and why? How is music different from other sounds and noises? After this activity, the students will complete the sound vocabulary previewing strategy described above. The next day, the students will explore color and its effect on them. They will be shown large single color sheets and asked to explain how they feel or what they think when they see the color. The students will compare their answers with their neighbor. Then they will discuss how people use color (e.g., Where do they use color? In what? Why?). This discussion will lead to the vocabulary previewing activity about color words described in the previous section. Finally, to acquaint the students with the filmmaking vocabulary, they will take the pictorial tour of the filmmaking process.

Lesson: Introduction to analysis

To teach students how to read music and color in film, I will model these practices with think alouds and graphic organizers, slowly releasing students to independent practice as they become proficient. For the first lesson, the instruction will be remain guided but will allow for extended thinking opportunities to challenge students who begin to show proficiency early. The essential question for this is activity is “How do directors use filming techniques to convey narrative elements?”

As an opener to the lesson, I will tell students to pair off. Partner one will be asked to select two colors for a baseball team’s uniform and explain what those colors would communicate about that team. Partner two will be asked to select a song that would be played when their star player comes to bat and what that song says about the player. First the partners will write their ideas, and then they share them with each other. Finally students will share their thoughts and reasoning with the class. In this manner, students will begin to think about how color and music communicate information to others. The students will then watch Casey at the Bat in its entirety. We will discuss the structure and

narrative elements to review the previous two concepts in the drama unit and to ensure that all students have understood the cartoon before analyzing the filmmaker’s choices of colors and music.

I will briefly introduce the graphic organizer described in the strategy section to the students. Then we will listen to the introduction (the first minute) of the cartoon again. I will comment on the whistle and will physically rock back and forth to the swinging lilt of the music. When the music is over, I will voice my thoughts and fill in the graphic organizer for music. I will say that the first scene, which establishes the setting and introduces a character, the music is light and high-pitched. The chorus sings together with whistles and a rhythm that swings back and forth. The rhythm slows towards the end, emphasizing each triumphant note. The music makes me happy. I even started to swing with the rhythm. The whistle makes me think of romance. This is odd because Casey at the Bat is about baseball. Also I am put in mind of the early 1900s, the rhythm reminding me of music at that time. I will fill in the graphic organizer from left to right. Then I will ask students if they have anything that they heard, felt, or thought that was different than my thinking. I will make sure to prompt them to support their reading and to use clear language and refer to their music vocabulary sheet when needed.

We will then watch the introductory scene without music, and I will again think aloud and fill in the color analysis graphic organizer described in the strategy section. This time I will start on the right and move to the left to demonstrate the other way of thinking about the scene. I think of the beginning of the 1900s again. My support for that is the slightly yellow and gray of the colors in the natural world against the very bright colors on the people. Additionally I predict that this tale will end well because of the vibrant choice of colors. The game is good, healthy fun, not a game of contention and bad blood. In the first column I will write that the introduction of a story establishes the setting. Finally I will use the graphic organizers to come up with a cohesive statement about how I read the film and my support for my analysis. “I believe that the story is set in the early 1900s and will end well. It may even be a romance. The music was bright and cheerful and so were the colors. The rhythm was swinging and in chorus and the people were all in vivid colors. This surprises me, because the title Casey at the Bat doesn’t seem to match the choices of color and music.”

The class will listen to the next section of the cartoon (up to Casey’s turn at bat) and fill in the graphic organizer as partners. The students will share their answers with the class and I will prompt them to improve their descriptions and supports. Then the class will watch the same section without the sound, fill in the color graphic organizer, and share their answers with the class. Through the rest of this process I will continue to encourage them to use more precise descriptions and explanations. Furthermore, I will prompt them to go beyond mood and examine how color and music helped develop character, setting and the plot. If they don’t come up with it on their own, I will question them about the effect of the colors of the uniforms on our understanding of each team’s

abilities. Additionally, I will make sure they examine how the change of music mirrors the ups and downs of the rising action. As the students share their ideas, I will jot down some of them on the model graphic organizer, and the class will create a culminating statement on how we read the film as a class.

Still working in partners, the students will watch Casey’s turn at bat multiple times, stopping right before the dissolve. Partner one will interpret the use of music in the scene and partner two, color. If partner one is getting too caught up in the visuals, he or she can turn back to the screen to refocus on the soundtrack. The sound can be turned down during one of the viewings of the segment, so that partner two can try covering his or her ears and slightly humming quietly to focus more sharply on the visuals. After filling out the graphic organizer, students will share how they read the film with their partner. Partners will be encouraged to ask for clarification of the description and explanation. Together they will write a cohesive statement about how they read the film and share it with the class. We will compare the group’s statements and discuss why their interpretations may have differed. However, if the differences come from an error in thinking (e.g., disregarding some information causing a faulty interpretation, neglecting to go beyond mood), I will note the partners who struggled most and question them directly while they analyze the final section. Similarly, for students who seem to interpret color and music easily, I will visit their group and ask them to examine some other elements of film as well.

To assess their progress toward understanding the use of color and music in film, students will be asked to work in partners on the last section. They will analyze both color and music and write on a notecard a culminating statement about how they read the last scenes of the cartoon. I will use these to group the students for the next activity. For the advance students, I will ask them to write on the back of their notecard the purpose of the dissolve from Casey’s last swing to the park scene and back to his standing alone on the field.

For an extended thinking activity, students will describe how they would change either the color of the cartoon or the music to improve it. They must include in their answer how this change would affect the narrative elements and why. The students will be given the link for the cartoon on YouTube if they wish to reference the film again. All of my students have access to the internet either at home or through the local library a block behind the school.

Lesson: Focus on Color

Students read the screenplay The Monsters are Due on Maple Street during the drama structure concept of this unit and will watch the black and white version from The Twilight Zone television series in its entirety at the beginning of this lesson. After their first viewing, the students will review the plot structure and comment on how they read

the music and any other filming techniques they noticed. To answer the essential question “How do filmmakers using color to convey narrative elements?” the students will select color palettes for characters and scenes and develop rationales for their choices. I will model the creative process with the opening scene and establishing the setting and the mood. I will use the graphic organizer to support my thinking and create a rationale for my color choices. Concurrently I will use our Smartboard to illustrate my color choice on the opening screenshot. Finally, I will write a coherent statement for my color choice and the rationale for my selection.

Students will be grouped according to their proficiency with the last activity. The groups will be given two screen shots, one of a character and one of a scene of the movie, and a box of 96 crayons. The group will choose the color palette for each and write their rationale on the back. Students who struggle with the activity will be encouraged to reread the scene or the character’s lines in the textbook, use the graphic organizer, and watch sections again. Though I will visit all the groups and prompt the groups to support their thinking with proof from the text, I will focus more attention on the lower groups. I will also give the characters with the most obvious character traits and the scenes with the most dramatic plot points to the groups who had difficulty on the previous activity. The groups will share their choices and their reasoning with the class. The class will explain how they read the colors and consider possible additions or changes that would help the group achieve their rationale. For an extended thinking activity, students will be given the links to the updated color version of the screenplay or the opportunity to come in at lunch and watch. They will analyze and evaluate how the new version uses color to convey the understanding of their character and scene.

Lesson: Focus on music

To activate the students’ prior knowledge and link it to the relevant concepts, they will listen to the soundtrack from a battle scene and the soundtrack from a romantic scene. The students will be asked to describe what actions they predict will occur with such music in the background and why. The essential question is “How do filmmakers use music to convey narrative elements?” Students will watch the 1984 version of A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott. Though students will continue to practice analyzing color, the focus of this lesson will be the soundtrack. The setting of A Christmas Carol limits the use of color. Reds and greens are selected for the season, grays to depict the grim of industrialized London, and golds to establish an antiquity to the piece. The limit of color analysis makes A Christmas Carol much more effective for musical analysis. After watching the movie in its entirety, the students will complete a plot diagram, reviewing narrative elements in drama and creating reference to help them support their interpretations later. To review the use of color in film, the students will look at screen shots of the three ghosts and write how to read the three ghosts based on the director’s choice of colors. Advanced students will also be prompted to add support from lighting and framing techniques. The Ghost of Christmas Past is backlit, making

her seem more ethereal. The Ghost of Christmas Present takes up a larger portion of the frame, making him more present in the scene. Finally the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is always in the background and just at the edge of the light, making the ghost feel menacing but less real and approachable.

To start, the class will discuss the use of silence. We will watch the segment of A Christmas Carol that starts when Scrooge walks down the street, into his shop, and through his nephew’s visit, including the playing of carols on the street before Scrooge enters the silence of his shop. We will listen to the scene one more time and talk about why the composer might have chosen to stop playing music at that time. If students don’t notice on their own when music reenters the scene, I will replay the part in which Fred tries to convince his uncle about the value of the season and prompt them to analyze it. We will create a model statement about how we read that scene and the students will be partnered according to the proficiency they showed during the analysis of silence.

Students will begin the activities as partners and then separate to complete the analysis alone. They will listen to the opening scene two times, completing the music graphic organizer and writing a culminating, supported statement about how they read that part of the film. I will not require students who have shown that they can support their analysis accurately and thoroughly to use the organizer. Students will share how they read the music with their partners, and I will circulate throughout the room listening to the students’ responses. If students have not noticed the change of the tone of the music from the beginning of the piece to the end, I will prompt them with the question on their graphic organizer and replay the segment. I will relocate partners who struggle closer to me before watching the next segment. Students who wish can begin to work alone to journal their reading of the film.

The students will watch and listen to two more scenes. During Scrooge’s first trip with the Ghost of Christmas Past, violins sing playfully and gently behind the scene. The innocent, sweet sound complements Scrooge’s attitude and removes the audience from the grime of industrialized London to the freshness of the country in an earlier, less complicated time. Next, the many layers of music supporting the transformation scene at Scrooge’s grave make it an excellent scene to analyze. The pitch and melody changes from terror, to desperation, to contrition, to expectation with thunderous percussion and crying violins, blaring horns and moaning winds. I will remind the most struggling students where the scene is in the plot and discuss the characters and action before asking them to journal their reading of the scene. To assess, the students will write their strongest response on a notecard as an exit ticket. For students who need a greater challenge, my teaching partner will begin to present other techniques in the two scenes we watch and ask the students to strengthen their responses with evidence from other filming techniques.

Assessment

To allow students to show their understanding of the structure of drama and filming techniques, the assessment will have two components: analysis and production. The production portion will allow students to use their dominant learning style to demonstrate their film literacy.

For the analysis part of the assessment, students will watch selected scenes from The Outsiders (i.e., the drowning, the sunrise on Jay Mountain, the church burning, and the fight) and analyze the effect of the colors and music used. They will be given a blank copy of the graphic organizer to help them gather their thoughts and develop their reading, as well as the use of the vocabulary lists to help them communicate their ideas. The students will be scored on their analysis and development of support for their opinion.

For the production part of the assessment, students will select a portion of The Outsiders. The students will adapt the text like a screenwriter or director. They will not have to create an entire filmed version. Projects will show understanding of story elements, dramatic structure, and filming technique. Part of the assessment will cover the first two concepts of this unit not described here.

After determining how The Outsiders can be broken into acts and what is the purpose for each act, the students will choose one of the following options. Option A: the student will select a musical soundtrack for the entire text, explain how the music augments the mood and theme of the text of each act, and describe how the tone changes from act to act. Option B: the student will compose a score to accompany a specific act and explain how the music augments the mood and theme of the act. Option C: the student will create a color scheme for the setting and characters’ wardrobes for each of the acts, explain how the color augments the mood and understanding of the character, and explain why the color scheme for a character does or does not change from act to act. Option D: the student will create a storyboard, including dialogue, camera angles, and framing. The student will select three storyboard squares and explain how the selected camera angle or framing added to the understanding of the scene. Option D is only for students who started analyzing beyond color and sound during the unit. The students will be graded on how well they showed their understanding of the role of acts, how well they developed and described the filming techniques they chose, and how well their explanation demonstrated understanding of mood, theme, character and plot.

Annotated Bibliography

Aragay, Mireia. “Reflection to Refraction: Adaptation Studies Then and Now.” In Books in Motion: Adaptation, Intertextuality, Authorship. New York: Rodopi, 2005. 11-34. Explores the change in film adaptions.

Carter, Ronald and McCarthy, Michael. Cambridge Grammar of English: A Comprehensive Guide. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Book of rules of spoken and written English grammar.

Copland, Aaron. “Film Music.” In What to Listen for in Music. New York: McGraw Hill, 1957. 252-263. Support for music literacy.

Dargis, Manohla. “Coppola Pays a Return Visit to His ‘Gone with the Wind’ for Teenagers.” The New York Times, September 9, 2005. Criticism of “The Outsiders.”

Dunkleberger, Amy. So You Want to be a Film or TV Director? Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2008. Children’s book about the film industry.

The Film Foundation in partnership with IBM and Turner Classic Movies. The Story of Movies. www.storyofmovies.org (accessed October 11, 2014). Middle school free curriculum on film literacy using “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Mr.Smith goes to Washington,” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

Foster, Harold. “Film and the Young Adult Novel.” The ALAN Review 21, 3 (1994): n.p. Focuses on film adaptations of young adult novels.

Foster, Harold M. The New Literacy: The language of film and television. National Council of Teachers of English, 1979. Paper presented to NCTE on film literacy.

Jacobs, Lewis. Movies as Medium. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1970. Essays on techniques and narrative elements in film.

McDougal, Stuart. Made into Movies: From Literature to Film. Ann Arbor: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985. Analysis of multiple film adaptations.

Monaco, James. How to Read a Film. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Useful reference for film literacy instruction.

“The Outsiders (film).” Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoutsiders_film/ (accessed October 11, 2014). General reference for “The Outsiders.”

Postman, Neil. “The Typographic Mind.” In Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Penguin, 1986. 44-63. Argument concerning motion pictures murder of literacy.

Springboard English Textual Power Level IV. New York: College Board, 2005. Pre-AP curriculum for advanced literary analysis. Excellent three page synopsis of filming techniques.

Teacher Film Resources

Casey at the Bat. DVD. Directed by Jack Kinney. Burbank: Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 2000.

A Christmas Carol. DVD. Directed by Clive Donner. Beverly Hills: Twentieth Century–Fox, 2009.

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” Directed by Ron Winston. The Twilight Zone: Season 1. DVD. Columbia Broadcasting System, 2004.

The Outsiders. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. DVD. Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group, 2005.

Appendix A

Common Core Standards Addressed

CC7L3: Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot)

CC7L5: Analyze how a drama’s … form or structure (e.g., soliloquy) contributes to meaning.

CC7L7: Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).

Notes

Curriculum Unit

Title Author

KEY LEARNING, ENDURING UNDERSTANDING, ETC.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S) for the UNIT

CONCEPT A CONCEPT B CONCEPT C

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS A ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS B ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS C

VOCABULARY A VOCABULARY B VOCABULARY C

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/MATERIAL/TEXT/FILM/RESOURCES