Pop Culture: Making Movie Magic Happen (Sorta)

Pop Culture: Making Movie Magic Happen (Sorta.)

Making the Movie Magic Happen. (Sorta.)

Stage 1. After watching a couple of clips under Mr. Ryder’s tutelage, try your hand at storyboarding, directing and cinematography.

1. In groups of one, two or three, choose a film from the  AFI Top 100 - 10th Anniversary list that you have seen or at least sorta kinda “know.” (This list is due for an update in 2017.  I’m curious to see what happens  . . .)
2. Find a clip of a well-known scene from that film online.  They are out there.
3. Using either people or LEGO minifigs and either digital photography or sketching, recreate that scene shot-by-shot, angle-by-angle
4. As you are producing that recreation, think about the placement of the camera, the framing, the movement.  Do your best to create as honest a reproduction as possible.  The point?  To see if you can see filmmaking from a creator’s point of view and become more aware of how the filmmaker’s convince their audiences to see and think about the subject matter in a particular way.

Which takes us to Stage 2.

After recreating that scene to develop a sense of how it all “works” in a finished product, use your skills to tell the following story.

Choose and recreate the camera angles to the best of your abilities from the following sources:

http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-camera-shots-styles/p1

Great tool because it shows you examples from actual films

http://www.lssc.edu/faculty/matthew_w_kennedy/Shared%20Documents/ENC%201101/Film%20Terms.pdf

Fantastic explanation of camera angles

http://www.thestoryboardartist.com/Site/Film.html

Several great examples of storyboarding at work

Stage 3. #ShowYourWork by Creating a Google Presentation, Prezi, or other slideshow to show how your team did.   

Due at the midpoint of next class for sharing and feedback. Place the link or slideshow in your IN folder. Be sure to include all group members.

SHOW YOUR WORK.

BLOG. Content Post #4.

Due. Next Class. May 12.2016

CREATING MOVIE MAGIC.

Due. Next Class. May 12.2016

Pop Culture: Film Trailers & the Art of Making You Want More

Film Trailers

We'll start with this one.  Because I said so.

Resource 1.  9 Short Storytelling Tips.
Fantastic storytelling tips that can be applied well beyond film trailer designing.

Resource 2. The Golden Trailer Awards.
The Awards for Best Film Trailers.   (There are lots. Lots and lots.)

Resource 3.  Trailer Fatigue.
History and Current State of Affairs of Film Trailers.

You'll divide up into teams of 1, 2 or 3 to tackle this work today.  Pick your crew and get to work.

We'll start with the 9 Short Storytelling Tips.  In the space of 10 minutes, do the math for I will be cruising at breakneck keep-it-tight speed, I will give you both a sketchnote and a brief explanation of each tip.

Then!  In your teams, you will get to work looking for examples of those 9 short storytelling tips in either the Golden Trailer Awards nominees and winners OR Trailer Addict.com or a movie trailer source of  your liking.  Avoid the general YouTube search.  It can be cumbersome.  There's better curated sources out there.

Also, I'll be circulating, locking in your passion/interest/personal branded blog topic for the rest of the year.

SHOW YOUR WORK.

Blog.  Blog Post #3 for Your Branded Blog.

Post a Link to Your Post on the Blog Tracker.

Due. Monday. 5.9.16

Film Trailers.
Find examples of each of the first 9 storytelling tips as they appear in various movie trailers.  Collect your finds and explain your thinking on a Google doc.
Due.  Monday. 5.9.16

So Far This Quarter.

Poster Design.

Design a Poster for Advertising Your Blog or Your Video Game Design.

Due.  Friday. 5.6.16

Submit your poster in your Pop Culture IN folder on Google Drive.

Game Something that Matters.

Submit Your Slide Decks & Other Materials in the Pop Culture IN folder on Google Drive.

Due.  Monday. 5.2.16

Pop Culture: Film Scoring

Today, Ms. Boiselle will be rocking us through a film scoring activity.

We'll start by reading this article and sketchnoting it to demonstrate our understanding of the process this composter uses.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/michael-giacchino-how-to-score-a-movie.html

Then you'll try your hand at film composing.

Possible clips to choose from 

·      Yeah I can Fly – Iron Man http://movieclips.com/HhtE-iron-man-movie-yeah-i-can-fly/

·      Sleep Tight – The Blind Side http://movieclips.com/jiXqG-the-blind-side-movie-sleep-tight/

·      First Practice – Coach Carter http://movieclips.com/NCXy-coach-carter-movie-first-practice/

·      I’m Flying– Titanic http://movieclips.com/xwKU-titanic-movie-im-flying/

·      Graduation Drums – Fame http://movieclips.com/4nqj-fame-movie-graduation-drums/

And the music composition tools to help you create your scores here in the classroom. 

http://www.beatlab.com/

and Garage Band (on your laptop)

On  your blog, embed the video you used and either upload the .MP3 to Soundcloud and link it on your blog or link to it if you made it in Beatlab.  Lots of options there.  #showyourwork.  

Put your sketchnote up on your blog, too!  Look at how much of your blogging for the week you can complete TODAY!  WOOT to the showing your understanding!   POWER RAD! 

ASSESSMENTS.

BLOG.  3+ Posts.
CURATION. 2+ Items.
PIN. on Flight307 Pop Culture Pinterest.
REQ'D POST. Music Supervision and Inspiration. 


OPTION ONE.

1.  Read through the articles provided on Pinterest about music supervision.

2. Select a film or episode of a TV series.

3. Carefully select three pieces of music to use in that film or episode in very specific moments. 

4. Explain your reasons for each choice.

5. Here's the most challenging part: connect your reasoning and decisions to the thinking of one of the music supervisors you read about in the article.  Show how you use a professional's process and reasoning to inform your own decisions.

OPTION TWO.

1.  Read through the articles provided on Pinterest about music supervision.

2. Select a film or episode of a TV series.

3. Carefully and specifically describe, and title, three songs created by your Create-a-Band that you would use for that film or episode. 

4. Explain your reasons for each choice.

5. Here's the most challenging part: connect your reasoning and decisions to the thinking of one of the music supervisors you read about in the article.  Show how you use a professional's process and reasoning to inform your own decisions.

Due: Friday, May 1st.

Humanities: To Kill a Mockingbird Analysis: Final Day

Today will be a our last day breaking down To Kill a Mockingbird the film, as we will be looking at a few excerpts from the text and a close viewing of one scene in particular: the jailhouse.

We'll start with a quick LNG.  It's Monday after all.

Then we'll look at To Kill a Mockingbird  as it appeared in text.  See if we can identify the same themes, foreshadowing, and cultural components showing up there and they did in the film.

And we'll end with a film study.  A close view of just that single scene.  And we'll test my thesis:  the jailhouse scene tells the entire story of To Kill a Mockingbird

ASSESSMENT.

Blog: 3+ Posts.
Req'd Post:  Franklin County as Maycomb County.   Using effective composition skills, take at least three pictures that show evidence of Maycomb County culture showing up in Franklin County.  Consider any of the eight components of culture.  You may need to think outside the box a bit here.

These pictures could very well become part of your photo essay, an assessment to be announced this week.

Pop Culture: And the Oscar Goes to . . .

Sunday night was a big evening for the movie industry as the Academy Awards were doled out.  The event pretty much caps the awards season after the Golden Globes (film & TV) and the Grammys (music) and some important but lesser known awards (SAG -- movies).

Today we'll take a look at the winners and the nominees and take a look the extent to which these awards reflect our tastes and interests as movie watchers.

We'll be using the movie ballot at Fansided.com

We won't use every category for our work -- only the following.

Best Picture
Director
Actor
Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Visual Effects
Animated Feature

You'll code the ballot with the following.
H. Heard of It.
S.  Seen It.
N. Never Heard of It.

We'll take your codes, collect the data, and see what trends merge.  Then we'll explore ways of visualizing these understandings.  Different ways to show the data.  Especially using http://memebase.cheezburger.com/graphjam as our inspiration -- because that will help us head into our comedy unit.


We'll develop questions from our data as well as we uncover the sorts of questions we should be asking for the rest of this semester as we explore pop culture.


HOMEWORK.

Blog. 3+ Posts.
Req'd Post.  Design Your Own Pop Culture Related Awards Show.
What would it be called?
What would be the categories?
Who would be the nominees this year?  The winner?
Explain your choices for the above and then . . .
Create a logo or promotional poster for the awards as well.

Pop Culture: Film Culture Product

Based on the work we have done in class around film culture, create a product that demonstrates your understanding of one or more of the following essential questions:

To what extent does film culture influence you?
To what extent do you influence film culture?
To what extent does film culture influence society?
To what extent does society influence film culture?

You will be assessed using the following rubric.




Due: November 25

HOMEWORK.

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Film Poster.

Begin: Film Poster.
Due: November 25

Pop Culture: Making Movie Magic Happen. (Sorta.)

Making the Movie Magic Happen. (Sorta.)

Stage 1. After watching a couple of clips under Mr. Ryder’s tutelage, try your hand at storyboarding, directing and cinematography.

1. In groups of one, two or three, choose a film from the  AFI Top 100 - 10th Anniversary list that you have seen or at least sorta kinda “know.” (This list is due for an update in 2017.  I’m curious to see what happens  . . .)
2. Find a clip of a well-known scene from that film online.  They are out there.
3. Using either people or LEGO minifigs and either digital photography or sketching, recreate that scene shot-by-shot, angle-by-angle
4. As you are producing that recreation, think about the placement of the camera, the framing, the movement.  Do your best to create as honest a reproduction as possible.  The point?  To see if you can see filmmaking from a creator’s point of view and become more aware of how the filmmaker’s convince their audiences to see and think about the subject matter in a particular way.

Which takes us to Stage 2.

After recreating that scene to develop a sense of how it all “works” in a finished product, use your skills to tell the following story.

Choose and recreate the camera angles to the best of your abilities from the following sources:

http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-camera-shots-styles/p1

Great tool because it shows you examples from actual films

http://www.lssc.edu/faculty/matthew_w_kennedy/Shared%20Documents/ENC%201101/Film%20Terms.pdf

Fantastic explanation of camera angles

http://www.thestoryboardartist.com/Site/Film.html

Several great examples of storyboarding at work

Stage 3. #ShowYourWork by Creating a Google Presentation, Prezi, or other slideshow to show how your team did.   Post that to each of your blogs.

DUE. End of Next Class.

HOMEWORK.

Blog: 3+ Posts

Due: Friday, November 14

Req'd Post: Movie Poster.

Pop Culture: Digging Deeper Into Film Criticism

We'll start class by developing criteria for our teaser trailers and film festival programming.  We'll divide into groups of folks who are most interested in creating each one.   From there, based on the research you've done and experience you've had, you'll determine the criteria by which your product should be assessed.  I will turn this criteria into a rubric for Thursday.  Products will be due at the end of next week.

From there we will examine several clips from critically acclaimed and culturally relevant films.  Our goal is to identify the qualities that make up a quality film and also to get a better sense of the techniques filmmakers and actors use to engage the audience -- as well develop meaning and intention.

Here are the clips we'll be working with though not necessarily in this order.



HOMEWORK.
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post:  Film Review.

A.  Read through the four reviews of the first Hunger Games films linked here.
Roger Ebert here
Lisa Schwarzbaum here
Peter Travers here
IMDB.com User emptygravity here

B.  Choose a film you feel worthy of your time to write about.  It may be because you want to tear it apart and it may be because you want to sing its praises.  It may be a little bit of both.

C.  Write a 2-3 paragraph film review in which you attempt to copy the style of one the above reviewers by using the same techniques in your own review.

You might consider which of the above reviewers use the following:
References to other films in which the actors have appeared
References to other films the director has made
References to the source material for the film (in this case, a novel)
Summary of the plot
Spoilers and/or spoiler warnings
Spoiler-free discussion
Vivid and descriptive language
Casual and general langugage
Use of 1st Person "I"
Some form of review coding system: numbers, stars, thumbs, etc.

D.  In a final paragraph, explain which reviewer's style you were trying to adopt for your review.  To what extent has this influenced how you watch films?

DUE: Friday, November 7

DESIGN: Film Festival or Teaser Trailer
DUE: Friday, November 14