Film Noir Activity

Film Noir Activity:

In order to have students consider the elements and conventions of film noir, as well as engage with the stereotypes and limitations of it, groups of 3 or 4 students would receive a slip of paper with the title of a fairy tale or cartoon on it. The students would then adapt the story and present it as a film noir. Audience members would try and guess the story and take notes on the specific elements the other students used. Alternately, students could take scenes from film noir and translate them into other genres. These activities would help students become more aware of the elements that make up different types of film.

Film Noir PP by Molly and Laura

Film Noir Pp 1

Media Ethnography - Fantasy Sports Teams

I chose to focus my media ethnography on fantasy football leagues, because I know many people who are involved with them, including family members, but I know very little about them. Before I began observing people involved in these leagues, I made a few notes about the preconceived notions I had about them. I had noticed that the members were generally very enthusiastic about their leagues and their individual teams. I also noted that for many of the people I knew, they appeared to be more of a social institution than an athletic one.

One thing I really did NOT know about the leagues was the time, effort, and money people invest in keeping up with them. There seem to be about 3 different "types" of participants: the people who are in it to have fun, the ones who are in it

It turns out that many of my previous observations were supported by my ethnographic observations. I observed participants in two main environments. First, I interviewed people I knew who were involved with fantasy football leagues (even though I began this assignment interested in fantasy teams in general, I ended up only observing football participants) and then I "lurked" in on a few fantasy chat rooms.

The people I spoke to noted that their participation was generally for social reasons. They spoke of the parties and events that surround participation in the leagues. However, people in the chat rooms were involved more for the challenge maintaining their team presents. They were much more interested in talking about statistics, current news about players, and they appeared to take on a more challenging/aggressive tone with others.

It is important to note that the vast majority of people I observed and interviewed were men. The men commented on women that were in their leagues and often spoke of "luck" when women were brought up. So, generally, I interpret one main reason for why people to get involved with fantasy teams is to establish a manly/macho stance. Women typically get involved in order to be seen as "one of the guys." This is not something that they say, but comes from the From what I can tell, women who are involved for reasons other than that keep to themselves and have all women leagues and don't get as caught up in the competition online.

Another reason people seem to get involved is the reward they get out of it - money. I would contend that the "risk" this poses entices many participants. Socially acceptable gambling that can be turned into a social event seems to be attractive to men who otherwise struggle to find social opportunities to get together.

Buying Happiness??

Critical Lenses

Gender/Rhetorical Lens:

This is a smart and probably pretty successful commercial. In addition, it is an important message. Before one gets too immersed in critical lenses and begins to critique everything through them, it's worth remembering that sometimes, the message in a text or in media are important ones that have to be said.

Scrutinizing this ad through the critical lenses of gender and viewer response, gives it a different hue. The commercial appears to work because the subject is male. It's funny to watch a man be frustrated by his son, and even possibly regret having him. You get the sense that the child is behaving badly simply because he's a child, not because of parenting. I would argue that a woman in the same situation would not be as amusing to watch, because of the roles men and women are supposed to play in regards to their children.

It's implied that the parents aren't married and that if he had just used a condom, he would have been able to have responsibility-free sex, but the woman's decision to have the kid got in the way. Whether the subject were the mother or father, the implication is also that it's the woman's "fault." Men need to use condoms, not because it's a safe choice, but because it would free him from the "ball and chain."

Three friends set loose upon the wide, wide world...(imovie post)

In the summer of 2005, three friends set out to see the eastern side of the western side of the wide, wide world. These are their relics...

I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to use this program. I've always been daunted by imovie, thinking it was far too advanced and complicated for me to learn, especially as someone who wasn't going to be making professional films for anyone beyond my friends, family, and students. However, learning this program has made me so much more confident in embracing other programs that may seem inaccessible to me. I am also much more confident that I can facilitate the use of this program in classroom in a meaningful and relevant way.

I can think of a variety of things students could do with this software. For example, I am really interested in young people's relationship with music and how it shapes their identity and the strong presence it plays in their lives. This program provides an opportunity for students to pair their visual thoughts about a text or theme with music they find important or meaningful. Whether students are aware of it or not, engaging with music is engaging with language and literacy - even if the music is purely instrumental. By stressing the way certain music can enhance and limit interpretation of the image it's paired with, I would hope to encourage students to think about how different mediums interact with and inform each other. Students can also benefit from a discussion about silence and how what isn't said can be as important as what is.

Additionally, this software provides opportunities for students to explore the mood elements of literature by adapting things we read into images for a movie. By adapting a dialogue-less scene into a movie, students are being asked to consider how a scene in a book is "seen" on camera. An exploration of this kind would also help students navigate other forms of media by being knowledgeable about what certain kinds of lighting "say" and the tightness of a camera angle can "reveal".

Overall, this technology is a wonderful way to invite students who struggle with traditional forms of assessment or who are interested in a variety of media to enter a dialogue about meaning and literacy and express themselves on their own turf. Imovie brings the visual elements of literature and the literary elements of music into the English classroom.

Using film/video in the classroom

How to creatively and meaningfully integrate film criticism into a Language Arts classroom:

When I was in school, movie day meant having a day off. Watching a movie in class was something we did when there was a substitute, or in between units to give us a "break". Watching movies was rarely used for direct instruction. We watched movies in Spanish in Spanish class, with the subtitles, presumably to give us practice listening to Spanish and to teach us about Spanish/Hispanic culture. We were always suspicious, though, that movies were used when the teacher simply did not want to come up with a lesson for the day. And this was probably true. The point, though, is that for me, thinking about movies as a mode of instruction is a little foreign. The more I consider it, though, the more I appreciate the opportunities using film in the classroom affords. Movies are a pervasive in our lives and it would be naive not to consider how bringing film into a classroom can effectively peak student's interest and get their attention. It is also archaic and elitist to assume that being a literate member of society is confined to being able to read and analyze books. Being able to read and analyze a movie requires skills similar to those needed to analyze literature. Next, I outline some ideas I have about how to integrate film criticism into a Language Arts classroom in a way that celebrates the traditional aspects of what such a classroom is meant to teach and also acknowledges and provides credibility to newer forms of "literature".

1.) (This activity would be used in a unit on script writing, "showing-not-telling" etc). Give each student a slip of paper with stage directions on it. For example, "it is night," "actor moves stage left and collapses," or "actors appear in a cramped, cold apartment". To begin, either in small groups or as a class, play a form of charades where the other students have to guess what the stage direction was. Then, ask students, in small groups, to write a literary scene in which this stage direction is employed, but not explicitly - they have to show the direction in their writing, not tell. Finally, show a scene in a movie and have students record what the stage directions might have looked like in the script. Then, in small groups, have students choose 3-4 directions they picked out and write a short story that the scene from the movie might have adapted. Discuss the elements of literature that filmmakers attend to in order to give life, or "seen" to the "scenes". From here, you could read passages from famous literature that has been adapted to a movie and talk about how this is done.

2.) Looking at film through critical lenses might be a good way to introduce those lenses to students. It's possible that students are more familiar with the medium of film and be more comfortable critiquing it than literature.