Film Theories and Such...

As I was reading Great Films and How to Teach Them, I came across a chapter dedicated to film theories. Now prehaps it is because I have not been exposed to many film classes, even though I have some friends majoring in this field, but I had no idea there were theories involved. This may sound a little naive, or perhaps just plain stupid, but when I watch a movie, I just watch it. I do not think about a feminist approach, structuralism, realism, etc. when it comes to movies. As we were doing shot-by-shot analysis of the Lost episode, I realized how much fun it can actually be to analyze a film. I never before thought about all the work it goes into shot within a movie, or how it actually can be used as foreshadowing. This is one way we can teach our students foreshadowing within literature.

As we were watching Lost, my group had to analyze the movement of the camera. As I was paying close attention to detail (for the first time) I realized how it lead up to each significant moment. The urgency of the character running through the forest, the slow movement to the left as you finally see piece by piece as to why they are on this beach, to the shacking of the camera that captures the chaos. This is not all, there is also the music, the sounds of the people and what it around them, this can all lend itself to a wonderful lesson plan.

I have always enjoyed watching movies in class, but we never picked apart a movie before. I always told myself that I would maybe show one movie per year, since we watched it in class and didn't really discuss much afterward. Now that we have been looking at film, I have discovered that it is an excellent was to teach literature. Obviously you cannot just show films and that's it, but it is not a "lazy" thing to do when you run out of options. It can be a great learning experience if you delve into the material and connect it with the concept you are trying to teach, or if you connect it with the literature you are reading.

And the Cleveland Film Fest is coming up. Yay! I am actually really excited to go. I was a little uneasy about the driving part, only because I am not very good at it and I tend to get hopelessly lost while almost hitting every other large object. I have decided to take a date (good for me. haha) and have him do the navigating. Hopefully we will like it. Actually, I just hope it's a good date! lol