BEST LESSON

The Truman Show

VIDEO PRESENTATIONS Students were asked to create a twisted

trailer for the Truman Show Modeling Watching film trailers. The first one is completely normal. This is a

trailer from The Truman Show. Play first film (2 min 30 sec) The next three trailers are a little twisted. The

film genre is completely changed by the production of the trailer.

Horror Mary Poppins Film (1 min 6 sec)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic

Willy Wonka Film (3 min 4 sec)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=o9Cby33ZR98&feature=fvwp

Truman Twist (1 min 30 sec)

Teacher Led Questions: What film is this? What genre was it changed into? What genre is the actual film? What elements of the trailer change the

genre? (film language) What elements (visual, auditory, non-verbal

cues etc do you think are most powerful)

Student In Class Work Students should be given time to work on

creating a twisted trailer. Instructions: Should be given and

demonstrated by teacher very clearly modeled

Create a story board before you begin creating your film

i Movie. (any movie program will do, however make sure all students have safe access)

In the program there are a number of trailer makers already programmed in. (these are very user friendly and generally be learned independently)

Students can create a trailer using one of these pre-prescribed outlines or that may choose to create a product from scratch (if the student feels confident enough with the program.)

Students need to add images, sound, subtitles, titles, voiceovers and captions that collaboratively create one unified meaning

This video will be used in collaboration to other writing tasks

CONTEXT Multimodal – students will be asked

to change a film’s genre and meaning by incorporating different elements of film language together in a way creates meaning that can be recognized by others.

Multiliteracies – students will look at becoming literate in film language, trailer language, voiceovers, story boards, non-verbal language as well as written components of language

Students are asked to utilize film images, sound, subtitles and possibly voice-overs to change the genre of a film they have been studying.

They will preset their assessment by creating a trailer for a ‘new film’

For this assessment my class was studying The Truman Show (1998).

This assessment came at the beginning of the Truman topic.

It commenced at the end of the semester and originally the activity was created as a ‘filler’ for the last week of term.

However, the results were amazing. Students immediately began to understand the influence of language and meaning. Specifically understanding the power of multimodal language and the power of being multiliterate.

Students were allowed to creatively produce a meaningful and playful rendition of a movie trailer with a twist. Utilising multimodal texts and encouraging students multiliteracy skills.

Many students did not realise they were learning anything until the very end. When they were literate in computer (ICT) language, film language, trailer language and story board language.

MODELLING: TRUMAN – THE LOVE STORY

The student will: Understand that authors innovate

with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects

Identify how vocabulary choices contribute to specificity, abstraction and stylistic effectiveness

Interpret, analyse and evaluate how different perspectives of issue, event, situation, individuals or groups are constructed to serve specific purposes in texts

Analyse how the construction and interpretation of texts, including media texts, can be influenced by cultural perspectives and other texts

Use interaction skills to present and discuss an idea and to influence and engage an audience by selecting persuasive language, varying voice tone, pitch, and pace, and using elements such as music and sound effects

Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements for aesthetic and playful purposes

Use a variety of multimodal texts to support individual presentations in which they inform an audience – specifically informing the genre of a film

Focus: Verbal, written cues, and non-verbal language, body language and facial expression (multi-modal)

Higher Order Thinking: Critically engaging students in meaning by gathering, sorting and deciding what information to include and exclude to produce meaning

Direct modelling from teacher: due to the creative nature of the task modelling appropriate work is imperative

ICT: utilising the Macbook program iMovie

Links to AusVELS Pedagogical Approaches

LINKS TO THEORY: FOUR RESOURCES MODEL

Code BreakerStudents need to think about the codes and conventions of film and film trailers that help create meaning. This includes: •Music•Images •Subtitles •Voice overStudents need to understand how these elements are used in relation to the conventions of film language and how these affect meaning and audience participation.

Meaning MakerStudents need to think about what creates meaning in their text. •What prior knowledge about the real Truman Show film interacts with the created genre?•How will this information affect the audience?•What do the students know about genre that will alter meaning?•How do you ensure that collaboratively all the elements create a unified meaning?

Text UserStudents need to understand the purpose of film/ trailer texts•How are the used in society? •Who uses them ?•Why are they created?•What emotions they cause? •How, as a producer, do you initiate different feelings and interpretations in the audience?•Are visual texts more powerful then written?

Text Analyst Students need to think about the larger meaning of the film text•How do we, as a society, interpret genre and what cinematic elements contribute to this?•How is the language used to position a reader and create meaning?•This language includes all the multimodal aspects of film texts.

REFERENCES Cope, B., Kalantzis, M. (2009), ‘Multiliteracies:

new literacies, new learning’, Pedagogies: an international journal, Vol 4, pp 164-195.

Ludwig, C. (2000) ‘Literacy in the learning areas: a proposition’, Literacy Learning: the Middle Years, vol 8(1), pp 37-53.

New London Group (1996) ‘A pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social futures’. Harvard Educational

Sawyer, W. (2005) ‘Becoming a New New Critic: Assessing Student Writing’, pp 129-145. In B. Doecke &G. Parr (Eds) Writing=Learning, SA: AATE.