Guide to using film language for Guernsey schools

1. More dimensions of film language:
Camera movement
Sound
Editing

2. Pourquoi
bouge le
camera?

3. Camera
Movement
Exercise 1
Take four shots:
• Moving object from a moving camera
• Moving object from a static camera
• Static object from a static camera
• Static object from a moving camera

4. Re-shooting Sun
Moon and Stars

5. Camera
Movement
Exercise 2
Film the following scenario:
Person A is filmed moving
towards Subject B. Person A
approaches then moves past
Subject B to meet Subject C,
while Subject B moves away in
the opposite direction

6. Film essai: Crossed Paths
http://filmclub.student.edutronic.net/2014/06/13/crossed-paths-final-film-essai-2014/

7. Montrer/ Cacher: Shown/ Hidden
Camera Composition
Sound Time

8. 2011 - Montrer/ Cacher
Typology – Types of Showing/ Hiding
• Hiding in the frame
• Using offscreen space
• Filming actors’ backs
• Using shadows, screens, negative space
• Narrative ellipsis
• Narrative secrets
• Dramatic irony

10. 2011 - Montrer/ Cacher - exercises
1 Film an action completely in close-up (total duration no more than 3
minutes and 8 shots maximum). Indicative story line: ‘Person A moves
from space into another adjacent space, then gives something to Person
B. You choose what is given (a codeword; a kiss; a curse; a gift; a warning)
and which spaces you use
2 Film a complete short scene (maximum 3 minutes) where someone in
shot reacts against something or someone outside the shot, which we
never see but know of through sound, light, reaction shots and the
direction of the gaze, or a reflection

11. 2011 - Montrer/ Cacher - ‘film essai’
Indicative scenario: Two secrets, of which one is revealed, the other
withheld.
The main rule, which shouldn’t be given to the students until after they have
scripted their scenario:
Once the scenario has been written, students have to choose one of the key
scenes that will not be shown. The scene should still play an important role in
the story, but won’t be filmed, just suggested (through an ellipsis, or use of
offscreen sound, reflections, camera movement which hides or reveals, or a
substitution of action in the edit)

13. ‘Originally we tried two stories, one about a girl
being bullied, but we thought it wouldn’t work out
because there wouldn’t be something missing’, ‘so
Mrs Liley said why don't we all go home and write
a storyboard and choose the best’.’ We chose
Darcy’s because we liked it the most, then we all
helped improve it.’
1 It wasn’t their first idea

14. ‘originally we put the [opening] shot in the
middle but we thought it was boring. So we put
it at the beginning to put more tension in.’
‘We put the shot of the bag before the boy
comes past on his bike’.
2 They changed the order of shots, in the edit:

15. ‘both [groups] edited a version of the film and
we had a vote on which was the best.’
3 They made different edits:

16. ‘the wind was blowing really strong and
it sounded a bit.. creepy.’
4 They paid attention to the sound:

17. ‘We kept doing [bike] skids, about 20 skids, trying to
get it right.’
‘We were told to film each shot 3 times and choose
the best’.
‘We were filming from different positions all the
time’
5 They repeated lots of shots and
actions many times:

18. ‘we were going to have him like gasping, or ‘what’s
that doing there?’ but I just thought it, I don’t know
why, he goes past it [the bag] and he goes back to it’.
‘If you’d had him saying ‘oh what’s that’ it would
have made it sound put on.’
6 They used images where possible, not
dialogue:

19. ‘Mrs Liley said there can be a bit of speech, but not
loads.’
And they had to have a secret in the film that wasn’t
revealed: ‘I didn’t like to think about what happened
at the end, so I just kept it secret.’
7 They worked within constraints:

20. ‘Mr Dickinson showed us how to use the Macro [lens] .. we
thought we’d have a go with it.. you see Holly in the
background, blurred, and I thought it looked cool.’
8 They used the technology in cinematic
ways:

21. ‘we slowed [the film] down when Adam comes in the
door but we didn’t want to slow it down when he says
‘Mum’; ‘It’s supposed to be serious’.
9 They were making a serious film:

22. AGENCY
PLAY
SERIOUSNESS
LOCAL RESOURCES
TOTAL INVESTMENT
CONSTRAINT

23. How (un)like traditional literacy is this?
• Collaborative; a whole story-world generated and sustained by a group of
people (actually 6 people, plus Mrs Liley and Mr Dickinson, and Luke’s
mum).
• Uses resources taken from their world: bedrooms, kitchens, green space,
neighbourhood streets, bikes and school bags
• It requires quite sophisticated (but more and more accessible) technology
• It shows (and withholds) rather than tells. Film tends towards showing as
a medium, rather than telling.
• The pedagogy of constraints, play and experiment, of re-taking shots, of
trial and error, making different edits
• It’s a complete piece of work, not a story opening or extract

24. Could every child be enabled to tell stories in
this way? And if so, what needs to change?
More live action film work
A wider range of expressive resources
Constraints and learning frameworks
A wider range of viewing