Cinematheque presentation

1. Writing film and the‘cinematic
voice’
Mark Reid, BFI
Glasgow 3 October 2015

2. Consider the implications of the relationship between
forms of representation for the selection of content in
the school curriculum. Learning to use particular forms
of representation is also learning to think and represent
meaning in particular ways. How broad is the current
distribution? What forms of representation are
emphasized? In what forms are students expected to
become “literate”? What modes of cognition are
stimulated, practiced, and refined by the forms that are
made available?
Eliot Eisner, The Arts and the Creation of Mind

3. the reader in
the writer
The Creepy House
It is an abandoned house, its
windows battered by the wind.
Nobody has ever lived in there
It’s covered in white snow
making it look like a strangely
shaped polar bear, frozen
forever. And if you walked past
it you would see a little gate
buried in the snow.

4. Developing the cinematic voice
“Is it possible to teach children to be more creative?”
Nelson Goodman: “… … …Yes”
“So how do we do that?”
“… … Set them harder problems.”

5. From the cinematic to the Cinémathèque:
Cinema Cent Ans de Jeunesse
• 20 year-old programme
• Watching, making, understanding: ‘film thinking’
• Aesthetic themes: mise en scene; long take; camera movement;
montrer/ cacher
• Dirigiste and French (‘les regles du jeu’)
• ‘cinema of authenticity’: no animating, zooming, pretending, or
extraneous music

6. From the cinematic to the Cinémathèque:
aka Understanding Cinema in Scotland
• 20 year-old programme
• Watching, making, understanding: ‘film thinking’
• Aesthetic themes: mise en scene; long take; camera movement;
montrer/ cacher
• Dirigiste and French (‘les regles du jeu’)
• ‘cinema of authenticity’: no animating, zooming, pretending, or
extraneous music

7. From the cinematic to the Cinémathèque:
Cinema Cent Ans de Jeunesse
• 20 year-old programme
• Watching, making, understanding: ‘film thinking’
• Aesthetic themes: mise en scene; long take; camera movement;
montrer/ cacher
• Dirigiste and French (‘les regles du jeu’)
• ‘cinema of authenticity’: no animating, zooming, pretending, or
extraneous music; child’s eye view

8. 2011 - Montrer/ Cacher
• Cat People (USA, Jacques Tourneur
1942)
• The Circle (Iran, Jafar Panahi, 2000)
• He Dies at the End (Damian
McCarthy, Youtube)
• Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1982)
• Virus (Simon Hynd, 2002)
• Moonfleet (USA, Fritz Lang, 1955)
• Creature from the Black Lagoon
(USA, Jack Arnold,1954)
and about 40 others!

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

25. Consider the implications of the relationship between
forms of representation for the selection of content in
the school curriculum. Learning to use particular forms
of representation is also learning to think and represent
meaning in particular ways. How broad is the current
distribution? What forms of representation are
emphasized? In what forms are students expected to
become “literate”? What modes of cognition are
stimulated, practiced, and refined by the forms that are
made available?
Eliot Eisner, The Arts and the Creation of Mind

26. What if all children were able to tell stories - and share ideas,
and develop arguments - using film, regularly in the
curriculum?
What different kinds of thinking would be made possible?
How would subjects be changed?
What new skills would be developed?
And most of all, what consequences would these changes
have for education, for culture, for us?

27. Cinema Cent Ans de Jeunesse/
Understanding Cinema
2015/16 ‘Le Méteo’
Understandingcinema.wordpress.com
Markreid1895.wordpress.com