Writing film and the‘cinematic voice’

Mark Reid, BFI

Glasgow 3 October 2015

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

the reader in the writerThe 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.

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.”

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

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

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

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!

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

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)

‘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

‘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:

‘both [groups] edited a version of the film and we had a vote on which was the best.’

3 They made different edits:

‘the wind was blowing really strong and it sounded a bit.. creepy.’

4 They paid attention to the sound:

‘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:

‘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:

‘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:

‘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:

‘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:

AGENCY

PLAYSERIOUSNESS

LOCAL RESOURCES

TOTAL INVESTMENT

CONSTRAINT

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

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

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

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?

Cinema Cent Ans de Jeunesse/ Understanding Cinema

2015/16 ‘Le Méteo’

Understandingcinema.wordpress.com

Markreid1895.wordpress.com