IGCSEShort Film – Making Meaning

Objectives

Develop understanding of structure and meaning

Use a range of techniques to convey ideas

Understand how a text works

Two Cars, One Night

Summarise the story in one sentence.

Is the film simply the story of the meeting between the children or does it raise bigger issues about the culture they are part of?

Context

The Director

What does this article tell us about the director and his film-making career?

Maori

Research the Maori culture and look at the meaning of the tattoos on the face of the warrior.

The Maori people are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are Polynesian and comprise about 10% of the country's population. Maoritanga is the native language which is related to Tahitian and Hawaiian. It is believed that the Maori migrated from Polynesia in canoes around the 9th century to 13th century AD.

The Maori were ferocious warriors who used psychology and intimidation in warfare - the peruperu (War dance, a.k.a. Ha-ka ) was intended to give the opposing force a preview of things to come - sometimes in the hope that they would give up and go home - and fierce facial tattoos were a sign of manhood and accomplishment amongst the fiercest of warriors.

The Haka

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BoNmpvkavo&feature=related

Application of knowledge

Now that you have read up on Maori culture can you now look back at the film with better understanding?

What is the significance of the Maori warrior? What feelings, attitudes, values does he represent?

Making Meaning

By and large, audiences like to be led towards some sort of resolution at the end of a story. They like things to be worked out.

In the way that things are resolved at the end of the story, we often see the writer/director sending us a message of some kind.

In the working out of the conflicts that have been set up during the course of the narrative we can perceive meaning.

TaskUsing your notes from previous sessions focus on Two Cars,

One Night, consider the film’s meaning and how this has been created

Tie together your ideas about messages and meaning from previous sessions, including:

• Narrative • Sound• Camera• Lighting and mise-en-scène• Setting• Character• Symbols• Audience and representation

• You are to create a group presentation in a suitable form which will allow you to cover all of the required content.