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Scope & Sequence

Who is the author of a film — the director? the screenwriter? the actors? The screenwriter may be the person who pens the script, but words alone do not make a movie. Surely the actors are the most recognizable names and faces associated with a film, but the actors do not author the film. The director is the person in charge of all the creative aspects of a film and has the most complete understanding of the story content, narrative structure, and design. And yet even a director does not work alone.

Film is a unique art precisely because it requires a collaborative creative process. A variety of professionals and craftspeople work together to make a film. Some have expert knowledge of light and technology. Others are experts in sound, music, design, and construction. In this chapter, students study this collaborative process. The lessons move through the three stages of production. We begin with planning the film’s story, structure, and “look,” then move on to filming the action on the set. Finally, in the last lesson, we take students into the studio, where the film editor assembles the raw footage into the final film, and where the composer and sound-effects editor create the soundtrack.

Film Study Standards

1.0 Film Language. Students learn to read and interpret visual text by developing a film vocabulary, identifying editing techniques, and analyzing film elements within selected scenes.

3.0 Production and Creative Expression. Students understand that film is an expression of a director’s personal vision produced through a collaborative process. Students understand and distinguish the various filmmaking roles that contribute to the final work of art.

5.0 Cross-Curricular Connections. Students first tap their knowledge of other disciplines to study a film. They then apply what they have learned about film to other disciplines, making connections between film and literature/language arts, film and history/social studies, film and other arts, and film and sciences.

THE FILMMAKING PROCESSTo be a writer, you need a pen. To be a painter, a brush. To be a musician, an instrument. But to be a filmmaker, you need the collaboration of others to bring your vision to the canvas that is the movie screen.

— Martin Scorsese, Director

CHAPTERTWO 2

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44

Lesson 1

Activity A

Activity BThree Stages of Production

A Film’s Visual Design

The Director’s Vision

Lesson 2 Getting Ready — Pre-Production

Activity A

Activity B

Activity C

The Screenwriter’s Role

The Production Designer’s Role

From Script to Storyboards

Lesson 3

Activity A

Activity BThe Cinematographer’s Role

The Actor’s Performance

On the Set — Production

Lesson 4 In the Studio — Post-Production

Activity A

Activity B

Activity C

The Film Editor’s Role

What Stays, What Goes, and Why

The Music Composer’s Role

Contents

Scope & Sequence

Who is the author of a film — the director? the screenwriter? the actors? The screenwriter may be the person who pens the script, but words alone do not make a movie. Surely the actors are the most recognizable names and faces associated with a film, but the actors do not author the film. The director is the person in charge of all the creative aspects of a film and has the most complete understanding of the story content, narrative structure, and design. And yet even a director does not work alone.

Film is a unique art precisely because it requires a collaborative creative process. A variety of professionals and craftspeople work together to make a film. Some have expert knowledge of light and technology. Others are experts in sound, music, design, and construction. In this chapter, students study this collaborative process. The lessons move through the three stages of production. We begin with planning the film’s story, structure, and “look,” then move on to filming the action on the set. Finally, in the last lesson, we take students into the studio, where the film editor assembles the raw footage into the final film, and where the composer and sound-effects editor create the soundtrack.

Film Study Standards

1.0 Film Language. Students learn to read and interpret visual text by developing a film vocabulary, identifying editing techniques, and analyzing film elements within selected scenes.

3.0 Production and Creative Expression. Students understand that film is an expression of a director’s personal vision produced through a collaborative process. Students understand and distinguish the various filmmaking roles that contribute to the final work of art.

5.0 Cross-Curricular Connections. Students first tap their knowledge of other disciplines to study a film. They then apply what they have learned about film to other disciplines, making connections between film and literature/language arts, film and history/social studies, film and other arts, and film and sciences.

THE FILMMAKING PROCESSTo be a writer, you need a pen. To be a painter, a brush. To be a musician, an instrument. But to be a filmmaker, you need the collaboration of others to bring your vision to the canvas that is the movie screen.

— Martin Scorsese, Director

CHAPTERTWO 2

33

44

Lesson 1

Activity A

Activity BThree Stages of Production

A Film’s Visual Design

The Director’s Vision

Lesson 2 Getting Ready — Pre-Production

Activity A

Activity B

Activity C

The Screenwriter’s Role

The Production Designer’s Role

From Script to Storyboards

Lesson 3

Activity A

Activity BThe Cinematographer’s Role

The Actor’s Performance

On the Set — Production

Lesson 4 In the Studio — Post-Production

Activity A

Activity B

Activity C

The Film Editor’s Role

What Stays, What Goes, and Why

The Music Composer’s Role

Contents

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Lesson 1 The Director’s Vision

Teacher Overview

Making a film is a creative process that happens in three stages — pre-production, production, and post-production. Lesson 1 provides an overview of these three stages and introduces the concept of the “director’s vision.” While many different people contribute to making a film, the director is the one person who has the greatest understanding of how all the parts fit together to make a whole. The director’s vision, therefore, is not just the film’s narrative structure as studied in chapter 1.It is also the film’s look and overall style.

The director achieves this by working with the cinematographer during pre-production, planning how to photograph each scene. The director may or may not use storyboards to communicate his ideas to the cinematographer. In this pre-production phase, the director also shapes his vision for the film by working with the production designer to create the sets and costumes. Production is the actual shooting of the film “on the set,” when the cinematographer and the actors do most of their work. Post-production begins once filming ends, when all work shifts from the set to the studio. Working with the film editor and music composer, the director assembles shots into scenes, and the scenes into the final film. Even these tasks are driven by the director’s vision.

Students will study in more detail the specific filmmaking roles in subsequent lessons.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

identify the three stages of creating a film;

describe the director’s role in each stage of production;

explain what is meant by the “director’s vision” and the “collaborative process.”

Key Terms

(Note: Most terms are defined within the activity text that follows. You may also refer to the glossary.)

pre-production, production, post-production, collaboration, director, director’s vision, visual design, storyboard

Lesson 1 Materials

Graphic Organizer 2-1: What Happens During Pre-Production?

Graphic Organizer 2-2: What Happens During Production?

Graphic Organizer 2-3: What Happens During Post-Production?

Graphic Organizer 2-4: Putting It All Together — Three Stages of Production

Screening Sheet 2-1: The Director’s Vision

None

Film Clip 2-1: The Director’s Vision

Activity AThree Stages ofProduction

Activity BA Film’s VisualDesign

Activity Print DVD

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Lesson 1 The Director’s Vision

Teacher Overview

Making a film is a creative process that happens in three stages — pre-production, production, and post-production. Lesson 1 provides an overview of these three stages and introduces the concept of the “director’s vision.” While many different people contribute to making a film, the director is the one person who has the greatest understanding of how all the parts fit together to make a whole. The director’s vision, therefore, is not just the film’s narrative structure as studied in chapter 1.It is also the film’s look and overall style.

The director achieves this by working with the cinematographer during pre-production, planning how to photograph each scene. The director may or may not use storyboards to communicate his ideas to the cinematographer. In this pre-production phase, the director also shapes his vision for the film by working with the production designer to create the sets and costumes. Production is the actual shooting of the film “on the set,” when the cinematographer and the actors do most of their work. Post-production begins once filming ends, when all work shifts from the set to the studio. Working with the film editor and music composer, the director assembles shots into scenes, and the scenes into the final film. Even these tasks are driven by the director’s vision.

Students will study in more detail the specific filmmaking roles in subsequent lessons.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

identify the three stages of creating a film;

describe the director’s role in each stage of production;

explain what is meant by the “director’s vision” and the “collaborative process.”

Key Terms

(Note: Most terms are defined within the activity text that follows. You may also refer to the glossary.)

pre-production, production, post-production, collaboration, director, director’s vision, visual design, storyboard

Lesson 1 Materials

Graphic Organizer 2-1: What Happens During Pre-Production?

Graphic Organizer 2-2: What Happens During Production?

Graphic Organizer 2-3: What Happens During Post-Production?

Graphic Organizer 2-4: Putting It All Together — Three Stages of Production

Screening Sheet 2-1: The Director’s Vision

None

Film Clip 2-1: The Director’s Vision

Activity AThree Stages ofProduction

Activity BA Film’s VisualDesign

Activity Print DVD

Concept

The process for making a film occurs in three stages — pre-production, production, and post-production. While many people contribute to making a film, the director is the one person who has the greatest understanding of how all the parts,or filmmaking tasks, come together to create the final film.

Engage

Write the following quotation from director Martin Scorsese on the chalkboard or overhead projector. Ask students to freewrite for two to five minutes on what they believe the director means. You might consider circling key words, such as collaboration and vision.

To be a writer, you need a pen. To be a painter, a brush. To be a musician, an instrument. But to be a filmmaker, you need the collaboration of others to bring your vision to the canvas that is the movie screen.

Explain & Explore Introduce students to the three stages of production by distributing and displaying Graphic Organizers 2-1: What Happens During Pre-Production?; 2-2: What Happens During Production?; and 2-3: What Happens During Post-Production? Review the key concepts on each illustration as suggested below.

Pre-ProductionPre-production involves all the work necessary to plan the film. The screenwriter’s role, for example, involves writing and/or revising the script. Production design involves researching and creating sets (both interior and exterior sets) as well as costumes and makeup. Storyboards are drawings of the numerous shots that make up a scene. Casting involves choosing the actors to play each role.

ProductionProduction is the work completed “on the set.” It is the actual filming of the movie. Ask students to suggest what choices the director, the cinematographer, and the actors might make. The cinematographer’s choices includelighting, distance from the camera to the subject (such as close-ups), camera movement, and camera angles. The actor’s choices include how to portray the character — not only how to deliver a line verbally but also what body language to use in order to communicate effectively to the audience.

Post-Production Post-production is the work completed “in the studio.” Once filming ends, a movie must still be assembled, in much the same way as jigsaw puzzle pieces fit together to create a single image. First the picture is assembled, then sound is added. Explain the difference between a film editor’s job and a sound editor’s job. The film editor assembles the visual images into a logical sequence so that the story flows smoothly from one scene to another. The sound editor assembles the elements of the sound track, dovetailing it neatly with the images on the screen. Finally, explain the music composer’s tasks. These include creating music to reflect the mood and action and to motivate or suggest to an audience what will happen in certain scenes.

Define collaboration. Collaboration means working together. Explain that a film is different from other creative processes because making a film requires the knowledge and talents of a variety of people. This is due, in part, to the technology required to bring a film to the screen.

Distribute and display Graphic Organizer 2-4: Putting It All Together — Three Stages of Production. This graphic organizer is more challenging to read than the previous three. Draw students’ attention to the three lines extending from the Director’s Vision box into all three stages of production. Students should understand that the director is the oneperson who has the greatest understanding of what the final film will look like and who works with the other filmprofessionals to bring that vision to life on the screen.

Ask: How does Graphic Organizer 2-4 help explain what collaboration means?

Close

Tell students that subsequent lessons in this chapter will explore each filmmaking role in more detail, so that by the end of the chapter they should understand more completely how a film develops from concept through completion.

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Concept A movie’s visual design is the “look” of the final film. In planning this look, or design, the director considers many different factors, including elements of lighting, set design, and costuming and makeup.

EngageWrite the following equation on the chalkboard:

Director’s vision = story’s content + narrative structure + the film’s visual design

In chapter 1, students learned what is meant by the story’s content and the narrative structure. Explain that in this activity, they will learn the final element in the equation, the film’s look. Review, if necessary, story content (basic story elements of characters, setting, plot, conflict, theme) and narrative structure (how the story is told). Then ask students to suggest an ex-planation for the last element in the equation, the film’s visual design. Encourage thoughtful responses by prompting:

Do actors all look and dress alike in films? How do their looks differ?

Have you ever paid attention to the lighting in the film or to the soundtrack? Do light and sound have colors or shades of meaning?

Name some movies you’ve seen recently that have had bright and colorful images or some movies that have had darkercolors and shading.

Explain & Explore Introduce the screening activity by sharing this information with students:

Making a film is sometimes compared to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle has many parts. In the first stage of putting the puzzle together, the person often refers to the picture on the puzzle box in order to figure out how all the pieces fit together. A film also has many different pieces. The director has the mental picture of what the final film will look like onceall the pieces are fitted together.

Distribute Screening Sheet 2-1: The Director’s Vision. Review the Word Builder terms and the activity, which has two parts. Part 1 is a pre-screening discussion of statements made by directors. These statements are taken from the film clip that they will watch later. To help students comprehend the film clip, they should first discuss the statements. Explain that they will have an opportunity to revise their responses on the chart after screening the film.

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-1:The Director’s Vision, Part 1 — Pre-Screening Discussion

Quotation What You Think the Director Means

Unfamiliar words include shrink, a psychologist, or someone who understands how other people think and behave. Interpretations will vary but should focus on the main idea that a director has to know all the stages of filmmaking, as well as how to communicate with others and how to motivate people.

The words are familiar but the concept of the “eye of the camera” may be unfamiliar to most students. The camera’s lens is its eye and the person who controls what the cinematographer photographs is the director. The director works with the cinematographer in selecting not only what to shoot but how. The resulting images, when edited together, tell a story.

Miloš Forman: “You have to be a little bit of a writer, a little bit of an actor, a little bit of a cameraman, a little bit of a dictator, a little bit ofa shrink.”

Rouben Mamoulian: “The eye of the camera must be the eye of the director. It is absolutely inevitable because you are telling a story in images.”

(Note: Student responses made before viewing the clip may differ somewhat from those made after viewing.)

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Again, most words are familiar and yet the concept of film languagemay be new to most students. The director is saying that film has its own language — through shots, movement, cuts, and composition. Explain that placing people in the frame (the area the camera sees) and moving them from one place to another within the frame is called composition. They will learn more about composition and mise-en-scène in chapter 3.

Unfamiliar words include by-product, something that occurs as aresult of doing something else. Interpretations should focus on technology as a tool for bringing the director’s vision to life. Telling a good story iswhat the director’s vision is ultimately about.

Martin Scorsese: “Film has its own language, its own grammar — camera shots...movement...theediting of scenes...the mise-en-scène, the actual placing people in the frame and moving them around.”

George Lucas: “Technology is used to tell a story, and that’s the whole point. It is really the filmmaker and the storyteller and how well they are able to tell a story that counts in the end. The techniques they use arereally a by-product of that process.”

Close

Return to the equation that began the activity and ask students to explain in their own words what is meant by the film’svisual design: Director’s vision = story’s content + narrative structure + the film’s visual design. Emphasize that a director’s vision will vary from one film to another. Movies have different looks, but this is not by accident. It is by design.

View Film Clip 2-1: The Director’s Vision. After viewing, discuss student observations. Answers will vary.Recommended answers are below.

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-1:The Director’s Vision, Part 2 — The Screening Activity

1. Name some of the people with whom the director collaborates in making a film. The screenwriter, the cinema- tographer, and the film editor. In addition, the actors, the costume and set designers, the sound editor, and the music composer all collaborate with the director.

2. How is making a movie like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle? Answers will vary. When fitted together, a jigsaw puzzle makes a whole picture. The individual puzzle pieces — like individual shots and scenes — by themselves may have color and shape and line, but they do not present the whole picture. The part they play in completing the image is fully realized when the entire puzzle — or film — is assembled.

3. A film’s “look” is the overall visual design, determined by the director. To explain this concept, the film clip uses shots from two classic films, Citizen Kane and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Explain how the “look” of these two films differs. Students may readily note that one film is in black-and-white and the other is in color. Beyond color, however, the films differ significantly. Citizen Kane uses light and shadow in a dramatic way as well as unusual camera angles. For example, the director uses an extreme close-up of a man’s mustached mouth as he whispers “Rosebud.” The shot of the house in the snow fools the audience into thinking they are looking at a snow scene, when in fact, as the camera pulls back, we see that they are looking at a miniature house in a snow globe which the man is holding. 2001: A Space Odyssey has a futuristic design. A dominant visual element is movement, the rotation of people and objects and the feel of weightlessness.

4. The narrator says, “The director’s vision spans from conception to completion.” What does this mean? The conception is the idea for the movie before anything is written or planned. Completion is the final movie released in theaters and on video. So the director’s vision covers every step of the filmmaking process.

Think More About ItReturn to part 1 of this screening sheet. Now that you’ve seen the film clip, do you have a better understanding of what each quotation means? Read what you wrote in column 2, then change or add new information to your answers. Answers will vary. Emphasize the key points, that a director is the one person who has the most complete understanding of how the final film will look, and that this vision determines how all the members of the cast and crew complete their jobs.

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Teacher Overview

A film’s overall look may exist in the director’s imagination, but the screenwriter and the production designer are the people who actually create the fictional world of the movie. The screenwriter imagines the world through words. The production designer turns words and the director’s ideas into real-life sets. Many movie scripts are original ideas that the screenwriter develops. To Kill a Mockingbird, however, was an adaptation of a very successful novel. Activity A begins by explaining what a film adaptation is and then provides a guided discussion on the five-step adaptation process.

In activity B, students learn that the production designer meets with the director to review the script in detail. Research is often an essential first step in production design. In designing the sets for To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, the production designer needed a good understanding of history and small-town America, as well as fashions of the 1930s. The next step is sketching set designs and/or building miniature models of sets. Once the director approves the designs, construction begins. In short, the production designer is part historian, part artist, and part architect.

Storyboards are a tool that many directors use in communicating his or her ideas to the production designer in the planning stages of the film. Activity C provides students a rare look at storyboards for a dramatic scene in To Kill a Mockingbird. The screening activity allows students to compare the drawings with the actual shots in the film.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

explain the role of the screenwriter in making a film;

identify steps in the process of adapting a previously written/published story into a screenplay;

explain the role of the production designer in making a film;

understand that storyboards are a tool that help the director and the cinematographer plan the shots in the film.

Key Terms

(Note: Most terms are defined within the activity text that follows. You may also refer to the glossary.)

screenwriter, adaptation, production design, production designer, props, scale, storyboard, establishing shot, reaction shot, body double,

stunt double

Activity Print DVD

Lesson 2 Materials

Activity AThe Screen-writer’s Role

Activity BThe Production Designer’s Role

Activity CFrom Script toStoryboards

Reading Activity 2-1: The Five-Step Adaptation Process

Classifying Activity 2-2: The Trial

Reading Activity 2-3, Enrichment: Reinventing a Scene

Graphic Organizer 2-5: What Is Production Design?

Graphic Organizer 2-6: What Does the Production Designer Do?

Screening Sheet 2-2: Creating Worlds

Screening Sheet 2-3: From Storyboard to Screen

None

Film Clip 2-2: Creating WorldsPart 1 — Forrest Gump’s HousePart 2 — Creating Middle-earth

Still 2-1: Storyboarding To Kill a Mockingbird

Film Clip 2-3: From Storyboard to Screen

Lesson 2 Getting Ready – Pre-Production

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Teacher Overview

A film’s overall look may exist in the director’s imagination, but the screenwriter and the production designer are the people who actually create the fictional world of the movie. The screenwriter imagines the world through words. The production designer turns words and the director’s ideas into real-life sets. Many movie scripts are original ideas that the screenwriter develops. To Kill a Mockingbird, however, was an adaptation of a very successful novel. Activity A begins by explaining what a film adaptation is and then provides a guided discussion on the five-step adaptation process.

In activity B, students learn that the production designer meets with the director to review the script in detail. Research is often an essential first step in production design. In designing the sets for To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, the production designer needed a good understanding of history and small-town America, as well as fashions of the 1930s. The next step is sketching set designs and/or building miniature models of sets. Once the director approves the designs, construction begins. In short, the production designer is part historian, part artist, and part architect.

Storyboards are a tool that many directors use in communicating his or her ideas to the production designer in the planning stages of the film. Activity C provides students a rare look at storyboards for a dramatic scene in To Kill a Mockingbird. The screening activity allows students to compare the drawings with the actual shots in the film.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

explain the role of the screenwriter in making a film;

identify steps in the process of adapting a previously written/published story into a screenplay;

explain the role of the production designer in making a film;

understand that storyboards are a tool that help the director and the cinematographer plan the shots in the film.

Key Terms

(Note: Most terms are defined within the activity text that follows. You may also refer to the glossary.)

screenwriter, adaptation, production design, production designer, props, scale, storyboard, establishing shot, reaction shot, body double,

stunt double

Activity Print DVD

Lesson 2 Materials

Activity AThe Screen-writer’s Role

Activity BThe Production Designer’s Role

Activity CFrom Script toStoryboards

Reading Activity 2-1: The Five-Step Adaptation Process

Classifying Activity 2-2: The Trial

Reading Activity 2-3, Enrichment: Reinventing a Scene

Graphic Organizer 2-5: What Is Production Design?

Graphic Organizer 2-6: What Does the Production Designer Do?

Screening Sheet 2-2: Creating Worlds

Screening Sheet 2-3: From Storyboard to Screen

None

Film Clip 2-2: Creating WorldsPart 1 — Forrest Gump’s HousePart 2 — Creating Middle-earth

Still 2-1: Storyboarding To Kill a Mockingbird

Film Clip 2-3: From Storyboard to Screen

Lesson 2 Getting Ready – Pre-ProductionConcept

An adaptation of a novel into a screenplay involves a step-by-step process that includes compressing the characters and events of the novel into the uniquely visual narrative structure necessary for a film.

Engage

Write this sentence on the chalkboard or overhead projector. It comes from chapter 12 of Harper Lee’s novel.

After one altercation, Jem hollered, “It’s time you started beinga girl and acting right!” I burst into tears and fled to Calpurnia.

Ask students to rewrite this line of prose into a screenplay format. Responses should read something like this:

JEM(annoyed)

It’s time you started being a girl and acting right.

Scout, crying, runs to Calpurnia.

Explain that a screenplay looks different than a book does. For one thing, in a script, all dialogue is written centered on the page and is not enclosed in quotation marks. Characters’ names appear in all capital letters. Emotion or attitude is enclosedin parentheses. Action is usually briefly stated and placed on the left side of the page. You might wish to repeat this brief warm-up activity with other lines from other stories.

Explain & Explore Distribute Reading Activity 2-1: The Five-Step Adaptation Process. Review the Word Builder terms. Assign this sheet either as silent reading or as homework. Then follow the guided discussion questions below.

Guided Discussion 1. A screenwriter reads a story a number of times before starting to write the screenplay. Each time the writer reads the story with a different purpose in mind. What are two different purposes identified in step 1? One, to understand the story and what happened. Two, to understand the story’s themes. The screenwriter may also read additional times to more fully understand the tone and “spirit” of the story and characters.

2. What specifically does the writer summarize in step 2, and what do some writers use to help them organize their outline? The major events in the story; they sometimes use index cards.

3. How does step 3 differ from step 2? In step 3, the writer identifies a purpose for each possible scene in the film. The writer is beginning to plan how “visually” to translate the prose into a script. Step 2 involves simply listing all the things that happen, not why.

4. What types of scenes or events might a writer place in act 1? in act 2? in act 3? The writer will place exposition, or scenes that reveal background information, in act 1, as well as the inciting incident. In act 2, the writer will place events that show rising action and the climax. In act 3, the scenes that resolve the conflicts will be placed.

5. Why does a writer usually not include in the screenplay every scene from the book the film is based on? A film’snarrative structure limits how long a film can run. Emphasize that J. R. R. Tolkien’s popular The Lord of the Rings novels were adapted into three separate but related movies. Otherwise audiences would have had to sit almost seven hours to see the entire story. Another reason is that some novel scenes are not visually interesting or dramatic. Too much dialogue or too little dialogue can slow down the pace of the film.

Distribute Classifying Activity 2-2: The Trial to more clearly explain step 3 in the adaptation process. Review the Word Builder box. Some scenes have more than one purpose, and students might wish to debate specifically what each scene contributes to the overall story. Accept all reasonable responses. Suggested answers follow.

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Answer Key for Classifying Activity 2-2: The Trial

Enrichment

Explain why a screenwriter often reinvents a scene. Cutting a scene from a novel can leave a hole in the story’s fabric. Likewise, compressing time can leave out some important details necessary to understanding a character’s motivation for an action that will occur later in the story. To fill in the holes, the screenwriter may reinvent a scene. The writer takes the essential elements of the scene — characters and intent — and recasts the scene in a different time or place.

Distribute Reading Activity 2-3, Enrichment: Reinventing a Scene. Read then discuss the questions. Recommended answers are below.

Think More About It1. Why is this confrontation between Bob Ewell and Atticus Finch necessary to include? It foreshadows the attack on Atticus’s children. Ewell displays in this scene his need for vengeance. Share with students who have not read the novel that Ewell threatens everyone involved in the trial, such as the judge and even Tom’s widow. Foote, however, omitted those details and focused on the primary conflict between Ewell and Finch.

2. Why did Horton Foote reinvent the scene for the film instead of running it the way it was in the novel? The scene at night outside the Robinson home increases the drama and the tension. To have shown this scene on Main Street during the day would have had a very different effect. Foote wants the viewer to sense Ewell’s vengeance, and the darkness helps to achieve that. Also, to set it outside Robinson’s home suggests that Ewell has followed Finch there, increasing his menace.

Identifying Details 1. Characters: What characters did Horton Foote omit? Miss Stephanie Crawford. Remind students that she is not the only character Foote omitted from the screenplay. Some students who have read the book will know that Atticus’s sister who comes to live with the children is also omitted.

2. Setting: Where and when does this action take place? It is night outside Tom Robinson’s home after Tom has been killed.

3. Action: What did Foote change about the action, and what did he not change? He chose not to have the scene told through another person, reporting on what happened. He deleted Atticus’s wry comment about Ewell’s tobacco. He didn’t change, however, Atticus’s stoic reaction of not reacting to Ewell’s violence with violence of his own.

Scenes That Reveal Character

Scenes That Advance the Plot

Scenes That Establish Setting

Scenes That Show Conflict

Scout, Jem, and Dill sitting in balcony with Reverend Sykes

Sheriff Tate’s testimony; Atticus making closing argument; children returningto courtroom to hear jury’s verdict; Atticus leaving the courtroom

Sheriff Tate’s testimony; Ewell’s testimony; Mayella’s testimony; Tom’stestimony; Dill crying; Atticus making closing argument

Ewell’s testimony; Mayella’s testimony; Tom’s testimony; Dill crying;Calpurnia entering courtroom in concern; Atticus making closing argument

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Close

Share this information with students:

Only chapters 17 through 21 in the novel focus on the actual trial of Tom Robinson. By contrast, the film devotes a significantly greater amount of time to the trial (approximately 30 percent of total running time). Ask: Why might the screenwriter have devoted so much time to the trial when it wasn’t the main focus of the novel?

Inform students that the studios felt the novel had no real action, no violence, except off-screen, and no love interest. The trial allows for courtroom drama. It is the rising action of act 2 that eventually triggers the climax, or turning point, of the film.

Concept

The production designer works with the director to bring the fictional world of the movie to life on the screen.

Engage

Share this information with students:

To Kill a Mockingbird was not filmed in a small town in Alabama. The filmmakers did indeed travel to the hometown of Harper Lee, said to be the setting of her novel. However, so much had changed from the 1930s, when the novel is set, to the 1960s, when the film was made, that the filmmakers could not use much of the town as the setting for their film. As a result, the film was made on acres of land — the back lot — at Universal Studios in California.

Ask students to suggest what might have changed from the 1930s to the 1960s. Guide discussion to include these areas — transportation, communications, streets, and buildings. While it is easier for students to compare the present day with the 1930s and to note what new inventions today would not have been around in the 1930s, it is more challenging for them to compare one era of the past with another. Interested students can learn more about the decades of the 1930s and the 1960s through library and Internet research.

Explain & Explore Share this information with students:

The production designer for To Kill a Mockingbird learned that a number of houses characteristic of the 1930s, located in California, were being demolished to make way for a new expressway. The production designer purchased the houses and moved them to the Universal Studios lot, arranging them to look like a neighborhood.

Guided Discussion1. What buildings were needed to make this film? The Finch house, the Radley house, other homes on that street, the Robinson house, the courthouse, the jail, the schoolhouse

2. What exterior locations were needed? Main street, a downtown section or public square outside the jail, the road outside the Robinson house, the Radley yard, the Finch yard, the wooded area between the school and the Finch house

Commentary from the Filmmakers:The Trouble with To Kill a Mockingbird

Learn why most movie studios did not want to make the award-winning novel into a film. Visit The Story of Movies Web site at www.storyofmovies.org. This

extension lesson includes a screening activity and handouts.

Teachers note: The film clip for this extension activity is included on the DVDfor Chapter 2.

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Distribute and display Graphic Organizer 2-5: What Is Production Design? Review the concepts on the graphic organizer as suggested below.

Set, Scenery, and Locations The set is the place or site of each scene. A set may be the interior of a building, such as an office, a courtroom, a train station, or even a train car. Or the set may be exterior locations, such as porches. Sets are constructed. Scenery refers to landscapes and outdoor locations, such as mountains, beaches, fields, and a public park. Scenery can also be constructed, such as the backdrop seen through a window.

Props, Furnishings, and TrimmingsProp is short for property. A prop is a movable object that is part of a set. Examples include wall hangings, tableware, computers, street signs, and weapons. Furnishings are the furniture that comprise the world of the film, including beds, couches, and desks. Trimmings are the decorative elements on the set, including draperies, bedspreads, lamps, and such.

Costumes, Makeup, and Hairstyles Costumes are the clothing each character wears, everything from hats to shoes. Costumes are also called “wardrobe items.” Makeup is not only the cosmetics applied to an actor’s face and/or body but also includes hairstyles and wigs.

Distribute and display Graphic Organizer 2-6: What Does the Production Designer Do? Review each task onthe graphic organizer. Explain that a production designer works with a team of people who each have responsibility for various aspects of the film’s overall look or design.

Introduce the screening activity. Explain that this film clip has two different segments and explores two different types of production challenges — creating a realistic location for the film Forrest Gump, and creating the fantasy world of Middle- earth for the Lord of the Rings films. By viewing the film, students will learn more about what production design is and how the production designer works.

Distribute Screening Sheet 2-2: Creating Worlds. Explain that students will work with a partner to complete the screening activity. Review the Word Builder terms. Teachers should present one segment at a time, stopping to discussstudent observations. You might need to run each segment more than once. After each segment, allow time for studentsto complete the Screening Sheets.

View Film Clip 2-2: Creating Worlds, Part 1 — Forrest Gump’s House. After viewing, discuss students’observations. Answers will vary. Recommended answers include those listed on the chart below.

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-2:Creating Worlds, Part 1 — Forrest Gump’s House

1. Rick Carter says that a film begins as a “blank canvas.” What does he mean? In the first stages of making a film, there are no visuals or sets. The production designer, working with the director, must imagine what the sets will look like and then begin to design them.

2. Rick Carter says that the production designer’s role is to create a “visual filmscape.” You probably know what a landscape is, but what is a “filmscape”? A filmscape is everything the audience sees on the screen — from set designs like the Gump house to exterior locations. You may wish to emphasize also that a filmscape involves more than just physical locations or buildings. It includes costumes and props, or as Rick Carter says, “everything that is not literally the characters and the narrative.”

3. Identify three stages involved in designing the Gump house, as shown on this film clip. First, the designer created an illustration or drawing of the house. Next, the illustration was altered on a computer program called “Photoshop” so that the designer could see how the house might fit into a physical setting with trees and grass. Third, the designer built a façade, or fake front, of the house and placed it in a physical location.

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Think More About ItWhy did the designer create so many different versions of the house? Why not just build the house? Answers will vary. Emphasize that all designers work first in sketches and often miniature models before constructing a building to scale, or in its proper dimensions. This ensures the design is right and satisfies the director before investing money in the final construction.

View Film Clip 2-2: Creating Worlds, Part 2 — Creating Middle-earth. After viewing, discuss students’observations. Answers will vary. Recommended answers include those listed on the chart below.

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-2:Creating Worlds, Part 2 –Creating Middle-earth

Think More About ItIf you had to make a budget for production design, what are some of the items you’d have to add to yourpurchasing list? Most students will recognize that production designers, costume designers, and people who actually build the sets and sew the costumes need to be paid salaries. However, encourage students to think about materials — bolts of fabric, wood, metal, rubber latex, computers, paints, computer programs, drafting paper, etc.

1. Director Peter Jackson says, “The way we tried to hint at the depth, which is all a film can do, was partly through the design process.” What does he mean by “hint at the depth”? Depth suggests layering and multiple dimensions. In this case, depth refers to author J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, a place that existed only in his imagination before he captured it on paper. What if this place really existed? What would it look like geographically? What would the characters that lived in this place look like? What clothing and weapons would they have? These are the questions that Tolkien answered when writing his novel. Jackson translated that written imagery into real sets and characters for the screen.

2. Costume supervisor Ngila Dickson says that as an actor puts on a costume, layer by layer, he or she is really putting on the character and that is why costume design is important in filmmaking. Explain in your own words what she means. Answers will vary but should focus on the main idea that the costume creates credibility, not only for the audience watching the film but also for the actor portraying the character.

3. Costume design involves more than sewing one costume for each actor. What other actors on the set also required costumes identical to the lead actors’ wardrobe? Often actors are hired to stand in for a star during shooting or to perform dangerous feats. These actors dress in the same costumes and wear the same makeup as the star. In addition, because some of the characters in this film were “Hobbits,” or little creatures, actors were hired for certain shots that emphasized the Hobbit’s small size.

4. Aside from costumes and sets, what other aspects of film design are illustrated in this film segment? Makeup, including prosthetics, or false body parts, contact lenses and wigs; weaponry

5. What did you learn about production design that you didn’t know before seeing this film clip? Responses will vary but should focus on the main idea that design is more than just sketching buildings and interiors of houses or offices. It also includes creating characters and costumes to help the actors bring the character to life and to make the audience believe that the story is credible. Production design can require a huge team.

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Now that students have a better idea of what production design is, ask them to discuss what important historical considerations the production designer needed to make when planning the To Kill a Mockingbird movie set. Emphasize that buildings are just one aspect of production design. The type of car Atticus would drive, the items in his kitchen, the type of phone Calpurnia uses, lamps, furniture, even the type of rifle Atticus uses — all these props needed to dovetail historically with the period in which the story was set (1930s), not the one in which it was made (1962).

Build a Model Set, c. 1930sResearch your hometown, a local landmark, or some well-known public place.

Then build a miniature model of this place. Visit The Story of Movies Web site at www.storyofmovies.org to learn more, including step-by-step instructions on how

to conduct your production-design research.

Concept

A director may use storyboards to plan shots for the film and to communicate his or her vision to actors and production staff.

Engage

Write this phrase on the chalkboard or overhead projector: The woman looked old. Ask students: How do you know whensomeone looks old? Encourage students to provide specific, vivid details by asking additional questions, such as, What doher face or hands look like? How might her clothing reveal her age? What behavior might suggest that she is old? Students shouldhave no difficulty providing details to flesh out the image.

Next, ask students how a director might communicate to a production designer how a set should look. For example, in ToKill a Mockingbird, the Radley house looks mysterious. Mysterious could mean many things — a dark building in the middleof a field, a brightly lit home surrounded by a high fence, a building on a city block with windows and doors boarded over.Very often a director will use a type of visual shorthand to communicate how a character or a set should appear. Instead ofwriting a description, the director uses drawings, called storyboards. Although storyboards may look like simple cartoons,the drawings provide information beyond what a character or a set might look like.

Explain & Explore Define storyboard. A storyboard is a shot-by-shot layout, drawn on paper or on a computer, for a film. Share thisinformation with students:

A storyboard includes information to help the filmmakers understand how to photo-graph a shot, including who and what may be in the shot, the placement of those people or objects, camera angles, camera movement, and sometimes a little dialogue.

Display Still 2-1: Storyboarding To Kill a Mockingbird. These 12 slides are from the opening shots of the film. As you move through the sequences, pause to ask one or more of the following questions:

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Guided Discussion

Storyboards 1, 2, and 31. Describe what is shown in each panel or sketch. First, the leaves and branches of a tree; second, birds sitting on a tree limb; third, a street with houses

2. Which drawing — first, second, or third — provides a closer look at a subject? Second image

3. Which drawing — first, second, or third — helps the audience to visualize the setting of the film? Third image

4. Note the arrows outside drawings 1 and 2. Arrows suggest movement. What type of movement is suggested bythe arrows drawn outside the frame? Draw students’ attention to the caption for each drawing and the phrase pan down to. This means the camera will slowly move from the treetops down to the street. Note that students will learn more about camera movement in chapter 3.

5. What does the arrow that is mostly inside drawing (or frame) 2 suggest? Movement of an object or objects within the frame, suggesting that the bird or birds will fly away

Storyboards 4, 5, and 6 6. What information do these three drawings provide the filmmakers? The camera will show the audience the wagon approaching and passing. In the third drawing on this page, the camera will move in closer on the wagon as it moves away.

Storyboards 7, 8, and 97. How do these three drawings differ? Answers will vary but should include the following points: Distance — the middle

image is a close-up, the third image is the farthest, and the first image puts the audience about midway. Detail — each image presents different information to help the audience understand what is happening. In the first image, Mr. Cunningham is unloading his wagon; in the second image, he is reaching for a sack; in the third image, he walks toward a house.

Storyboards 10, 11 and 128. Which of the three drawings might be called a close-up shot of a character? Give a reason for your answer. Second image of Scout. The drawing focuses only on the tire and her face. In the other images, we see more details in the distance.

9. In which image is Scout moving within the drawing, or frame? First image, indicated by the arrow

Introduce the screening activity. First, they will see storyboard images for a suspenseful scene in the film — the children spying on the Radley house at night. Second, they will see a “split screen.” On the top of the screen will be the storyboard images. On the bottom of the screen, playing simultaneously, will be the filmed shots of that scene. In this way, students will be able to compare and contrast the storyboard images to the final shots used in the film.

Distribute Screening Sheet 2-3: From Storyboard to Screen. Review the Word Builder terms and the chart toensure that students know what to observe and record.

View Film Clip 2-3: From Storyboard to Screen. Teachers can pause the DVD at any point to emphasizedifferences in the storyboard and the final film. Discuss students’ observations. Recommended answers include those listed on the chart on the following page.

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Ask students to freewrite for two to four minutes on ways they can apply what they have just learned about storyboarding to other school subjects or activities.

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Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-3:From Storyboard to Screen

Comparisons Contrasts

The first few storyboards (those shown while the narrator speaks) indicate that the sequence of action begins with the children at the backyard gate. Once the screen splits and the storyboard and the film play simultaneously, students will note that while the action on screen differs somewhat from the drawings, the camera angles and distances are very similar. For example, the storyboard image shows Jem from behind as he climbs the steps to the porch. In the filmed version, the camera is indeed behind Jem. Another example is the close-up drawing of Scout and then Dill with their hands over their eyes. In the filmed version, the camera does move in closer to show them in this position. Other similarities include shadows, feeling of looming danger, and position of characters.

The filmed version shows movement that the storyboard does not. The filmed version also has sound effects and music. The filmed version has more shots than thestoryboard has pictures, and the sequence or progressiondiffers a bit. Some students might point out that astoryboard image remains on the screen, while multiple shots in the filmed version capture action providing more detail than the storyboards do.

Create a Wardrobe Script!Learn more about how costume designers work by visiting The Story of Movies

Web site at www.storyofmovies.org. This extension activity includes a videoscreening plus handouts that teachers can download.

Think More About It1. How can storyboards help the director communicate his vision to the other filmmakers? They help the

director plan shots by showing not only what is happening but also from what angle and what distance and in what general type of lighting. The storyboards also help the production designer, who is responsible for creating the sets, to understand how the director wants the scene to look.

2. Why is the final film different from the storyboards? Creating the storyboards is only one step in the pre- production process of making a film. Any number of factors may alter the final look of the film, including suggestions by the other filmmakers involved in making the movie, such as the cinematographer and the production designer. Also, in the post-production stage, the director works with the film editor to select the best shots and to delete those that do not work as well. In that case, a storyboard image might have been shot but was omitted in the final cut of the film. Sound editors and composers can also play a part in the look of the final film.

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Ask students to freewrite for two to four minutes on ways they can apply what they have just learned about storyboarding to other school subjects or activities.

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Teacher Overview

The script is written. The set is designed. Now, at last, filming can begin. This lesson takes students through the next stage in the filmmaking process — production. Here the work of the cinematographer and the crew who operate the cameras on the set is most important. Here too the actors breathe life into the characters who previously existed only in the script.

The cinematographer is also called the director of photography — or DP. The cinematographer is responsible for shooting the film, but this involves much more than operating the cameras on the set. Specific tasks include framing and designing the light for each shot. Activity A introduces students to what cinematography is in general and to the cinematographer’s tasksin particular.

Screen actors do not work alone. Costumes, makeup, and sets help define their characters. In addition, the camera affects when and how we see a character — close up or far away, from a low or high angle, in high-key or low-key lighting (which chapter 3 will cover in more detail). The final performance seen on-screen is the result of editing. Many minutes of an actor’s performance may be cut from the final film. This is a critical difference between acting on the stage and acting for the screen. Activity B presents print and/or video interviews with Brock Peters (Tom Robinson), Gregory Peck (Atticus), Collin Wilcox (Mayella), and Robert Duvall (Boo Radley). The first three discuss their personal experiences and how their understandingof class and race helped shape their performances.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

define what cinematography is;

describe the role of the cinematographer, or director of photography, in making a film;

understand that actors use a variety of techniques to make a fictional character credible;

identify reaction shots and construct narrative meaning from those shots.

Key Terms

(Note: Most terms are defined within the activity text that follows. You may also refer to the glossary.)

cinematography, cinematographer, color palette, mannerisms, reaction shot

Lesson 3 Materials

Film Clip 2-4: Visions of Light

Film Clip 2-5: Actors’ Choices

Part 1– Brock Peters as Tom RobinsonPart 2–Gregory Peck as Atticus FinchPart 3–Robert Duvall as Boo Radley

Activity AThe Cinematographer’s Role

Activity BThe Actor’s Performance

Graphic Organizer 2-7: What Is Cinematography?

Graphic Organizer 2-8: What Does the Cinematographer Do?

Screening Sheet 2-4: Visions of Light

Reading Activity 2-4: The Actor’s Toolbox

Screening Sheet 2-5: Actors’ Choices

Activity Print DVD

Lesson 3 On The Set – Production

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Concept

Cinematography is a film language that communicates ideas, emotions, and relationships to the audience by photographing light and shadows, movement, objects, and people.

Engage

Read or write on the chalkboard or overhead projector this quotation from cinematographer Conrad Hall. Ask students to freewrite for two to four minutes what they believe the statement means.

The yin and yang of cinematography is about where to put the camera, should it stay still or move, what to light and whatnot to light, is it better to go in or is it better to pull back to get the emotion you want?. . . We are storytellers and we don’tdo it just with words.

Explain & Explore Distribute and display Graphic Organizer 2-7: What Is Cinematography? Emphasize that cinematography is alanguage using visual images. Students will learn specific techniques in chapter 3. However, a basic introduction tocinematography is necessary in order to understand how the cinematographer collaborates with the director in creating the film’s look. Discuss each concept on the graphic organizer as suggested below.

Use of Light and ShadowThe use of light helps create reality or guide the audience toward where to look or what to notice. Sometimes light and shadow are clues to what may happen or what a person is thinking or feeling.

Use of Color PaletteA palette is a range of colors. A red palette, for example, may have purples or oranges or browns as well as various shades of red. In a film, the director and the cinematographer often work closely with the people who design the sets and even the costumes to decide what colors they want to emphasize and why.

Use of MovementThere are two types of movement in a film — one in which the camera remains stationary (fixed) while thepeople or objects move; and another in which the people and objects are stationary while the camera moves. A cinematographer can also combine these two types of movement by having the camera and the people and objects moving at the same time.

Distribute and display Graphic Organizer 2-8: What Does the Cinematographer Do? Explain that the primary responsibility of the cinematographer is to translate the director’s vision to the screen through moving photographicimages. As a result, the cinematographer works closely with the director in both the pre-production and production stages. Review each of the cinematographer’s tasks on the graphic organizer.

Introduce the screening activity. All the people interviewed in this film clip are cinematographers. In describing howthey work, they also touch upon the history of cinematography. The segment spotlights scenes from many classic films, as well as more contemporary films with which students may be familiar.

Distribute Screening Sheet 2-4: Visions of Light. Review the Word Builder terms and the activity, which has two parts. Part 1 is a pre-screening discussion of statements made by cinematographers. These statements are taken from the film clip, which they will watch later. To help students comprehend the film clip, they should first discuss the statements. Explain that they will have an opportunity to revise their responses on the chart after screening the film.

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Quotation What You Think the Cinematographer Means

View Film Clip 2-4: Visions of Light. Discuss student observations. Recommended answers include those listed on the chart that follows.

Michael Chapman: “The cinematographer’s job is to tell people where to look.”

Caleb Deschanel:“The great cinematographers are able to understand the stories they are try-ing to tell and find those elusive visual images that help to tell that story.”

Conrad Hall:“I think visually. I think of how, if you turned off the soundtrack, any-body would stick around and figure out what was going on.”

John Bailey:“The twenties was really a golden age for cinema, because the camera was unencumbered by sound . . . . It really was a visual medium.”

All of the words should be familiar. Even so, some students may need help in understanding Chapman’s meaning, which is that the camera shows what the filmmaker wants the audience to see.

The likely unfamiliar word is elusive, which means “hard to describe or hold.” Elusive images are those that represent abstract ideas, such as pride or fear or desire; in other words, how do you show “greed”or “hope”?

There are no unfamiliar words. Still, some students might need help in understanding that Hall means he thinks not in words but in images and that the images should be able to tell the story every bit as much as the words and other sounds or music.

Bailey is referring to the 1920s. The unfamiliar words are unencum-bered, which means “not limited by or burdened,” and medium, which means “format or means of communication.” He is referringto the time when movies were silent.

1. Describe the lighting in the shots from the opening scene from Oliver Twist. What is illuminated? What is in shadow? How does this use of light help to create suspense? Because the scene occurs at night during a storm, the lighting overall is dark. The first shot shows clouds quickly covering the moon. The second shot shows a woman walking along a dirt road. Some students may have observed that a cloud passes over the ground to cover her, as well. As the film proceeds, at times the woman’s face is lit (as if by lightning) so that the audience can see her struggling, and at times her face is shadowed. The use of light creates credibility but also helps to establish a mysterious, foreboding mood. (Note: Teachers may wish to replay the opening shots a second time for students to study the use of light in this scene.)

2. Conrad Hall says that cinematography is “a language far more complex than words.” What does he mean? Answers will vary but should focus on the main idea that film communicates through images, and the cinematogra- pher’s job is to show (rather than describe in words) the action and the emotions of the characters. Refer students to the quote by Hall in part 1 of this activity, that if you were to turn off the sound, the images would still tell a story.

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Ask students to suggest how they might use what they learned about cinematography in other school subjects. Answers will vary. Some students might suggest using images to illustrate science concepts or historical events.

Concept

The way an actor interprets and then plays a character affects the audience’s understanding of the story. Often, the actor’s interpretation comes from personal experiences and values.

Engage

Divide the class into two or three groups. Each group will be a casting agency. Their job is to suggest possible actors for a new film. The film will be a remake of the classic motion picture To Kill a Mockingbird. The agency must recommend two different actors to portray each of the following roles:

Atticus Finch, Bob Ewell, Scout, Jem, Tom Robinson

Allow time for the agency to discuss which popular actors today might best fit each role. They should consider not only physical appearance but other attributes, or characteristics. These include the following: age, the sound or tone of their voice, their gestures or mannerisms, and their previous acting experience. For example, would Leonardo DiCaprio be agood suggestion for the role of Tom Ewell? Why or why not?

Ask each agency to present their recommendations, then discuss the recommendations in general as a class. Conclude the warm-up activity by asking: Why is an actor — even a famous actor — sometimes not right for a role?

Think More About ItWhen the cinematographer does his or her job well, says Allen Daviau, the audience will “carry away images as well as the words.” What movie images do you recall carrying away with you? Think of current movies you have seen as well as movies you remember seeing as a younger child. Discuss how these images affected not only what you thought but also what you felt while watching the movie. Answers will vary. Accept all reasonable responses. If students have difficulty recalling specific images from their favorite films, ask them to comment on specific images in this film clip.

3. The first movies were made using black-and-white film. Color technology developed in the 1930s. Allen Daviau admires the early cinematographers because, he says, “having to learn to see in black-and-white” was difficult. What does he mean by “learning to see in black-and-white”? The real world has color. Earlier cinematographers, however, captured the real world in shades of black and white. Color is one tool a cinematographer may use to communicate, but without color, a cinematographer must rely on light and shadow, contrast and depth, lines and angles.

4. What did you learn about cinematography that you did not know before you saw this film? Answers will vary but should focus on the main idea that cinematography is not just camerawork, but also the use of light.

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Explain & Explore

Distribute Reading Activity 2-4: The Actor’s Toolbox. Review the Word Builder terms and the sheet. Explain that casting is a pre-production task overseen by the director. In production, the actor’s performance becomes a critical part of the filmmaking process. Discuss each item briefly, then read and discuss the questions. Recommended answers are below.

Define reaction shot. A reaction shot is often a close-up of a character. The camera captures the character’s reaction,either through facial expression or body language. The purpose of a reaction shot is to suggest to the audience what the character is thinking. For example, a reaction shot might show a character smirking. That might suggest that the sceneis meant to be funny, at least from that character’s point of view. Or the reaction shot may show a character’s wide,haunted eyes. That might suggest the character is frightened by what has just occurred.

Emphasize this important point: Reaction shots always suggest narrative meaning. By identifying and learning to readreaction shots, students can better understand the relationship among characters.

Distribute Screening Sheet 2-5: Actors’ Choices. This screening activity has three parts, or segments. Review the Word Builder terms. Then, after viewing each segment, discuss students’ observations.

Introduce part 1 by sharing this information with students:

Brock Peters was born in 1927 in New York City and grew up in that city. The character he plays, however, is a poor farmer in rural Alabama in the 1930s. In the 1930s, Peters was still an adolescent. How could Brock prepare for his performance as Tom Robinson, falsely accused of attacking a white woman? Brock Peters himself provides an explanation in this film clip.

View Film Clip 2-5: Actors’ Choices, Part 1 — Brock Peters as Tom Robinson. Discuss student observations. Recommended answers follow.

Answer Key for Reading Activity 2-4: The Actor’s Toolbox

Think More About ItIn what way does the actor’s understanding of the character shape his or her performance? Answers will vary but should focus on getting inside the character’s skin, imagining what he or she feels, sounds, looks, and moves like, and linking that to common experiences in the actor’s own life.

Identifying Information1. List the tools each actor used in creating their performance. Answers will vary but should include the following: Peck: mannerisms; Wilcox: costumes, makeup, hairstyle; Peters: emotions

2. What did Collin Wilcox understand about her character that the costume designer did not understand? She lived in an area where people like Mayella lived. She understood the setting and the character through her own personal experience and knew how she would dress and look.

3. What did Brock Peters do in order to cry during his scene in the courtroom? He recalled moments of pain in his own life.

4. What did Peters mean by fearing he was “dry”? He had cried so many times during the numerous takes that he didn’t think he had any tears left.

5. Why did Peters call his time in rehearsal his “vale of tears”? He spent the entire time recalling painful memories and weeping as he brought them to the surface.

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View Film Clip 2-5: Actors’ Choices, Part 2 — Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. Discuss student observations. Recommended answers are below.

Introduce the third segment by sharing this information with students:

Playing Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird was Robert Duvall in his first film appearance. Although his time on screen is very short, his performance caught the attention of filmmakers, who liked very much what they saw. His acting career took off. He has starred in more than 80 films. In 1984 he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Tender Mercies.

View Film Clip 2-5: Actors’ Choices, Part 3 — Robert Duvall as Boo Radley. Discuss student observations.Recommended answers follow.

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-5:Actors’ Choices, Part 1 —Brock Peters as Tom Robinson

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-5:Actors’ Choices, Part 2—Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch

1. What does producer Alan Pakula mean when he says Peters “has . . . a nobility about him”? Answers will vary. Some students might suggest that he has dignity, integrity. Others might suggest he appears gentle, well-mannered, like the good guy or a hero. Still others might suggest these adjectives — honest, sincere. Pakula does not mean by nobility, however, that Brock looks like an aristocrat.

2. In the shots of Brock Peters playing Tom Robinson, what actor’s tools does he use? Facial expressions, voice, mannerisms, emotions, body language

3. Years later, Brock Peters talks about his performance as Tom Robinson. What information does he share about himself? He had experienced racism and real moments of horror, including being kicked and beaten. He tapped the anger, frustration, and isolation he had felt earlier and used it in his acting.

4. Gregory Peck says “Brock gave me a problem.” What was the problem? Brock’s performance was so moving, Peck had trouble staying focused. When Brock began to cry, Peck also felt tears and had to look past him instead of at him.

1. During the interview, Gregory Peck shares a story about a letter he received from a schoolchild. What pleased him about this letter? The child got the point that Atticus did not retaliate when Bob Ewell spat at him even though Atticus could have “clobbered” Bob.

2. What explanation does Gregory Peck give for not striking Bob Ewell during the scene outside Tom Robinson’s house? Atticus knew he was doing the right thing in defending Tom Robinson, but he also knew it would be unpopular and even dangerous to do so. He had to summon his own courage, but he also had to set an example of courage and dignity for his children.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year presents awards, called Oscars, to filmmakers who have made outstanding achievements. Award categories include directing, screenwriting, production design, cinematography, and acting, among others. In 1962, the academy nominated Gregory Peck for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as Atticus Finch. The academy also nominated Mary Badham for her performance as Scout. The academy did not nominate Brock Peters or Philip Alford, who played Jem. Ask the class what criteria the academy might use in deciding to nominate a performance. Incidentally, share with students that Gregory Peck won his only Oscar for this performance.

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-5:Actors’ Choices, Part 3 — Robert Duvall as Boo Radley

Think More About ItThe three segments provide a number of different shots from the film. Describe one that is an example of a reaction shot. Answers might include Atticus recoiling when Bob Ewell spits at him, or Jem’s silent reaction to his father’s courage in staring Bob Ewell down. Other reaction shots are Scout realizing who Boo is and Atticus in court hearingTom’s testimony.

1. When director Robert Mulligan first saw actor Robert Duvall in costume as Boo Radley, what was his reaction? He was stunned by his paleness. He thought he was perfect for the part of this village recluse.

2. Gregory Peck says watching Duvall portray Boo Radley is “a lesson in screen acting.” Duvall is on screen only a few minutes and has no lines at all. In what way is his performance outstanding? Emphasize that acting is much more than tone of voice and delivery of lines. Duvall became Boo with a simple glance and subtle expressions showing his shyness, awkwardness, and affection.

3. Even before he saw himself on screen, Duvall knew his performance was good. What suggested this to him? He says he got goose pimples while performing the role.

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Teacher Overview

In post-production, the director works first with the film editor to assemble the fragments of filmed shots into scenes and then scenes into a “rough cut” of the film. A single camera, however, cannot capture all the necessary shots to tell the story. Therefore, multiple cameras film the same shot but from different angles, focusing on different characters or points of view.In the editing studio, the director and film editor view all the raw footage, then select which shots and which sequence works best. Activity A's screening activity provides a rare look at raw footage from multiple cameras, taken from the filming of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Students can see which shots the film editor selected from the raw footage. Activity B explains a second task of the film editor, sequencing the shots so that the timing, or pacing, maintains an audience's interest and heightens their anticipation.

Once a rough cut of the film is assembled, the music composer goes to work. Together, the composer and the director discuss the type of music that will best enhance the scenes. In some instances, the music communicates information that the visuals alone do not provide, such as building anticipation of what may come. In other instances, the music score suggests the emotions the characters are feeling or suggests relationships between characters. In short, the composer hears what the director sees. In activity C, students understand that music on a movie soundtrack can affect the audience’s response to a character or a situation. They learn that there is a process involved in creating a music score for a film. Students view a video segment featuring music composer Elmer Bernstein explaining how he developed two different music passages for the film, one to convey a child’s innocence and another to convey a child’s fascination with the unknown and the frightening.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

explain what the film editor’s role is in the collaborative process of making a film;

define pacing in relationship to editing a film;

identify two functions of music in communicating to an audience;

explain the composer’s role in the collaborative process of making a film.

Key Terms

(Note: Most terms are defined within the activity text that follows. You may also refer to the glossary.)

film editing, film editor, raw footage, cut, splice, rough cut, final cut, continuity, pacing, frame, music composer, music score,texture, dynamics

Lesson 4 Materials

Activity AThe Film Editor’sRole

Activity BWhat Stays, What Goes, and Why Activity CThe MusicComposer’s Role

Graphic Organizer 2-9: What Is Film Editing?

Graphic Organizer 2-10: What Does the Film Editor Do?

Screening Sheet 2-6: Editing Shot-by-Shot

Reading Activity 2-5: What to Include, What to Exclude

Graphic Organizer 2-11: What Does the Music Composer Do?

Screening Sheet 2-7: Music and Meaning

Film Clip 2-6: Editing Shot-by-Shot

Still 2-2: The Missing Scenes

Film Clip 2-7: Music and MeaningPart 1 – Interview with the ComposerPart 2 – Ears and Eyes

Activity Print DVD

Lesson 4 In The Studio – Post-Production

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Concept

The film editor’s job is to select the best shots from the raw footage of film and to assemble those shots into a final cut.

Engage

Remind students that a film is not usually shot in sequence. A director doesn’t always begin shooting with page one of the script. The first scene shot in To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, was the breakfast scene on Scout’s first day of school. That scene, however, occurs in act 2 of the film. One aspect of the film editor’s job, therefore, is piecing together the raw footage — or unedited rolls of film — into logical sequences, from beginning to end. But the film editor’s job involves much more.

Explain & Explore

Distribute and display Graphic Organizer 2-9: What Is Film Editing? to introduce students to the work completed in the studio after the shooting ends. Working with the director, the editor determines not only which shots will be included and excluded but also how the shots selected will be arranged. Discuss the key concepts on the illustration as suggested below.

Raw Footage Raw footage is all the strips of film photographed on the set. Very often the director will shoot one scene multiple times. He might shoot from different angles or shoot the scene using multiple cameras placed in different spots on the set. The director and editor will later select the best shots or segments from this raw footage to piece together the rough cut and then the final film.

Cuts and SplicesA cut is the point where one shot ends and another begins. A splice is the point where two pieces of film are joined together so that they follow smoothly, one into the other.

Continuity and Pacing Continuity means the coherent way the story flows from one shot or scene to another so that it is smooth and makes sense. Pacing is the timing of the assembled shots. Too many cuts, and the story may become confusing to the audience. Too few cuts or too much time spent on one shot may slow the story down and the audience may become bored.

Rough Cut The rough cut is the first draft or copy of a film assembled from raw footage. The rough cut is not the final film that will be released and shown in theaters. Like the first draft of a written report or novel, a film’s rough cut requires ad-ditional revising and editing to ensure the story flows smoothly and each shot is selected and sequenced just right.

Distribute and display Graphic Organizer 2-10: What Does the Film Editor Do? Review the tasks on the illustration.

Introduce the screening activity. The film clip shows how the film editor selects the best shots to use in the final film.Explain that the clip they are about to see, from The Lord of the Rings, has seven frames. The largest frame at the bottom is the final cut of the film. The smaller frames surrounding it comprise the raw, or unedited, footage from six different cameras, each focusing on a different character or group of characters. The yellow outline that shifts from one camera to another as the scene plays indicates which camera’s footage was used in the final film. As students will discover, footage from all six cameras was used at various points.

Distribute Screening Sheet 2-6: Editing Shot-by-Shot. Although students will study specific types of shots inchapter 3’s lessons on film language, review the Word Builder terms now to familiarize them with the language usedby the narrator in the film clip.

For ease in referring to the various shots, and for those students who might not have seen the film, review the names of the main characters in The Lord of the Rings. This particular scene, for example, takes place in Rivendell where the Hobbit Frodo volunteers to carry the ring into the fires of Mordor and so destroy it. The other characters shown are those who volunteer to go with him.

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Ask students to comment on how long it might take to edit an entire film. Based on their experiences in viewing andreviewing just one scene, most students will begin to understand that the film-editing stage of making a movie cantake many months.

Concept

Pacing is a critical factor when selecting which shots to include and which to exclude from a final cut.

Engage

Define pacing. Explain that telling a story, even telling a joke, requires timing. If the person telling the story takes too long, the audience becomes bored. If the person telling the story goes too quickly, the audience may become confused. When editing afilm, the editor and director not only select the best shots to use but also assemble the shots in such a way that the story unfolds neither too slowly nor too quickly. In the editing studio, this is called pacing. Timing is equally important when sensing an audience’s reaction — a gasp, a scream, a laugh. The editor must anticipate audience reaction and allow time for that reaction on the edited film.

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-6:Editing Shot-by-Shot

First Viewing1. How do the images in the various frames differ? Answers will vary but should focus on the main idea that some frames show just one character, such as Gandalf or Aragorn, while other frames show multiple characters. Also, some images within the frames are close-ups of the characters, while other images are shot from farther away.

2. How does this film clip help you understand what a film editor does and how? The film clip shows what movie audiences generally don’t see — the raw footage that does not make it into the final film. Most students should understand that a film editor must carefully review all camera footage in order to select the best shots to communicate the story.

Think More About It (Second Viewing)1. What did you notice in the second viewing that you didn’t see in the first viewing? Having discussed the differences in camera distances, students may recognize in the second viewing close-ups and emphasis on particular characters.

2. What did you learn about shooting and editing a film that you did not know before viewing this film clip? Answers will vary but likely will focus on the idea that more than one camera – in fact, often as many as six – film the same scene from different angles, focusing on different characters. Others may say that they did not know that an editor assembles the best shots into a final film using cuts from various reels of raw footage.

View Film Clip 2-6: Editing Shot-by-Shot. After the first viewing, pause the DVD and allow students to complete the first two questions on the Screening Sheet. After discussing student observations, replay the segment again so that students can observe more closely which shots from the raw footage were used in the final film. Emphasize that in order to select the best shots to assemble into the final film, an editor may spend hours, even days, in the studio viewing raw footage for a single scene.

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Display Still 2-2: The Missing Scenes. This includes four storyboard drawings from the end of the courtroom scene, after Tom Robinson has been found guilty and is led from the room. As each image appears, ask students todescribe what is happening.

Guided Discussion1. Identify which image or shot was included in the final film and which was excluded? The second image or shot was the only one included. The first, third, and fourth images or shots were excluded.

2. Why, do you think, did the director and the film editor make the decision to omit these shots from the scene? Student speculation as to why these shots were excluded will vary. Encourage discussion to focus on the reasons identified above for deleting a shot: somehow it does not work or is not dramatic; it slows the pacing or slows the storyline. Emphasize that Atticus walking out of the courthouse is so dramatic that to next show him upstairs in the balcony would not only slow the storyline but also be anticlimactic.

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Share with students this old saying: A film is written three times — once by the writer, once by the director, and a third time by the editor. Ask students to explain what they think that means. Focus attention on how the director might make multiple shotsof a single scene and then decide in the editing process which version to use and how and even where in the plot sequenceto place it — all of which will change the story.

Answer Key for Reading Activity 2-5:What to Include, What to Exclude

Think More About ItWhy did the film editor omit passage B from the final film? Emphasize that the reasons for cutting a scene are many and may include that the shots weren’t dramatic or in some way did not work. The acting, for example, might not have been convincing. Another reason is that the pacing or timing might have been too long and the director wanted to move sooner into Atticus’s summation in order to keep the audience interested.

1. Why does Mayella cry? Why does Dill cry? The passage suggests that Atticus has “hit” Mayella hard with hisquestioning. She is upset by being forced to answer questions about what happened, so much so that she glareswith hatred at Atticus. As for Dill, Scout thinks the heat has made him sick. But outside, Dill tells her Mr. Gilmer’s meanness toward Tom has made him sick.

2. What information about Atticus does passage A reveal? His gesture — head down — suggests he is upset by what he has had to do to try to get the truth from Mayella. He is compassionate, not mean.

3. What information about Scout does passage B reveal? Scout does not want to leave the courtroom and does so only because Jem tells her she must. But she nevertheless cares for Dill and tries to make him feel better.

Explain & Explore

Distribute Reading Activity 2-5: What to Include, What to Exclude. Have students read both passages,then discuss the questions. Students must make inferences to answer the questions, and so their answers will vary.Recommended answers are below.

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Engage

Ask students what part of the United States they associate with country-and-western music, with jazz, with rap, with reggae. Their responses will vary, depending on their knowledge of music. Typically, people associate country-and-western with rural areas, the South, or the Old West. Jazz usually conjures a cosmopolitan environment. Accept all reasonable responses.

Next, test students’ listening skills by reading aloud this quote from Elmer Bernstein. Bernstein was the music composer for To Kill a Mockingbird. Initially, he was stumped about what music could best express the story’s themes.

I had six weeks before I wrote a note of any kind. I didn’t know what to do. I sat there like a dummy for six weeks and just couldn’t get into it. I couldn’t figure out what the film was about in a way that was an open door to walk through. Certain things were obvious — it was about racism, the Depression, the South. But the minute you say it’s about the South you get tied up with geography. Do you want banjos and the blues? I didn’t want to get involved in geography.

Guided Discussion1. Have you ever felt the way Elmer Bernstein did — that you couldn’t think of what to write or do for an assignment? If so, what did it feel like? Students’ answers will vary.

2. What do you think he means when he says “I didn’t want to get involved in geography”? He’s not talking about drawing maps. Ensure that students understand his meaning: We associate certain places with certain types of music.

Explain & Explore

Distribute and display Graphic Organizer 2-11: What Does the Music Composer Do? to introduce students to this stage of the filmmaking process. Review each task on the illustration.

Distribute Screening Sheet 2-7: Music and Meaning. Explain that this screening activity has two parts and that the DVD will stop between part 1 and part 2. Review the Screening Sheet, including the Word Builder terms, the questions, and the chart, so that students know what to observe and record.

View Film Clip 2-7: Music and Meaning, Part 1 — Interview with the Composer. After viewing, discuss student observations. Answers will vary. Recommended answers include those listed on the chart below.

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-7:Music and Meaning, Part 1—Interview with the Composer

1. What idea inspired Elmer Bernstein in writing the children’s theme? Because the story unfolds through the eyes of Scout and Jem, the composer developed a musical “language” for them based on how children play a piano when experimenting. They poke randomly at the keys, usually with one finger.

2. According to the composer, Boo Radley means two things to the children. First, he is scary. Describe the type of music the composer created to convey scariness. To communicate the children’s fear, Bernstein composed frightening music with lots of texture and rising dynamics. He calls it “over the top,” which means exaggerated.

3. The second thing Boo Radley represents to the children is mystery. Describe the type of music the composer created to suggest mystery. To communicate mysteriousness, Bernstein’s music is soft, tentative, or hesitating. You hear a few notes, then a pause, then a few more notes. It doesn’t say anything, but it asks a question.

Concept

The music composer works with the director to determine where and how music might enhance the visual storytelling. To do this, the composer keeps two key goals in mind: Music can convey information, and music can trigger an emotional reaction in the audience.

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In lesson 3, cinematographer Conrad Hall said he thinks visually. He imagines the film without sound, meaning the images must convey the story. This lesson, however, shows that music too conveys meaning. To illustrate how images and music build layers of meaning, play a scene from a film without the volume. Simply press the “mute” button on the remote control. Ask students to describe what is happening. Then play the selection again, this time with the sound, and ask students to describe how their interpretation of and reaction to the shots have changed. West Side Story has an excellent example for this type of viewing-and-listening activity. On the DVD format, go to chapter 3, “The Sharks.”

Answer Key for Screening Sheet 2-7:Music and Meaning, Part 2—Ears and Eyes

Ears — Soundtrack OnlyHow does the music change from beginning to end?

Eyes — Soundtrack with ImagesHow does the music mirror the action in the scene?

In the beginning, the music is quick-paced, light, upbeat, playful. One could imagine someone dancing. In the middle, the music becomes ominous, warning; the tone becomes deeper, and the music is at times loud and scary. Once danger is past, the music again becomes playful and quick, as it was in the beginning.

When the children are playing, the music is also playful. It rolls along quickly, as does the tire. As Scout nears the mysterious Radley house, the music changes to reflect what the children perceive as danger. As Jem runs onto the porch and touches the door, then flees, the music again changes to suggest his adventurous escape. In all cases, the function of the music is to communicate the emotions the children are experiencing. The music is another way for the filmmakers to tell the story from the children’s point of view.

Scoring Still PhotographsApply what you have learned about music and meaning in thisactivity. Select five photographs that suggest the same mood or

emotion. Then hunt through music selections until you find justthe right music to enhance their meaning. Find out more by going to

The Story of Movies Web site at www.storyofmovies.org.

Introduce part 2. Explain that students will first hear the soundtrack for a short scene from To Kill a Mockingbird. The screen will be black, and they should try to imagine what is happening. Then the scene will automatically play again,this time with the images. The goal of the activity is to illustrate how music can suggest meaning but also how a composer creates a music score that reflects the action in the scene.

View Film Clip 2-7: Music and Meaning, Part 2 — Ears and Eyes. Discuss student observations. Recommended answers are on the chart below.

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