Film, Television and New Media (2005) Work program sample Film, Television and New Media work program Reproduced with the permission of a Queensland school December 2008 A work program is the school s plan of how the course will be delivered and assessed, based on the school s interpretation of the syllabus. The school s work program must meet syllabus requirements, and indicate that there will be sufficient scope and depth of student learning to reflect the general objectives and meet the exit criteria and standards. This sample demonstrates one approach, and should be used as a guide only to help teachers plan and develop school work programs. It should be used as a guide only to help teachers plan and develop the school s work program.
Two-year course and assessment overview Unit title and focus Key concepts Suggested tasks General objectives Year 11 overview T R A I L D P C Unit 1 Semester 1: Moving Image Evolution of the moving image Visual composition and style Techniques of filmmaking Film language to convey meaning Storytelling conventions Storyboard and scripting Camera and editing basics Digital video production basics Collaborative production process and roles Workplace health and safety requirements. Film treatment and storyboard Short video narrative Extended writing task-film critique Task conditions 19 weeks F 1 Design Individual suite Film treatment 300 400 words Storyboard 15 20 shots F 2 Production Group of three Each student to complete either camera footage or editing or soundtrack 2 4 minute production F 3 Critique Extended writing analysis 600 800 words Unit 2 Semester 2: Whose Voice? Youth Culture Speaks Teen identity, representations and marketing Deconstruction of the discourse surrounding youth cultural media texts Examination of advertising and popular culture and youth TV Consumption of youth targeted media commodities Music video genres Investigation of advertising institutions and global market Australian TV Television and multimedia production techniques Programming, ratings audiences Interactive media texts Investigative report on youth based issue Music video clip for a band or song Interactive media text 19 weeks F 4 Critique Individual Written report 600 800 words F 5 Production Individual Music video clip 1 3 minutes F 6 Design Individual suite Treatment 300 400 words Webpage design 3 4 screen shots OR Screenshot for DVD package 3 4 shots Written director s commentary three-column script 300 400 words
Unit title and focus Key Concepts Suggested task General Objectives Year 12 overview T R A I L D P C Unit 3 Semester 3: Mainstream Cinema Eye on Hollywood The evolution of classical Hollywood narrative form An examination of dominant Hollywood formulas and the narrative production process Auteur theory Scriptwriting Hollywood entertainment industries and making global business Intertextuality Convergence of film and new media Advanced digital video production techniques Film treatment and film script or screenplay using the conventions of a typical Hollywood genre Short film that uses/challenges codes and conventions of a Hollywood genre Create an internet text, e.g. a feature article for a film magazine, evaluating the convergence of Hollywood style narrative conventions and new media Unit 4 Semester 3/4: Art Cinema On the Edge Art/experimental Design and filmmaking production of Artistic expression non-narrative/art Film styles and video for entry movements into a festival that Independent production experiments and marginal voices with storytelling Alternative screening, conventions distribution and audiences Advanced filming and editing technologies Task conditions 14 weeks S1 Design Individual suite Treatment 400 500 words Film script or shooting script Up to 6 mins S 2 Production Group of three Each student to complete either camera footage or editing or soundtrack 6 mins S3 Critique Extended writing Feature article Internet text 800 1000 words 14 weeks S4 Design Individual Treatment 400 500 words Storyboard: 12 16 shots S5 Production Art film 2 4 mins S6 Critique Director s Commentary 800 1000 words or oral 6 8 mins with supported documentation
Learning experiences and assessment tasks Unit: Length: Key concepts: Objectives: Mainstream Cinema Eye on Hollywood 14 weeks Technologies, Representations, Institutions, Languages Design production critique Unit focus Unit 3 Mainstream Cinema: Eye on Hollywood from a course and assessment overview of Year 12, revisits and assesses taught skills such as scriptwriting, use of production practices and textual analyses. The assessment tasks relate directly to the learning. A practical study of narrative form in mainstream films represented by dominant Hollywood formula films, narrative production processes and, in response to the influences of changing and merging technologies on film and video production within the Hollywood entertainment industry, the expression of these narrative conventions into convergence with other new media. Learning experiences, including affective Reflect on the rise of Hollywood and genre cinema. As a whole class, discuss which genres were popular in particular eras in view of societal and cultural influences and technologies of the time. In small groups list the conventions of the classic Hollywood studio cinematic style (as form and institution). Consider Hollywood s development of the narrative, stylistic and aesthetic elements. Elaborate on the narrative production process. View sequences of films from the same genre. In small groups examine dominant Hollywood formula conventions. Compare these codes and conventions in a similar genre from different world cinemas to determine construction of representation and stereotype. Against the demise of the classical studio system, investigate the impact of New Hollywood as auteur cinema with such directors as Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Coen Brothers, Francis Coppola in introducing innovative cinematic language and challenging themes to mainstream filmmaking. Possible assessment tasks S1 Design suite Film treatment and screenplay or shooting script using or challenging the conventions of a typical Hollywood cinema genre. Suite includes: individual treatment 400 500 words Screenplay/shooting script for a production 5 minutes S2 Production Group video production short narrative production. Each student to complete either camera, editing or soundtrack 5 9 minute production. S3 Critique Extended writing including research linked to new media and convergence in terms of film narrative and style to be formatted as a feature article and internet text 800 1000 words.
Learning experiences, including affective (continued) Scriptwriting workshop individually select a typical Hollywood genre (cinematic style, linear narrative/ structure, role of hero). Write a treatment and screenplay for a formula ending to an incomplete film synopsis embodying or challenging its codes and conventions to be developed into major assessment task. Include descriptions for characters, setting, costume, props, mise-en-scene, dialogue, action. In teams participate in workshops involving digital video technologies safely and with increased complexity through camera techniques, framing and composition, layering sounds, continuity editing and sequencing, use of transitions for time compression, titling and computer effects from digital editing programs, lighting effects. Discuss how convergence between moving image media has developed because of technological innovation such as internet with TV, print and broadcast media, mobile phones and the social consequences in terms of censorship, regulation, ethics and Hollywood entertainment industries pursuit of the box office. Evaluate the global changing and merging technologies on film and video in the context of the Hollywood film industry. Referring to the use of cut scenes from films that have been fleshed out into gameplay, elaborate on the way that film has crossed over to converge with new media including on line content, video games and vice versa such as Tomb Raider, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix. Evaluate the technical, symbolic and narrative codes of the genre, i.e. narrative structure, intertextuality, filmic techniques, character representations/stereotypes, audience composition and business marketing potential through interactivity. Resources American Cinema/American Culture, Belton, J 1994, McGraw-Hill, New York. Cinema Studies: The key concepts, Hayward, S 2000, Routledge, London. Contemporary Hollywood, Neale, S & Smith, M (eds) 1998, London. Film Art: An introduction, 7th edn, Bordwell, D & Thompson, K. 2003, A Knopf, New York. Film/Genre, Altman, R 1999, bfi Publishing, London. How to Read a Film: The world of movies, media and multimedia, 3rd edn, Monaco, J & Lindrotoh, D 2000, Oxford Press, New York. Introducing Film, Roberts, G & Wallis, H, 2001 Arnold, London. Screenplay: Cinema/Videogames/interfaces, King, G & Krzywinska, T (eds) Wallflower Press, 2002, New Y. Understanding Movies, 9th edn, Gianetti, L. 2001, Prentice Hall, New Jersey Journals Filmmaker journals/magazines (e.g. Empire, If, Metro, Encore, The Moving Image, Cinema Papers, Continuum) Internet Internet Movie Database, Kinema, Entertainment Weekly Online, The Cinema Connection, Masterclass Video/DVD American Cinema Series (1996) (a six-part series on the emergence of Hollywood genres), Martin Scorsese s Personal Journey through American Movies NYCVH/KCET/BBC Visions of Light (1993) American Film Institute (cinematographers and their art)
Sample tasks to accompany course overview Year 12 Film Television and New Media S3 Unit 3: Mainstream Cinema Eye on Hollywood (Task S3) Key Concepts: Representations, Institutions, Languages Critique Individual Summative Name: Teacher: Date Set: Draft Date: Date Due: The Context Our methods of telling stories and presenting information are being welded together. Walk into a movie theatre, a video game is sure to be lurking nearby. Film, the most important artform of the 20 th century, is especially challenged by new media as video games seek to borrow the catchet of cinema by merging languages, narrative strategies and genres and styling themselves as interactive films, so Hollywood cinema is trying to co-opt our culture s fascination with new media by using digital graphics to refashion linear films. (Bolter & Grusin 1999) The task In highlighting the interesting convergence of diverse forms of media, you are to research and write a feature article for a film e-magazine (with a minimum of two visual graphics). This article will examine the impact and close links forged between film and video games through a case study of a selected Hollywood film and the convergence of this film with the corresponding video game (or a video game made into a film). Evaluate how Hollywood has used new forms of media to depict typical narrative conventions to produce and merchandise not only the filmic product but interactivity itself. Consider: narrative structures and the intertextuality representation of character/stereotype emerging technologies and filmic techniques construction of interactivity and the virtual environment audience consumption and franchise profit Some suggested titles The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Evil Dead, Blade Runner, Spy Kids, TRON, Batman Begins, Tomb Raider, Wing Commander, Super Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, Double Dragon, Die Hard, The Godfather, Scarface. Conditions Time: Format: Length: 3 weeks in class to assist with drafting and completing article Internet text article with minimum of two visual graphics 800 1000 words and Bibliography
Year 12 Film Television and New Media Unit 3: Mainstream Cinema Eye on Hollywood (Task S1 and S2) Key Concepts: Technologies, Representations, Institutions, Languages Production Group Summative S1 & S2 Name: Teacher: Date set: Draft date: Date due (design): Production The Context A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end but not necessarily in that order. Jean-Luc Godard Hollywood, short for the American film industry, is a consistent and coherent set of aesthetic and stylistic conventions that are publicly understood. As an industry it uses media technologies to determine the kinds of films that get made, the way they look, the way those films and products tell stories and the way they re challenged by new forms of media. The task You have explored the emergence of Hollywood and its institutional practices and examined representations in dominant Hollywood genres. You are to individually design and produce a film that uses or challenges the codes and conventions of a Hollywood genre. Conditions 5 weeks class time and finish in own time. Design suite Individually create a proposal for a design suite that includes: treatment 400 500 words film script or shooting script for a 6-minute production. Group Production DVD recording: Three people per group. Each member is responsible for and will be assessed on an identified individual component of the group production. Completed production time will be approximately 6 minutes. Guidelines Reflect on your knowledge of the traditional codes and conventions of film genres, and how these can be used or challenged. Reflect on the Hollywood genre and how the key concepts of institutions and representations have been used. Design suite Write a treatment regarding your intentions of how your script is to be developed. Specify the genre style (how it utilises or challenges the codes and conventions) and then transform the treatment into a film script or shooting script.
Consider character, storyline, locations, talent, breakdown, dialogue, action. Refer to scripting format and layout studied in class. Indicate the best way for footage to be gathered considering the rhythm, style and mood of the film as appropriate to the genre. Production Project management in groups of three, you are to apply and demonstrate understanding of film languages and technical aspects of film production and technologies by selecting one member s treatment, film script or shooting script to film and edit a short film text. Make any adjustments necessary to the original script. In addition to director, each group member to take control of one technical role in production/post-production i.e. camera or editing or sound, and complete production schedule/diary, rushes log, edit decision list, sound sheet, necessary forms (model, location, risk, copyright).
Assessment Criteria: Design, production and critique You will be assessed on the following criteria Standard A Standard B Standard C Standard D Standard E DESIGN PRODUCTION The student: effectively applies the key institutions, languages to create detailed, coherent proposal that proficiently use the conventions of treatment, screenplay and shooting script. effectively applies the key institutions, languages to create a formula film that exploits and realises the potential of production practices. The student: applies the key concepts: technologies, create detailed, coherent proposals that use the conventions of treatment, screenplay and shooting script. applies the key concepts: technologies, create a formula film that realises the potential of production practices. The student: applies aspects of the key create developed and workable proposals that use some of the conventions of treatment, screenplay and shooting script. applies aspects of the key concepts; technologies, create a formula film that uses production practices. The student: loosely relates the key partially develop ideas for products using some aspects of treatment, screenplay and shooting script. loosely relates the key make aspects of a formula film using some production practices. The student: partially develops ideas that may relate to a formula film. records moving images and/or sound. CRITIQUE effectively applies the key institutions, languages through feature article format to make comments that are cohesive and substantiated and based on a thorough analysis and evaluation of media products and their use. applies the key concepts: technologies, institutions, languages through feature article format to make comments that are cohesive and substantiated and based on an analysis and evaluation of media products and their use. applies aspects of the key institutions, languages through feature article format to make some supported comments based on an analysis and evaluation of media products and their use. loosely links the key state opinions about media products and their use. states opinions about media products and/or their use.
SAMPLE STUDENT PROFILE Year 11 Formative Assessment Design Production Critique F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 Film treatment/storyboard for simple narrative or concept Group video production for narrative or concept Extended writing Comparative film analysis from same genre Extended Writing Investigative report on youth based issue Video Production Individual music video clip Treatment and interactive media text design B A- D+ C B A A- B+ C- Monitoring (February) HA Year 12 Summative Assessment Design Production Critique S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Film treatment/film script of a Hollywood narrative Group video production of a Hollywood narrative Extended writing feature article on media convergence Film treatment/ storyboard that experiments with narrative conventions Individual video production that experiments with narrative conventions. Director s commentary of art film A B+ C- B C C B+ C+ C
Design Production Critique Verification Level SA S7 Extended writing Comparative analysis Australian/Asian film B+ C+ B- B Exit level of achievement HA