TEACHING

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TEACHING
AMES CONFERENCE MAY 30, 2009
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CURRICULUM FOR EXCELLENCELITERACY GUIDELINES

• The definition of texts needs to be broad and
  future proof
• a text is the medium through which ideas,
  experiences, opinions and information can be
  communicated.

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CfE LITERACY GUIDELINES

• Enjoyment and choice
• within a motivating and challenging environment,
  developing an awareness of the relevance of texts
  in my life
• Understanding, analysing and evaluating
• investigating and/or appreciating texts with
  increasingly complex ideas, structures and
  specialist vocabulary for different purposes

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CfE LITERACY GUIDELINES

• I can show my understanding of what I listen to
  or watch by responding to literal, inferential,
  evaluative and other types of questions, and by
  asking different kinds of questions of my own.
• LIT 2-07a
• As I listen or watch, I can
• ? identify and give an accurate account of the
  purpose and main concerns of the text, and can
  make inferences from key statements
• identify and discuss similarities and
  differences between different types of text
• use this information for different purposes.
• LIT 3-04a

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CfE LITERACY GUIDELINES

• To show my understanding across different areas
  of learning, I can
• identify and consider the purpose, main concerns
  or concepts and use supporting detail
• ? make inferences from key statements
• ? identify and discuss similarities and
  differences between different types of text.
• LIT 3-16a
• To show my understanding, I can comment, with
  evidence, on the content and form of short and
  extended texts, and respond to literal,
  inferential and evaluative questions and other
  types of close reading tasks.
• ENG 3-17a

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Multimodality
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What is a mode?

• A set of communication resources
• body language
• audio
• language
• layout (2-D)
• image
• space (3-D)
• typography
• interaction
• colour
• sensations (e.g. vision, hearing, touch, smell)
• movement

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• Key Aspects
• Categories
• Languages
• Narratives
• Representations
• Audiences
• Institutions
• Technologies

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• What kind of film is this?
• How does it make its meaning?
• Whats its story and how does it tell it?
• How are people, places, events and ideas depicted
  in the film?
• Who watches the film, what pleasures do they get
  and what effects might it have?
• Who made the film and how and why?
• What were the technologies used in production,
  distribution and exhibition

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Setting our Expectations - Posters
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The most direct way our expectations are
influenced are by trailers and teaser trailers
. WALL-E theatrical trailer available from the
Apple site. http//www.apple.com/trailers/disne
y/walle/
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• Categories - What kind of film is this?
• Producers - e.g. a Disney / Pixar
• Director - e.g. a Spielberg
• Stars - e.g. a Jim Carey
• Technique - e.g. an Animation
• Audience- e.g. a childrens film

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Categories Producers
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Categories Technique
Types of Animation

• We can divide animation into 4 major kinds
• Toys
• Drawn animation
• Object animation
• Computer animation

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Animation Toys
flick books
thaumatrope
phenakistoscope
zoetrope
praxinoscope
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Animation Techniques
Drawn (Cell) Animation
Computer generated (Traditional drawn style)
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Animation Techniques
Japanese Manga
Howls Moving Castle
Manga Romeo and Juliet
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Animation Techniques
Object animation (stop/ motion)
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Animation Techniques
Political Subjects Traditional comic style
Persepolis
Hybrid Computer drawn and live action film

Waltz with Bashir
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Animation Techniques
Hybrid - Animation on film
Sin City
Computer Game
Grand Theft Auto IV
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Categories Genre

• e.g. comedy,
• romance,
• adventure,
• science -fiction,
• musical etc.
• recognising genre is a process of comparison
• of the similarities and differences among films

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• Genre
• Iconography
• elements of set and setting, props, costume
• Science fiction - set in future. space
• space ships, robots, ray-guns
• (Dystopian sub-genre/ satire)

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• Categories Genre
• Not all genres are distinguishable by their
  iconography

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Categories Genre
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Categories Genre
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Categories Genre
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Categories - Genre Many films are mixtures of
genres ( hybrids ) WALL-E mixes
SCI-FI COMEDY (silent/ slapstick/
satire) ROMANCE MUSICAL
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Categories Genre Elements of different genres
in WALL-E
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Languages How does it make its meaning? Visual
- composition - (mise-en-scene) camera codes
- (angle, distance, movement) editing Sound
- dialogue sound effects music
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Languages visual Composition
(mise-en-scene) arrangement within the
frame lighting colour palette depth of
field (focus pull) camera distance
angle movement editing continuity transit
ions
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Languages Lighting
Contrast the light and shade of the earth
sequence with the even light in the Axiom.
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Languages Colour
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Languages Colour
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Languages Colour
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Languages visual Camera Angle (high,
low, straight on, canted) Distance (long,
medium, close) Movement (pan, track, zoom, tilt)
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Long Shot (Ariel tracking) Opening establishing
shot. Establishing/ confirming expectations of
the film
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Long shot, tracking. To establish setting and
character
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Medium shot for action.
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Medium close up for action and character emotion
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Close up to draw attention to important
narrative information.
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Close up to draw attention to important
narrative information.
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Close up to draw attention to important
narrative information.
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Close up to draw attention to important
narrative information.
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Languages Sound Dialogue silent movie?
Tone/ Inflection Sound Effects to convey
information/ comic effect Music to convey
information/ emotional effect themes for
characters e.g. often harp and strings
for EVE
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Languages Music -Track List
1. Put On Your Sunday Clothes 2. 2815
A.D. 3. Wall-E 4. The Spaceship 5. EVE 6. Thru
st 7. Bubble Wrap 8. La Vie En Rose 9. Eye
Surgery 10. Worry Wait 11. First Date 12. Eve
Retrieve 13. The Axiom 14. BNL 15. Foreign
Contaminant 16. Repair Ward 17. 72 Degrees and
Sunny 18. Typing Bot 19. Septuacentennial

• 20. Gopher
• 21. Wall-Es Pod Adventure
• 22. Define Dancing
• 23. No Splashing No Diving
• 24. All That Loves About
• 25. M-O
• 26. Directive A-113
• 27. Mutiny!
• 28. Fixing Wall-E
• 29. Rogue Robots
• 30. March of the Gels
• 31. Tilt
• 32. The Holo-Detector
• 33. Hyperjump
• 34. Desperate Eve
• 35. Static
• 36. It Only Takes a Moment
• 37. Down to Earth
• 38. Horizon 12.2

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Languages cultural codes Connotations - ideas
or information suggested by elements of the film
which depend on resonances with our wider
cultural understanding of meaning. e.g. - hand
holding - the boot
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Languages the POV shot
Wall-E POV
Wall-E POV
EVE POV
MO POV
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• Narratives Whats its story
• and how does it tell it?
• Narrative structure
• Classical narrative structure (Todorov)
• Equilibrium (normality)
• Disruption of equilibrium by some force
• Recognition of disruption
• Attempt to repair disruption
• Return to second equilibrium different from the
  first.
• Does Wall-E fit this structure?

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Narratives Time Over what period of time does
the story take place? (Seven or eight
days?) What takes place before the screen
narrative and what after? (pollution/
abandonment of Earth. Return /Recovery Over what
period of time? ( Seven hundred years ten or
twenty years) PLOT/ STORY DISTINCTION
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Narratives Scene List

• 1. Out There (opening)
• 2 Walk Home
• 3. Wall-Es Truck
• 4. A Day at Work
• 5. EVE Arrives
• 6. Confrontation
• 7. La Vie en Rose
• 8. Courting
• 9. Wall-Es Favourite Things
• 10. Bad Date
• 11. Time to Go
• 12. Space Travel
• 13. Docking
• 14. Welcome to the Axiom
• 15. Bridge Lobby
• 16. Captain on Deck

• 17. Define Earth
• 18. Repair Ward
• 19. Rogue Robots
• 20. Escape Pod
• 21. Cruising Speed
• 22. Spacewalk
• 23. The Lido Deck
• 24. It Only Takes a Moment
• 25. Code A113
• 26. Garbage Airlock
• 27. EVE to the Rescue
• 28. Captain v. Auto
• 29. All Feet on Deck
• 30. Homecoming
• 31. Back Together
• 32. End Credits

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Narratives Three Act Structure
Act 1 - Scenes 1 - 10 Opening - Bad Date Act 2
- Scenes 11 - 22 Time to go - Spacewalk Act 3
- Scenes 23 - 31 The Lido Deck - Back
Together Epilogue - Credit Sequence
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Narratives Mythic structure
Quest Heros journey to the other
world Myth Orpheus to Hades to rescue
Eurydice Theseus in the Labyrinth -
confronting Minotaur Jesus to Hell to free
souls Film Star Wars Lord of the
Rings Shrek
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Narratives Themes and motifs
Repeated images/objects/events hand holding/
spark kiss boot/ feet/ walking dancing extingu
isher Oppositions corporatism v.
individual stagnation v. change control v.
anarchy Moral?
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Narratives - Character
Who changes during the story? How? Who are the
goodies/ the heroes. Who are the baddies/
villains.
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Representations How are people, places, events
and ideas depicted in the film?
Gender - How are Wall-E and Eve depicted as male
and female? In what ways are stereotyping or
anti-stereotyping involved?
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Representations Gender?
What gender are the other robots? How can you
tell?
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Representations Humans
How are the humans shown? Stereotyping?
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Audiences Who watches the film, what pleasures
do they get and what effects might it have?
Target Audience? - age range? gender? At what
other audiences might it be aimed?
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Audiences Mode of Address
Texts speak to their audience using familiar
vocabulary. Wall-E tries to convince audience
that cameras have been used. Audience comfortable
with recognisable techniques adding to the
realism of the film. e.g. limited use of
first person POV as in games. Recognisable
slapstick comedy Robot thoughts/emotions
conveyed through body language and intelligible
sounds. Music/Sound Effects reinforce this. To
maximise audience in U.S. and rest of World
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Audiences
Family audience children and adults Pleasures
for children and adults comedy, narrative,
spectacle, happy ending. Pleasures for adults
e.g. (intertextuality) recognition of references
to other films Star Wars, Dark Star, 2001, Alien
series (Sigourney Weaver as ships
voice) Satire BnL, devolved humans
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Audiences - Preferred meaning
Did the producers of the film expect the audience
to take a particular moral from this story? If
so what? Can it be interpreted in different
ways? What is your personal response?
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Audiences
Some people do not like the film The film's
apocalyptic vision of a world rendered
uninhabitable by mankind's rapacious materialism
has been interpreted in America as An
Inconvenient Truth for children. Conservative
bloggers have described it as left-wing
propaganda, and Pixar's parent company, Disney,
has been accused of hypocrisy for criticising
consumerism on the one hand while profiting from
spin-off products on the other. The film's
creator, meanwhile, says he was just trying to
tell a love story. Observer July 6 2008
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Institutions Who made the film and how and why?
http//corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/overview.
html
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Institutions
The Disney Corporation is a world wide media
conglomerate with interests in film production,
travel, theme parks, television companies, music
publishing, merchandising, and consumer products.
Its revenues in 2007 were 35.5 billion and net
income was 4.7 billion. Walt Disney
Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar
Animation Studios DisneyToon Studios Touchstone
Pictures Hollywood Pictures Miramax Films Walt
Disney Studios Motion Pictures International
distributes films worldwide Walt Disney Studios
Home Entertainment distributes Disney and other
film titles to the rental and sell-through home
entertainment markets internationally.
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Institutions Disney businesses
Disney Theatrical Productions is one of the
largest producers of Broadway musicals and
includes Disney Live Family Entertainment and
Disney on Ice. Disney Music Group distributes
original music and motion picture soundtracks
through Walt Disney Records, Hollywood Records
and Lyric Street Records Disneyland Resorts in
California, Florida, France and Hong Kong. Other
travel business includes Disney cruises and
adventure holidays Consumer products Disney
Toys Apparel, Accessories Footwear Food,
Health Beauty Disney Home and Disney
Stationery. Media Networks include broadcast,
cable, radio, publishing and Internet businesses
such as Disney-ABC Television Group, and ABC
owned television stations cable and sports
broadcaster ESPN Inc. and the Walt Disney
Internet Group,
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Institutions Marketing Wall-E
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Institutions Pixar
Pixar Animation began in 1984 and made short
films and adverts for the first ten years. Its
breakthrough film was Toy Story in 1995, the
first fully computer generated animated film. It
followed this success with films such as Monsters
Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars and The
Incredibles. Pixar was taken over by the Disney
corporation in 2006
http//www.pixar.com/index.html
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Institutions Wall-E
Production Cost 180 million (est.) USA Gross
over 223 million Additional revenue from
worldwide theatrical release (almost no
language/cultural barrier) DVD sales, TV sales,
music CD, Games, toys and other marketing likely
to raise gross to over 1 billion.
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Institutions Certification
The British Board of Film Classification issues
certificates for films distributed in Britain.
Wall-E was given a U certificate- suitable for
all audiences. The Board does not actually censor
films but will advise on cuts to be made to keep
a film within one classification area. DVDs,
because there is less control over who watches,
may require further cuts to remain within a
certificate classification. Local authorities
have the actual power over whether a film can be
shown in their area and very occasionally use it.
http//www.bbfc.co.uk/
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Institutions Personnel
Key Creatives
Director Andrew Stanton. Joined Pixar in 1990
and has worked on most of their films, as an
animator at first, also as an actor doing voices
in Toy Story, Bugs Life, Nemo, then as a writer,
a director and a producr. He co-wrote
Wall-E Writer Pete Docter. Another early member
of the Pixar team. Has worked as animator,
directed Monsters Inc. and wrote Toy Story and
Toy Story 2 Production Designer Ralph
Egglestone also began as an animator. Has written
and Art Directed. Production Designer in Finding
Nemo Sound Designer Ben Burt joined Pixar in
2005 from Lucas Films where he was sound designer
on (among others) the Star Wars and Indiana Jones
films. Also voice of Wall-E Music by Thomas
Newman. Music for over 80 films and TV programmes
including The Shawshank Redemption, The Green
Mile, American Beautya nd Finding Nemo
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Technologies
CGI Computer Generated Images Drawn on
computer but begins with actually drawn
storyboards and paintings. Sometimes actual
models are made and captured into
computer. Software allows animation of
characters, creation of backgrounds, lighting
etc. Wall-E animators given lessons in
traditional lighting and camera lenses. Computer
file then transferred to film for exhibition in
cinemas. Thousands of prints needed for
simultaneous showings. DVD/ Blue Ray for
secondary distribution and sales.
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Links
http//disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e/ http/
/www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/teaser1_large
.html http//www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/ http//
www.pixar.com/howwedoit/index.html http//wall-e.
playthq.com/ http//www.slashfilm.com/2008/11/14/t
he-art-of-wall-e-20-photos/ http//www.musicfromth
emovies.com/composer.asp?ID32 http//www.guardian
.co.uk/film/2008/jul/06/news.features http//disne
ystudiosawards.movies.go.com/wall-e_script.pdf htt
p//www.wdsfilmpr.com