Ten Tools for Reading Film

1. Making Predictions

One of the things we do as readers of any kind of text, is that we immediately start making
predictions about the content, the message, the audience, the writer’s aims and so on, and we do
this by making inferences from the evidence in front of us. If you are reading a poem, short story
or a novel, you might talk about the title, the cover, the blurb and the illustrations if there are
any. Learners discuss the sort of text they are about to read.

You can use the same kinds of activities before viewing a film, and at various points in the text.
This can be done using the cover of the DVD, or a trailer, or the opening of the film. At key
points in the text the Freeze Frame, Shots-in-Sequence or Sound & Image tools can be used to
discuss what might happen next, or how it might end. As readers improve their skills, and
become more aware of the conventions of genre and narrative, they become more confident in
weighing up likely and unlikely outcomes, and in identifying the textual evidence for their
predictions

Typical Questions

What do you think this might be about? (what makes you think so?)

What kind of film do you think this might be? (what makes you think so?) – this relates to an
increasing awareness of the features of genre

What do you think (character) will do next? (what makes you think so?)

How do you think this will end? (what makes you think so?)

What do you think might happen in the sequel? (what makes you think so?)

2 Sound and Image

Sound is a fundamental element of moving image texts, and one whose significance is often
overlooked (it is even ignored in the term ‘moving image text’!). Sound – particularly music –
can set the mood of a text, it can signify genre, and it can often be more powerful than the visual
images. In addition to its emotive force, the soundtrack often carries a huge amount of narrative
information, absorbed subliminally by the viewer/listener. Sound can affect not only the way
viewers interpret the images and how they feel about story events, but also what they think they
actually see.

NB.

v A soundtrack can have one or more of four elements – music, sound effects, voice and silence.
v Sound effects are of two types – atmosphere (continuous sound) or ‘spot effects’ (short
sounds).

v Silence can be used to create tension or to slow the pace.

A number of techniques can be used to develop an understanding of the relationship between

sound and image in moving image texts. Cover or blank out the screen and ask learners to listen
carefully (for a few minutes only) to the soundtrack of a moving image text, writing down
exactly what they hear. You can then discuss what ‘type’ of text it might be before watching:

Where is the film set? (indoors/outdoors? rural/urban? which country/continent?)

When is it set? (day/night? past/present/future?)

Who’s in it? (gender? age?

What’s happening?

What are they doing?

What is the mood/tone? (comedy/tragedy?)

How will it end? (happily/sadly?)

This exercise can also work effectively in reverse by playing a sequence without the sound, and
asking learners to suggest, or create, a suitable soundtrack.

Typical Questions/Activities

How would you describe this music? How would the sequence be affected if it was a different
kind of music?

What can you tell about the speakers from their voices? accent? tone?

Do the sound transitions in this sequence match the shot transitions? (In drama they may
anticipate them, heightening the suspense)

Choose a short silent text and create an appropriate soundtrack (there are numerous silent films
on the Scotland on Screen website)

3 Freeze Frame

Using the pause button on the media player allows the learner to focus on particular shots in the
text (and also to appreciate that each shot is made up of a series of still images). By examining
such things as the angle, distance and movement of the camera, and the use of lighting and
colour, the reader can learn how every element of a visual image can carry meaning, and how
visual images can be ‘read’ like any other text.

Typical Questions

What or who can you see in this shot? What difference would it make if it were composed
differently?

Where is the camera in this shot? Does it move or is it fixed? What impression does that create?

What can you tell about the time and setting from the colour in this shot?

What can you tell about the characters from the background or setting?

What can you tell about the relationship between the characters from the camera angles in this
sequence?

4 Shots in Sequence

This tool is used along with Freeze Frame to focus on a particular sequence of shots in a moving
image text. Readers may be asked to estimate the number of shots after viewing a short
sequence, or to note each change in shot, location or sound.

Readers come to appreciate that the number, sequence and duration of shots in a moving image
text are created in the editing process, and that screen time and story time are usually different.

This tool can also be used to examine shot transitions (e.g. cut, dissolve, fade) and how the type
of transition affects the meaning. The types of transitions used and the length of shots help
determine pace, and contribute to the meaning. Sound transitions do not always coincide with
shot transitions: in dramatic texts they often anticipate them to create suspense or alter the mood.

Typical Questions/Activities

Estimate the number of shots in a moving image sequence before analysing it in detail.

On the storyboard template, and using the pause on the media player, record a short sequence of
a film (6-20 shots) by drawing each shot, copying each one off the screen one by one, and
annotating afterwards with notes on sound and action

Use this to discuss the sequence.

What does each shot tell you? What doesn’t it tell you? What questions does it make you ask,
what does it make you want to know? (What is she looking at? Why did he pick that up? Where
are they going?. Can you see any kind of progression or pattern in the sequence?
Do we stay in the same place through the sequence or do we go somewhere else? (Do we return
to the original location?)

Do we follow continuous time through the sequence? Or do we miss bits out, and shorten the
timescale? Or do we stretch it even?

How does the length of the shots change throughout the sequence? What effect does this have?

What differences in camera angle, camera distance from subject, camera movement are there
between one shot and the next?

Was there more than one way of moving from one shot to another? What are these transitions
usually called and what do they usually signal?

Do the sound transitions coincide with the shot transitions or are they different? What effect does
this have?

How long is this sequence/extract/text? How much ‘story time’ does it cover? How is that
achieved?

5 Asking Questions

This may seem like an obvious strategy, since as teachers we do it all the time, but we are talking
here about student-generated questions! The key idea is that we develop an understanding in the
learner that asking questions is probably more important than answering them. This is a core
strategy in the development of critical thinkers, and we need to guide learners towards the
hierarchy of questions they should be asking as they read a text (see Bloom’s Digital
Taxonomy). Questions generally fall into one of 3 categories – LITERAL, INFERENTIAL or
EVALUATIVE – and we need to ensure that student questioning develops beyond the literal
stage.

One simple but effective way of developing these critical skills is to use the ‘Tell Me’ grids
during the viewing of a moving image text. These allow readers to focus on specific aspects of
the text and record the questions which naturally occur to them (these grids were developed by
the writer Aidan Chambers in his book ‘Tell Me: Students Reading and Talking’ OUP 1993).

Typical Questions

How many characters are there in this story? (Literal)

Where and when do you think the story is set? (Inferential)

Why does (character) act in this way at this particular time? ((Inferential)

What do you think is going through (character’s) mind here? (Inferential)

How well do you think the author has generated the feeling of happiness here?(Evaluative)

6 Making Comparisons

When we read a text we are constantly (and sub-consciously) making associations between what
we are reading and other experiences: other things we have read/seen/heard/watched, and our
own real-life experiences. Or, to put that another way, we are drawing on our prior learning.

In order to develop that in young readers we can encourage them to make those links explicit and
explore those aspects of the text which are most likely to elicit the comparisons. It is also
important to explore the notion that, while viewing the text will often be a shared experience, our
reactions to it may be quite different, depending on the associations we make.

Typical Questions

Does this remind me of anything I have read/seen/heard/watched before? How are they similar?
How are they different?

Does this remind me of anything in my own life? How did I/would I behave/react in similar
circumstances?

7 Looking for Patterns

By comparing and contrasting texts they have read, the sophisticated reader begins to show a
deeper understanding of genre, or of the work of a particular writer, director, culture or historical
period. Identifying recurring motifs within a text can help illuminate the text as a whole, and you
can look for them in the soundtrack, the images, and in story events.

Patterns can be found in elements of the plot, or the repeated use of a certain colour or symbol,
of types of lighting, of camera angles, shots or movements, of shot sequences or transitions.
They can also be found in the soundtrack of course, in particular musical motifs or instruments,
or sound effects – Sound and Image is an extremely effective tool for identifying these.

Using Freeze Frame or Shots in Sequence can also make learners more aware of patterns, by
separating the shots in a sequence and looking in detail at narration.

Typical Questions

Can you see anything in the text which appears more than once?

Do you hear anything which appears more than once?

Do you notice any patterns among the images, or in the way they are filmed? (e.g. camera angle,
distance, movement.)
Do you notice any patterns among the sounds? Are particular characters or actions associated
with particular sounds?

Are there any recurring actions?

Are there any recurring ideas/themes/messages in the film?

Did the length of the shots get shorter or longer at any point in the sequence? Is there a pattern
here? If so, what effect does it have on the viewer?

What kind of story is this? How do we know? (Introduce concept of ‘genre’ when appropriate)
What would you expect to happen in this kind of story?

8 Generic Translation

Visualisation, or the interpretation of a printed text into internal images, is a natural process for
trained readers, but the link needs to be made explicit for a developing reader. Asking learners to
draw a character or a scene from a printed text allows them to present their unique interpretation
of the text. Using graphic organisers such as Mind-Maps can be a very effective way of making
sense of a text, summarising key elements, committing to memory or sharing with others, while
storyboards or comic-book software make the creation of narrative easier and more fun.

In the same way, learners can often develop a better understanding of moving image texts by
‘translating’ them into a print genre such as a poem, short story, diary entry or newspaper item,
or by adapting and ‘audio-visualising’ a short written text into a storyboard.

Typical Activities

Take a short written text (story openings can be good) and ‘audio-visualise’ it on a storyboard.
(Note: 1/attempt ONLY after learners have become familiar with storyboards through copying
off the screen (see Shots in Sequence); 2/keep the written passage VERY short – a few well-
chosen lines or a couple of paragraphs can generate pages of storyboard.)

Write a short paragraph describing character x from a film you have seen, as if you were
introducing them into a short story. Try to bring out their personality as well as their appearance.

Draw a mind-map showing the main elements of the text.

Storyboard the beginning of a sequel to the text.

Write the front page article for your local newspaper the day after the events portrayed in the
film.

Make a PowerPoint presentation to convey as effectively as possible what you have learned from
a moving image text.
Make a Podcast radio trailer for a film you have watched.

9 Summarising

The ability to summarise is an essential skill for the developing fluent-comprehending reader, but
it is also a highly sophisticated skill which needs to be modelled repeatedly by the teacher. It is
another of those aspects of reading which sophisticated readers take for granted: as we progress
through a text we are sub-consciously assimilating and synthesising each new piece of
information into a constantly updated summary of the whole.

There are a number of ways in which the ability to summarise effectively can be developed in
learners. Writing or making a trailer for a film can be an effective way of making an accurate
‘summary’ of the whole text, whether it’s in the form of a ‘sound-only’ trailer for radio, a poster
of the key elements, or a selected edit of shots from the original with appropriate voiceover (the
films on Scotland on Screen website allow for download and edit through GLOW and are ideal
for this purpose).

Typical Questions/Activities

Consider the title of the film (which is one form of summary). Can you provide a better one?
Explain your choice.

Write a tagline for the film.

Write a ‘pitch’ for the film as you would present it to a potential investor in 25 words or less.

Write a synopsis (200-300 words) for the investor to accompany the pitch.

Write a script for a trailer for the film in no more than 100 words.

10 Evaluating

This tool will be used to a greater or lesser extent on every text, and it is one aspect of reading
which rarely has to be encouraged. However, the process of evaluating or assessing the worth of
a text is often the least considered or developed. Readers of any age will happily tell you what
they think of a text, but will often struggle to explain why, beyond the stock responses of “it was
boring” or “it was exciting”.

When engaged in this strategy, therefore, it is the quality of the discussion and the use of open
questions which will determine the quality of the outcome. It is also important that in any
evaluation, the criteria for success are shared and agreed, and these will usually be related to
audience and purpose. An appropriate vocabulary needs to be developed over time.
Typical Questions/Activities

What was the author’s purpose here and to what extent did he/she achieve it?

What is the writer’s or filmmaker’s (as opposed to the character’s) point of view?

Was the ending credible? Satisfying? True to the rest of the story? Why?

Was this more or less successful than similar texts with the same purpose?

How could you have made the film better?

Reference:

https://literacyadviser.wordpress.com/ten-tools-for-reading-film/