In a literature class:
Integrating film into a literature class would allow the students to get a better grasp on the meanings. Not only would it help clarify the storyline, it could also point out some aspects that the students didn't quite catch. Recognizing the differences between the film and the book would circle around limitations. The film has a limited amount of time to get things done in. This means that some of the story lines are withheld, characters are missing, and so on. A film may also add in another piece to make it more interesting (make more money). Students would need to figure out who the intended audience is and such.
In a writing class:
Integrating film into a writing class would be a bit of a reversal of what usual occurs, the book going to the big screen. Here, I would have the students look at clips or short films and try to draw out what a story board would have looked like. They would extract that outline, and then rewrite there own scenarios. Hopefully, it would strengthen their organizing abilities and story building.
My final project demonstrates how to use video clips along with the text to reach many angles for the viewers. To create their own adaptations, I would have the students take a story and move it to their setting (physical setting or historical). This allows the student to both demonstrate an understanding of the original text but be critical of their own time period.
I liked how you focused on author's intent in your discussion. Especially when we are looking at what is included and what is not included, it is important to look at how the theme and the representation are changed or altered. With adaptations such as these, I think that the overall message of the theme can be changed really easily without even changing much of the content. This also allows for a discussion about how the format of the adaptation and the context change the representation.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that you would include film adaptations in a writing course? Do movies help in dealing with how to create or develop a story? I have often struggled with how to use movies in order to teach plot development and the elements of fiction. How do you think you would approach this? I have had teachers who have had us watch entire movies just so we could map out the conflict, setting, etc. I see how this helps to keep students engaged and scaffold them into understanding more complicated texts. However, I am wondering how to do this more effectively.