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Writing film and thecinematic voiceMark Reid, BFIGoldsmiths PGCE 27 September 2016http://bit.ly/1Vwh2jh

1In my outline I said I wanted to explore the cinematic equivalent to the reader in the writer, and to suggest some ways in which the viewer in the maker might be developed and supported. Im going to use a bunch of examples that illustrate what I might mean by the viewer in the maker, or the cinematic voice and I hope start some thinking about what writing film might mean - beyond writing about film, or writing dialogue or screenplays.

Consider the implications of the relationship between forms of representation for the selection of content in the school curriculum. Learning to use particular forms of representation is also learning to think and represent meaning in particular ways. How broad is the current distribution? What forms of representation are emphasized? In what forms are students expected to become literate? What modes of cognition are stimulated, practiced, and refined by the forms that are made available? Eliot Eisner, The Arts and the Creation of Mind

I came across this quote from Elliot Eisner, and I think he is asking a similar question, about the forms of representation the kinds of language and mode that are currently allowed in the classroom, and in the curriculum:2

the reader in the writer

The Creepy House

It is an abandoned house, its windows battered by the wind.

Nobody has ever lived in there Its covered in white snow making it look like a strangely shaped polar bear, frozen forever. And if you walked past it you would see a little gate buried in the snow.

3My sense of the reader in the writer is illustrated here: this story opening, by a 7 or 8 year old, came out of a literary education: he had been taught to write by books, and stories read to him, as well as having plenty of opportunities to write in school. But its texts that teach us how to read as Margaret Meek Spencer puts it. Id be interesting in hearing from you whats filmable in this passage - and whats un-filmable. [DISCUSS]

Developing the cinematic voiceIs it possible to teach children to be more creative?

Nelson Goodman: Yes

So how do we do that?

Set them harder problems.

4But how? you cry..Philosopher Nelson Goodman, who founded Project Zero at Harvard - an arts education research outfit, in 1969, was asked this question once..

From the cinematic to the Cinmathque:Cinema Cent Ans de Jeunesse20 year-old programmeWatching, making, understanding: film thinkingAesthetic themes: mise en scene; long take; camera movement; montrer/ cacherDirigiste and French (les regles du jeu)cinema of authenticity: no animating, zooming, pretending, or extraneous music; childs eye view

In order to make a piece of film that works, theres a set of knowledge, skills, and understanding that is beyond a kind of anything goes imagination. We call this combination of knowledge and skills a literacy. Ans I want now to look more closely at a piece of film literacy in action, through the example of a short film and some conversation with the people who made it. Ill frame it in terms of a specific teaching approach, and how it enables certain kinds of choices, while developing the K, U, S the literacy of film. The ability to make choices is fundamental to literacy: the wider the range of choices you can make, the more expressive and innovative you can be.The film is three and half minutes long. It was made by Year 5 children in a small rural school in Lincolnshire. The children were 9 and 10 years old.It was made as part of an international film education initiative called Le Cinema Cent Ans de Jeunesse [IMAGE] which has been running for 20 years (so it has the durability of a film festival or even a film school, rather than an education project).5

2011 - Montrer/ CacherTypology Types of Showing/ Hiding

Hiding in the frameUsing offscreen spaceFilming actors backsUsing shadows, screens, negative spaceNarrative ellipsisNarrative secretsDramatic irony

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2011 - Montrer/ CacherCat People (USA, Jacques Tourneur 1942)The Circle (Iran, Jafar Panahi, 2000)He Dies at the End (Damian McCarthy, Youtube)Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1982)Virus (Simon Hynd, 2002)Moonfleet (USA, Fritz Lang, 1955)Creature from the Black Lagoon (USA, Jack Arnold,1954)and about 40 others!

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Each year the programme chooses a film language concept as its focus: camera movement, or the long take, or sound, or real/ fiction. In 2010/11 the theme was Montrer Cacher, or shown/ hidden. How film tells stories by hiding and revealing information, in the shot, in the script, in acting, on the soundtrack. Heres an example

From the typology: what kinds of showing/ hiding are going on here?[SEQUENCE FROM - ? THE CIRCLE; WRONG TROUSERS; ELEPHANT MAN]The children who made the film were about to see spent time watching clips like this, playing with short exercises (film a one minute sequence in which a character responds to something disturbing off screen) and then they were given the brief to make a short film constructed around two secrets, one of which will be withheld from the audience. So remember: Montrer/ Cacher, shown/ hidden, secrets in the script.

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Different clip?

2011 - Montrer/ Cacher - exercises1Film an action completely in close-up (total duration no more than 3 minutes and 8 shots maximum). Indicative story line: Person A moves from space into another adjacent space, then gives something to Person B. You choose what is given (a codeword; a kiss; a curse; a gift; a warning) and which spaces you use.

2Film a complete short scene (maximum 3 minutes) where someone in shot reacts against something or someone outside the shot, which we never see but know of through sound, light, reaction shots and the direction of the gaze, or a reflection

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Montage of exercises11

2011 - Montrer/ Cacher - film essaiIndicative scenario: Two secrets, of which one is revealed, the other withheld.

The main rule, which shouldnt be given to the students until after they have scripted their scenario:

Once the scenario has been written, students have to choose one of the key scenes that will not be shown. The scene should still play an important role in the story, but wont be filmed, just suggested (through an ellipsis, or use of offscreen sound, reflections, camera movement which hides or reveals, or a substitution of action in the edit)

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[PLAY FILM THEN WITH PERSON NEXT TO YOU WHAT DO YOU KNOW AND WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?]Im not going to say anything about what I think about the film, but instead concentrate on the choices the film-makers made. I spent a couple of hours talking to the 6 children who made the film, about these choices. I think they reveal just how sophisticated young people can be when telling stories on film; these choices and many others - constitute what we know as film literacy. Here are just 9 of those choices:

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Originally we tried two stories, one about a girl being bullied, but we thought it wouldnt work out because there wouldnt be something missing, so Mrs Liley said why don't we all go home and write a storyboard and choose the best. We chose Darcys because we liked it the most, then we all helped improve it.1It wasnt their first idea

What kinds of cognition are being stimulated in this situation? How is the setting of harder problems making these children more creative?14

originally we put the [opening] shot in the middle but we thought it was boring. So we put it at the beginning to put more tension in.

We put the shot of the bag before the boy comes past on his bike.2They changed the order of shots, in the edit:

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both [groups] edited a version of the film and we had a vote on which was the best. 3They made different edits:

the wind was blowing really strong and it sounded a bit.. creepy. 4They paid attention to the sound:

We kept doing [bike] skids, about 20 skids, trying to get it right.

We were told to film each shot 3 times and choose the best.

We were filming from different positions all the time 5They repeated lots of shots and actions many times:

we were going to have him like gasping, or whats that doing there? but I just thought it, I dont know why, he goes past it [the bag] and he goes back to it.

If youd had him saying oh whats that it would have made it sound put on. 6They used images where possible, not dialogue:

Mrs Liley said there can be a bit of speech, but not loads.

And they had to have a secret in the film that wasnt revealed: I didnt like to think about what happened at the end, so I just kept it secret.7They worked within constraints:

Mr Dickinson showed us how to use the Macro [lens] .. we thought wed have a go with it.. you see Holly in the background, blurred, and I thought it looked cool. 8They used the technology in cinematic ways:

we slowed [the film] down when Adam comes in the door but we didnt want to slow it down when he says Mum; Its supposed to be serious. 9They were making a serious film:

AGENCYPLAYSERIOUSNESSLOCAL RESOURCESTOTAL INVESTMENTCONSTRAINT

There are a number of things that strike me about this film, and the children who made it, in the light of what they say about it. First I want to emphasise the framework they were working within: Montrer/ Cacher, and the brief to make a film based on secrets. Total freedom, in pedagogy, as in life, doesnt bring total agency; rather, presented with infinite possibilities, people are more often left helpless. These young people have been constrained into making creative choices and out of that comes agency. They start with an open imagination (What kind of story can I tell?) and then are channeled into choices that are possible, to create stories that they can complete.Second is the way that the outcome is the result of a great deal of trial, error, risk, experiment, and PLAY. The pleasure they derive from this is evident, but they take the project seriously enough to shoot over and over, to create different angles of coverage. Imagination applied, within some constraints, enables them to be Creative, and make something of value.Third, this is a serious, live action film: its not a Disney-derived fantasy. Children see much more animation than live action, but its much harder for them to create stories that use Disney or Pixar as models, because Disney films cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make; theyre hard to imitate. Its also hard for children to tell stories based in their own lives if they follow Disney models so the enabling framework challenges them away from the repertoire they know, and into different places.For this film, those places are exclusively local. Gunther Kress, in his study of early writing, talks about children making meaning with whatever is to hand, and so are these children: using local locations, characters much like themselves, undertaking everyday activities but within an extraordinary story.Im struck also how invested the children are in the story, and the story world: they created the whole world of the film, and everyone had a role. They got the school photographer to photograph Holly and Adam together as brother and sister. Luke made the wanted posters at home. The policewoman is played by Adams mum; they shot the film in his house.Overall, Im struck by the sophistication of the story-telling the economy of the narrative, the understanding of film grammar, the crispness of the editing, the confidence and control of film language, the willingness to keep some story information back. What you cant see in the film, and what they dont say, show, or tell, those secrets theyre keeping I think makes the story-telling very strong.23

How (un)like traditional literacy is this? Collaborative; a whole story-world generated and sustained by a group of people (actually 6 people, plus Mrs Liley and Mr Dickinson, and Lukes mum).Uses resources taken from their world: bedrooms, kitchens, green space, neighbourhood streets, bikes and school bagsIt requires quite sophisticated (but more and more accessible) technologyIt shows (and withholds) rather than tells. Film tends towards showing as a medium, rather than telling.The pedagogy of constraints, play and experiment, of re-taking shots, of trial and error, making different editsIts a complete piece of work, not a story opening or extract

Lets pit these claims alongside print literacy for a moment: Im interested in how like, or unlike, this film is when compared with childrens writing. Its different in a number of ways, I think:

Above all, I think the work made by these children, and the processes they went through to create it, together constitute an incredibly powerful moment of literacy: the manipulation of symbolic resources to create something of meaning and value. Its a moment thats very different (and Im not saying better) in so many ways from what children produce in writing. And the question it leads to for me is could every child be enabled to tell stories in this way? 24

Could every child be enabled to tell stories in this way? And if so, what needs to change?More live action film work

A wider range of expressive resources

Constraints and learning frameworks

A wider range of viewing

What would need to change in order for this to happen?First, teachers could be given greater confidence in creating opportunities for children to work in live action, and in enabling children to use a wider range of cinematic resources in their stories. Many teachers are unsure about the value of being able to vary the position of the camera, play with sound, and to change the order of shots in a film. But we could change this.Second, we could really develop the use of constraints in learning; its easier to imagine that working without constraints or limitations equals children having total creative freedom. But I dont think lack of limits actually equals creative freedom. Children can generate the equivalent of 200 paper clip ideas in film, but they need structure and scaffolding in narrowing down whats possible, and nudging into areas they might not have thought about.Third, we could help teachers to open up imaginative possibilities for children by introducing them to wider repertoires of creative resource, which means looking at a wider range of film material for inspiration. What would enable us to get children to make films like this in the curriculum? At the moment, this kind of work is much more likely to happen after school, with much smaller numbers, and therefore with teachers and other professionals who are already confident in this work, and committed to it.25

Consider the implications of the relationship between forms of representation for the selection of content in the school curriculum. Learning to use particular forms of representation is also learning to think and represent meaning in particular ways. How broad is the current distribution? What forms of representation are emphasized? In what forms are students expected to become literate? What modes of cognition are stimulated, practiced, and refined by the forms that are made available? Eliot Eisner, The Arts and the Creation of Mind

I came across this quote from Elliot Eisner, and I think he is asking a similar question, about the forms of representation the kinds of language and mode that are currently allowed in the classroom, and in the curriculum:26

What if all children were able to tell stories - and share ideas, and develop arguments - using film, regularly in the curriculum?

What different kinds of thinking would be made possible? How would subjects be changed? What new skills would be developed?

And most of all, what consequences would these changes have for education, for culture, for us?

To end, Id like to go back to my early defining question: what if this, were this?, and expand it into others: What if all children were able to tell stories - and share ideas, and develop arguments - using film, regularly in the curriculum? What different kinds of thinking would be made possible? How would subjects be changed? What new skills would be developed? And most of all, what consequences would these changes have for education, for culture, for us? And could Bradford maybe show the rest of the world the way, in its own Imagination Conversation?

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Cinema Cent Ans de Jeunesse/ Understanding Cinema2015/16 Le MteoUnderstandingcinema.wordpress.com

Markreid1895.wordpress.comhttp://bit.ly/1Vwh2jh