Film in the curriculum with Basil Al-Rawi

Basil Al-Rawi studied at the National Film School in Dun Laoghaire in cinematography and is currently studying for a Masters in photographic studies at the University of Westminster, London.

His web site shows a variety of time based media productions including documentaries, music videos, films both long and short, as well as some interesting photographs.
http://www.basilalrawi.com/

Documentary entitled Tom Mathew – waiting for goldfish, is a well-crafted example of documentary making.

 Link to documentary http://vimeo.com/5621629

Basil Al-Rawi spent a day with us, covering film and digital media in the classroom, film studies as part of the Leaving Certificate exam, film as a teaching tool for History and Aprreciation of Art as well as cross-curricular work. We also looked at different genres of filmmaking and technical knowledge about camera shots, lighting, setting, colour, and costume. Using film in other ways to excite and ignite the imagination of students, like posters, titles and credits, as well as film trailers. These could be used to create stand-alone schemes or support other schemes such as graphics, typography, drawing, and painting.

We discussed using a film poster as a starting point for animation, set design, and making a zoetrope.

Film studies as part of the Leaving Certificate Art Appreciation exam
Leaving cert example question 2011
Section 111 – Appreciation of Art

Q16. The success of Pixar Animation Studios is firmly fixed on the understanding that the
animated world should be based on the real world. Discuss this statement with
reference to any one of Pixar’s productions, such as Toy Story 1, 2 and 3, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Wall-E and Up.
And Discuss briefly two film-making techniques that make these films so visually attractive.
Illustrate your answer.

Leaving cert example question 2009
Section 111 – Appreciation of Art

Q18 Recent animated films from the studios of Pixar and Dreamworks, such as Shrek, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille and Wall-E, have proved to be very popular.Discuss this statement with reference to two scenes from one of these animated films.
And Discuss briefly the film-making techniques that make these scenes so visually appealing.
Use sketches to illustrate your answer.

What we need to know about film questions in the Leaving Certificate

1.  Film questions are not always included in the exam paper

2. Often include popular films of the day, very difficult to predict which films they will choose to include in the exam

3. If you intend to include film in art appreciation, include titles, credits, and film craft (techniques).

4. Marking schemes -  Look at previous marking schemes @ ww.examinations.ie

Q18	2009 Recent animated films from the studios of Pixar and Dreamworks, such as Shrek, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille and Wall-E, have proved to be very popular. Discuss this statement with reference to two scenes from one of these animated films. Discuss briefly the film-making techniques that make these scenes so visually appealing. Use sketches to illustrate your answer.	Marks
A	Discussion of scene 1 from chosen film.	15
B	Discussion of scene 2 from chosen film.	15
C	Brief discussion of film making techniques.	10
D	Sketches	10
		Total 50

5. Questions tend to be based on popular films so encourage students to watch current films at home or for homework!

6. Prepare the students with vital information they will need to tackle this question including illustrations (practice drawing illustrations from films.

7.  Make sure you go through past questions thoroughly, breaking down the questions into their various components , encourage them to read the questions carefully and not to tackle the question unless they are confident of gaining good marks, they are not easy questions as some students might think!

Film in the classroom

Introducing film into the classroom

Watch part of films that show simple technique, camera shots -long & medium shots, camera angle – low angle, high angle, flat or eye level, a bird’s eye view, oblique angle shot, camera position – pan, tilt, tracking.

Alfred Hitchcock used three simple camera shots excellent to show students how effective these three shots are

 - Start with a close-up of the actor
- Cut to a shot of what they're seeing
- Cut back to the actor to see his reaction

Other films suggested by Basil to include in the classroom

Inception – by Chritopher Nolan

Paprika – by Satoshi Kon

Perfect blue – by Satoshi Kon

Inception's director Christopher Nolan bought the rights for Paprika and Perfect Blue. This shows use of scene conversion from popular cartoons like Paprika (animie) into American movies like Inception.

Documentaries - Wasteland

Film, History, and Appreciation of Art

Introducing films made by famous artists to explore their work, support art appreciation and bring another dynamic into the classroom, examples include Salvador Dali.

Sallvador Dali created the dream scene in Spellbound by Alfred Hitchcock

Films made using the artists work

Recorded Interviews with artists such as MC Escher

Biographical films made about famous artists: just some examples below

SURVIVING PICASSO       LUST FOR LIFE      THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY     POLLOCK     MOULIN ROUGE     THE WOLF AT THE DOOR        MODIGLIANI     

GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARING

Thinking Ideas - making animation in the classroom - back to basics

Zoetrope is a device which creates the image of a moving picture. The device is essentially a cylinder with vertical slits around the sides. Around the inside edge of the cylinder there are a series of pictures on the opposite side to the slits.

The magic lantern is the predecessor of the modern day projector. It consisted of a translucent oil painting and a simple lamp. When put together in a darkened room, the image would appear larger on a flat surface.

 

Thaumatrope   was a simple toy used in the Victorian era. A thaumatrope is a small circular disk or card with two different pictures on each side that was attached to a piece of string or a pair of strings running through the centre. When the string is twirled quickly between the fingers, the two pictures appear to combine into a single image.

A phenakistoscope was an early animation device, the predecessor of the zoetrope.

Flick book

Praxinoscope invented by French scientist Charles-Émile Reynaud, was a more sophisticated version of the zoetrope.

More thinking ideas for possible schemes................. 

Using posters as a starting point or the theme for a scheme

- Use a poster to create a scene in the classroom - each student to film the scene in their own way.

- Poster to lead to an animation like the poster of a feather created for Black Swan

History & Art Appreciation - digital media, create set design - Caravaggio - recreate scene and photograph, like Brian did for his bricolage project.

Typography - animated typography

POSTER - as the source starting point, students engage with digital media in a holistic way

Recreate a scene from a film - to include lighting, camera shots, acting, costumes 

Show a clip of a film and get the students to design what happens next - cliff hanger scene

Film Making resouces availbale:

Irish Film Institute - IFI

Films in school - FIS

Study Guides - film education UK

Movie storm - 3D animation software

USA film resources and lesson plans

Ripper for PC to copy scenes from video