Modem literature programs encourage children to learn about an author and an illustrator. As young film reviewers, it is important to know that there are many jobs involved in the making of a film. I have chosen eight film jobs that children can easily understand. It is a difficult process to teach young children about what is real and what is fantasy. As they learn about the many parts that make up a movie, they can develop a more realistic idea about what makes up a movie.
A. Producer
Producers organize the work of other people and usually find the story that they want to produce. They create advertisements so that people will want to see a film. The children love to talk about the movie ads and toy products they see on television .
B. Director
The director is in charge of the actors and he or she decides how each scene should be filmed. Often the main idea of the film is influenced by the director’s imagination. Children love to direct each other in a role-play of a favorite movie scene and this assists them in understanding this role.
C. Camera person or cinematographer
This person is in charge of the cameras. The camera person helps to show a feeling or to do a special effect. A famous scene in
E.T.
shows the boys riding their bikes into the air with the moon in the background. It challenges children’s imagination to consider how this scene could be made to appear so real. The make-up on the monster in
Frankenstein
took many hours to apply and special shadows made by spot lights helped him look scarier. One lesson that captures the illusion of driving a car can be duplicated if a teacher can use a video camera to film a few children in their chairs. If they are seated as though they are in a car, a camera can catch them from the waist-up. An imaginary steering wheel and some rocking motion by the young actors will result in the illusion of a real car scene, especially with a few coordinated curves thrown in to the scene. An assistant who shouts “lights, camera action” will reinforce the concept of filming one scene at a time.
D. Writer
Each scene in a film has a story that describes what each person should say and how the scene should look. This special story is called a screenplay. The person who writes it is called a screenwriter. In many cases, the screenplay is based on an author’s story. The actors have to study the story and memorize their lines. A familiar story like The Three Pigs can demonstrate the many details needed to translate a story to a play.
E. Actors and Actresses
The people in movies get paid to act or pretend. Children are surprised to learn that everyone who works on a movie gets paid money to pretend. The actors and actresses sometimes make us think that they are the person in the film. They have to be ready to look and talk like the character in the screenplay when they hear the words “lights , camera, action.”
F. Designer
A designer creates clothing, Sketches, and plans all the fake rooms or sets. A swatch of fabric, a hat and a few props provides children with an acceptable set design. The appeal of this job tends to focus on the power to make decisions about what other people should wear. The children love to describe what their favorite super-hero wears.
G. Editor
The editor is sometimes called the cutter because he or she selects the best scenes and puts together the individual pictures so that the whole story can be shown. To demonstrate a change of scene, the teacher can show a film and use the pause button when a scene is changed.
H. Composer
The music of a movie helps people to feel and understand the movie. There are three suggestions that help students appreciate the composer’s job. The first idea is to use mime activities to express how music is attached to moods in our minds. The teacher can ask the children to think about a happy summer day and have a volunteer demonstrate how the music for this day would sound. The next volunteer would demonstrate the music for a dark, stormy night. All the students could demonstrate the musical humming needed to rock a baby to sleep. Most popular is air guitar playing and an orchestra leader with a baton. A second idea is to replay a scene from a movie in order to hear the music they might have missed. The animated film Fantasia provides an ideal introduction to film music for budding composers.
A real challenge is to show a video without sound and put on a mismatched recording of music. Ask the children if this music works and if it doesn’t work, ask for their musical suggestions.
