Young children like to guess about the profit a film can make, so it is fun to chart the expenses that must be paid before a movie comes to a theater. If you are the producer or the film company, you want lots of people to spend their money on your film. The business of making money means that every movie will have ads stating that this movie is great, exciting or super. But there are arguments about every film’s worth. The people who discuss their ideas are called film critics or reviewers. Sometimes they argue about whether a film is a bunch a scenes put together or whether it is a carefully planned art project. If we listen to people tell us about a film, we can decide where to spend our money. This unit will structure student’s responses during “reviewer breaks”. They will be watching a film just like the real movie reviewers.
One of the issues for parents and teachers are the toy marketing strategies that promote children to buy the toys even before the movie is released. The record-breaking success of
E.T.
in 1982 resulted in great demand for everything from underwear to jewelry. Now the stores are stocked with merchandise before the movie is even released or reviewed. Parents feel pressured to go because the business people have influenced their children’s desires. Teacher’s also feel a conflict because the story foundation of a film is often secondary to the status of having an item from the film. This conflict is reflected in a children’s vote on the following question. Would you rather have a toy from a movie or a copy of the book that it is based on?
It is the goal of this unit to make first and second grade viewers into more critical reviewers. Can the business power of the silver screen be harnessed to promote literature and learning? I believe that my focus on the genre of science fiction provides an unusual and interesting approach that is easily connected to a variety of literature selections.
