Precursors to the Film Medium

Take two! Middle school and high school students learn what it takes to film and produce videos. Use these activities to challenge young cinematographers to learn the parts of a camera, filming techniques, and practice using the...

Ready for an educational movie day? Use a resource based on the movie Whale Rider to learn more about the Maori culture. Class members answer a variety of questions and listen to music from the soundtrack to further analyze and...

Persistence of Vision? The Phi Phenomenon? Zoetropes? Camera Obscura? Kinetograph? What part do these concepts and inventions play in the history of movies? Find out with a short video that launches an informative playlist on film history.

Light up your film history instruction with an examination of the contributions of the Lumière brothers. Their cinématograph, as well as the devices of other inventors, are the focus of the third episode from a playlist on film history.

Students identify, research and write about their hero, creating a MY HERO Web page, and develop short media piece which be turned into a film.

There is a wonderful magic that happens when artists collaborate. Kids examine storytelling through collaborative art. Inspired by Rodin's sculpture Minotaur, Daria Martin and Anna Halprin create a filmed dance sequence. Kids analyze the...

Students investigate the art of screenwriting and visual storytelling in this introductory lesson on films provided by Oregon Public Broadcasting. Emphasis is placed on the study of Mike Rich and "Finding Forrester".

Learners watch and analyze a film of an Appalachian folktale. They define trickster and anti-hero, view and discuss the film, complete a handout, compose an original film review, and debate each character's behavior.

Students explore the specifics and effects of different media on an audience. They use handouts to analyze and annotate picture books and then transfer these skills to a medium of their choice.

Work this scene adaptation project into your unit on Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac. After comparing a text and its film adaptation, budding playwrights set out to compose their own screenplays for a scene in Cyrano de...