The Harry Potter books nd films are still fondly discussed by our students. Today we began a unit on film study looking at film techniques and many examples from the Potter films were given by the boys.
So it is with interest that I looked at the latest addition to the Potter stable. The latest installment of the Harry Potter series has a trailer out. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
As always everyone has an opinion and they are quick to share. Below is a video that has a few fans discussing their reactions to the teaser trailer.
The film is based on Lois Lowry’s young adult novel is almost here. The trailer for the The Giver is a modern classic. It won the 1993 John Newbery Medal and was the 1993 Honor Book on the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award (Fiction)
The setting at first seems to be in a utopian society but gradually it begins to appear more and more dystopian. The poignant story is centred around 12-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colourless, world. At the Ceremony of the Twelves all the children in that age group are ‘assigned’ to their future role in life. The roles are carefully chosen by the Committee of Elders and based on their temperaments. It is expected that each child will live a productive life for the benefit of the whole. It is a world that encourages conformity which is seen as the path to contentment. Everyone is expected to be happy about their lot and fit into this life. This is a society which is free of pain and chaos but is also devoid of emotions and feelings. There is no place for love, joy, guilt or remorse or any other human emotion and freedom of choice and individuality are unknown concepts. Once someone becomes unproductive, for what ever reason, they enter the housing for the aged for a short period before being ‘released’.
Jonas is horrified when he believes that he has been passed over at the assigning ceremony but he is named as the Receiver. This is a position that is offered rarely and he knows nothing about it. He life changes as he begins his apprenticeship. He learns that the Receiver is the custodian of all memories in their community. The Receiver alone understands about colour, emotions, weather and, more importantly, individuality. The old Receiver is now The Giver and, as he transfers more and more memories to Jonas, Jonas begins to understand what the community has lost when they are so protected against pain, it also deprives them of joy. As the Receiver of Memory he also begins to understand some of the other dark secrets behind his fragile community. It is a great book and I hope the film does it justice.
Tim Burton’s films are always a bit different. His next film is to be Alice in Wonderland. (See article in the DailyMail Online) He has released a video clip to give us a taste. With johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar and Stephen Fry as the Cat, it has a great cast as well as a director with more imagination than most. The trailer looks good but will he be able to do justice to the well-known and loved children’s book? Will his updated version change the story too much?
I believe that this film will add to the discussion about storytelling, as well as visual representions of the written word.
That some of our teachers are starting to allow for a wider range of storytelling in he curriculum is a good thing. It has allowed the curriculum o be more inclusive and enables the visually aware students to showcase their talents. Digital storytelling is still not widely accepted by all teachers, for various reasons. There are numerous ways to introduce digital storytelling into the classroom. Writing and telling stories using digital media brings up a host of questions that relate to narrative and structure, how you approach a lesson and manoeuvre around any technical problems. The later being the biggest factor in teachers not trying this option.
One simple approach to starting would be to consider creating digital images of words, then using these to build a story. A good introduction to this idea would be to explore 6 or 10 word written stories with students first. This would teach the students about economy of language, and would help them to develop a more complete narrative within these restrictions. Flickr has a group for images of single words and the site, Six Word Stories ( offers a collection of short short stories consisting of just six words. It was inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s famous challenge) would also be interesting for students to “play” with words. Brevity being the key element in this instance. Another Flickr group 09picture stories might also offer teachers and students a good starting point for digital storytelling. In fact there are many fantastic Flickr groups that could be used for inspiration.
I also like Moodstream. This is a tool that graphically shows students how you can put together ideas, images and sounds to create something more than the sum of the parts, but simpler than a longer film. I wrote a bit of a “how-to” in a post last year.
I am still working on encouraging teachers to give the various options a try and it is great when the students and staff have success.
The boys were talking about this trailer yesterday and again today. There is starting to be some excitement about the movie.Will it be able to do justice to the book? What will be left out? How will they create some of the effects? Will I like it anywhere near as much as I liked the book? These are some of the questions the boys were asking. One or two had seen the trailer and were impressed.
I like the trailer. We have had a lot of time looking at trailers over the past 6 months and a few classes have worked on them instead of book reviews. (see my earlier posts)
I love the way the films and other adaptations of books, be they classics or not, breathe new life into the originals. I love that students go back to the originals and then want to talk about the differences, the strengths and weaknesses of both, what they like/dislike and how they would have approached the task of updating/repackaging/retelling or just advertising a book/story. The boys have lots of ideas and often think “outside the box”, often more than adults. They think first about what they want before what might be possible. It makes for some great discussions and lively debate at lunchtime.
Rhondda
Rhondda's Reflections - wandering around the Web 