ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES

IMAGINING FILM ADAPTATIONS

Planning Points

Approximate Time Needed: 2 week
Correlation to English I SCS 1.02, 2.01, 4.02, 4.03, 5.01, 6.01, 6.02
Correlation to NC High School Exit Exam Competencies: C-2, PS-15

Lesson Objectives:

Students will explore film-related vocabulary and modes of writing and planning a film to create their own adaptations of short stories for film.

Materials Needed:

• Akutagawa, Ryunosuke.> "In the Grove." Rashomon and Other Stories. New York: Norton, 1999.
• Rashomon. Dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1951.
• Short stories
• Sample storyboards
• There are some excellent examples in Film Directing Shot by Shot.
• Sample script
• The script for Titanic is available on-line at http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/studio/6751/
• Film manuals:

  These are especially helpful in providing students with information concerning cinematography. Some examples include Film Directing Shot by Shot, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Movies, Flicks, and Film, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Home Videos.
  

Description:

1. Brainstorm film-related vocabulary, arranging it into categories of Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production. Students who are involved in a Media Tech class can also share a lot of information about camera angles, framing, and transitions. Terms from the All Movie Guide (http://allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=V1A) can supplement our brainstormed list.
2. Discuss the term "adaptation" and the kinds of writing that can be adapted into film.
3. Students read "In the Grove" by Ryonosuke Akutagawa for homework. (Students are fascinated by this story because it poses some fundamental questions about the nature of truth. Each character in the story has a different version of the truth, and students want to know which is correct, if there is a "true" version.) In class, discuss truth as the major theme of the story. Tell students about the film adaptation of the story, Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, and explain that they'll be viewing the film after deciding what their own adaptations would look like.
4. In order to discuss and write about these adaptations, break into five groups: cinematography, setting, acting, sound, and editing. Each group gets a slip of paper directing them to write a one-page description of an adaptation of "In the Grove," paying special attention to the use of cinematography (or setting, acting, sound, or editing) in conveying the theme. Each group also gets a slip of paper with some guiding questions that will help them visualize their adaptation. The Reading Film web page at Berkeley (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rcknapp/Pathologies/Reading_Film.htm) can be the source of these questions.
5. The next day, we begin watching Rashomon. At the conclusion of the film, we discuss differences and similarities between our versions of the film and Kurosawa's version. We also discuss the role that each of the five elements (cinematography, setting, acting, sound, editing) plays in Kurosawa's film and film in general. Some guiding questions for this discussion:
   • Which element is most visible (noticeable)?
   • Which element is least visible? Why?
   • Which is most important to the overall look of the film?
   • Which is most important in terms of storytelling?
   It's helpful to close this discussion by explaining that students will use all of these elements in greater detail when adapting short stories for film.
6. At the beginning of the next class period, students should arrange themselves into groups of five. Explain that each group will be working on a film adaptation of a short story by a writer of world literature. At the front of the room are packets of short stories by the same author. Each packet contains three stories and there are five copies of each packet. After sharing some information about each author, have students come pick up a packet they would like to read for possible adaptation. In order to maximize student choices, it's important to have more packets of short stories than there are groups, because some groups won't like the first packet they pick. By the end of the class period, each group should have chosen an author. For homework, students read the stories in their packet.
7. The next week begins the process of scripting and storyboarding. Each group gets a packet of information that will help them in this task, which includes:
   • A few pages from a sample script
   • Sample storyboards
   • Information about framing and camera angles from film manuals
   Look at the sample script pages as a class, discussing the various types of direction included in the script, then look at the storyboards to determine how students use the information in the script to create a storyboard. Some of the questions that might arise in this discussion include:
   • What is a script? Why is it necessary?
   • What kinds of "stage directions" are included in a film script that aren't present in some of the plays we've read?
   • Why are those directions there?
   • What is a storyboard? Why is it necessary?
   • What information from the script gets transferred to a storyboard?
   After this discussion, explain that the other materials in this packet can be used for reference as each group works through the scripting and storyboarding process. The process will be different for each group because each group has different materials for adaptation. For example, students may choose short stories by VS Naipaul, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino for their respective films. The Borges group might choose a single short story for adaptation, while the Calvino and Naipaul groups might decide to weave together several different stories about the same characters. One of the methods for working through the process that works for some groups is dividing the group in half, with part of the group working on the script and the others creating storyboards out of finished pages of the script. Other groups choose to storyboard before writing the script, and there is a variety of ways to approach the process.
8. Once students have a due date for this project and can get to work, they get excited about their films. Hold a conference with each group every day, asking the following questions:
   • What's going well?
   • What problems are you having?
   • Is there anything you need from me?
   • What do you have done today?
   • What should I expect to see tomorrow?
   Having these small deadlines set during conferences helps students stay on track, and the opportunity to listen to students explain their vision of a text is invaluable.

Assessment:

See attached rubric.

Additional Notes:

The following chart may be useful in organizing brainstormed film vocabulary:

As educators, we explore with our students the ways that various types of media influence our vision of the world. With new technology, we have an opportunity to engage our students in creating visual media on a scale not possible even five years ago. The camcorder revolution that allows our students these opportunities also forces us to work towards a deeper, more critical approach to examining the process of creating film. This project, in which students plan their own film adaptations of short stories, fosters this more sophisticated awareness while allowing students to climb inside and play with the texts they read on a truly interactive level. These adaptations have been the most fun, most relevant, and most authentic enterprise of our school year.

Teacher's Notes:

Film Adaptation Rubric

Script

Each element is worth a maximum of ten points.

____ Directions for camera angles and movements
____ Details about setting
____ Directions for actors
____ Directions for music and sound effects
____ Directions for transitions

Comments:

Storyboard

Each element is worth a maximum of ten points.

____ Directions for camera angles and movements
____ Details about setting
____ Directions for actors
____ Directions for music and sound effects
____ Directions for transitions

Comments:

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