Final Project for CI5472: Art of Film Teaching Ideas

Here's a link to my teaching ideas for my upcoming Art of Film class.

good movies, good books

V for Vendetta
Sideways (one instance where the movie is WAY better than the book)
The Road
No Country for Old Men
Fight Club
Atonement
The Namesake
Shopgirl

Using Film Adaptations

Whenever my students read a piece of literature, they always ask, "Is there a movie version of this?" Some of the more disillusioned students have suggested that we eschew reading altogether and just watch the movie adaptations; "It would take a lot less time!" That being said, I usually try to show a film adaptation of what we read, when there is a decent one available. I'm pretty sure that some of our district curriculum is chosen with that in mind; for instance, this trimester my students will read Much Ado About Nothing. A fine play, but not really ideal for all seniors in "regular" English because of its wordiness and lack of what they'd see as real action. But the movie version with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson is excellent, and it really helps the students understand the play.

A couple weeks ago, my students also read the play Proof by David Auburn as a preface to starting Shakespeare plays. There's a good film adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins and Gwyneth Paltrow, which I showed on the finals day (the only 2-hour block we get). I've always thought about coming up with ways for students to think more critically about the movie rather than just watching, but I have yet to figure out a brilliant idea on that. (On the other hand, though, I don't necessarily think there's a problem with "just watching" either).

This trimester, while reading Much Ado, I plan to show scenes from the movie as we go along, instead of watching the entire thing at once after we are done reading. I think this will keep students more interested and help them see the emotions of the characters because of the superb acting. I may have them take notes, as they read and watch, on the emotions the characters are feeling during certain scenes (i.e., when the soldiers return home from war, when Claudio supposedly sees Hero cheating on him). So, students will use the movie as another way of "reading" the scenes.

Song Analysis: "Old Man" by Neil Young

Doesn't everyone say they listen to "all kinds of music"? I suppose I like a variety of music, but I have a definite type that I like. My husband sometimes calls me "music Nazi" because I can be very opinionated about what I'm in the mood to hear. A lot of the contemporary music I like is moody British rock or singer-songwriter stuff. I really like classic rock; growing up, I would listen to anything my dad liked, which was mainly 60s and 70s rock. These days, I'm trying to do a better job of keeping up with contemporary music. Probably my favorite band at the moment is Muse, a British rock group. I went to a concert of theirs a couple months ago, and it was epic. With all music, vocals are really important to me; I was in choir for many years and always have to pick apart the singing. I tend toward real epic belt-it-out songs, not those ones where it seems like the singer is mumbling with no purpose.

The stuff that really gets to me are songs that seem to have some history behind them, a timeless sound. "Old Man" by Neil Young is one of my all-time favorite songs; it's no wonder I've been accused of having the musical tastes of a 60-year-old man. I think this song is incredibly profound. I'm not really sure what it's "about," but I love it anyway.

Old man, look at my life
I'm a lot like you were

Old man look at my life
Twenty four
and there's so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two

Love lost, such a cost
Give me things
that don't get lost
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you.

Old man, take a look at my life
I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me
the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes
and you can tell that's true.

Lullabies, look in your eyes
Run around the same old town
Doesn't mean that much to me
To mean that much to you

I've been first and last
Look at how the time goes past
But I'm all alone at last
Rolling home to you

Old man take a look at my life
I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me
the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes
and you can tell that's true

Old man look at my life
I'm a lot like you were

I looked around online and found this quote, which is how Neil Young explained this song in live performance:

About that time when I wrote "Heart of Gold" and I was touring, I had also -- just, you know, being a rich hippie for the first time -- I had purchased a ranch, and I still live there today. And there was a couple living on it that were the caretakers, an old gentleman named Louis Avala and his wife Clara. And there was this old blue Jeep there, and Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there's this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, "Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?" And I said, "Well, just lucky, Louie, just real lucky." And he said, "Well, that's the darndest thing I ever heard." And I wrote this song for him.

I had always gotten the feeling that through this song, Young was talking to a particular man; I thought maybe it was his father. The song sounds almost bitter in parts: "Twenty four and there's so much more"--given that Young found wealth and fame at an early age, it suggests he still needed other things ("someone to love me") to make his life meaningful. That is one thing that a young person and an old person would have in common.

I definitely have a thing for the singer-songwriter genre; this song is part country, part folk. It was written in the 70s, and although this song isn't really political, I'm fascinated by the music of the 60s and 70s and the anti-war songs. When I taught English 11 two years ago, the required text was The Things They Carried (one of my absolute favorites), and I did a short protest-music unit with it. One song I used was "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, a song about the shooting of college students by the National Guard during a war protest. I also used "Fortunate Son" by CCR and a few others. If I teach English 11 again, I'll definitely expand upon this mini-unit. Students could find a song that protests something and share it with the class: what is being protested and why, and how is the message being delivered.

Music Video Analysis: "Crossfire" by Brandon Flowers

Brandon Flowers (album title Flamingo)
I have been obsessed with this album lately. Brandon Flowers is the lead singer of The Killers, a band I was never that into. But I heard an interview with him on NPR and was intrigued by the concept of his solo album, which came out in summer 2010. Brandon Flowers grew up near Las Vegas, and the album is sort of a tribute to his hometown. He explores all sides of the city: the excitement, the excesses, the people who are down on their luck and can't get out of that town. I really connected with this album because I love Vegas and its mythology. I bought the album just before our trip to Vegas in October. Now, this album reminds me of being on that trip, which is why I literally couldn't listen to anything else during my three or four weeks of post-Vegas vacation withdrawal. (Yes, it took that long. I needed another break, apparently).

This music video is for the major single off the album, "Crossfire." It's not my favorite song, but since the music video came with it, I thought I'd watch and analyze it.

There’s a still in the street outside your window
You’re keepin’ secrets on your pillow
Let me inside, no cause for alarm
I promise tonight not to do no harm
I promise you baby, I won't be no harm

And we're caught up in the crossfire
Of heaven and hell
And were searching for shelter
Lay your body down...

Watching your dress as you turn down the light
I forget all about the storm outside
Dark clouds roll their way over town
Heartache and pain came pouring down like
Chaos in the rain, yeah
They're handing it out

And we're caught up in the crossfire
Heaven and hell
And were searching for shelter
Lay your body down...

Tell the devil that he can go back from where he came
His fire he airs all through their beating vein.
And when the hardest part is over we'll be here
And our dreams will break the boundaries of our fears

The video is pretty interesting and not at ALL what I expected. In short, it features Charlize Theron repeatedly saving Brandon Flowers from various ninja attacks. It's shot like a mini-movie with different scenarios: in each one, Brandon is tied up, bloody and bruised, and Charlize Theron appears out of nowhere to kick ninja ass. She is dressed in pants and a tank top that's somewhat revealing but not overly so, and she's wearing minimal makeup. Throughout all this, Brandon is the man-in-waiting. He needs her to rescue him, and he smiles appreciatively at her when she does, but they never kiss or anything. They exchange some meaningful looks that suggest these "characters" have a history, but none of it is shown in the video. At the end, they drive off in a car together.

"Crossfire" is a love song, but it seems this video has turned things around by making the male the one who is waiting to be found and loved. Brandon's character is very passive. The song starts by the male promising to do no harm, and that's the only part where he is singing along. Even though I think this video is a little goofy, the idea intrigues me. Brandon Flowers is known for being a flamboyant showman with The Killers (wearing eyeliner, the whole bit), but in this video, he's dirty, helpless, and beat up. Perhaps he's trying to show a more vulnerable side? (Swoon!) This video seems like an attempt to create a softer image of the lead singer of a rock band. Since this is his first solo album, it's trying to set him apart from his image with The Killers.

I think it'd be fun to have students analyze a music video like this that tells a story. (Another one that comes to mind is "The Scientist" by Coldplay). They would watch the video on mute first and infer the relationship between the characters. Then they'd follow along with the lyrics and see how they contribute additional meaning to the story being told in the video.

Teaching Activity for Documentary

Several years ago, I taught a unit around the film Super Size Me, and it was incredibly successful. I would love to repeat it sometime.

-Students watched the film and recorded important details about Morgan Spurlock's health decline as he trudged through his month of McDonald's.
-Students went on the McDonald's website and analyzed the nutrition info for various foods. (This part required them to do some math, which made me feel very multidisciplinary!). They also looked at how easy/difficult it is to find nutrition info while at McDonald's in person or using the website.
-I would also want students to analyze the message of the film and its possible limitations. For starters, it follows one guy's experience, and his consumption of McDonald's was extreme; there is the McDonald's-only diet on one extreme and veganism (his girlfriend) on the other. Students could look into recent changes in fast food offerings and see how they are improving.

Documentary: "It Might Get Loud"

I am analyzing the documentary "It Might Get Loud," which features three gods of the rock guitar world: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Jack White of the White Stripes, and The Edge (David Evans) of U2. (Personally, I think Jimmy Page is the only one who deserves Rock God status, but don't get me started on that). These men have made millions on their distinctive guitar sounds, and the documentary puts them together in one room just to see what happens. On the surface, this movie seems to have no agenda: rock music is supposed to be everything that politics is not. But having no agenda IS having an agenda in itself, isn't it? And looking deeper, I found that even though this movie seems to have no real purpose other than to drool over guitars, it does make a statement about the music industry.

This is truly a documentary for rock geeks (if such a contradiction can exist)--people who want to understand where the music comes from. There is extensive footage of The Edge messing with guitar effects; he admits he's not an amazing player on his own, but his gift lies in manipulating the sounds coming out of the speakers. He knows how to engineer certain sounds from his guitar and uses those sounds to create the feeling of the song. The documentary takes The Edge back to his old high school, where he and the other guys used to rehearse in a classroom.

Jack White, despite his relatively young age, establishes himself as an opinionated old-school musician; he says that today's technology has destroyed a lot of musical creativity. He plays all sorts of busted instruments because he likes the challenge, and he makes weird instruments too. He is a purist. Growing up in Detroit, knew it was considered uncool to play an instrument; hip-hop and electronic music were popular, but they have no appeal to him.

Jimmy Page agreed that pop music in his age was crap, so he wanted to play the blues instead. Jimmy Page...where do I start? I'm a huge Zeppelin fan, so of course I'm all over any footage he's in. Apparently it was a total coincidence that he even started on guitar. His family moved to a new house and a previous owner had left a guitar behind. Oddly enough, in his youth, Page played in a nerdy sort-of blues/rockabilly band where all the boys wore collared shirts onstage; he never dreamed he'd be famous one day.

So what happens when Page, White, and Evans get together? Well, it gets sorta loud, but it's not as epic as it could be; mostly it's a music appreciation lesson. They listen to records of artists that inspired them, and they listen to each other play some well-known riffs, but since they all have such different styles and don't seem to be super close friends, it feels a little stilted. Near the end they have some cool stuff going on, though...I mean, how much can I really complain?

This is a documentary for, by, and about music geeks. Rock music lovers might be the most obvious target, but I think anyone who appreciates the technical aspects of music and recording could get something out of it. I think if this movie has an agenda, it's to prove that these guys are real musicians and that that still means something today. A lot of music now is electronic or fake in some way, but Page, White, and Evans actually play instruments, write their own parts, construct their own sounds, and have a sincere appreciation for the craft. These guys worship music and guitars themselves, and they want to keep music "pure." While not naming names, they take a definite stance against music that is not really authentic.

This documentary is unique because it mostly hides the spectacle of rock music. It showcases not the whole bands or the frontmen (well, Jack White kind of is) but the sometimes-underappreciated lead guitarists to show how integral they are to their bands' trademark sounds. It shows some footage of them onstage, but not much; mostly they are in natural settings with their guitars, just playing and doing what they do best. No costumes, no special lights, just music. Just guitars.