Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 2; March 03

Writing from video

Ages 11 and up
Levels Elementary–Advanced
Time 10-30 minutes, depending on the excerpt
Focus The grammar of dramatic narrative
Materials An excerpt from a film or TV programme on video cassette or DVD and the equipment needed to show it

This is a tightly guided writing activity which students tend to like and from which they can learn a good deal about present tense narrative.

Preparation

1. Decide whether, or how, to remind your students of the following—
   • In an exciting story, acts and events seem to come quickly one after another. To create a story like this, we make heavy use of Simple verbs.
   • To make an exciting story even more exciting and dramatic, we make heavy use of Present verbs. That makes it seem like everything is happening right now.
   • We make heavy use of the Present Continuous when we describe still pictures (e.g., photos or paintings hanging in an art gallery).
   • But when relating a story told in pictures that move (as in a film), we mainly use the Present Simple.
   • Full continuous forms, which are relatively infrequent in dramatic narrative, refer to interesting 'background' circumstances rather than to events or acts that move a story forward one after the other—e.g.,
     "As they are riding down the street, a man sees them and runs into a building".
     But even here use of the Simple tends to be preferred when we want to give the story a really fast pace—e.g.,
   • "As they ride down the street, a man sees them and…"
2. Choose an excerpt from a film or TV drama which visually presents a narrative which is continuous—which does not, in other words, switch back and forth between times and locations. Plan to show the film with the sound on only if there is little or no dialogue or voice-over. Obviously, the film/show does not need to be in English!
3. If you think it necessary for what follows, write a few requests and questions on the board, ones such as—

What was that?
What comes after___?
How do you spell___?
What does _____ mean?
Could you replay the last bit?
Not yet.
OK. Next bit.

Procedure

1. Play the first shot of the excerpt and press 'pause' immediately. Dictate a sentence or two to begin the narrative. For the opening of High Noon, this might be—"The first thing we see is a man sitting on a rock, smoking a cigarette."
2. Once everybody has written something, ask a few students to read out what they've written. (This helps less proficient students keep up.)
3. Ask a few students to read out what they've written. (This clarifies the task and gives slow writers time to finish.)
4. Continue the pattern of playing, pausing, giving guidance about what to write and calling on a few students to read out what they've written. Replay as necessary.

Following on

• Especially in elementary and pre-intermediate classes, collect students' work and correct it after class. When you hand the stories back in a later lesson, set aside several minutes during which students, in pairs or threes, read each other their stories. In a class of more proficient students, collect the stories after students have read them out to each other.
• After the main activity, introduce and clarify a few key cinematic terms such as viewpoint (from near or far, from up or down, from one side or the other), shot (a short section of film showing something from a particular viewpoint) and scene (action in a particular place at a particular time filmed, perhaps filmed in more than one shot). Re-play (parts of) the excerpt and elicit comment on why certain shots were taken from this or that viewpoint (e.g., looking up as if from the viewpoint of a shorter person). In the case of short shots clumped together, elicit comment on what the viewer assumes happens (and why) between these shots even though the intermediate action is not shown.

Variations

• Allow students to work in teams of two, each team with one sheet of paper. Partners take turns doing the writing. This helps less proficient students keep up and reduces the number of stories you have to correct.
• If you play the excerpt with the sound on, encourage students to add in comment on the soundtrack such as—"We can hear church bells. There must be a town nearby", "The music suddenly becomes more dramatic."

Tips

• From time to time remind students that whenever—
  – important new characters appear, they might add a comment on any unusual aspect of their appearance (e.g., She's in a white wedding dress. She looks happy.)
  – there is a change of scene, they might add a short bit of description (e.g., The scene changes. They are in a small church.)
• Step 6: As appropriate, encourage students to write something about how characters do what they do and also why. In lower level classes you may occasionally need to dictate the occasional complete sentence as you go along.
• On the internet you may be able to find good background reading for the movie you have excerpted on the internet—sometimes you can find good information on the very part you have chosen to use. For instance, www.filmsite.org offers excellent materials on some 200 classic American films. Film reviews galore can be found through any good search engine. There are, as well, sites that offer complete scripts (e.g., www.script-o-rama.com) though the scripts are not usually free.
• See Clem Laroy's silent film activities in (Lindstromberg, ed., 1997, The Standby Book, pp. 193-196. Cambridge University Press).

Seth Lindstromberg