Storytelling around the Globe

Introduction

There is a feeling of magic and excitement when one enters a movie theatre, settles in a chosen seat and then the house lights are dimmed. Anticipation mounts while waiting to be transported into a storytelling experience. The previews for upcoming films that precede this experience can sometimes generate just as much excitement, especially if the preview is for a long-awaited film like the Irish The Secret of Roan Inish or a sequel in a series like Star Wars or Harry Potter.

This unit should tap into that excitement, capture the students' attention and let them embark on a journey of discovery and learning. This will be accomplished through a cross curricular unit that will combine the study of storytelling in films with the art of movie poster illustration. The culminating activity will be the creation of a movie poster that each student will individually create from a film of their choice. Many of our students have grown up immersed in the pop film culture fashioned around Hollywood. To produce a greater understanding, foreign films will be explored along with more traditional Hollywood fare like the landmark Jaws and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Through the watching of foreign films, students will hopefully develop an appreciation and sensitivity for storytelling and graphic art traditions that differ from their own. The Irish film Into the West will be shown in its entirety first so that the students can become familiar with the process of exploring the storytelling traditions and elements in it. A variety of films produced in other countries will be explored by watching only the trailers for films such as The Secret of Roan Inish, the French animated African tale Kirikou and the Sorceress and the Chinese Not One Less. These trailers (also known as previews) are snippets, tiny narratives or condensations that will allow the students to pick up the essence of the film without having to spend classroom time viewing the entire feature. Thanks to the internet, these trailers can be readily viewed in the classroom. They are only as far away as the fingertips.

Students will be learning about and combining at least four different but related disciplines such as literature, filmmaking, history, and art illustration. All involve storytelling techniques and will be examined. This will involve the students actively gaining knowledge of storytelling, films, posters and art. First this will be accomplished by the viewing and discussion of the film Into the West. Then movie trailers will be explored using the knowledge of appropriate film techniques, devices and vocabulary that students will explore as we progress through the unit. After studying some of the history of poster art along with art criticism techniques, composition and the elements of art and principles of design, students will also examine and critique the posters that accompany these films. The internet is again a wonderful source for easily obtaining and showing posters in the classroom. Each viewed trailer will be analyzed and discussed as will the movie posters for that particular film.

Students will watch demonstrations of different art techniques and processes involving various art materials and then they will practice using them. Since the classes that will be involved in my teaching of this unit will both be Advanced Drawing, the students will already have background knowledge and some expertise in art. After research and working out their ideas through thumbnails (small "idea" sketches on paper) and self, group and class critiques, the students will then design their own individual posters. The assignment will be approached as a "real world" free lance job or as that of an on-staff studio artist. The students will be supposedly "hired" by a studio or independent producer to create movie posters for a film advertising campaign. The students will sign a contract, complete with deadlines. They will design a poster for an existing film that they have researched. These will be exhibited in an art show that the students will help mount in our school library at the completion of the unit.

As a high school art teacher in Delaware, I am designing this unit to be taught in my two Advanced Drawing classes. These classes are comprised predominantly of juniors and seniors. However, this unit can be adapted for middle school use and for disciplines other than art. My school's population is over 50% minority and 35% low income, and the students herald from a variety of countries. My classes reflect our diverse population. I have classes in which a class valedictorian may be sitting next to a REACH student. Our REACH students are those who have special needs that exceed those of our special education inclusion students. All of our students can be successful with this material and all can create effective posters. The different levels of understanding and sophistication are normal and should not detract from the final results of the posters. My school's one and a half hour block classes meet every other day and I envision this unit taking over three weeks. The time will be adjusted as needed when I actually teach it.

Many school districts have embraced the model of UbD or Understanding by Design/Arts Learning by Design. It is also known as Backwards Design. This unit can easily be converted to that model and I have included some essential questions and big ideas that are associated with this type of model.

This unit has grown out of the stimulating seminar "Storytelling around the Globe" that I took with Dudley Andrew, the R. Seldon Rose Professor of Film Studies and Comparative Literature at Yale. As I learned more, I became more aware of everything that I did not know about storytelling and the making of films in different countries. I could study the films of just West Africa for a year and still lack sufficient depth of knowledge, especially about the current political implications, ancient rituals and spirituality. Dudley Andrew posed the question during seminar, "How do we present other cultures without falling into the commonplaces?"¹ I do not want to perpetuate stereotypes and misconceptions about other cultures so I plan to be very honest with my students and explain that the material being presented is just the tip of the iceberg. This unit will give them understandings and skills that they did not previously possess and possibly spur them on to do continued research on their own. This unit will help to point them in the right direction if they wish to do so.