Activities
Looking at Film the Wright Way: Part II
How does Wright manage to make these incredible transitions? Today we'll go from 'no clue' to 'gets it'. Part II In the Nerdwriter video that you watched last week you saw how Evan Puschak (the Nerdwriter)...
Activities
Wright Way: Exemplars
In these examples, you can see that while editing is at the center of the creative transitions, these films also require input from all available roles. These videos were created as part of the Wright...
Blog
A Good Pessoa is Hard to Find Free
This is not an easy blog post for me to write. When Erick Pessoa invited me to work on this site with him a few years back, I was ecstatic. Heather McReynolds' InThinking Visual Arts site had had been...
Activities
Preproduction Package Checklist
"Directing is not just about calling action. It’s about seeing the film before it’s made." — Ava DuVernay, director of Selma (2014) and When They See Us (2019) Before you touch the camera, before the...
Teachers Start Here
May 2025 Subject Report
Let's look at some of the main points in the subject report and reflect on what it means for teaching and learning in the course this year. On this page you will find helpful pointers that address some...
eBook
What is Analysis?
Much of the content of this course involves analysis - obviously the Textual Analysis as well as the Comparative Study are analytical tasks. However, the film production parts of the class involve the...
Syllabi & Lessons
Film Portfolio: Sequencing & Integrating
There are infinite ways of approaching the process portfolio. How can you use the very work of the portfolio to help students prepare for approaching it as a way to address multiple assessment objectives...
Syllabi & Lessons
Unit: The Auteur Project
Somehow this is possible despite any financial, geographical, or temporal considerations. Your director is deceased? No problem! Their spirit will move you. This unit both helps prepare students for the...
Activities
Economy of Storytelling: The Bottle Film
Bottle Films (or Chamber films) are entire stories that are told in one location. Alfred Hitchcock is known for his embracement of the a “bottle film”; a film which uses just a single location. This...
Activities
Postmodern Intentions
This simple question captures something essential about postmodernism’s ethos. It reflects the doubt, disillusionment, but also the sense of curiosity that many postmodern works are built on. Postmodern...