Screen Education articles from September 2005

Screen Education archives from September 2005

Something old, something new: 'Pride and Prejudice' on screen.(Cover Story)
September 22, 2005... Vivat Jane Austen! WHY, I once asked students, do you think you should in the twenty-first century be reading Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1813? Too often, the exam answers I'd read seemed to suggest there would be very...

Look (at it) both ways: perspectives on animation: at its most fundamental level, the title of writer-director Sarah Watt's first feature film, Look Both Ways, refers to looking both right and left before crossing a road, a railway line or any other track built for fast-moving objects that can cause organic bodies devastating harm.
September 22, 2005... AND that's the imagery Watt uses, in animation form, to convey the inner fears of Meryl, one of the two main characters in the film. Meryl imagines disaster coming from every direction--train crashes, man-eating sharks and baby-eating killer...

5 turning points in Italian cinema: from national to post-national in the post-war era.
September 22, 2005... One of the most highly regarded and influential national cinemas, Italian film has also been the subject of a number of lengthy historical surveys, auteur studies and detailed film anthologies, the most recent of them, in the '24 Frames'...

'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room': power, corruption and exposing a corporate scandal.(Company Profile)
September 22, 2005... IT TOOK SIXTEEN YEARS TO BUILD ENRON but only twenty-four days for it to go bankrupt. So begins Alex Gibney's riveting documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2004). The documentary is based on the book, of the same name, by...

In the heart of darkness: the environmental endgame of 'Darwin's Nightmare'.
September 22, 2005... The recent years have seen a number of insightful documentary films focusing on an array of problems facing contemporary African societies. Abbas Kiarostami's digitally shot 'ABC Africa' (2001) is concerned with the plight of Ugandan children...

Are we selling out our culture? The influence of product placement in filmmaking: it is an undeniable fact that all forms of advertising in film, including the number of product placements appearing on screen, has increased exponentially in the last decade.
September 22, 2005... IN fact, 'advertising and promotion have [now] evolved to the point where the line between what can be considered strictly entertainment as opposed to what can be seen as commercial persuasion has become extremely flexible and blurred'. (1)...

Rated 'C: the British Film Institute's canonical list of films for children under 14.
September 22, 2005... 'Debate about children's film and television viewing usually focuses upon what they should not be allowed to see, rather than what they should see,' says Cary Bazalgette, Head of Education at the British Film Institute. IN order to...

The age of information: the British Film Institute National Library.
September 22, 2005... I first used the British Film Institute National Library in 1988 to research some international film credits. Since then I have used it at least once a year. IN 1990 I did the preliminary research for my first book, Billy Wilder,...

Filmmaking across the curriculum: a beginner's guide.
September 22, 2005... PART THREE: Post-production--editing, the addition of music and sound effects, titles and credits; Publicity and Screening; Reflection and Assessment. This is Part Three of a three-part guide designed to help teachers get started with...

Script--lights, action! Reaching a young audience.(A PRIMARY SCHOOL: TEACHER RESOURCE)
September 22, 2005... In the last five years the Australian media has woken up to one undeniable fact (though we may not like it): young audiences are 'good business' and are worth chasing with programs made specifically for them. This applies to both...

How can film and television texts impact on students' writing.
September 22, 2005... PART ONE Moving image texts are widely used in primary classrooms to study concepts such as character development, plot structure and point of view. WE know that film, television, video and 'new media' texts are powerful teaching...

Finding Nemo: a study guide.(A PRIMARY SCHOOL: TEACHER RESOURCE)
September 22, 2005... About the Film A COLLABORATION between Pixar and alt Disney Pictures has produced Finding Nemo, a classic family film story. Finding Nemo is an entertaining computer-generated animated film that tells the tale of Marlin (voiced by Albert...

In my father's den: riddles and memories: by all accounts, New Zealand director Brad McGann's debut feature film, In My Father's Den (2004), is doing well, particularly overseas.(A MIDDLE YEARS: TEACHER RESOURCE)
September 22, 2005... IT has been nominated for six awards and won four of them. Not bad for a film with a budget of only NZ$7 million, which McGann himself adapted from Maurice Gee's novel of the same name. In its essence, the story appears both simple and...

Dogtown and Z-boy: teaching the documentary genre.(A MIDDLE YEARS: TEACHER RESOURCE)
September 22, 2005... SUITS JUNIOR-MIDDLE SECONDARY STUDENTS Ten Reasons to Teach Dogtown and Z-Boys Dogtown and Z-Boys is a great way to introduce the documentary genre because: 1. It is enjoyable for students (and teachers), even if they don't know...

You can't stop the file sharing: the future of music copyright: every now and then a good citizen of the media technology world (someone who has embraced the creative herd within) needs to step back and ask questions about the bigger picture: where have we come from, where are we going to, and all that?
September 22, 2005... AN Australian Federal court has ruled this month on the much-maligned Kazaa file-sharing software and web site. There is much to consider, in the light of the technology we absorb so greedily, about this legal case for the future of both the...

The sentimental bloke: the way she torks! 'Er lips! 'Er eyes! 'Er hair! Oh, gimme air!(A Study Guide)
September 22, 2005... Introduction The Sentimental Bloke (Raymond Longford, 1919) must be one of the Australian cinema's sweetest and most affecting love stories. When Bill (Arthur Tauchert), the eponymous Bloke, finally arranges an introduction to the lovely...

2005 ATOM awards: and the nominees are ...
September 22, 2005... SCHOOLS CATEGORIES Best Junior (K-8) Film Video Production Sponsored by Carey Baptist Grammar School * LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION Bart Wildash, Dovi Hanner, Hamish Anderson--Wesley College (Elsternwick), VIC * THE NEXT TIME...

Paradise lost: far from heaven.(FILM AS TEXT: 1931-2005)
September 22, 2005... Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002) is a VCE Literature text that invites both appreciation and analysis. This article is an extension of the work I have done with teachers at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and the Victorian...

Within the woods: A Simple Plan.(FILM AS TEXT: 1931-2005)
September 22, 2005... A Simple Plan is a fable of human weakness, beneath which lies an ingenious meld of legend, ideology and Hollywood aspiration. Resonating here are elements going back to medieval European folklore, the Bible, tribal myth, and genre...

'Close your eyes and you can start all over again': Memento.(FILM AS TEXT: 1931-2005)
September 22, 2005... There is an enlightening relationship between Christopher Nolan's film Memento (2000) and Jonathan Nolan's short story Memento Mori. When I read that the germ of the film was a story by Nolan's brother Jonathan, I hastened to get hold of it,...

Signs, lines, tracks and trails: 'Rabbit-Proof Fence'.(FILM AS TEXT: 1931-2005)
September 22, 2005... Stephen Kinnane, in Shadow Lines, relates that when his grandmother was taken from her mother and family because she happened to have been fathered by a white man, 'Women sang songs to try and spirit the children back to their country.' (1)...

'Crocodile Dundee' or the croc(k) of gold.(FILM AS TEXT: 1931-2005)
September 22, 2005... On Being Very, Very Popular Whatever else there is to be said about Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman. 1986), there is no getting away from its sensational popularity. It made the most money at Australian box offices ever. displacing E.T....

'A pit of continuous tens on': Macbeth.(FILM AS TEXT: 1931-2005)
September 22, 2005... Stage to Screen MACBETH (Trevor Nunn/ Philip Casson, 1978) was conceived for television by its stage director Trevor Nunn and Thames Television director Philip Casson, and completed in two weeks of studio filming sessions. (1) My title...

Screen Tech.(computers used in movie production)
September 22, 2005... INDUSTRY NEWS Francis Ford Coppola once commented on the misconception that art is losing something to technology. Rather, he attested that in fact 'cinema is technology'. As a truism it has never been more pertinent than now as...

Nick Enright A Man With Five Children: Students of ethics, media, communications, filmmaking and drama will find much of interest in Nick Enright's play A Man With Five Children.
September 22, 2005... Documentary filmmaker Michael Apted took fourteen children from all classes of English society, and filmed them talking about their lives and hopes every seven years starting from the age of seven. The premise of A Man With Five Children is...

David Williamson Amigos: Even in today's society, men still rule the corporate world despite the attempts of feminism to make it otherwise.
September 22, 2005... It is usually seen by women as a deliberate attempt by men to maintain an exclusive realm, a woman-free zone which they will not be able to penetrate. However, from a man's point of view, the answer may be somewhat different. It may just be...

Claire Hibbert Looking After Your Pet Dog: This is a good, basic introduction to dog ownership aimed at first-time pet owners under the age of ten.(Book Review)
September 22, 2005... Each section comprises one or two key paragraphs, a double page spread of full colour photographs with captions, and a box containing 'top tips' or an informative aside. The book covers all the key issues, from choosing a dog through to...

Noah and Saskia DVD and Education CD-ROM Review: Noah and Saskia (Pino Amenta, 2004) is an outstanding and insightful television series by the Australian Children's Television Foundation, based on the book by Chris Anastassiades and Sam Carroll.
September 22, 2005... The show cleverly and successfully explores issues of adolescence, family, school, peer pressure, and identity, both online and offline. A synopsis of the storyline is summarised on the associated website: Saskia doesn't get it. Aft she...

David Williamson Flatfoot: Titus Maccius Plautus, the most popular Roman dramatist of his day, would no doubt be pleased to know that his work has endured more than two millennia and has again found an audience.(The Swaggering Soldier)(Theater Review)
September 22, 2005... His play The Swaggering Soldier, written in 196 BC, is revisited by David Williamson, Australia's most successful playwright, as the play within the play Flatfoot. In keeping with his historic role as playwright-producer-actor, Plautus (which...

Alex Woolf, Medieval Realms: Education: A welcome addition to the series of resources on Medieval times, which already includes Art and Architecture, Daily Life, Death and Disease, Monarchs and Warfare.(Brief Article)
September 22, 2005... This reference features twenty-one double-page full-colour spreads on a comprehensive range of topics relating to education (313 BC to 1510 AD) during Medieval times: What was the difference between a monastic school and a cathedral school?...