A Blockbuster

Lead-in

  • What is a movie you’ve seen and wish more people would have as well? What is the story about? 
  • If you could write a script for a movie, what genre of movie would you choose? Why? What would be the story about?
  • What comes to your mind when you hear the word “script”?

Presentation

Pre

  • Remember past classes and talk about how to analyze a piece of art.
  • Based on that, how do you think a movie is analyzed?

Top Down

  • What is the option that best describes the main point of the text? Read it and find out.
  1. How to analyze and review a movie after you watch it.
  2. How to analyze movie plots.
  1. How to analyze the characters and special effects.
  2. How to write reviews of movies, documentaries, and even songs.
  1. How to analyze and review a movie after you watch it.
  2. How to analyze movie plots.
  1. How to analyze the characters and special effects.
  2. How to write reviews of movies, documentaries, and even songs.

AFTER YOU WATCH THE MOVIE
When I write a review, I do my best to cover all aspects of filmmaking that went into creating the final product, including:

  • Plot: What was the movie about? Was it believable? Interesting? Thought-provoking? How was the climax revealed? How did the setting affect the story?
  • Themes and Tone: What was the central goal of the movie? Was it made to entertain, educate, or bring awareness to an issue? Was there any strong impression the movie made on you? Did any symbolism come into play?
  • Acting and Characters: Did you like how the characters were portrayed? Did the acting support the characters, and help them come to life? Did the characters display complex personalities or were they stereotypes? Were there characters that embodied certain archetypes to enhance or diminish the film?
  • Direction: Did you like how the director chose to tell the story? Was the pacing and speed of the movie too fast or too slow? Was the direction comparable to other movies this director has created? Was the storytelling complex or straightforward? Was there a certain amount of suspense or tension that worked? Did the director create a captivating conflict?
  • Score: Did the music support the mood of the movie? Was it too distracting or too subtle? Did it add to the production and work well with the script? Were the music queues timed well for the scenes they were supporting?
  • Cinematography: Were the shots used in a unique way to tell the story? Did the coloring and lighting affect the tone? Was the action coherently shot? How well did the camera move? Were actors or settings framed well?
  • Production Design: Did the sets feel lived-in and believable to the story or characters? Were the costumes suitable for the characters or story?  Did the created environments heighten the atmosphere on camera?
  • Special Effects: Were the special effects believable? Did they align with the era and tone of the movie? Were the effects overboard or too subtle? Did they integrate well to the purpose of the story?
  • Editing: Was the editing clean or choppy? Was the flow consistent? What unique effects were used? How were the transitions between scenes?
  • Pace: Did the movie flow well? Was it too fast or too slow? Was it clearly organized? Did certain scenes drag down the movie?
  • Dialogue: Were the conversations believable or necessary? Did the dialogue bring context to plot developments? Did the words match the tone of the movie and personality of the characters?

WRITING THE REVIEW
After I have all of my thoughts down, I take as much into consideration as I can and then work on the flow. I put a lot of care into the organization of my review, and make sure my thoughts are read in a cohesive manner to help my audience understand where I’m coming from. I prioritize what’s most important to include and let the rest go.

Hands down, the most important component to address in a movie review is how it made you feel. Anyone can write a summary of a film or create lists about the highlights. But good reviews should convey to the audience how the movie resonated with you.

If you don’t put your voice into your critique, your audience will find it difficult to understand your perspective, connect with you as a reviewer, and most importantly, they may not be able to trust your opinion. And if they don’t trust you, they wont come back to read more of your work. And you want your review to provide value to the reader, right?

I want to ensure that my thoughts encourage readers to create a constructive discussion around the film, or help them decide whether or not the movie is for them. And hopefully, the audience will have as much fun reading my review as I did writing it.

Adapted from Source

Bottom Up

  • True or False?

Example: The text judges which styles are nice and which are not. False

  1. Some aspects of filmmaking are: Plot, Twist, Direction, and Score.
  2. According to the text, it’s impossible to watch something and not analyze it.
  3. The pacing and speed of the movie are Cinematography’s responsibilities.
  4. It’s better when the conversations are believable or necessary.
  5. The most important component to address in a movie review is what it made you think.
  1. Some aspects of filmmaking are: Plot, Twist, Direction, and Score. False
  2. According to the text, it’s impossible to watch something and not analyze it. False
  3. The pacing and speed of the movie are Cinematography’s responsibilities. False
  4. It’s better when the conversations are believable or necessary. True
  5. The most important component to address in a movie review is what it made you think. False

Post

  • What movie you watched made you feel the happiest?
  • What about the saddest?
  • What are some important aspects of both movies mentioned?

This lesson’s creator, for instance, loves “Little Miss Sunshine”. It’s not the best movie ever, but the characters are amazing and she feels really good after watching it.

Target Language

Describing Movies

Films

  • action-packed
  • mind-blowing
  • gripping
  • feel-good
  • a blockbuster
  • a (complete) waste of time
  • a must-see
  • full of twists and turns

Acting

  • intense
  • poor
  • unconvincing
  • superb
  •  

Plot

  • moving
  • far-fetched
  • clichéd
  • high-octane

Special Effects & Soundtrack

  • (un)realistic
  • breathtaking
  • stunning
  • unimaginative

Historic Present

The present tenses can be used to informally tell stories to cause an effect on the listener, that’s the Historic Present. It can also be used to summarize movie plots.

  • You’ll never believe what happened to me yesterday. I’m going shopping for clothes and as soon as I get to the store I see this beautiful jacket, so I just go ahead and try it on. That’s when another customer comes to me and says the jacket belongs to him. Then an awkward silence follows, while I realize I’m actually wearing someone else’s jacket and he took it off to try clothes from the store…
  • When bitten by a genetically modified spider, a nerdy, shy, and awkward high school student gains spider-like abilities that he uses to fight evil as a superhero after tragedy befalls his family. (Source)

Controlled Practice

  • Match the words to their meanings. There is one example.
  1. Gripping
  2. Blockbuster
  3. High-octane
  4. Superb
  5. Breathtaking

(   ) Astonishing or awe-inspiring in quality, so as to take one’s breath away.

(   ) Impressively splendid.

(   ) Dynamic; high-powered

(1) Firmly holding the attention or interest.

(   ) A thing of great power or size, in particular a movie, book, or other product that is a great commercial success.

  1. Gripping
  2. Blockbuster
  3. High-octane
  4. Superb
  5. Breathtaking

(5) Astonishing or awe-inspiring in quality, so as to take one’s breath away.

(4) Impressively splendid.

(3) Dynamic; high-powered

(1) Firmly holding the attention or interest.

(2) A thing of great power or size, in particular a movie, book, or other product that is a great commercial success.

Freer Practice

  • Complete the sentences according to your opinion.
    • One example of a feel-good movie is…
    • People usually love (the movie) … but I think it’s…
    • A clichèd movie I’ve seen is… 
    • “The best special effects ever” award should go to… because…
    • A movie that I want to see…

Production

  • Use “Historic Present” from the Target Language to summarize 5 movies’ plots of your choice.

Homework

Connect the words with their meanings.

Example: Blockbuster > A thing of great power or size, in particular a movie, book, or other product that is a great commercial success.

  1. far-fetched

  2. unimaginative

  3. twists

  4. moving

(   ) a radical change in the direction or expected outcome of the plot in a work of fiction.

(   ) difficult to believe and unlikely to be true.

(   ) stirring or evoking strong feelings or emotions, especially touchingly or pathetically.

(   ) not readily using or demonstrating the use of the imagination; stolid and somewhat dull.

  1. far-fetched

  2. unimaginative

  3. twists

  4. moving

(3) a radical change in the direction or expected outcome of the plot in a work of fiction.

(1) difficult to believe and unlikely to be true.

(4) stirring or evoking strong feelings or emotions, especially touchingly or pathetically.

(2) not readily using or demonstrating the use of the imagination; stolid and somewhat dull.

Match the sentence halves. There is one example.

  1. They are looking for budding dancers
  2. A work of cinema so visceral, so powerful
  3. This action-packed film has style, humor and is
  4. Above all, she has a breathtaking
  5. But to be honest, I found it wickedly

(   ) so incredibly mind-blowing must be seen to be believed.

(   ) fearlessness, and the talent to back up her temerity.

(   ) full of stunts that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

(1) singers, and actors to join the cast and contribute to making this show a real blockbuster.

(   ) funny, except for the mushy feel-good end.

  1. They are looking for budding dancers
  2. A work of cinema so visceral, so powerful
  3. This action-packed film has style, humor and is
  4. Above all, she has a breathtaking
  5. But to be honest, I found it wickedly

(2) so incredibly mind-blowing must be seen to be believed.

(4) fearlessness, and the talent to back up her temerity.

(3) full of stunts that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

(1) singers, and actors to join the cast and contribute to making this show a real blockbuster.

(5) funny, except for the mushy feel-good end.

Read this part of the plot from the movie “The Godfather” and complete the sentences using the following verbs in their correct form. There is one example.

Send – Shoot – Survive – Meet – Pressure – Ask – Request

Near Christmas, drug baron Sollozzo (1) asks Vito to invest in his narcotics business and for protection from the law. Vito declines, citing that involvement in narcotics would alienate his political connections. Suspicious of Sollozzo’s partnership with the Tattaglia crime family, Vito (2) _______ his enforcer Luca Brasi to meet with the Tattaglias. Brasi is garroted to death during the meeting. Later, enforcers gun down Vito and kidnap Hagen. With Corleone’s first-born Sonny now in command, Sollozzo (3) _______ Hagen to persuade Sonny to accept the narcotics deal. Sonny retaliates for Luca’s death with a hit on Bruno Tattaglia. Vito (4) _______ the shooting and is visited in the hospital by Michael, who finds him unprotected after NYPD officers on Sollozzo’s payroll cleared out Vito’s guards. Michael thwarts another attempt on his father’s life but is beaten by corrupt police captain Mark McCluskey. Sollozzo and McCluskey (5) _______ to meet with Michael and settle the dispute. Michael feigns interest and agrees to meet, but hatches a plan with Sonny and Corleone capo Clemenza to kill them and go into hiding. Michael (6) _______ Sollozzo and McCluskey at a Bronx restaurant; after retrieving a handgun planted into the bathroom by Clemenza, he (7) _______ both men dead.

Near Christmas, drug baron Sollozzo (1) asks Vito to invest in his narcotics business and for protection from the law. Vito declines, citing that involvement in narcotics would alienate his political connections. Suspicious of Sollozzo’s partnership with the Tattaglia crime family, Vito (2) sends his enforcer Luca Brasi to meet with the Tattaglias. Brasi is garroted to death during the meeting. Later, enforcers gun down Vito and kidnap Hagen. With Corleone’s first-born Sonny now in command, Sollozzo (3) pressures Hagen to persuade Sonny to accept the narcotics deal. Sonny retaliates for Luca’s death with a hit on Bruno Tattaglia. Vito (4) survives the shooting and is visited in the hospital by Michael, who finds him unprotected after NYPD officers on Sollozzo’s payroll cleared out Vito’s guards. Michael thwarts another attempt on his father’s life but is beaten by corrupt police captain Mark McCluskey. Sollozzo and McCluskey (5) request to meet with Michael and settle the dispute. Michael feigns interest and agrees to meet, but hatches a plan with Sonny and Corleone capo Clemenza to kill them and go into hiding. Michael (6) meets Sollozzo and McCluskey at a Bronx restaurant; after retrieving a handgun planted into the bathroom by Clemenza, he (7) shootsboth men dead.

Put the words in the correct order to make sentences.

Example: is all. too script at and safe The not it’s funny > The script is too safe and it’s not funny at all.

  1. truly noir. to around and best is Finally, film everyone of westerns one seems this movie a the psychological think
  2. this posted reports about widely days. movie in different They recent have
  3. to human faithful with is that story, movie characters. knowable, it This warm peopled identifiable while and making and
  4. drama movie and a between a The comedy. life serious quirky romantic cross becomes a
  5. movie forced script test screenings. to is safe, to recut studio be and the The according the too
  1. Finally, everyone seems to think this movie is one of the best westerns around and a truly psychological film noir.
  2. They have posted widely different reports about this movie in recent days.
  3. This movie is faithful to that story, while making it warm and human and peopled with knowable, identifiable characters.
  4. The movie becomes a cross between a serious life drama and a quirky romantic comedy.
  5. The script is too safe, and the studio forced the movie to be recut according to test screenings.

Find and correct the mistakes.

Example: The only thing missing was music playing at the background from a movie soundtrack! > The only thing missing was music playing in the background from a movie soundtrack!

  1. It is a movie that struggles at significance as it fashions actuality out of ambiguity.
  2. He admit his friends have already razzed him about what a bad movie he made.
  3. On one level, the movie is about science ficcion, kung fu, firearms, and non-stop actions.
  4. And because the movie is an adaptation of a novel, the scripts is just remarkably surreal.
  5. Before that I was beginning to fear there were no place for serius drama in the movie industry.
  1. It is a movie that struggles for significance as it fashions actuality out of ambiguity.
  2. He admits his friends have already razzed him about what a bad movie he made.
  3. On one level, the movie is about science fiction, kung fu, firearms, and non-stop action.
  4. And because the movie is an adaptation of a novel, the script is just remarkably surreal.
  5. Before that I was beginning to fear there was no place for serious drama in the movie industry.

Writing

Choose a movie you didn’t like and change the plot to make it better. Remember to use as much of the Target Language as possible.