Week 2: Film and Televison as a Compelling Experience

I thoroughly enjoyed this weeks reading and radio broadcast. I found Katalina Groh's advice in, The Film Maker as a Storyteller to start with an absurd idea, very interesting. I think as an educator, I need to be open to all new ideas. I need to encourage myself, as well as my students, to think outside of the box. To start with an idea, no matter how absurd and to then begin 'distilling the essence'. When teaching creative writing, I often have to help my students to edit their work and be okay with having many drafts before their final product is complete. I encourage them to have a clear purpose, but I hadn't thought of emphasizing the importance of having an emotional punchline. And yet, what better way exists when attempting to make your ideas effective?

I also really enjoyed the Katalina Groh's discussion of the importance of having a single protagonist. As an English teacher, literature read in class often centers on the story of the protagonist and the obstacles that they face. I had never considered that it is perhaps a stronger choice for a writer to include one primary Protagonist. I thought it was a compelling argument raised by Stalin who once said, "The death of one person is a tragedy. The death of a million people is a statistic." I think that this is true in many ways. The death or story of one person, is more personal and as Vastfjall, Peters and Slovic proved through their study with Swedish students, more sympathy and support is shown to individuals as opposed to a group. This idea is one that I could use when discussing world issues and writing with my students. We often talk about how the news almost desensitizes people with teh vast number of tragedies covered each hour.

Another reading that resonated with me was the radio broadcast done by NPR "Behind the Scenes with Film Editor Walter Murch". I have always admired the work done in highly effective movies, but hadn't realized the extent to which they pay close attention to the details. I loved the discussion on the use of silence and how to manipulate the effect by including the tiniest of sounds. The idea of working with no sound initially and then turning it on after the images are in place was also very compelling. The tedious work put in while viewing hours of film and then assembling the film second by second is truly amazing. I wonder if I could make better use of silence and pauses when discussing various elements in my own classes. I already know that viual stimulation can create incredible impact for my students but perhaps now I will try harder to find the most effective stimuli to use when emphasizing a point.