A Novel Look at Film - afisilver.afi.com

O F M I C E A N D M E N

A Novel Look at Film VIEWINGGUIDE

A Novel Look at Film

is a screen educationprogram presented

by the American Film Institute in

collaboration withMontgomery County

Public Schools.

Sponsored by Sprint

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Table Of Contents

PRE-VIEWING MATERIALS: Preparing to See the Film 4

The Novel/Film Connection: An Interconnected Relationship 4

Of Mice and Men: Novel, Play and Film 7

Film Guide: Production Crew and Cast 7

Cinematic Terms 8

Steinbeck’s Relationships Translated from Novel to Screen 10

Questions on Relationships to Consider While Viewing the Film 10

List of Other Elements to Consider While Viewing the Film 11

POST-VIEWING MATERIALS: Understanding the Film/Novel Relationship 12

List of Questions for Reflection Immediately After the Film 12

Suggested Post-viewing Classroom Activities 12

The People Behind the Production 13

Questions and Activities for the Interview Videotape 15

Assessments 15

Acknowledgements 16

The American Film Institute, the nation’s preeminent arts organizationdedicated to advancing and preserving the art of the moving image, is commit-ted to informing the general public about the artistic and cultural significanceof the motion picture. In collaboration with the Montgomery County PublicSchools, AFI has prepared this guide to assist teachers with presenting the 1992film OF MICE AND MEN, directed by Gary Sinise, in conjunction with JohnSteinbeck’s 1937 novel. This film provides an excellent opportunity to educatestudents about the medium of film while reinforcing the literary significance ofSteinbeck’s story. The guide is designed to provide examples of how to use filmlanguage to complement the study of the novel in the classroom.

O F M I C E A N D M E NA Novel Look at FilmViewing Guide

Novel by John Steinbeck (1937)Film by Gary Sinise (1992)

The following materials are intended to assist teach-ers with the preparation of students for viewingGary Sinise’s film after they have read the novel.Depending on the particular needs and interests oftheir students, teachers might choose any numberof the following terms, issues and ideas whenpreparing their own lesson plans.

The Novel/Film Connection: AnInterconnected RelationshipSince Of Mice And Men is presented as part of aunit on relationships, emphasizing the importantrelationship between novels and films would be agood way to make the transition between the bookand the film. Indeed, a strong relationship betweennovels and films has existed since the invention ofthe motion picture. During the first decade of thetwentieth century, when film first progressedbeyond merely capturing movement to telling sto-ries, novels were among the earliest sources formaterial. One of Hollywood’s early blockbusters,D.W. Griffith’s THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915),was based on a popular novel. Films based on nov-els became particularly common with sound pic-tures or talkies, which were first made in the late1920s. By the end of the 1930s, the period oftencalled Hollywood’s Golden Age, between 30 and 40percent of the films produced were based on novels.

Film producers were drawn to novels for a varietyof reasons. A novel’s ready-made story, completewith characters, conflicts and conclusion, allowedfilmmakers to extract as little or as much from thebook as they wanted. Novel-based films were con-sidered prestigious; if done well, they were oftencritically received and became top contenders forAcademy Awards. In addition, films based on novelswere perceived as potential moneymakers. Whetherthe book was an old classic or a new bestseller, itspopularity was considered a good indicator of thefilm’s box office success.

Literary classics including David Copperfield, A Taleof Two Cities and Wuthering Heights were all madeinto films during the 1930s. Contemporary novelsfrom the same period that addressed the social andcultural concerns of the day, including The GoodEarth, The Grapes of Wrath and Rebecca, alsoinspired screen adaptations that were releasedshortly after the books’ original publication. Inmost cases, these films caused the reading of the

original novels to skyrocket. More copies ofWuthering Heights, for example, were sold in 1939than during the previous century, a direct result ofthe film bringing the story to a mass audience forthe first time.

Although Hollywood and the films it produces havechanged dramatically since the 1930s, novels are stillan important source for filmmakers. Several recentadaptations of Jane Austen novels—Persuasion,Sense and Sensibility and Emma—have introduced anew generation of moviegoers to stories writtenalmost 200 years ago. Recent novels, including TheEnglish Patient, Remains of the Day, L.A.Confidential and Forrest Gump, have also inspiredcritically-acclaimed motion pictures.

The proliferation of films based on novels results inthe inevitable comparison of the two. Audiencesfamiliar with novels bring a host of expectationswith them when viewing their film versions.Frequent comments about films based on novelsinclude:

- “The film is true to the spirit of the book.”- “It’s incredible how they butchered the novel.”- “Thank goodness they changed the ending.”

These statements are based on certain assumptionsby the viewer, particularly that a film is intended tobe a snapshot of the book, like a photo reproducesthe image of a person. Statements like these alsoassume that the novel is the norm and the filmdeviates from it at its peril. According to this para-digm, the more the film strays from the novel, themore inferior it is to the original work.

Rather than considering a film a mere replica of abook, it is more constructive to emphasize thefundamental differences between the two.Analyzing these differences is not only essential toavoid considering a film merely as a replacementfor the book, but it will also help students of filmto understand and appreciate both novels andfilms more fully.

Both novels and feature films are stylized, contem-porary examples of perhaps the oldest forms ofhuman expression: storytelling. Because humanconsciousness embraces much more than the pres-ent moment, recounting events or stories requiresthe capacity to evoke other times and places, real orimagined. The sequencing of time, space and action

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P R E - V I E W I N G M A T E R I A L S :

Preparing to See the Film

—ordering them and giving them coherence andmeaning—creates a narrative, the spine on which tohang a story.

Literary narrative is basically a conventionalizedabstraction, a linear sequence of words and ideasthat evolves a story by being read. Film narrative issimilarly conventionalized, moving freely throughspace and time to represent and portray action andresolution through images, sounds and spokenwords. While film narrative is much more concrete,leaving so much less to the imagination, both formsof narrative speak to our senses and call on us toparticipate in an active world the artist has calledup for us.

To reiterate, a novel is a work of linguistic art thatis comprised exclusively of words. The weavingtogether of words into carefully crafted sentences,paragraphs and chapters is at the heart of a novel’spower to tell a story by inspiring images within thereader’s mind. Film, on the other hand, is essen-tially a visual art form composed of imagesenhanced with sound that are presented before anaudience on a screen. With less emphasis on writ-ten language as the primary structural element,film eliminates many characteristics of a novelwhich text more easily approximates: dreams,memories and feelings, which in the novel are con-jured up within the imagination of the reader. Toreplace them, film relies on endless visual, physicaland spatial variations that are combined and juxta-posed through the editing of those images into acontinuous moving picture.

A novel is a conceptual device that relies on thereader’s ability to conceive what is being presentedthrough words that conjure up ideas in the reader’simagination. A film, on the other hand, is a percep-tual medium that relies on the presentation ofimages to the viewer that are perceived and under-stood once they are visible on the screen.

In the novel, the raw material is simply the wordsthemselves. In film, the raw materials and soundsare the images imprinted on celluloid that runsthrough a projector. The camera becomes the eye of the viewer, provides the point of view andshapes the subject matter through the images itpresents. The omniscient voice of the novel isreplaced by the camera lens, through which thenovel’s language is filtered.

When filmmakers turn a novel into a film, they ulti-mately create their own work of art inspired by thebook but additionally influenced by visual forms.Instead of creating a snapshot of the book, the film-maker reshapes the words into a visual medium thatis completely different. The filmmaker does notconvert the novel at all, but creates instead a para-phrase of the novel in which characters and inci-dents are approximated in visual terms. The novelcommunicates with established narrative conven-tions such as plot, characterization, point of view,setting, conflict and theme. The filmmaker canchoose which of these elements are important to hisor her visual interpretation of the narrative. Besidesthe filmmaker’s personal choices, factors such asbudget and time can also influence the final formsof the visual narrative. Just as the author of thenovel chose the words, character descriptions, set-ting and other elements that conveyed a message ortheme, similarly, the filmmaker has many choices,employing some of the same tools, that can result inthe same theme or an entirely different one. It mustbe assumed, therefore, that changes are inevitablewhen a filmmaker transforms a linguistic mediuminto a visual one.

Like two intersecting lines, novel and film seem tomeet at a point, then begin to diverge. At the inter-section, book and shooting script may appear verysimilar. When these lines diverge, they do notresemble each other. An art form that depends onmoving images, mass audience, industrial produc-tion and profit is bound to differ from an art form


NOVELlinguistic = words

conceptual

raw material:written words

one author

FILMvisual = images

perceptual

raw material: recordedimages and sounds

collaborative

that depends on language, a limited, literary audi-ence and the individual creation of the author. Thefilmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, willinevitably become a different artistic expressionfrom the novel on which it is based.

Instead of searching for what aspects of the film aredifferent from the book, it is more constructive toask why those differences occurred and how theymight illuminate the story’s transition from a lin-guistic to a visual medium. Doing so in the class-room will sharpen the student’s awareness of thenovel and introduce the vocabulary of film and itsintrinsic characteristics.

R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S O FN O V E L / F I L M R E A D I N G

Select a movie you have viewed that was also a novel orchildren’s story and describe in a brief, constructed responsemany of the differences in the two texts.

OR

Select a favorite scene from a story you have read that hasnot been made into a film. Explain in a brief, constructedresponse which present-day actors you would select toportray the main characters. Justify your choices.


S U M M A R Y :The Novel/Film Relationship

k Films have been made from novels throughoutthe history of movies.

k Novels have consistently provided filmmakerswith ready-made narratives that have oftenresulted in prestigious, popular motion pictures.

k Films have been made from both literary classicsand contemporary novels since their beginnings,and still are today.

k Viewers bring many assumptions to novel-inspired films, particularly that the film should bea photo album of the book.

k Films based on novels ultimately transform astory based in a linguistic medium into a storytold in a visual medium that has its own distinc-tive characteristics.

k Explaining why the choices are made when trans-forming a literary work into a visual medium canhelp students understand the strengths andunique qualities of both.

Of Mice and Men: Novel, Play and FilmOf Mice and Men is an excellent example of a novelthat has been adapted to both the stage and screen.While Steinbeck was writing the novel during themid-1930s, he was also considering how to reworkit as a play. In a Stage Magazine article published inJanuary 1938, he wrote, “Simply stated, Of Miceand Men was an attempt to write a novel that couldbe played from the lines, or a play that could beread.” Years later, he called this type of writing the“play-novelette” form. Steinbeck’s play, Of Mice andMen, premiered in New York City in 1937 shortlyafter the book was published in the same year. Justtwo years later, a film of the story was producedstarring Lon Chaney, Jr. as Lennie and BurgessMeredith as George.

Gary Sinise’s 1992 film brings Steinbeck’s novel andplay together in a motion picture that tells the storyin strikingly visual terms. Sinise had always lovedthe book, which was one of his favorites from child-hood. A veteran of the Steppenwolf TheatreCompany in Chicago, he also starred as Tom Joad inan acclaimed stage production of John Steinbeck’sThe Grapes of Wrath. In crafting the film, Sinise uti-lized both theatrical and cinematic techniques totell Steinbeck’s story. The film shows a respect forthe novel but also departs from it. The result is afilm from which students can gain much under-standing of how a literary classic can be translatedsuccessfully to the screen.

Film Guide: Production Crew and CastOF MICE AND MEN (1992)

PRODUCTION: Russ Smith and Gary Sinise; released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

DIRECTION: Gary Sinise

SCREENPLAY: Horton Foote

EDITOR: Robert L. Sinise

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Kenneth MacMillan

PRODUCTION DESIGN: David Gropman

ART DIRECTION: Dan Davis, Karen Schulz, and Cheryl T. Smith

CASTING: Amanda Mackey

COSTUME DESIGN: Shay Cunliffe

MUSIC: Mark Isham

RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes

Based on the novel and play Of Mice and Menby John Steinbeck (1937)

LENNIE John Malkovich

GEORGE Gary Sinise

CANDY Ray Walston

CURLEY Casey Siemaszko

CURLEY’S WIFE Sherilyn Fenn

SLIM John Terry

CARLSON Richard Riehle

WHITT Alexis Arquette

CROOKS Joe Morton

THE BOSS Noble Willingham


A consideration of the many artsand crafts involved in film pro-duction gives the motion picture amuch larger and more complexdimension. No longer can a filmof a novel be considered a merevisual record when so much talentis involved in such a creativeeffort. Just as the various tasks infilm production can be brokendown and analyzed individually,so can the individual elements ofthe film. Filmmaking, like anyother art form, has its own lan-guage and vocabulary. Once thatlanguage is mastered, films can beunderstood at a new level.

Camera angle: The positionof the camera in relation to thesubject it shows: above it, lookingdown (a high angle); on the samelevel (a straight-on angle); lookingup (a low angle). OF MICE ANDMEN consists almost exclusivelyof straight-on angle shots. Moreextreme camera angles are usedsparingly. The film’s most dra-matic high angle shot capturesLennie’s realization that he haskilled Curley’s wife in a shot fromhigh above which captures himcrouched in terror over thewoman’s dead body.

Close-up: A framing in whichthe scale of the object shown isrelatively large. Most commonly, aperson’s head is seen from theneck up, or an object fills most ofthe screen to emphasize its impor-tance. OF MICE AND MEN isfilled with important close-ups.George riding alone in a freightcar, Lennie’s bloody face afterCurley’s beating and Curley’s wifedreaming of becoming a moviestar are all shot in close-up toheighten mood and convey a cer-tain cinematic intensity.

Crane shot: A shot accom-plished by having the cameraabove the ground and movingthrough the air in any direction.When George and Lennie firstarrive at Tyler Ranch, a crane shotfollows them down the dusty roadand the camera seems to takeflight as they walk through thegate. Other crane shots are usedduring the scenes of men workingin the barley fields.

Crosscutting: Editing thatalternates shots of two or morelines of action occurring in differ-ent places, usually simultaneously.Crosscutting is often used duringa key dramatic sequence toincrease tension. In this film,crosscutting is used in two sceneswhen George and Lennie are beingpursued by angry ranch hands.Since these occur at the beginningand end of the film, they also actas a kind of framing device.

Deep Focus: A use of the cam-era lens and lighting so that bothclose and distant planes are shownin sharp focus. This techniqueallows the filmmaker to emphasizea character or object that appearsfar away. In OF MICE AND MEN,the bus carrying George andLennie to Salinas seems small as ittravels through the Californiacountryside, yet deep focus empha-sizes its significance in the frame.Many characters are also pho-tographed using this technique.Crooks and Curley’s wife oftenappear distant from the camera.Deep focus helps remind theviewer of their constant—but oftenneglected—presence at the ranch.

Depth of Field: The area orfield between the closest and far-thest planes captured by the cam-era in which everything appears insharp focus. A depth of field from

five to 16 feet, for example, wouldmean that everything closer thanfive feet and farther than 16 feetwould be out of focus. OF MICEAND MEN is filled with shots inwhich depth of field is used to cre-ate distinctive images. In down-town Salinas, the streets are pho-tographed showing both close-uppassers-by and far away storefrontsin sharp focus. The many aspectsof the streetscape are arranged inthe frame in overlapping planes, aneffect that contributes to the film’srich sense of period.

Dissolve: A transition betweentwo shots during which the firstimage gradually disappears whilethe second image graduallyappears. For a moment, the twoimages blend in superimposition.To help make the transitionbetween the fields and the ranch, adissolve is used between the fieldshots and a shot of horses’ hoovespulling wagons, which are carry-ing workers back to the ranch aftera hard day’s work.

Establishing shot: A shotthat shows the relationship amongimportant figures, objects, charac-ters and setting at a distance. InOF MICE AND MEN, establishingshots introduce the viewer toMain Street in Salinas, TylerRanch and the barley fields whereGeorge and Lennie work. Fromthe establishing shot, the film thencuts to more detailed shots (oftencalled coverage) that bring theaudience closer to the characters.

Flashback: An alteration in thestory order in which the plotmoves back in time to show eventsthat have taken place earlier thanthose already shown. OF MICEAND MEN is actually structuredentirely in flashback, though this isnot clear at first. The film opens


Cinematic Terms

with George riding alone in a darktrain car. That image dissolves andthe story proceeds, causing theviewer to forget about it. When thisimage returns at the end of thefilm, it is clear that George isremembering his friend Lennie andthe events that led to his death.

Focus: When light, people,places and objects are captured onfilm showing sharp outlines anddistinct textures through themanipulating of the camera lens.There are different types of focus,which are used to achieve specificeffects. In OF MICE AND MEN,the field workers are shot in sharpfocus, which emphasizes the con-trast between their red and blueclothing and the golden barleyfields. In nighttime shots, softfocus is achieved through diffusedlighting emanating from a concen-trated source such as a kerosenelamp, which creates softer outlinesand more subtle color tones.

Frame: The rectangular box thatcontains the image projected onthe screen. This perimeter is oneof the filmmaker’s most importanttools. The frame is the windowinto the world of a film. Within it,each shot is composed and theedges of the frame allow the filmmaker to create a picture. Movieswere first known as moving pic-tures, and this description is stilluseful when considering theimportant role the frame plays asa compositional device. Throughthe camera’s eye, the viewer is pre-sented with images that convey thestory. Within the frame, the film-maker creates several differenttypes of shots, which are generallycharacterized by the relationshipbetween the size of the elements inthe frame to each other and to theframe itself.

Long shot: A framing in whichthe scale of the object shown is notdistant but relatively small. A stand-ing human figure, for example, gen-erally appears nearly the height ofthe screen. In OF MICE ANDMEN, Candy is introduced in along shot: shown from head to toesurrounded by barking dogs. Thewoman in the ripped red dress isalso introduced in a long shot thatshows her running through a barleyfield straight toward the camera.

Medium shot: A shot thatshows human figures from thewaist up. The first encounterbetween George, Lennie and theBoss at Tyler Ranch is composedentirely of medium shots. Lennieand George are shown from thewaist up in shots that emphasizethe extreme difference in theirsizes. Similarly, the Boss is shotfrom the waist up sitting at a desk.

Pan (or panning shot): Acamera movement with the cam-era body turning to the right orleft. On the screen, it produces amobile framing, which scans hori-zontally. In OF MICE AND MEN,this type of shot is often used tolink George and Lennie, empha-sizing their strong connection andinterdependence. Panning shotscan also emphasize movement.When the bus drives past Georgeand Lennie walking along the roadto Tyler Ranch, the camera followsit in a panning shot, making itappear to move even faster than itactually is.

Point of View (POV) shot:A shot taken with the cameraplaced where the character’s eyeswould be to show what the charac-ter would actually see. This type ofshot is usually cut in before or aftera shot of the character looking atwhatever the POV shot contains.

When George and Lennie arrive atTyler Ranch, their first encounterwith the Boss is while he is eatingbreakfast. A POV shot shows hisoatmeal—and the walnuts hecrushes with an iron nutcracker—from their point of view. AlthoughGeorge and Lennie have not hadbreakfast, he offers them nothingand scolds them for not arrivingthe day before. The man with thefood also has the power, and thePOV shot immediately establishesthis dynamic between George,Lennie and their employer.

Wide angle: The use of a wide-angle lens to create a shot thatcaptures a wide range of elementsor objects on a single plane whileat the same time exaggerating thedistance between foreground andbackground planes. While Curleypractices boxing with his speedbag, a wide angle shot shows himin the center of the frame, thefarmhouse to the left (where hiswife reluctantly shells peas on theporch) and an old car at the right. While the Boss yells atCurley from the porch to “knockoff that racket,” the wide angleshot captures all three familymembers in the frame yet alsosuggests their isolation from one another.

Zoom: A lens which allows thefocal length—the distancebetween the camera and theobject being filmed—to changeduring a single shot. The cameracan zoom in by going closer to anobject or it can zoom out bypulling back from an object. InOF MICE AND MEN, the zoomlens is most often used to zoomout from a character. The zoom inis reserved for crucial moments,such as when Curley’s wife con-fesses to Lennie that “Curley isnot a nice fella.”


Steinbeck’s Relationships Translated from Novel to ScreenThe numerous relationships in OF MICE AND MENprovide the story’s fundamental framework. Whileviewing the film, focusing on three types of relation-ships may reveal some differences in the two media.While the relationship between George and Lennie isat the heart of the novel, their interactions with othercharacters reinforce the plot’s depth and complexity.In addition, the relationship of the setting to thesecharacters and their actions should be observed.Finally, the relationship of the cinematic elements tocharacter and theme should be a key focus.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIEWING THE FILM

Divide the class into groups before they view the film. The following questions cover three elements of the film:character, setting and cinematic relationships. Give eachgroup a different relationship on which to focus theirviewing of the film or each group may divide the questionsequally among its members.

Questions on Character Relationshipsto Consider While Viewing the FilmHow is the relationship between George and Lennieexpressed in the film through camera placement orshot selection? Through clothing, setting or spatialrelationships? What types of shots reinforce theirstrong connection?

How does George explain his relationship withLennie to others? His explanation to the Boss atTyler Ranch, for example, is very different fromwhat he tells Slim. What do these conversationsconvey about George’s attitude toward Lennie andtheir relationship?

George’s feelings about his connection to Lennievary throughout the story. How are his anguish,frustration and affection for Lennie expressed invisual terms? Shot composition? Lighting? Theexpressions and reactions of the actors?

How does Lennie express his feelings about his rela-tionship with George in visual terms? Gestures?Facial expressions? Conversations?

While watching the film, think about how the film-maker shows the relationship between the followingcharacters:

George and SlimCurley and his wifeCurley’s wife and GeorgeCurley’s wife and LennieCandy and his old dogLennie and his puppy

Which other characters in the film do not seem tohave relationships with anyone? What does this tellus about them?

Look for parental relationships in this story. Curleyand his father are the only blood relatives. Whichrelationships suggest the nurturing guidance orresponsibility of a dominant parent and his depend-ent child?

How are characters portrayed in both positive andnegative ways? Are there good and bad characters,or are they a combination? For example, Crooks isreferred to with a term with strongly negative con-notations. Why is he referred to this way? Georgecalls Curley’s wife a “rat trap” when he first encoun-ters her—a judgment made after seeing her for justa few minutes. Why does he say this, and is he rightabout her?

Except for Curley’s wife, men overwhelmingly dom-inate this film. What is it like for her to exist in thisenvironment? How does she react to it?


Questions on the Relationshipbetween Setting and Other Elementsto Consider While Viewing the Film:Characterize the setting. What words and ideaswould you use to describe it? How do various typesof shots convey the film’s physical qualities (e.g. landscapes, buildings, interiors)?

The relationship of the story to its setting: Why doesthe story take place in its particular time and place?

The relationship of characters to setting. How docharacters react to it and express their feelingsabout their surroundings?

Could the settings alone—without characters inthem—convey anything about the people who livethere and their relationships? How?

Questions on CinematicRelationships to Consider While Viewing the FilmIdentify basic shots while you watch the film: longshots, medium shots and close-ups.

Notice when the camera moves—during panning or

crane shots, for example. Why does the directorchoose to move the camera at these times, and howdoes this help tell the story?

What do the setting and other visual cues tell youabout the time period? How do clothes, cars andother visual elements indicate that the film takesplace in the 1930s?

Try to time how long each scene is. One minute? Fiveminutes? Are some scenes longer than others? Why?

Try to determine when one scene ends and anotherbegins. How does this give the film a certainrhythm? Note the importance of editing in the pac-ing of scenes and the film as a whole.

Why do you think the actors were chosen? Type?Style? Look? Age?

How are the animals filmed? Why are they impor-tant to the story?

Which scenes are accompanied by music andwhich are not? What is the effect of the sceneswithout music? How does music enhance or alterthe other scenes?


Directions: In brief, constructed responses answer three of the following questions based on your viewingof the film.

How did seeing this film on a large theater screenaffect your experience? How was it different thanseeing it on a television screen?

At what points during the film did you feel happy?Hopeful? Excited? Tense? Bored? Sad?Uncomfortable? List the film elements that con-tributed to these particular feelings.

Select a specific moment or scene in the film anddescribe how the music influenced your feelings.

Describe how some film techniques made you iden-tify with any particular character. Why?

If you were the filmmaker, how might you havemade the film differently? What elements wouldyou have changed? What elements would you leavethe same?

Choose a scene from the film and consider how youwould change one film technique (e.g. shot selec-tion, lighting, music). Describe how the changewould affect the scene.

Suggested Post-viewing Classroom ActivitiesScreenwriter Horton Foote has added several scenesto the film which are not present in the novel toclarify certain parts of the story or to give certaincharacters more depth. Choose a character youwould like to know more about and write a scene toadd to the film. It can be in the form of a simplestory or narrative. Try including dialogue.

Imagine some of the places that are mentioned inthe film but not shown: the “little place” with therabbit hutch that George describes for Lennie; theRiverside Dance Palace where Curley meets his wife;the interior of the ranch house where Curley’s wifelistens to her records (and where Curley smashesthem). As the production designer for these scenes,create drawings of what they might look like. Sketcha storyboard of how you might arrange actorswithin these settings and how you might shoot ascene that takes place there.

Choose a scene from the film and recreate its shotsthrough simple sketches after reviewing the scene inclass. Once the sketches are created, put themtogether the way they are edited in the film, andthen re-edit the scene by rearranging the long shots,medium shots, and close-ups.

Pick scenes from the novel that contain dialogue toread aloud in class. Some students can be the actors.Others might direct by asking their colleagues toread a line differently, with a certain emphasis, morequietly and so forth. Others could be assigned tohold the camera. How hard is it to read lines with acamera less than three feet away?


P O S T - V I E W I N G M A T E R I A L S :

Understanding the Film/Novel Relationship—A List ofQuestions for Reflection Immediately After the Film

Because it combines the novel withthe fundamentals of filmmaking,Gary Sinise’s OF MICE AND MENcan also be used to introduce stu-dents to the basic language of film.While a novel is the creation of oneperson, a film is a collaborationamong many creative individuals.In order to understand film as anart form, it is important to con-sider the jobs of the numerousindividuals who work together tomake the film a reality.

Producer: The person or groupresponsible for financing a filmand managing the productionfrom start to finish. The producerdevelops the project from the ini-tial idea, makes sure the script isfinalized, arranges the financing,hires the personnel to make thefilm and oversees its distributionto theaters. The producer alsocoordinates the filmmakingprocess to ensure that everyoneinvolved in the project is workingon schedule and on budget. OFMICE AND MEN was producedby Russ Smith and Gary Sinise,who worked together to securefinancing and to organize the pro-duction. Ironically, the producer’srole is often invisible to the movie-going public, who tends to focuson actors and directors. Yet, with-out the producer at the helm, filmsdo not get made.

Director: The individual prima-rily responsible for overseeing theshooting and assembly of a film.He or she is most directly respon-sible for the picture’s final appear-ance. The director is sometimesreferred to as the author or auteurof a film because of his or heressential involvement with its cre-ation. While the director might becompared to a novel’s author as afilm’s primary visionary, he or shewould not be able to make the film

without the help of numerousother artists and technicians. Infact, the notion of the director asauthor is misleading, because itassumes the director does every-thing—just like an author writesan entire book—which is not thecase. A director works at the centerof film production, but is inextri-cably linked with dozens of otherpeople to get the job done. For OFMICE AND MEN, Gary Siniseserved as both producer and direc-tor, which is common with low-budget, independent productions.Although he wore two very impor-tant hats during this production,he depended on many others tohelp make the film.

Screenwriter: Although JohnSteinbeck created a play based onhis own novel, he did not write thescreenplay. Screenwriter HortonFoote, who has adapted both nov-els (To Kill a Mockingbird) andplays (The Trip to Bountiful) to thescreen, combined elements fromboth Steinbeck’s novel and playinto a single screenplay or shoot-ing script. While the dialogue in afilm may seem natural to theviewer, it is carefully crafted by awriter. The screenwriter does farmore than provide dialogue for theactors. He or she also shapes thesequence of events in a film toensure that one scene leads logi-cally to the next and the film tellsits story in a logical and interestingway. When using a novel or play asa starting point, the screenwriterinevitably rearranges, adds oreliminates scenes to make sure thefinal order or sequence of scenesmakes sense when presented onthe screen. The screenwriter alsoincludes descriptions of settingsand often suggests movements orgestures for the actors. Like theproducer, the screenwriter’s role is

generally overlooked by themoviegoing public, yet is essentialto the completion of any film. Ifthere is no script, there is nomovie.

Production Designer: Beforeone inch of film is shot, the pro-duction designer is the first artistto translate the script into visualform. He or she creates a series ofstoryboards that serve as the film’sfirst draft. A storyboard is a seriesof sketches, paintings or watercol-ors arranged on large panels toshow the visual progression of thestory from one scene to the next.The production designer deter-mines the palette of colors to beused and often provides importantsuggestions about the compositionof individual shots. Creating thissketch of the film on storyboardsalso ensures the visual continuityof the film from start to finish.Storyboards serve as the director’svisual guide throughout the pro-duction. In OF MICE AND MEN,production designer DavidGropman created a palette of pri-mary colors—yellow Californiahills and blue denim clothing ofthe ranch hands—highlighted byoccasional but significant splashesof red: a bandana, a hat band, aripped red dress.

Art Director: The art directoris responsible for the film’s set-tings: the buildings, landscapesand interiors that provide thephysical context for the characters.Art direction and productiondesign is often and easily confused.While the production designerdetermines the big picture—theoverall appearance, color paletteand basic visual composition ofthe film—the art director providesthe individual pieces within thisframework, which includes every-thing but the actors themselves. In


The People Behind the ProductionTo prepare for viewing the interview of Gary Sinise and otherpeople behind the production of the film, read the followingoverview of the individual jobs involved in making a film.

OF MICE AND MEN, art directorsDan Davis, Karen Schulz and CherylT. Smith recreated 1930s downtownSalinas, complete with Main Streetstorefronts and automobiles fromthe period. They also determinedthe locations for each significantplace in the film, from the TylerRanch to the sheltered grove whereGeorge and Lennie meet by theriver. Tyler Ranch, where most ofthe film takes place, makes Lennieimmediately uncomfortable. Whilethis is certainly due in part to hisstormy initial encounters with thecharacters that live there, the ranch’sphysical characteristics are far frominviting. The bunkhouse is cheaplybuilt with a dusty wood floor andknotted planks that let in daylight.Even the farmhouse, with its peelingpaint and broken screen door, con-veys a sense of neglect that rein-forces the film’s undercurrents ofloneliness and isolation. Althoughthese details are subtle, they suggesthow the story can be complementedby the film’s physical elements. Thiscraft is referred to as art direction.

Costume Designer: Costumesconvey a great deal about the film’stime period and the characters whowear them, their economic status,occupation and attitude towardthemselves. Costume designer ShayCunliffe outfitted George, Lennieand the Tyler Ranch hands in worndenim work clothes, yet distin-guished each man from the otherthrough different hats, a mix ofplaid and solid shirts, and othersmall but significant details. Slim’sgray sweat-stained hat, Curley’sblack leather glove and the cotton A-line dresses worn by Curley’s wifeare among the carefully selected ele-ments that are woven together inthis essential aspect of the film.

Cinematographer: After theproduction designer, art director

and costume designer have finishedtheir work on the film’s physicalelements, the director of photogra-phy, or DP, is responsible for cap-turing their handiwork on celluloid.The DP is an expert in photo-graphic processes, lighting and thecamera’s technical capabilities.When the director wants a shot toachieve certain visual or atmos-pheric qualities, the DP achieves itthrough his or her choice of light-ing, film stock and careful manipu-lation of the camera. In this film,cinematographer KennethMacMillan photographed theSalinas Valley of California, captur-ing its golden hills and dusty sun-shine in shots that lovingly recreatethe area’s striking yet harsh beauty.During shooting, the director andcinematographer work closely toshape each shot, using the story-boards created by the productiondesigner as a guide. This craft isreferred to as cinematography.

Editor: Shortly after shootingbegins, the editor begins to organizethe footage—known as the dailyrushes—and arranges individualshots into one continuous sequence.Even in a single scene, dozens of dif-ferent shots have to be chosen andassembled from hundreds of feetof film. The editor’s choices aboutwhich shots to use and the orderin which to place them have a pro-found effect on the appearance ofthe final film. OF MICE ANDMEN’S editor Robert L. Siniseused a juxtaposition of shots anda number of cuts to give eachscene its own rhythm. In scenesthat reveal the film’s Salinas Valleysetting, fewer, lengthier shots sug-gest the landscape’s vast, monu-mental qualities. To quicken theaction in other scenes—menworking in the fields or playinghorseshoes—quicker cutting, or

the assembly of several shortershots in rapid succession, height-ens the pace and reinforces theaction or emotion taking place onthe screen. This process is knownas editing.

Actors: For the audience, actorsare the most visible and tangiblepart of the production. While theyare obviously essential to any film,they are pieces in a much largerpuzzle. Behind every actor is adirector guiding his or her per-formance, a cinematographer cre-ating the perfect light and filmexposure, a screenwriter providingplot and dialogue, an art directordesigning the physical environ-ment and a costume designer pro-viding the proper attire.Considering an actor’s role withinthis larger context also suggeststhat his or her job is much moredifficult than just appearing on theset and reciting lines.

Music: Music has been an integralpart of movies since their inventionin the 1890s. Even the simplestsilent films were accompanied by apiano or organ player. The silentmovie palaces of the 1920s wereequipped with elaborate organs andorchestra pits to accommodate largegroups of live musicians. Whensound was integrated into the film-making process, music, soundeffects and dialogue became essen-tial tools for enhancing a film’svisual qualities. Writing moviemusic has been a full-time profes-sion since the 1930s and is still acritical component in filmmaking.Composer Mark Isham created ascore for OF MICE AND MENreminiscent of the music of AaronCopeland in its distinctly Americanmelodies comprised largely ofstrings and woodwinds. In somesequences, banjos lend the film aregional folk quality.


Questions and Activities for the Sinise InterviewR E C O M M E N D A T I O N :

Teachers should show students the videotaped interview ofGary Sinise after students have viewed and discussed the film.

Questions and Activities for the Interview VideotapeHow did Gary Sinise become interested in producinga film version of OF MICE AND MEN?

List the steps he took to produce the film.

What did screenwriter Horton Foote consider beforewriting the screenplay?

What is a “buddy movie”?

With what change from the novel does Gary Sinise choose to start the film? Why?

What are the characteristics of Gary Sinise’s directing style?

How did production designer David Gropman prepare for his role in the film?

Cite some problems the production designer faced.

What problems did Gary Sinise face with casting hisactors? How did he solve those problems?

According to Gary Sinise, what made it easy to adaptthe novel to film?

What adjustments to the plot did Gary Sinise make?

How did Gary Sinise choose to portray Crooks?

How did Gary Sinise choose to portray Curley’s wife?

What scenes were added that were not in the novel?Why were they added?

What change in the ending does Sinise give the film?Why?

What is the affect, in the last shot at the river, ofGeorge being bigger than Lenny in the frame?

In a brief, constructed response, explain Sinise’s mes-sage about relationships.

R E C O M M E N D E D A C T I V I T Y

In small groups, create a list of questions you would like toask Gary Sinise or other members of the production crew.

AssessmentsIt is recommended that teachers and students whohave participated in the “A Novel Look at Film”program complete the first assessment.

Compose a letter to James Hindman, Co-Directorand Chief Operating Officer of AFI, to thank theorganization for coordinating the project. In the let-ter, describe your film-going experience and howyour understanding of the novel or the theme ofrelationships was affected.

Answer three essential questions for theRelationships Unit after reading the novel; thenanswer them again after viewing the film and theSinise interview. List the differences, if any, in thoseresponses.

Gary Sinise had a dream to make the novel Of Miceand Men into a film. He had to consider many fac-tors and face many choices before his dream becamereality. Write a well-organized essay about the rela-tionship of a novel to a film. Support your ideas withappropriate details, examples from the interview withGary Sinise and your study of the novel and the film.Choose language carefully to express your ideasclearly to a student who has not been involved withthe “A Novel Look at Film” project.


AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTEJEAN PICKER FIRSTENBERGDirector and CEO

JAMES HINDMANCo-Director and COO

RAYMOND BARRYDirector, AFI Silver Theatre

DAVID A. COLEExecutive Consultant, AFI Silver Theatre

STEVE MONTALDirector, Educational and Special Program Development

Guide prepared by CHRISTINA WILSONand MATTHEW BORATENSKI

Guide designed by AURAS

Video produced by MERLE GOLDBERG

Video edited by SUE HIRSHON

Photos taken by ANDREW COOPERcopyright 1992 MGM

The American Film Institute would like to thankthe following organizations for their invaluableassistance with this project:

METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER, INC.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

SPRINT

REGAL CINEMAS

OF MICE AND MENHORTON FOOTEScreenwriter

GARY SINISEDirector, Producer, and Actor

DAVID GROPMANProduction Designer

MONTGOMERY COUNTYPUBLIC SCHOOLSDR. JERRY WEASTSuperintendent

JUDIE MUNTNERAssociate Superintendent of Instruction and Program Development

DALE FULTONDirector, Department of Curriculum and Instruction

ERICK LANGDirector, High School Academic Initiatives

ESTELENE BORATENSKI

MATTHEW BORATENSKI

DEBORAH WILCHEK

VICKI ADAMSON

SPRINTDAVID P. THOMASExecutive Director, Sprint Foundation

MICHAEL FLEMINGGroup Manager, Sprint Field Corporate Relations

The American Film Institute, thenation’s preeminent arts organization

dedicated to advancing andpreserving the art of the moving

image, is committed to informing thegeneral public about the artistic and

cultural significance of the motionpicture. In collaboration with the

Montgomery County Public Schools,AFI has prepared this guide to assist

teachers with presenting the 1992film OF MICE AND MEN, directed byGary Sinise, in conjunction with John

Steinbeck’s 1937 novel. This filmprovides an excellent opportunity toeducate students about the mediumof film while reinforcing the literary

significance of Steinbeck’s story. Theguide is designed to provideexamples of how to use film

language to complement the study of the novel in the classroom.

Documents

A Novel Look at Film - afisilver.afi.com