Teacher’s Resource: The Boy and the World · Teacher’s Resource: The Boy and the World ... Which are the happiest moments in the boy’s adventure. ... They should plan out ideas

Teacher’s Resource: The Boy and the WorldFor Second Level and aboveCreated by Ian Cameron Discovery Film Festival: Sat 25 October - Sun 9 November 2014discoveryfilmfestival.org.uk

© Dundee Contemporary Arts 2014With support from DCA Cinema and DCA Community & Education Team

Introduction

Discovery Learning Resources give you exciting classroom activities to enhance Curriculum for Excellence delivery. They are created by classroom teachers and education professionals. Each resource aims to:

• Support and extend working with film in the classroom

• Help prepare teachers for a class visit to a Discovery Film Festival film and to extend the impact of that visit for delivery of CfE

• Develop confidence in Moving Image Education approaches and working with 21st Century Literacy /moving image texts

Each resource is free and available to download from www.discoveryfilmfestival.org.uk/resources or via the Discovery Film Festival area on GLOW, which can be found within the Dundee 21st Century Literacy Group.

We do hope that you find this useful and enjoy your cinema experience with us,

- Discovery Film Festival team

01 / discoveryfilmfestival.org.uk

The Boy and the World (O Menino e o Mundo)Dir. Alê AbreuBrazil 2013 / 1h20mLanguage: Portuguese (no spoken dialogue)

SynopsisThe Boy and the World is an animated feature film set in an alternative, near-futuristic Brazilian landscape. Living in a rural sedate landscape, a young boy finds his world changes as he starts on a quest to find his father in the far off city. His journey leads him through a changing landscape which is reflected through a variety of styles of animation. His eventual arrival in the city opens his eyes to a world of industrialisation and change as the workers in the factory his father works in are replaced by machinery and lose their jobs.

Themes of change, loss and the march of technology are evident throughout, interpreted through the eyes of the main character. Cars, tanks and other vehicles take on the appearance of animals as the child tries to make sense of the world he is struggling to understanding, relating it back to his knowledge of his rural homeland.

With very little dialogue, the narrative is swept along by a soundtrack of varying instruments and musical motifs.

Themes: Change, loss, industrialisation, discovery


Before the film

Activity 1 – Questions

Explain to the class that they are about to watch a trailer for a film they are going to see. To provide them with a focus before watching the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rHgiSMiHhs), ask the pupils to think about some or all (age stage dependent) of the questions below. These can be written on the whiteboard/blackboard. Emphasise that they must be able to justify any answer with evidence form what they have seen/heard.

• Who is the main character?

• Where do you think the story set? Is it set in this country?

• What stood out while watching the trailer?

• Is this animated or live action?

• What do you notice about the director’s name at the end?

• What other characters do you think will be in the film?

• How did the trailer make you feel?

Give pupils time to share their ideas either with each other or with the class.

I am learning to select and use strategies and resources before I read, and as I read, to help make the meaning of texts clear. LIT 1-13a

Activity 2 – Prediction

Watch the trailer with the class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rHgiSMiHhs

Working with shoulder partners/face partners/learning partners, ask the children to come up with five words that would describe what they have seen. Explain that these might be about the content (boy, tanks, city, waves etc), what they heard (musical, bright lively, Brazilian etc) or feelings (happy, joyful, scary etc). These categories should be introduced before watching the trailer for the second time, to give the pupils focus.

Ask the pupils to share what their ideas, collating these on the whiteboard/blackboard in a small mind map with SIGHTS, SOUNDS and FEELINGS branching off from the title of the film in the middle.


I can select and use a range of strategies and resources before I read, and as I read, to make meaning clear and give reasons for my selection. LIT 2-13a


Activity 3 – Making Connections

After watching the trailer, ask the pupils to think about what the trailer reminds them of. Explain that the film is about a young boy going off to find his father who has gone to work in the big city to earn some money. Are there other films that they have seen:

• That involve a child taking a journey?

• Which involve a family being separated?

• That have a family/child going from a small town/village to a big city?

• Where workers lose their jobs because a new person or machine has replaced them?

N.B. At this point it would also be a good idea to talk about cotton production as a major product of Brazil and introduce the idea that it is farmed and made into fabric for clothes and other products. This will be handy for pupils understanding some parts of the film.


I can select and use a range of strategies and resources before I read, and as I read, to make meaning clear and give reasons for my selection. LIT 2-13a

During the film

Activity 1 – Concentrating on Colour

The film is full of colour and it is used in many different ways to create different moods. The following questions should help the pupils become aware of how these are being used.

1. Which colour is used in the background at the start of the film?

2. How do the colours at the start of the film make you feel?

3. Are there any points in the film where the colours are used to change the mood?

4. Which are the happiest moments in the boy’s adventure. How do the colours show this?

5. What colours are used when the boy is scared or frightened?

6. How does the boy make sense of the vehicles he comes across? How does the director change the appearance of the vehicles in the film?


After the film

Activity 1 – Art, Creating mood palettes

As a class or in small groups ask the pupils to brainstorm happy words, sad words, relaxed words and angry words. These can be added to a wall display (art wall) as a stimulus/reminder.

Pupils should then be asked to think about what colours would go into each of these categories. Using paints/pencils/pastels/oil pastels (whichever you are most comfortable using for this lesson) challenge their perceptions of where the colours lie in the categories. This can be done, for instance, by putting three patches of bright yellow on paper and talking about this usually being a joyful colour. Then mix a little black into one of the patches, brown into another and white into the third. Ask the children where they think each type of yellow now falls on the mood wall.

Ask the pupils to now experiment as you have done, with mixing variations of colours to see if they can make them “feel” different. These patches can be dried (if needed) and cut out to be added to the mood words the child feels they match.

Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design. EXA 1-05a

Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design. EXA 2-05a

Activity 2 – Writing, Journeys

Pupils should be asked to think about a journey they have gone on. This could be a walk to the park, or the journey taken to get to a holiday destination. They should plan out ideas thinking about sights, sounds, smells and feelings. Using this plan pupils can write a descriptive account of the journey they took. Emphasis should be put on using descriptive words and phrases. Simile and metaphor can be introduced if pupils are able.

I can describe and share my experiences and how they made me feel. ENG 1-30a

As I write for different purposes and readers, I can describe and share my experiences, expressing what they made me think about and how they made me feel. ENG 2-30a


Activity 3 – Colour Journeys

Pupils can use the mood palettes in Activity 1 to create a visual representation of their journey. This could done as an abstract with one continuous line to represent each stage. Activity 2 can be used to help remind the pupils of each main part of their journey. When the line has been drawn then colours and design can be added to show the feelings/mood at each stage of the journey.

To show my understanding across different areas of learning, I can identify and consider the purpose and main ideas of a text. LIT 1-16a

To show my understanding across different areas of learning, I can identify and consider the purpose and main ideas of a text and use supporting detail. LIT 2-16a

Activity 4 – Comparing Films

Let the pupils what the abstract animation Palingenesia - http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004tqvh or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_YNhWVx99U

Ask pupils to consider what colours are used in the film. Ask the pupils what things did they see during the film. Ask the pupils to work with a shoulder partner and discuss any similarities they see between this film and The Boy and the World.

Ideas may include technology, animation, nature, industrialisation, etc

To show my understanding across different areas of learning, I can identify and consider the purpose and main ideas of a text. LIT 1-16a

To show my understanding across different areas of learning, I can identify and consider the purpose and main ideas of a text and use supporting detail. LIT 2-16a


Example Images for Activity 5

Example Images for Activity 5

Activity 5 – Understanding the Character

Throughout the film the audience is shown the world around the child through the child’s eyes and experiences. The boy has no experience of the big city and has known nothing but his idyllic rural countryside. To show this the director shows us the boy’s interpretation of vehicles as animals. Discuss this with the pupils and ask them to write down as many examples as they can remember of this. They should record what vehicles they saw and what animals they think they resembled:

• Trucks with mouths

• Cranes that were dragons/lizards/giraffes

• Tanks that were elephants/beetles

• Freight ships that were ducks

• Planes that were birds

• The cotton machine that was an elephant

• Submarines as fish/dolphins

Using a range of vehicles (either toys or still images) as an initial stimulus, the pupils should make sketches of different vehicles. They should then take aspects of the vehicles and try to alter them to make them more animal-like. This could be done,, for example, by changing the exhaust pipe into a tail, the windscreen into eyes or the front grill into a mouth or teeth.

This can lead into language work looking at similes:

“The lorry was like an elephant trundling down the road”

“The plane, like a giant,iron bird, flew through the sky” etc

I can share my thoughts about structure, characters and/or setting, recognise the writer’s message and relate it to my own experiences, and comment on the effective choice of words and other features. ENG 1-19a

I can:• discuss structure, characterisation and/or setting ENG 2-19a


Additional Activities

1. Art display with different groups taking different parts of the film to illustrate through collage

2. Drama activity – mime activities to allow pupils to explore story telling without words

3. Investigate renewable technologies, could be tied in with a project looking at this area of the curriculum.

4. Design a new character for the film. How would they fit into the boy’s journey?


Evaluating this resource We hope that you found this resource useful and appropriate. Please do send us film reviews, letters from your pupils, documentation of classwork and your feedback by e-mailing [email protected]

Would you make a good Discovery Film Festival Case Study?

We are seeking a number of simple Case Studies in how teachers have used or are using Discovery films in the classroom across Curriculum for Excellence and across the Levels.

Any case studies that we develop would be intended for presentation on GLOW, the Creativity Portal and on Discovery Film Festival websites. We have a simple template to be completed and are keen to have classwork and documentation included.

If you would like to be a Discovery Case Study please e-mail [email protected]


Documents

Teacher’s Resource: The Boy and the World · Teacher’s Resource: The Boy and the World ... Which are the happiest moments in the boy’s adventure. ... They should plan out ideas