 |
|
Lesson: Framing and Point of View
Description
The purpose of this lesson is to teach students that there are three important types of camera shots - close-up, medium, and long. This lesson focuses on how those different types of shots affect meaning. Interpretation of an image may vary depending on what the viewer sees and doesn't see. These three different types of shots grant the viewer different points of view. Lessons on "Highlighting" and "Scanning", in the Information Literacy section should follow this lesson, as they grant students the opportunity to further explore issues in and around interpretation.
Learning Outcomes I Suggested Procedure I Assessment for this Lesson
|
Materials for this Offline
lesson: |
Time allotment:
40 - 50 minutes Grade Level: Grade 5 - 12 |
Students will be able to recognize
the three types of shots - close-up, medium, and long.
Students will understand that how a subject is framed affects meaning, i.e.
details are prominent in close-ups, relationships in medium shots, and the context
in long shots.
Set-up
Write close-up, medium shot, and long shot on the whiteboard, chalkboard, or chart paper, leaving space beneath or next to each one. Make copies of the two attached worksheets: 1 & 2
Starter Activity (Individual or small group activity - 15-20 minutes)
Begin with a hands-on starter activity. Distribute the three pages to each student and instruct them to complete them.
Interpreting the Evidence (Large group discussion - 10-15 minutes)
Ask the students to share what they observed about each image. Record the observations for each one, creating lists of evidence on the chalkboard, whiteboard, or chart paper.
Concentrate on the close-up first. Encourage students to hone in on the details of and the expression on the man's face . Do the same with the medium shot, but this time encourage students to explore the relationships between the man and the people and the people around him. Finally, discuss the long shot, focusing on what the context says about man's life and the world around him.
Once you, as a class, have compiled a list for each one, ask the students what kinds of evidence the observations provide about the man and his life. Explain that they are going to make interpretations of the images based on what they observed. Ask them: What do you think these observations tell you about this man's life?
More specifically, when discussing the close-up, ask students to think about what the lines on his face or his facial expression might communicate. When considering the medium shot, ask the students what they can tell about the man and his relationships to the other people in the picture. Ask them what they think about why the others' backs are turned. When looking at the long shot, ask students to think about the man's relationship to the larger context. Ask them if they know more about the man and his life from looking at the larger context. What do they think they know about the setting?
Finally, ask students to think about whether what they can see and cannot see in each picture reveals something different about the man's life. For example, the close-up shot reveals the contemplative expression on the man's face. He is seemingly alone. While when considering the long shot, the viewer can tell that the man, even though isolated, is standing amidst a crowd of people.
Identifying the Three Different Shots (Whole group presentation and small group practice - 10 minutes)
Explain that, as the students have already observed, there are three different types of shots defined by camera-subject distance that are used primarily in television and film editing.
They are:
Also explain that close-ups focus in on details and facial expressions; that medium shots reveal relationships, be them person-to-person, person-to-thing, person-to-a space, etc.; that long shots unveil information about the overall context.
Divide students into small groups. Give each group a variety of magazines, and ask them to look for each different type of shot.
Assessment (Small group practice - 20-25 minutes)
Give each group the Making Meaning worksheet to observe and interpret.
Ask them to discuss the following two questions among themselves.
After about 15 minutes, discuss the groups' findings as a whole class.
Other visual literacy lessons: Locating
Images I Scanning
for Visual Details I Structural
Comparisons I
The
Function of Images in Text I Framing
and Point of View I Images
as Persuasion
 |
This
page was last updated April 25, 2002 This lesson was created to support the AT&T/UCLA Initiatives for 21st Century Literacies. Framing and Point of View was created by Cricket Heinze and Cornelia Brunner |