I'm not a teacher, but my first thought is that a combined theatre/film production class that includes acting, directing, writing, and so forth, all in one semester, is a huge bite to take.
For instance, a local two-year college which has both theatre and film departments has different classes for live acting and film acting because the techniques are different (the camera doesn't see things the same way as a live audience). I worked with one of their directors, who teaches both, on a few shows, and found that he tended to think like a film director more than like a theatre director, especially when it came to realism in a non-literal play..
The writing is different too, not just in the formatting of the scripts, but in the length of the scenes and how they are set up. A few years ago I worked on a live musical with a director who is primarily a film director, and who also wrote the script for the musical. The first time we met I pointed out to her that she had a lot of different locations, but the scenes were very very short (like in a movie) and it would be impossible to shift sets that many times without totally losing the audience. She was okay with a unit set, but the producer wasn't until we convinced him that it was necessary.
I'll be interested to read what others say.
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George F. Ledo
Set designer
www.setdesignandtech.wordpress.comwww.georgefledo.nethttp://astore.amazon.com/sdtbookstore-20------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 06-20-2018 17:13
From: Jared Wright
Subject: Combined Intro to Theatre & Film Production Class
Hello,
It sounds like your have a great strategy in place. I didn't go this far, but in order to get my students more interested in theatre, I made it more than just theatre and set about showing how theatre played into several different styles like television and the movies. I also had them look at music videos as a smaller part of the whole. That said, the projects I had them do were to come up with a music video of an 80's song (We were doing Footloose and I wanted to use some of the videos before the show). They could try to reproduce it entirely or they could come up with something totally different. Another project was to come up with a dress code video. I like what you did, by having them come up with a web series and I would love to hear more about it.
So, I know I haven't helped much, but I applaud what you're doing.
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Kind Regards,
Jared Wright
Thomaston GA
Original Message:
Sent: 06-07-2018 09:20
From: Elana Kepner
Subject: Combined Intro to Theatre & Film Production Class
Has anyone successfully combined an introduction to theatre class and a film production class? I normally teach a year-long intro class where I cover the roles of each major collaborator in theatre (actor, designer, director, playwright, audience member) as well as production analysis, reflective writing and a little oral <g class="gr_ gr_505 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="505" data-gr-id="505">iterp</g>/ text analysis. This upcoming school year I will have two sections of mostly 8th and 9th graders (our upper school includes grades 8-12). The 8th graders worked with me this past year as 7th graders on writing, filming and producing an original <g class="gr_ gr_1002 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="1002" data-gr-id="1002">webseries</g> and their primary motivation for signing up for the theatre class was the promise of more film projects. Now I am challenged with the task of creating a class that can give them a foundation in Theatre and film production. My first instinct is to cover text/performance analysis, acting, directing and play/ screenwriting in the first semester with more film based unit projects and a focus on film terminology/ theory and in the second semester assigning group and individual film projects leading up to a final 5-minute narrative film project.
I am very new to teaching film at all, so I appreciate any resources in general and any specific thoughts about integrating film and theatre in a year-long course...
Thanks in advance!
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Elana Kepner
Theatre Instructor
The Oakwood School
Greenville NC
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