Media Term Thursday #40

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Auteur

A filmmaker/director, who makes films with a distinctive, recognisable style and consistent themes. The word literally translates from French to ‘author’ and they have supposedly complete control over all the elements of production. The auteur often uses the same actors for each film.

The term was originally advocated by French director Francois Truffaut, who was a product of the French New Wave and therefore took himself and his peers seriously enough to associate their independent and personalised filmmaking with artistic authorship.

One obvious auteur is American director Tim Burton. His films are highly recognisable for their dark, gothic style and almost fairytale elements. His main characters are misfits, outsiders who are misunderstood by mainstream society. His style has elements of film noir and expressionism with contrasts of dark and light. Johnny Depp is often used in all Tim Burton films.

Other examples are Jane Campion, Gillian Armstrong, Howard Hawks, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Ridley Scott, Penny Marshall and The Coen Brothers.

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Drama Term Tuesday #40

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Auditioning

Method of casting a play where actors compete for roles by demonstrating their skills of acting by performing a prepared speech or reading a part from the play for directors or producers. There are different types of auditions; open auditions (where a general call is made to anyone interested in auditioning - sometimes referred to as a cattle call); closed auditions (where auditionees are invited to attend often through the agent representing them); group auditions; solo auditions; workshop auditions.

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Media Term Thursday #39

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Offscreen space

offscreen sound

The implication that there is a world beyond the screen (or frame). Characters enter the scene from somewhere and exit to somewhere. A filmmaker can imply the presence of a world offscreen in many ways; a character may look or gesture to someone or something offscreen; object/s may protrude part of the way into the frame.

There are six potential zones of offscreen space: the space beyond each of the four sides of the frame; the space behind the camera and the space behind the set.

Offscreen voices or sounds also signal the presence of characters, objects or a world the audience cannot see.

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Drama Term Tuesday #39

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Operetta

By contrast with opera, operetta is light hearted and comic; in operetta, songs and scenes of dialogue are interwoven with dance.

Generally romantic in nature and almost inevitably resulting in a happy ending, operetta is a highly entertaining and popular form.

It is often seen as the forerunner to the modern musical.

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Media Term Thursday #38

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Film Noir

French term meaning ‘black film’.

Style of low budget ‘B’ film which began in Hollywood in the 1930s, partly as a result of German Expressionist filmmakers such as Fritz Lang moving to Hollywood and bringing their dark styles. Film Noir reached its peak in the 1940s and 50s.

Noir elements include negative, pessimistic themes with flawed, anti-hero males who are cynical, disillusioned and morally ambivalent. The protagonist would battle wits with seductive femme fatales, women who were scheming, manipulative, beautiful and amoral. Settings were often the sleazy back streets and alleyways of a depressing city, cheap hotel rooms and bars mostly shot at night. They were filmed in black and white with dark, shadowy cinematography, canted framing and extreme, often low camera angles to put the audience at unease.

Other conventions are the use of a cynical voice-over, flashbacks, and claustrophobic interiors The pessimism, fear and paranoia that pervaded these films reflected the Cold War period in America.

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), Murder My Sweet (1944), Touch of Evil (1958).

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Drama Term Tuesday #38

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Forum Theatre

Drama strategy where spectators are invited to enter and transform dramatic action; innovation used mainly for political purposes by Augusto Boal and others.

Members of the audience watch a scene - usually on a political or social theme - and are then invited to stop the action and to suggest alternative ways of playing the scene.

The audience become spect-actors, rather than passive spectators.

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Music Monday - The importance of repetition and practice.

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A few weeks ago I wrote about what I was revisiting about early learning as a result of having our 3 year old grandson living with us for a couple of months. Today I am pursuing a few more of those thoughts.

It is many years since I taught (or parented) pre-schoolers. These days I teach a mix of adolescent age groups, plus tertiary aged students and adults of all ages. 

But living with a pre-schooler reminds me of some important lessons:

  1. Kids genuinely love learning and exploring new ideas. William and I have been playing around lots with the concept of beat and rhythm – both in music and language. He loves to move to the beat. He loves to tap and bang the beat. He fits nonsense sounds to a beat. But beat doesn’t have to be confined to the times when we are consciously doing music activities. Last night his Mommy formed a family conga line as we chanted and stomped him into the shower.

  2. Little kids are way more capable than we sometimes think of making connections. William often says, “That’s like the….”. 

Of course, as a doting grandparent it is much easier to observe these moments. But as teachers we need to be switched on to moments of student connection – and we need to practise finding the right questions to stimulate the connections.

  1. William loves the iPad (and other devices) and – like most of his generation – amazes us with his facility on a device. But he also loves to explore all of his environment – and so many everyday activities can be used to reinforce rhythmic and musical concepts. Yesterday he found our jar of coffee grounds and was curious about how we scoop out the coffee for the plunger. This started a game of scooping coffee from the jar to a bowl. I observed him muttering ‘ta-aa, ta-aa’ as he scooped – in other words making a rhythmic connection. He was having fun but subconsciously that important beat concept was being further internalised. We started to fit words and melody to the beat and a simple song emerged.

All this time spent with William has reinforced yet again my huge respect for what primary  music teachers do for the children in their charge. 

It is such important work!

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Media Term Thursday #36

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zoom

zoom lens

A zoom lens has a variable focal length. It can be adjusted to provide any shot size you wish within its range without needing to move the camera. The image size grows or reduces as you zoom in or out.” Excerpt From:

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