Film Studies: Full Semester HS Course Curriculum & Presentation Materials
- PDF
- Prezis
What educators are saying
Description
As an undergraduate, I took a few film courses and absolutely loved it. In graduate school, I studied screenplay writing and made a living for a few years writing social media content and making short promotional-type films. Then I became a teacher with the hope of *really* getting to kick back and enjoy some quality writing in all of my spare time (ha!) .
Ah well. My loss is the world's gain.
Flash forward to a few years ago, and I had the opportunity to pitch a new elective course at the high school level. Since I'd spent so much time learning how movies were made and writing a few curricula of my own, I couldn't help but think how awesome it would have been if I were a high school student in a film studies course.
So I wrote one. And shared a few of the presentations on Prezi. Like so.
Today, these instructional materials are currently being used by teachers in high schools all across the United States. Here's an email from a teacher in Tennessee that finally inspired me to put the rest of this sucker together into a one-stop-shop on Teachers Pay Teachers:
"My county has recently given me the greenlight to develop a film study course. As I perused the internet, I found your amazing slideshows. They are very well put together and contain vast amounts of knowledge. By putting your presentations online, I know that you have already shared so much, but I was wondering if you would be willing to share a syllabus for the course or could point me towards a textbook that I could utilize when making my curriculum."
Challenge accepted.
This digital download is massive. Linked in the electronic document, you'll find everything you'll need to launch a film studies elective course of your own, including:
+ 18 Week Curriculum and Course Planning Overview
+ Essential Questions, Goals, and Transfer Skills for Each of 10 Units, with end-of-unit case studies that can easily be adapted to the needs of your school or student population:
1. Script and Story Basics (Toy Story -- or similar)
2. Editing and Shot Composition (Casablanca)
3. Film History (Singin' in the Rain)
4. Horror / Suspense (Psycho)
5. Sound and Diagetics
6. The Blockbuster (Jaws)
7. Four Quadrant Films (Star Wars)
8. Hard R Films and the MPAA (Alien)
9. Comedy (Groundhog Day)
10. Drama (The Shawshank Redemption and Schindler's List)
+ 18 Week Day-by-Day Course Pacing Guide
+ Comprehensive Prezi AND GOOGLE SLIDES slideshows for each unit of study -- designed for multiple days of instruction, and complete with embedded video excerpts, lecture notes, graphic organizer ideas, assessment suggestions, and class review activities. Even better: The Google Slides are fully editable!
+ Course Welcome Letter / Parent Permission Forms
+ Sample final exam (should you decide to go the traditional multiple choice route)
I'll be honest -- I'm fully aware that dropping $20 for an elective film course from some guy you've never met on the internet feels super sketchy. But this download is jam-packed with everything you'll need to plug-and-play your way through a full semester of a film studies curriculum where students actually LEARN SOMETHING beyond sitting back and zoning out while a bunch of old movies (or worse, new movies with no academic merit) bore them to sleep. In 18 weeks, your students will be able to:
READ
+ Understand screenplay formatting and writing conventions
+ Analyze shots
+ Research film history
+ Study and critique directors
WRITE
+ Retool and rework existing scripts
+ Compose story treatments
+ Pitch ideas in a group setting
+ Revise and improve dialogue
CREATE
+ Compose action sequences
+ Draft your own 3-page screenplays
+ Learn filmmaking techniques
+ Film your own original works
Hands-on, engaging, and driven by meaningful student interaction with course content -- this is the type of elective course that I wish I'd had back in high school. At $20, the price point is cheaper than a textbook (and much more effective for a target audience of high school students). Plug and play and you've got everything you need to say "lights, camera, action" for a film studies elective of your own (sorry, I couldn't resist throwing in at least one good movie pun to close this description out).
Thanks for checking out my store!
- John
PRODUCT UPDATE 8/30/19: A NOTE ABOUT PREZI
In the summer of 2019, Prezi changed their pricing structure, which may have affected your individual user settings with the Prezi website. Features that had previously been free like the ability to copy other users’ presentations, make edits to local files, and display an entire presentation in “full screen” mode were disabled for users not paying an annual subscription fee to the site. This is super frustrating for new and veteran Prezi users alike! If you have a paid Prezi account, you shouldn’t have any issues. But if not, please be advised accordingly. And to make sure nobody is left out, I've added a folder to this resource with 100% editable Google Slides versions of every single presentation in the Film Studies curriculum -- so you'll never have to worry about paying a subscription fee to continue to use these resources.
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DELETED SCENES AND COURSE EASTER EGGS JUST ADDED!
Or BUNDLE both products and save 10%!
Click here for the Director's Cut: All Presentations AND All Curriculum Supplements
