Teaching Film Activity

One simple activity that I use to introduce film techniques, which was mentioned in class, is to have students draw their own storyboards. I do this in conjunction with our reading of Oedipus Rex, but it could really be done with any novel or story that you are studying. When we are finished reading, we do a short unit on graphic novels where we discuss some of the different terms associated specifically with a graphic novel. Then we move into some film terms that overlap (such as shot length or angle) and have the students practice identifying these by looking through comic books- an activity that many students enjoy. After talking about angles and techniques for making an interesting comic book storyboard, the students are asked to choose a scene from Oedipus and make there own depiction of the scene using a graphic novel format. This leads directly into a film study unit where we can then begin to add more things to notice such as sound and lighting.