Lesson 2
We will watch Hidden Figures in its entirety, to fully appreciate and understand the storytelling craft that went into making the movie. We will also complete the other sections of the Understanding a Movie Tool.
Lesson Goals
Can I explore and reflect on the narrative tools filmmakers use to shape a story?
Can I look critically and analytically at a filmmaker’s storytelling choices, analyzing how a film affects me?
Texts
Core
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- Excerpts from Hidden Figures, Theodore Melfi, Fox 2000 Pictures, 2016
Materials
Tools
Reference Guides
Editable Google Docs
Activity 1: View – Write
We will view Hidden Figures in its entirety. As we watch, we will complete our Understanding a Movie Tool for the film.
View the movie Hidden Figures, taking notes on a Video Note-Taking Tool (or in your Learning Log) about key details or aspects of the filmmakers’ storytelling techniques that stand out to you.
Activity 2: Read – Write
As a class, we will review the summarizing the movie section of the Understanding a Movie Tool and learn about the concepts of plot, storyline, conflict, theme, and logline.
Step 1
Add the terms plot, storyline, conflict, theme, and logline to your Vocabulary Journal. As a class, in a small group, or individually, read about these terms in the Filmmaking Glossary. Using definitions or context clues you find in the glossary, write a concise definition for each of the terms.
Based on your understanding of these terms, your notes about the movie, and the questions in the tool, complete the Summarizing the Movie section of the Understanding a Movie Tool, but leave the Logline section blank for now.
Compare your definitions of the terms and responses to the questions and prompts with those of other students in the class.
Step 2
Read the paragraph in the logline entry in the glossary that explains how a logline "usually follows a pattern."
Follow along as your teacher models how to write a logline, using the sentence patterns found in the Filmmaking Glossary.
On your own, write a logline for Hidden Figures and compare it with the loglines written by other students.
Activity 3: Read – Write – Discuss
As a class, we will review the analyzing the movie section of the Understanding a Movie Tool and we will begin to learn about visual techniques, camerawork, and sound and audio techniques and how they contribute to a film’s style and message.
Step 1
Add glossary terms related to visual techniques and camerawork, specifically, shot, shot size, movement, duration, and angle, to your Vocabulary Journal. Read and annotate the glossary entry that addresses the visual techniques associated with camerawork: how movie cameras are used and manipulated.
Based on what you read, and the context clues in the glossary, write concise definitions for the five camera variables you listed in your journal. Compare your definitions with those of other students in the class.
Step 2
As a class, discuss how decisions about camerawork and other visual techniques are made by a movie’s director and its cinematographer or director of photography.
Read and annotate the glossary entry for cinematographer, and based on what you read, write (or revise) a definition for this role in the production of a movie.
As a class, discuss examples from Hidden Figures of how cinematography and camera shots, movements, and angles influence the atmosphere, mood, and style of the movie.
With this discussion as a backdrop, explain what you have noticed about visual techniques, and camerawork in particular, in Hidden Figures. Write down your thinking in the Analyzing the Movie section of your Understanding a Movie Tool.
Step 3
Discuss the ways that sound, music, and other audio effects are used in Hidden Figures. You might listen to parts of the soundtrack as you do so. Read and annotate the entry for sound design in the glossary.
Based on what you read, write a definition for this term in your Vocabulary Journal. Compare your definition with those of other students in the class. Based on your new understanding and class discussion, respond to the questions in the Audio Techniques section of the Understanding a Movie Tool.
Activity 4: Read – Discuss – Write
We will examine character development in Hidden Figures and form claims about the movie’s style and its filmmakers’ message.
Step 1
Join a character study team that will focus on one of the main characters from Hidden Figures:
Katherine Johnson
Dorothy Vaughan
Mary Jackson
As a team, read and annotate the Filmmaking Glossary entry for character arc, which explains how and why characters change and are developed within movies. In your Vocabulary Journal, write a concise definition for the concept of character arc.
Examine the character arc for the main character your team is studying. Review your notes and recollections about the movie and your character, considering the following questions from the Understanding a Movie Tool:
How does the character develop, interact, and change throughout the movie?
How is the character’s development used to present the movie’s themes and the filmmakers’ message?
In response to these questions and your discussion, form an evidence-based claim about your character’s arc and its importance in the movie.
Share and compare your claim with the claims developed by other study teams in the class.
Individually, write an analysis about character development in your Understanding a Movie Tool.
Step 2
Individually, review what you have written in your Understanding a Movie Tool, particularly your ideas in response to questions about analyzing the movie. Based on the evidence in your tool, respond to the questions about the movie’s style and the filmmakers’ message.
In each of these two areas, form an evidence-based claim about the movie’s style and message. Compare the claims you have developed, and the evidence that has led to them, with claims developed by other students in the class. Discuss the various interpretations of the movie: what it is trying to say and how it uses filmmaking techniques to suggest its message.
Activity 5: Read – Discuss
We will learn how to choose the feature film that we will view at home and analyze using the Understanding a Movie Tool, in preparation for the Section Diagnostic task in Lesson 7 and 8.
Access the Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist to look at the task you will be doing at the end of this section, which involves watching a movie on your own and using the Understanding a Movie Tool to analyze it, then writing a synopsis of the movie. Read and annotate the task description, then review the evaluation questions for the task.
Discuss how you will decide which movies you want to consider watching and how to use online resources to identify and learn about them.
Your teacher will provide you a list of recommended resources to find a feature film for independent viewing.
Activity 6: Read
For homework, we will use internet links to review possible movie choices and information about them.
For homework, review the possible movie choices, and identify several movies you are interested in watching and examining.
For these movies, try to watch a trailer and learn more about the movie. Identify your first and second choices, using the Understanding a Movie Tool.
Inform your parents of your choices, and be prepared to submit and explain them to your teacher. You will do so at the end of Lesson 5.