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Lesson 1

To better understand characterization in movies, and the terms character, caricature, and stereotype from the Filmmaking Glossary, we will discuss characters from the films we’ve viewed, examine clips of our favorite (and least favorite) characters, and read about problems associated with racial and gender stereotypes.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I distinguish among characters, caricatures, and stereotypes in a variety of films?

  • Can I recognize connections among the details, narrative choices, and techniques that filmmakers use to create different characters?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “Disney Plus Adds Disclaimer about Racist Movie Stereotypes,” Mae Anderson, Associated Press, November 14, 2019
  • Unit Reader
    • “Flick Chicks: A Guide to Women in the Movies,” excerpt from “Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? (And Other Concerns),” Mindy Kaling, Crown Archetype, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2011

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – View – Discuss

We will review the terms character, stereotype, and caricature in the Filmmaking Glossary, then watch and discuss clips and trailers that exemplify these terms.

On your own, read through the entries in the Filmmaking Glossary for the terms character, caricature, and stereotype, considering the following question:

  1. What are the differences among fully developed movie characters, caricatures, and stereotypes?

Briefly discuss this question with classmates, then individually use information from the glossary to add definitions to your Vocabulary Journal for these terms:

  • caricature

  • stereotype

  • archetype

  • trope

View movie clips and trailers of characters from the movies you and your peers have chosen for your independent viewing, movies you have watched in class, or movies your teacher has chosen that exemplify different kinds of characters, stereotypes, and caricatures.

For each clip, discuss what about the presentation of the characters makes them seem "three dimensional" or "one dimensional" and whether they exemplify any of the characterization terms you have just defined.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will read and respond to a short article about disney’s choice to add disclaimers about racist movie stereotypes when it launched its disney+ streaming service.

Read and annotate the article "Disney Plus Adds Disclaimer about Racist Movie Stereotypes.”

In your Learning Log, respond to the following questions:

  1. What should media outlets like Disney and Warner Bros. do about presenting older movies and television shows that contained racist stereotypes and character portrayals?

  2. Should racist stereotypes and character portrayals in current movies be censored? Why or why not?

Discuss your thoughts in response to these questions with a partner.

Activity 3: Read – Write – Discuss

We will reread the article “Disney Plus Adds Disclaimer About Racist Movie Stereotypes” and use the Vocabulary in Context Tool to determine the meaning of Unknown words.

Step 1

Work with a new partner to determine the meaning of the following words:

  • underscoring (para. 1)

  • outdated (para. 2)

  • patrimony (para. 11)

  • tethered (para. 11)

  • iconic (para. 12)

  • purveyor (para. 12)

Many of the definitions can be figured out by context clues; others cannot. How will you know when to use context clues and when to try another strategy?

Use the Vocabulary in Context Tool to determine the meaning of these words through context, if possible. Discuss each word and the strategy you will use to determine the meaning:

  • Use context clues to determine the meaning of words that have enough context in the passage to provide the meaning.

  • Use another strategy for the words that do not have context clues.

Write down the words and their definitions in your Vocabulary Journals.

Step 2

As a class, use your understanding of the words patrimony and tethered to discuss the following quotation from Professor Gayle Wald found in "Disney Plus Adds Disclaimer about Racist Movie Stereotypes":

Our cultural patrimony in the end is deeply tethered to our histories of racism, our histories of colonialism and our histories of sexism, so in that sense it helps to open up questions.

Discuss the following questions:

  1. What is Wald saying about whether racial stereotypes in past movies should be marked with a disclaimer but also viewed and questioned?

  2. Why does Wald characterize Disney as "the most culturally iconic and well-known purveyor of this sort of narrative and imagery"?

Activity 4: Read – Discuss – Write

We will reread the list of unrealistic caricatures of women in romantic comedies in the new yorker article we read in section 2: “Flick Chicks: A Guide To Women In The Movies” by Mindy Kaling.

Return to the article "Flick Chicks: A guide to Women in the Movies." Reread through the list of unrealistic characters as identified and described by Mindy Kaling.

Discuss each of these character types in relation to the characterization concepts you have been studying, considering these questions:

  1. In what ways is Kaling’s character type an example of a caricature, a stereotype, or a trope?

  2. Thinking about the problems with movie stereotypes, how do you feel about the portrayals of women that Kaling satirizes?

In your Learning Log, write a short paragraph about your thoughts regarding character stereotypes and caricatures in the movies. Then write about characters you might create in your own original movie—and how you might use or avoid tropes, caricatures, or stereotypes.