Posted in Chapter 1, Directors, tagged Mekado Murphy, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Tim Burton on September 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Yes, it might seem obvious, “Oh, Tim Burton is directing Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” — how sweet. At mediateacher.net, we’ve explored Mr. Burton’s beguiling cinescapes before.
The powerful inspiration that Mr. Burton’s works have given to many young (and not-so-young) people for over a generation seems to renew its promise with this new feature. And here is an answer to the “not phoning it in” title above: The Making of a Film Fable, an article by Mekado Murphy.
Posted in Chapter 6, Media Literacy, Social Studies, tagged Debate Analysis Worksheet, Donald Trump, Frank Baker, Hillary Clinton, Lesson Plan, media literacy, Presidential Debate on September 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »
The debate today between the Democrat and Republican candidates for President of the United States, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, is predicted to be the most watched contest in the history of televised debates since the game-changing moment between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon on September 26, 1960. Yes, it was 56 years ago to the day. And in 2016, as summed up in the New York Times, “Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump are spoiling for an extraordinary clash over race and gender that could come as early as Monday’s debate, with both presidential candidates increasingly staking their fortunes on the cultural issues that are convulsing the nation.”
As a tool for educators, here is a comprehensive article authored by Frank Baker and Karen Zill that can be very useful for navigating the issues of watching and analyzing the debates: “Media Literacy: How to Watch the Debates.” It also features downloadable debate analysis worksheets (here is one of them).
Posted in Chapter 5, Directors, tagged Be Kind Rewind, Charlie Kaufman, City Lights, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jack Black, Michel Gondry, Microbe and Gasoline, Mos Def, The White Stripes on September 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Michel Gondry, one of the most inventive and utterly unique motion picture wizards of our time, has delivered again. In an original gesture, he went and made a video on his own for the White Stripes song “City Lights” as a gift to Third Man Records (having made a number of legendary music videos together, including the Lego classic “Fell in Love with a Girl” and the Meg White-inspired masterstroke “The Hardest Button to Button“). Lessons to learn from his music videos in general: a hefty dose of vision; planning, then planning and practice and planning; and execution. And throw in a few dashes of visual and sonic magic.
Gondry’s book The Be Kind Rewind Protocol is great food for thought for filmmakers and educators alike, and of course there are his movies, notably that one featuring Mos Def, Jack Black, and Danny Glover; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, his exceptional collaboration with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (and which I feel gets even better with age); The Thorn in the Heart, a documentary that grew out of a family story; an episode of Flight of the Conchords; and the mix of music videos, shorts, commercials, and odds and ends that have made up his twisting and turning career.
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