IGCSEShort Film - Character

StarterThink of your favourite story. It could be a book, film, play or

narrative poem.From the story, choose one character you think has good qualities and one you think has bad qualities. Describe them in your books

Objectives

Explore how characterisation is presented in film

See how ideas, values and emotions are portrayed

Reflect on the motivation and behaviour of characters

Motivation

Think about: Where do the good and bad qualities come from?

What about motivation…

It is difficult to talk about characters in stories without talking about what does and doesn’t motivate them. Why are they motivated to do certain things and not others?

We have all sat in a cinema and thought, “Why didn’t he just…” or, “Yes, I think I’d have done that as well.” But that is seeing the characters in relation to our own world. To understand characters and characterisation properly we have to understand them in their own worlds.

We have to start thinking about two things:

Where and what characters are coming from.

Where they are going to, in terms of what they want, what they need and what they are trying to achieve in the story. Their motivations.

ViewingTwo Cars One Night

There are two male characters and one female character. What impression do we get of the two boys? How different are their characters?

Is the young girl confident? Or is she just pretending to be? What clues are there for either interpretation?

What is the significance of the ring?

Is there any way in which the characters reflect stereotypes of particular kinds of children?

ViewingWatch the extract from The Most Beautiful Man in the World.

Copy this accompanying grid into your books and give detailed responses to the questions posed.

Text Detective

Read through the poem “The Man With the Beautiful Eyes”

As you watch The Man with the Beautiful Eyes again, notice that things appear in the film which don’t appear in the poem.

As the detective, unravel the film-maker’s interpretation and discover:

• What is in the original poem and what has been added

• Why the film-maker has added this element.

Extended writing

Explore the characterisation of the Man in The Man with the Beautiful Eyes. Focus on the differences between the character in the poem and the interpretation of him by the film-maker.

Extension: remember to include as many sound and technical elements from the film as you can.