USING FILM EFFECTIVELY JENNIFER JANECHEK

BASIC GUIDELINES Don’t take up class time showing entire films. If you haven’t had time to prep for class, give students small-group activities or a research task. Or if it’s later in the semester, you might even let them lead discussion for the day. Assign films that can be streamed electronically as homework. It’s hard to assign movies that students will need to check out from the Main Library’s physical course reserves because students will be in competition for viewing times. So find out what films are available to stream through ICON through Swank Digital Campus (

TEACHING FILM ADAPTATIONS Film adaptations are a very effective way of teaching the ways of reading. Older texts may be updated to suit new socio-historical contexts. Different readers will read the same texts and come away with different interpretations, which explains why different directors will reimagine the same originary text is various ways. Assign films as homework and then analyze scenes together in class. Example of a text whose adaptations complement instruction in close reading: Shakespeare’s Hamlet with Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet (2000) [surveillance/technology, storytelling/recording life stories in different mediums, death/suicide, capitalism/feudalism, feminism/female agency] Shakespeare’s Hamlet with Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet (1990) [Oedipus complex, feminism/female agency]

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR STREAMING FILMS THROUGH ICON Activate your ICON course(s)

Enable Main Library staff to access your ICON course(s). Under My Courses tab, scroll down to the course you want to open up to library staff. Click on Instructor Tools and scroll down to and click on Library Reserve.

Under Add Library Reserve Staff scroll down to and click on Main Library. Then click Add Staff.

Then locate what films are available for the library to put on electronic course reserve using Swank Digital Campus: URL:

Finally, submit a Main Library Reserve Course Reserve Request Form for every film you want to stream through ICON. The form is available at the following site: Note that if you are teaching two sections, you can list both sections in the same form to add one film to both ICON classes.

USING FILM & OTHER MEDIA CLIPS Choose short clips (3 minutes to 15 minutes) to show in class and discuss Keep your “eyes” open for connections with themes from you class Scene Analysis (Plays, novel adaptations) Example: Othello – compare several versions of the scarf scene, Pride & Prejudice – compare several versions of the proposal scene (including adaptations) Drama – showing clips can help students visualize the play Emphasize analysis and interpretation Teach how to analyze film vs text Other Media – bring in short clips from tv episode, music video, advertisements, etc. Examples: Commodities in Death of a Salesman – Maclkemore music video “Wings”; Triles – Dixie Chicks “Goodbye Earl” (we discussed the contrasting tones of each); satire – clip from Colbert Show, etc. This helps students apply interpretation skills to “other” texts – consider a paper that does the same Author interviews, youtube clips to help give context, etc. for readings Example: Junot Diaz interview clips for Brief Wondrous Life, BBC features about Pride and Prejudice, etc.