Film & Literacyat

Key Stage 3

Part 3: Ghost Stories

Section Page

Teachers’ Introduction: Ghost Stories 2-3

1. Conventions of the Ghost Story 4-72. Ghost Stories in Print 8-103. Building suspense through structure 11-17

Development Lesson4. Surprise and Suspense 18-235. The same story in two different media 24-286. Ghosts for different audiences 29-307. Analysing Film Language 31-338. Film Language – Vocabulary 34-36

Development Lesson 37-38Blank Storyboard 39

Appendix 1: Wuthering Heights extract 40-46Appendix 2: Film Clips for Part 3 47Appendix 3: Curriculum Guidelines 48-53Appendix 4 : Images Menu 54

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Unit of Work : Ghost Stories Year: Time:

Description of Unit: Ghost story as a genre with comparison between written and film

Knowledge, Understanding and Skills

Express meaning, feelings and viewpoint

Take part in group discussions Listen actively and report back Interpret visual stimuli including

moving image Develop and understanding of

different forms, genres and methods of communication and an understanding of how meaning is created

Key Elements

Media awareness Personal understanding Cultural understanding

TS & PC

Order, classify and make comparisons (DM)

Make predictions, examine evidence (DM)

Generate possible solutions (DM) Experiment with ideas and

questions (BC) Value the unexpected or

surprising (BC) Listen actively (WWO) Give and respond to feedback

(WWO) Suggest ways of improving

(WWO) Organise and plan how to go

about a task (SM) Review learning etc (SM) Communicate with a sense of

audience and purpose (MI)Learning Outcomes:Demonstrate creativity and initiativeWork effectively with othersCommunicate effectivelyDemonstrate self management

Possible links with other Areas of Learning/Subject strands:COMMUNICATIONREL. ED.

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Ghost Stories

Teachers’ Introduction

This unit looks at the conventions of ghost stories in print and on film and introduces students to basic terms of film language. The creation of atmosphere and building of suspense in terms of structure are examined, using both media as examples of how this works. Students undertake analytical work in the course of the unit but the emphasis lies on two creative pieces; writing a ghost story in print and storyboarding a sequence from a ghost story on film.

You may want to fire the students’ imagination by reading a number of ghost stories before you begin this structured unit but it will work well even if this is not an option you are able to take up. The examples in print and film have been chosen because they adhere well to conventions but you may of course choose to reinforce and extend students’ work with further examples from your favourite ghost texts.

Resources needed:

TV and VHS / DVD player Video clips relating to this unit:

CLIP 1 (p4), CLIP 2 (p5), CLIP 3 (p18), CLIP 4 (p19), CLIP 5 (p24), CLIP 6 (p28), CLIP 7 (p29), CLIP 8 (p 30), CLIP 9 (p32)

P 6/7 Two spiderman sheets:(a) one partly filled in for the students to complete(b) one with more detail on for teachers to use in collating

information P 8 Dictionaries and thesauruses P 10 The opening paragraphs to A Night in a Cottage P 13-15 The whole story called A Night in a Cottage P 16 Constructing a ghost story chart P 31 Stills from ghost stories (7A – 7B) P 39 Blank storyboard

Conventions

Of the Ghost Story3

Learning Intention:

To understand the conventions of ghost stories

Starting off

Watch CLIP 1 from the film The Others. Do you think it looks like a frightening tale? Does it remind you of any other ghost stories you have seen, read or heard?

Introducing Ideas

Everyone loves a good ghost story. We are like to be thrilled yet scared by tales of spooks, hauntings and mysterious happenings. Ghost stories have been a popular genre since the first listeners shivered with excitement around a camp fire. When books, and then later films, became sources of entertainment, writers and filmmakers were quick to realise that ghost stories would be interesting to a wide number of people.

If you have ever tried to write a ghost story, you will know that it is not that easy. Although the basic idea can be anything from strange crying in the attic to a computer which keeps sending warning messages, ghost stories tend to follow set patterns, called conventions, in the telling. For instance, ghost stories need to create an atmosphere for the audience so they are in the right frame of mind to be spooked; they need to build up suspense slowly, to keep the audience on the edge of their seats and the most frightening event in the tale usually comes at the end. All these factors need careful thought and planning when you are trying to scare your audience.

In this unit we are going to look at several ghost stories, in print and on film and see how they are constructed to gain the maximum ‘scare power’ over the audience. It will be interesting to see how the two different mediums (the printed page and moving image) use different tools to achieve the same effect and whether they are successful or not in producing a frightening tale.

ORAL WORKL.1. to understand the conventions of a ghost story

What are your favourite ghost stories in print and on film? What in particular do you like about them?

Has anything mysterious ever happened to you or someone you know? Which do you find the most scary, factual (real life) strange events or fictional (made-up) ones? Why?

Where and when do you think it is good to tell ghost stories? Why?

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Ghostly tales usually appear as short stories or short films. Why do you think this is?

As mentioned earlier, ghost stories often contain certain conventions that appear time and time again. Listen to the actress Nicole Kidman talking about the film The Others in which she stars (CLIP 2). What conventions of ghost stories does The Others contain?

Think of the spooky tales you have heard, read or seen, including CLIP 1 from The Others that you saw at the beginning of the lesson.

- What are the stories often about?- What characters often appear?- Where do they take place?- At what time of day / year are they set?- What typical events take place?

Developing your work

Working in a group, use the spidergram sheet on page 6 to record the typical conventions of ghost stories. As you think of each convention, try to come up with three examples of it from different ghost stories before you add it to your collection.

Summing up

Share your ideas with the rest of the class and add any new conventions mentioned to your own spidergram. A more comprehensive spidergram of ghost story conventions is provided on page 7.

COMMON CONVENTIONS

OF THE GHOST STORY

Ordinary everyday action is mixed with unreal

events

Ghost / horror is not fully

described

Victim oftenin bed

Bad weather5

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Ghost Stories in Print

Learning Intentions: To understand how ghost stories in print create atmosphere To write the opening paragraphs of your own ghost story

Starting Off

COMMON CONVENTIONSOF THE GHOST

STORY

VictimOftenin bed Isolated

settingAction takes place

at night

Ghost often appears far off and then gets closer

Main character alone or lonely

Ghost / horror is not

fully described

Badweather

A sense of being

trapped, enclosure

Often set in past,

quite often Victoria

era

We find out that

the ghost had a

tragic life

Ordinary everyday action is

mixed with unreal events

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Use a dictionary to find the meaning of these five words, all of which could be used when writing a ghost story.

- gargantuan- paralysing- sinister- incredulous- hideous

Use a dictionary or thesaurus to find more interesting words for the following:

- strange- call- old- dark- frightened

Introducing Ideas

Read through the opening of the ghost story called A Night in a Cottage by Richard Hughes (page 10).

Like all good ghost stories, this tale starts off by creating a spooky atmosphere before getting you into the main part of the action. Make sure you understand any unusual vocabulary. We can now look at this section in detail to see how the writer is trying to spook us.

Who is the main character in the story? Is he alone? Is he the narrator? What effect does this have on us? Where does the story take place? Is it a familiar place to the

narrator? How does he choose this place to stay and how do we know that he

feels a little uncomfortable about it? How is the setting made to appear creepy? Make a list of the words

which create this sort of atmosphere. Which of these are onomatopoeic?

Can you say how the following phrases add to the atmosphere?

- Worcestershire lanes are devious and muddy- The straggling fruit trees still wept- The black mouth of a passage

How does the length of the sentences help to create an atmosphere? Try breaking up the sentences into shorter sections and reading them again.

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Towards the end of this section, how are we lulled into a false sense of security?

Do you think the story takes place in the present? What makes you say this?

How many of the typical conventions of a ghost story can you find in the story so far? Add any new ideas to your spidergram.

Make a list of useful words from the passage which you might use in the writing of your own ghost story.

Developing your Work

Write the opening to your own ghost story. This should be no more than two large paragraphs. What happens in the story is up to you but you must follow the conventions and use your paragraphs to create a really spooky atmosphere. Refer to your conventions spidergrams on pages 5 and 6 if you need some ideas.

Success Criteria

You will have used ghost story conventions to create a scary atmosphere

You will manage to spook your listeners when you read out your opening

Summing Up

Read your opening to the rest of the group. Were they scared? Ask the group what they think happens next – you might be able to use some of their ideas when you write the rest of the story.

A Night in a CottageOn the evening that I am considering, I passed by some ten or twenty cosy barns and sheds without finding one to my liking; for Worcestershire lanes are devious and muddy, and it was nearly dark when I found an empty cottage set back from the road in a little bedraggled garden. There had been heavy rain earlier in the day and the straggling fruit trees still wept over it.

But the roof looked sound, there seemed no reason why it should not be fairly dry inside – as dry, at any rate, as I was likely to find anywhere.

I decided; and with a long look up the road, and a long look down the road, I drew an iron bar from the lining of my coat and forced the door, which was held only by a padlock and two staples. Inside, the darkness was

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damp and heavy; I struck a match, and with its haloed light I saw the black mouth of a passage somewhere ahead of me; and then it spluttered out. So I closed the door carefully, though I had little reason to fear passers-by at such a dismal hour and in so remote a lane; and lighting another match, I crept down this passage to a little room at the far end, where the air was a bit clearer, for all that the window was boarded across. Moreover, there was a little rusted stove in this room; and thinking it too dark for any to see the smoke, I ripped up part of the wainscot with my knife, and soon was boiling my tea over a bright, small fire, and drying some of the day’s rain out of my steamy clothes. Presently I piled the stove with wood to its top bar, and setting my boots where they would dry best, I stretched my body out to sleep.

‘A Night in a Cottage’ by Richard Hughes, 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural edited by Mary Danby (Chatto and Windus, Marks & Spencer, 1979).

Building Suspense

through structure

Learning Intentions:

To understand how suspense is built up through the structure of a ghost story.

To plan the structure of your own ghost story.

Starting Off

Think back to some of the fairy tales that you may have read or been told as a small child. Goldilocks and The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, The Billy Goats Gruff. Why should there always be three?

In a famous medieval story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the brave Sir Gawain has to undergo three trials before he can defeat the Green Knight. Again, three is a important number. Three is seen as a magic number in

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many stories. What stories can you think of where this is the case? Why do you think the number three has this special significance?

Introducing Ideas

What people seem to like about ghost stories is being thrilled by the thought of what might happen next. Really spooky tales draw out the strange events that take place, feeding details of them to the audience bit by bit using three climaxes. In between these events, things return to normal; characters are told by their friends that they are being silly or a rational explanation is found for something that has happened. If a ghost is present then it is often only sensed at first, or seen in the distance. Gradually the strange events become more frequent or the ghost gets closer. As we reach the climax of the tale, something will happen which cannot be ignored and we may, or may not, find out the reason for what has taken place. We call this planning of events in a story the structure – meaning the way in which the story was put together.

In the last section you read the opening to A Night in a Cottage (page 10). Now read the rest of the story given on page 13. Use the Constructing a Ghost Story chart on page 16 to help you see how the story builds suspense. Fill in the details of the strange events which take place and how the audience is made to feel safe by normal, real events in between.

This is a ghost story with a twist. Mark on the chart the point at which you first began to suspect the ending. What made you realise?

Developing your Work

What can you add to your spidergram on page 6 about building suspense in a ghost story?

Plan what will happen in the rest of your story, using the Constructing a Ghost Story chart on page 16 as a plan. Remember to try and scare your audience bit by bit, building the suspense slowly. For example, strange events may happen with no explanation, or we may hear about the ghost a long time before we actually see it. After each scary event the reader must feel that things are normal for a while.

Look at several other ghost stories and see how they fit the conventions we have learnt about.

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Summing Up

Share your story plan with the rest of your group. Do they think the structure works to scare people?

Peer Evaluation:

Work with a writing partner to read one another’s stories. Evaluate your partners success against these success criteria:

Has suspense been built slowly? Are there moments when things are very normal? Are there any unexplained strange events?

A Night in a CottageOn the evening that I am considering, I passed by some ten or twenty cosy barns and sheds without finding one to my liking; for Worcestershire lanes are devious and muddy, and it was nearly dark when I found an empty cottage set back from the road in a little bedraggled garden. There had been heavy rain earlier in the day and the straggling fruit trees still wept over it.

But the roof looked sound, there seemed no reason why it should not be fairly dry inside – as dry, at any rate, as I was likely to find anywhere.

I decided; and with a long look up the road, and a long look down the road, I drew an iron bar from the lining of my coat and forced the door, which was held only by a padlock and two staples. Inside, the darkness was damp and heavy; I struck a match, and with its haloed light I saw the black mouth of a passage somewhere ahead of me; and then it spluttered out. So I closed the door carefully, though I had little reason to fear passers-by at such a dismal hour and in so remote a lane; and lighting another match, I crept down this passage to a little room at the far end, where the air was a bit clearer, for all that the window was boarded across. Moreover, there was a little rusted stove in this room; and thinking it too dark for any to see the smoke, I ripped up part of the wainscot with my knife, and soon was boiling my tea over a bright, small fire, and drying some of the day’s rain out of my steamy clothes. Presently I piled the stove with wood to its top bar, and setting my boots where they would dry best, I stretched my body out to sleep.

I cannot have slept very long, for when I woke the fire was still burning brightly. It is not easy to sleep for long together on the level boards of a floor, for the limbs grow numb, and any movements wakes. I turned over, and was about to go again to sleep when I was startled to hear steps in

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the passage. As I have said, the window was boarded, and there was no other door from the little room – no cupboard even – in which to hide. It occurred to me rather grimly that there was nothing to do but to sit up and face the music, and that would probably mean being hauled back to Worcester Gaol, which I had left two bare days before, and where, for various reasons, I had no anxiety to be seen again.

The stranger did not hurry himself, but presently walked slowly down the passage, attracted by the light of the fire; and when he came in he did not seem to notice me where I lay huddled in a corner, but walked straight over to the stove and warmed his hands at it. He was dripping wet – wetter than I should have thought it possible for a man to get, even on such a rainy night, and his clothes were old and worn. The water dripped from him on to the floor; he wore no hat, and the straight hair over his eyes dripped water that sizzled spitefully on the embers.

It occurred to me at once that he was no lawful citizen, but another wanderer like myself: a gentleman of the road; so I gave him some sort of greeting, and we were presently in conversation. He complained much of the cold and the wet, and huddled himself over the fire, his teeth chattering and his face an ill white.

‘No’, I said, ‘it is no decent weather for the road, this. But I wonder this cottage isn’t more frequented, for it’s a tidy little bit of a cottage.’

Outside, the pale dead sunflowers and giant weeds stirred in the rain.

‘Time was,’ he answered, ‘there wasn’t a tighter little cot in the coanty, nor a purtier garden. A regular little parlour, she was. But now no folk’ll live in it, and there’s very few tramps will stop here either.’

There were none of the rags and tins and broken food about that you find in a place where many beggars are used to stay.

‘Why’s that?’ I asked.

He gave a very troubled sigh before answering.

‘Gho-asts,’ he said; ‘gho-asts. Him that lived here. It is a mighty sad tale, and I’ll not tell it to you; but the upshot of it was that he drownded hisself, down to the mill-pond. All slimy, he was, and floating, when they pulled him out of it. There are fo-aks, have seen un floating on the pond, and fo-aks have seen un set round the corner of the school, waiting for his childer. Seems as if he had forgotten, like how they were all gone dead, and the why he drownded hisself. But there are some say he walks up and down this cottage, up and down; like when the smallpox had ‘em, and they couldn’t sleep but if they heard his feet going up and down by their do-ars. Drownded hisself down to the pond, he did; and now he walks.’

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The stranger sighed again, and I could hear the water squelch in his boots as he moved himself.

‘But it doesn’t do for the like of us to get superstitious,’ I answered. ‘It wouldn’t do for us to get seeing ghosts, or many’s the wet night we’d be lying in the roadway.’

‘No,’ he said; ‘no, it wouldn’t do at all. I never had belief in walks myself.’

I laughed.

‘Nor I that,’ I said. ‘I never see ghosts, whoever may.’

He looked at me again in his queer melancholy fashion.

‘No,’ he said, ‘Spect you don’t ever. Some folk do-ant. It’s hard enough for poor fellows to have no money to their lodging, apart from gho-asts sceering them.’

‘It’s the coppers, not spooks, make me sleep uneasy,’ said I. ‘What with coppers, and meddlesome-minded folk, it isn’t easy to get a night’s rest nowadays.’

The water was still oozing from his clothes all about the floor, and a dank smell went up from him.

‘God, man!’ I cried; ‘can’t you never get dry?’

‘Dry?’ He made a little coughing laughter. ‘Dry? I shan’t never be dry …… ‘Tisn’t the likes of us that ever get dry, be it wet or fine, winter or summer. See that!’

He thrust his muddy hands up to the wrist in the fire, glowering over it fiercely and madly. But I caught up my boots and ran crying out into the night.

‘A Night in a Cottage’ by Richard Hughes, 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural edited by Mary Danby (Chatto and Windus, Marks & Spencer, 1979).

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Constructing a Ghost Story

Development Lesson

Writing your own Ghost Story

So far you have written an opening to your story and planned what will happen in the rest of it.

3rd Climax

2nd Climax

1st Climax

STRANGENESS OF

EVENT

EVENT

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Now it is time to write the whole story.

Before Writing – with a writing partner –

Tell your story so far to a partner. They must look at the spidergram of conventions on page 7 and say which of them you have used. Discuss which other conventions you could use and work them into your story if you wish.

Start Writing

Read over your opening to the story. Check – does it explain where and when the story is set and who the main characters are? Read it aloud to your partner. Does it create a really spooky atmosphere? Do they want to know more?

After Writing – with a writing partner –

When you have written your story, ask your partner to read it. Do they understand all of it? Are there parts where it loses their interest? How could it be made more scary? Re-draft your story to make it even better.

Success Criteria for completed story:

It should keep the reader’s interest all the way through It should create suspense It should be scary

Surprise and Suspense

Learning Intentions:

To understand how surprise and suspense are used in ghost stories on film.

Starting Off

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There are two methods which the filmmaker can use to try to spook the audience:

Surprise - suddenly surprising us, making us jump

Suspense - Keeping us in suspense as to what will happen

You will now watch CLIP 3 from the film The Others. The heroine, Grace has a spooky experience in a disused room of the mansion where she lives with her two children. Watch the extract twice.

Which are the parts that scare you? Divide them into the two categories, surprise and suspense.

Are there more surprise moments or suspense moments? Which is the most effective in scaring you?

This short extract was used on TV to advertise the film. Is the very end of the extract a moment of surprise or suspense? Why do you think it ends here?

Think back to the ghost stories you have READ. Do they tend to use surprise or suspense as a means of scaring you?

Introducing Ideas

What do you understand by the word ‘suspense’? In fact it comes from the same root as the word ‘suspend’ which means to put something off or hang something up. In a sense, both these meanings are important when trying to work out the meaning of ‘suspense’. Any film that relies on suspense has to do several things:

a) Suggest that all is not well or that something odd is about to happen

b) Delay the scary moment when whatever is odd finally reveals itself

c) Keep stringing us along in a way that encourages us to keep watching without getting bored

You are going to watch CLIP 4 from a film called Down to the Cellar, in which a young girl goes on an errand down a flight of stairs in the block of flats where she lives. On her way she meets a man coming up the stairs

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and a woman cleaning the stairs. When she reaches the cellar it is so dark that she is forced to turn on the torch she has taken with her.

Can you think of any elements to this story where you think there is the possibility of creating suspense? How would you do it?

What do you think is going to happen in the basement? What is she going to see?

Now watch CLIP 4.

The creation of suspense in this piece of film is a mixture of:

1. the situation2. the characters

3. the way it is filmed

Put these three headings on a page. Look at the following list of ingredients from Down to the Cellar. For each of them decide whether they belong under heading 1, 2 or 3 and write them underneath.

Which of the three sections do you think made the biggest contribution to the suspense you felt?Ingredients

The way the woman cleaning the stairs nods when she sees the key.

The view from the little girl’s point of view down the basement steps – they look very steep.

The fact that it involves a little girl – a very sweet one with white ankle socks, red shoes and plaited hair.

The black cat.

The shot of the little girl’s feet as she pauses at the top of the final set of stairs leading to the basement door. There is a pool of darkness which she has to step into.

The way the little girl’s shadow falls onto the basement door before she gets to it.

The basement with its darkness, the narrow path between those cage-like rooms and its damp stone walls.

The way the film is constantly moving back and forth so that you do not have time to get your bearings.

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The frequent use of close-up and extreme close-up shots. These are shots in which the frame is filled by view of the girl’s face or her eyes.

The way the man in the hat is filmed from the little girl’s point of view, so that he seems so huge.

The trick the man plays with the sweet.

CLIP 3 – The Others

Surprise Suspense

Which scared you most?

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CLIP 4 - Down to the Cellar

Suspense created by a mixture of:

1. situation 2. the characters 3. the way it is filmed

1. the situation

2. the characters

3. the way it is filmed

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Developing your Work

The basement world

In the basement none of the rules of life in the light apply. The film starts to rely on animation as the girl encounters a number of other strange things. Your job is to come up with a list of the kinds of things, or people, she might see.

Think of ten shots which will continue the action in the cellar. These should contain two surprise shots and eight suspense ones. Set out your shot list like this (use these suggestions if you like):

Shot 1 little girl looks in box in cellar

Shot 2 she opens the lid slowly

Shot 3 the cellar door closes

Summing Up

Share your ideas with the rest of the class. Who has created the most suspense and most frightening surprises?

The Same Story

in two different media

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Learning Intention:

To compare a ghost story on film and in print

Starting off

How do you like your ghost stories? Do you prefer to have someone tell them to you, to read them yourself or to watch them on film (on your own or with others)? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these ways of telling ghost stories?

You will now see CLIP 5 where Alejandro Amenabar, the director of the film The Others talks about the difficulties of showing horror on screen Do you agree with what he says about horror being in the imagination?

Introducing Ideas

Many books are adapted into successful films and likewise, films are often adapted into books. Wuthering Heights, a book written in 1847 by Emily Bronte has been adapted for the screen several times. Wuthering Heights is the name of an old house and the story is in many ways a ghostly tale because the spirits of the people who have lived in the house over hundreds of years still haunt it.

In the Wuthering Heights extract on page 40 we are going to look at how Mr Lockwood, a visitor to the house, is forced to spend the night there in a rather strange room. The night is dark and stormy and he has an unexpected guest ….

Read through the extract. If you were going to adapt this scene as part of a film, what changes would you make to it? The scene on screen will need to be short – it should only last about two minutes – and you should aim to make it as scary as possible.

Think about:

What parts could you leave out while still getting the story across?

What events would you definitely want the audience to see? What would the room, bed and window look like? How would you scare the audience (a) by what they see (b) by

what they hear? Would you actually show the ghost? How would you show what Lockwood was feeling?

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Wuthering Heights

What events would you definitely want the audience to see?

What would the room, bed and window look like?

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How would you scare the audience?

What they see

What they hear

If you actually show the ghost what would it look like?

How would you show what Lockwood was feeling?

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CLIP 6

Similarities between film and book Differences between film and book

Reason: Reason:

Reason: Reason:

Reason: Reason:

Reason: Reason:

Reason: Reason:

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Developing your Work

Now watch CLIP 6 from the 1992 film version of Wuthering Heights.

- How is it similar or different to the ideas that you had?

- Think about the changes to the written version and try to suggest why they were made.

What events in the book are actually included in the film? Why are the rest not there?

In the book, the ghost hovers outside for fifteen minutes or so. How long does this take in the film and why?

In the book, Lockwood breaks the window to stop the tapping. What happens in the film and why?

In the book, Lockwood rubs the wrists of the ghost on the broken window pane. What happens in the film?

In the book, Lockwood has a conversation with the ghost. What does he say to it in the film? What effect does it have, to have so little speech?

Write a letter to a filmmaker who is about to adapt a ghost story from book to film.What advice could you give to him/her?

OR

Choose a particularly scary part of a ghost story you have read and adapt it for film.

Summing Up

Group discussion: Which version, the book or the film, of Wuthering Heights do you prefer, and why?

Ghosts

for different audiencesLearning Intention:

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How ghost stories are adapted for different audiences

Starting Off

Watch CLIP 7 from a vampire film.

Did you find it frightening? Why/Why not?

Who do you think the film is meant for? (We call these people the target audience.) Were there any parts which might be frightening to the target audience?

Introducing Ideas

Ghost films are popular with people of all ages, even the very young. It seems we all like the feeling of being scared – from the safety of our cinema seat! However, there are different levels of horror and what teenagers or adults enjoy would probably give young children terrible nightmares. Although all ghost stories will have the same ingredients and conventions, the images that we see and the sounds that we hear will be very different depending on who the film is aimed at. The decisions the filmmaker makes about what we will see and how it is shown is called the film style.

We all know that it is sensible not to show or tell really frightening tales to young children. If you had a spooky tale in your head or in a book you would know whether it was right to go ahead and tell it to a young audience. However, what if you were taking them to see it at the cinema? How would you know whether it was suitable for them to see?

Every film that is shown at the cinema is watched first by a group of people called the British Board of film Classification (BBFC). The BBFC decide who the film will be suitable for and give it a number or letter which rates it (puts it into a certain category according to the age range for which it is intended). For example, the extract you have just seen (CLIP 7) is from a film called the Little Vampire. This was given a U rating by the BBFC. U stands for Universal, which means that it is suitable for everyone to see, even young children. Now watch CLIP 8 from the film The Others. This was given a 12 rating by the BBFC. This means that they think the film is suitable to be watched by anyone aged 12 and over.

Watch the CLIP 8 from The Others and then watch CLIP 7 from The Little Vampire again. Why do you think one was given a 12 rating and one a U? It is not enough to say that one is more scary than the other – you should say exactly what it is that is frightening, or could be frightening to small children, in each.

Developing your Work

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When a film is released the BBFC put up information about the type of film it is on their website. You can find this at www.bbfc.co.uk Can you find information on this website about the films The Little Vampire and The Others? Do you agree with their comments?

Think of two other recent ghost films you have seen. Write comments about their content and the intended target audience. Look at the BBFC website for information about these films.

Design two different posters for a film called Behind the Door. One should be for a very young audience, say 5–7 year olds, and the other for a teenage audience. The images you see, the colours used, the tag line (slogan) and the way the title is written (the font) should all clearly show who the audience for this film is.

Success Criteria:

5–7 year old poster should have simple font, bright colours and a little writing using simple words

Teenage poster should be more sophisticated – several fonts, variety of colours and more writing with more abstract ideas

Summing Up

Show your posters to the rest of the class and explain why you designed them in this way.

Analysing Film Language

Learning Intention:

How film language is used to create a spooky atmosphere on film.

Starting Off

Look at these stills (photographs) from a film (7A – 7B). How have they been made to look spooky? Think about the lighting, what angle we are looking at it from and so on.

Introducing Ideas

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To create a scary effect for a ghost story, a writer can choose atmospheric words, use punctuation in a certain way and use old-fashioned language. A filmmaker, on the other hand, has a whole different set of tools to experiment with.

Here are some ideas:

- making the set and costume look spooky- directing the actors to speak and act in a certain way- using the camera to make us look at certain things or hide others- making the camera move in a certain way, for example as if it

were one of the characters- making the lighting reveal or hide things- using sound to make us jump or to make us think that something

is about to happen

We call the ways that the filmmaker uses the lighting, the camera, the sound and so on – film language. When watching a film extract it can be difficult to try and see all the different areas of film language at the same time. It is therefore a good idea to divide the class into groups, each one looking for a particular type of film language and to discuss your findings as a class at the end. You can then rewatch the extract to look for those things you have discussed.You are now going to see CLIP 9 from a film called The Haunting (1999), about a group of people who stay overnight in an old house as part of a psychic experiment. Here are the headings of film language that you will need to discuss the extract:

SET, COSTUME and PROPS

How are the rooms made to look spooky?How are the characters dressed?Do we see anything that is hard to recognise at first?What images do we see time and time again?

LIGHTING

What time of day does the lighting suggest?What shadows do we see?What does the lighting hide from us?

CAMERA MOVEMENT

When does the camera move very slowly?When does the camera move quickly?When does the camera look as if it might be a ghost?When does the camera behave as if it might be the eyes of one of the characters?

CAMERA FRAMING

What things does the camera draw out attention to?29

What parts of the characters do we see most?What things does the camera not let us see?What do we see close-ups of?

SOUND EFFECTS

Is there any music used?When is there silence?What sound effects do we hear? Are any repeated?

DIALOGUE (SPEECH)

What do the characters say that helps scare us?How does the sound of their voices help tell you what they are thinking or feeling?

Divide into groups, each taking one of the different elements of film language to look for.

Read through the questions your group will have to answer. Watch CLIP 9 from The Haunting through twice.

Developing your Work

Try to answer the questions for your group.

Discuss your findings and try to say WHY you think the filmmaker has made each of these decisions. How else could this have been filmed?

Summing Up

Feedback your findings to the rest of the class, including your thoughts on WHY the filmmaker chose to show things in this way. Make short notes to help you remember what has been said under each of the types of film language.

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Film Language

Vocabulary

Learning Intention:

Use the correct vocabulary for film language

Starting Off

Watch CLIP 9 from The Haunting again.

Introducing Ideas

We can now start to give names to some of the film language areas that we have seen. Read through the descriptions of each of the features below. Make sure you understand each one. Watch the extract through again, looking for examples you can use.

Mise en scene (Set, costume and props)

The way in which a set is built to include certain objects (props) and the costumes that the actors wear is called the mise en scene (a French phrase meaning ‘what is put in the scene’).

The mise en scene is scary because …..

Lighting

Lighting which is dark and shadowy is called low-key lighting. When the lighting looks realistic it is called high-key.

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The lighting was low-key when ….The lighting was high-key when ….

Camera Framing

a) When we see the action close to, we say this is a close-up shot. When we see the action from a distance (the whole of the room) we say it is a long shot.

We can see a close-up when ….We can see a long shot when ….

b) When the camera is held from a high point, looking down on the action, we say it is a high angle shot. When the camera is low down, looking up at the action, we say it is low angle shot.

We can see a high angle shot when ….We can see a low angle shot when ….

c) When the camera behaves as if it might be the eyes of one of the characters it is called a point-of-view shot (POV for short).

We see a point-of-view shot when ….

Camera Movement

a) When the camera moves slowly from one side to the other it is called a slow pan.

We see a slow pan when ….

b) When the camera focuses in on a person or object it is called a zoom.

We see a zoom when ….

Sound

a) Sound in a film can be a three different types; music, dialogue and sound effects.

We hear music when ....An example of dialogue is when ….A sound effect we hear is ….

b) When we hear sound in a film but do not see what is making the noise, we say the sound is off-screen. This could be a knock at the door or a fire-engine in the street (of the film). When we both hear

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the sound and see what is making the noise at the same time, the sound is called on-screen. An example of this is when characters are talking, or if they knock over a cup and we see it smash on the floor and simultaneously hear the noise.

We can hear an on-screen sound when ….We can hear an off-screen sound when ….

Developing your Work

Now complete the sentences using examples from the scene from The Haunting (CLIP 9).

Summing Up

Share your ideas with the rest of the class. Did you find different examples? Close your books and test each other on the vocabulary you have just learnt. For example, what is a pan?

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Development Lesson

Creating your own Ghost Story on Film

When a director is trying to picture how a particular scene will look on film they often draw up a storyboard – a set of pictures which show exactly what will be seen and heard in each shot.

The storyboard is a good way for everyone involved in putting the film together (e.g. sound crew, lighting crew, camera person etc.) to see exactly what it is the director has in mind, rather than just trying to describe their ideas. It also gives the director the opportunity to re-draft ideas if they think they could be more effectively shot in a different way.

You are now going to storyboard a scene for a ghost story on film – one scene – not the whole story (a blank STORYBOARD is provided on page 39). Think of a particularly scary part of a ghost story you have read or come up with an idea of your own. Use part of a ghost story you have written, if you wish.

Think through what happens in the scene we will see. Describe the action to your partner.

You have only 12 shots to show the action. Divide your story into 12 and make a list like this:

SHOT 1 - Jane hears a knock at the doorSHOT 2 - Jane answers the door

Now you have the content of what happens in each shot you can decide exactly how to use the camera, lighting and sound to make the film as scary as possible.

For each shot decide:

Mise en sceneWhat will we see in terms of set, costume and props?

LightingWhat will the lighting be like?

Framing

How far will we be from the action? Close-up or long shot? What will the angle be?

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Camera Movement

How will be camera move between the shots? (slowly, quickly?).

Sound

What sound will we hear (dialogue, music, sound effects)?

Which sound will be on-screen? Which will be off-screen?

When you have made your decisions, draw your storyboard. Use stick figures if you are not brilliant at drawing. You must draw exactly what you want the camera to see so if, for example, it is a low angle shot of someone’s face, get down in the position that the camera will be in. If it is a close-up of someone’s hand, do not draw the arm as well.

When you have finished your storyboard, cut the shots up and try moving them around or taking some out. You may decide to change some shots. The process you are now going through is called editing, deciding which shots to use and what order they are placed to create the effect you want. Stick your final edited storyboard into place.

Decide how you want the camera to move at each point. It may not move at all for some shots. Write this in on your storyboard.

You can now write in what sound should accompany each of your shots. Remember that there are three layers of sound you can use – dialogue, music and sound effects – but that silence can also be very effective.

If you have access to a video/digital camera you can now film your scene and edit it on a computer using a desktop editing package.

Whether your finished version is on paper or on film, you must be able to explain the decisions that you made and why you made them. Write these down.

Congratulations! You are now the director of next year’s big horror movie!

Storyboard

What you will see What you will hearDialogue / Music / Sound

Effects

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Wuthering HeightsAPPENDIX 1

Chapter 3

While leading the way up-stairs, she recommended that I should hide the candle, and not make a noise, for her master had an odd notion about the chamber she would put me in; and never let anybody lodge there willingly.

I asked the reason.

She did not know, she answered; she had only lived there a year or two; and they had so many queer goings on, she could not begin to be curious.

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Too stupefied to be curious myself, I fastened my door and glanced round for the bed. The whole furniture consisted of a chair, a clothes-press, and a large oak case, with squares cut out near the top, resembling coach windows.

Having approached this structure, I looked inside, and perceived it to be a singular sort of old-fashioned couch, very conveniently designed to obviate the necessity for every member of the family having a room to himself. In fact, it formed a little closet, and the ledge of the window, which it enclosed, served as a table.

I slid back the panelled sides, got in with my light, pulled them together again, and felt secure against the vigilance of Heathcliff, and every one else.

The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in one corner; and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small – Catherine Earnshaw; here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton.

In vapid listlessness I leant my head against the window, and continued spelling over Catherine Earnshaw – Heathcliff – Linton, till my eyes closed; but they had not rested five minutes when a glare of white letters started from the dark, as vivid as spectres – the air swarmed with Catherines; and rousing myself to dispel the obtrusive name, I discovered my candle wick reclining on one of the antique volumes, and perfuming the place with an odour of roasted calf-skin.

I snuffed it off, and, very ill at ease, under the influence of cold and lingering nausea, sat up, and spread open the injured tome on my knee. It was a Testament, in lean type, and smelling dreadfully musty: a fly-leaf bore the inscription – ‘Catherine Earnshaw, her book,’ and a date some quarter of a century back.

I shut, and took up another, and another, till I had examined all. Catherine’s library was select; and its state of dilapidation proved it to have been well used, though not altogether for a legitimate purpose; scarcely one chapter had escaped a pen and ink commentary – at least, the appearance of one – covering every morsel of blank that the printer had left.

Some were detached sentences; other parts took the form of a regular diary, scrawled in an unformed, childish hand. At the top of an extra page, quite a treasure probably when first lighted on, I was greatly amused to behold an excellent caricature of my friend Joseph, rudely yet powerfully sketched.

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An immediate interest kindled within me for the unknown Catherine, and I began, forthwith, to decipher her faded hieroglyphics.

“An awful Sunday!” commenced the paragraph beneath. “I wish my father were back again. Hindley is a detestable substitute – his conduct to Heathcliff is attrocious – H. and I are going to rebel – we took our initiatory step this evening.”

“All day had been flooding with rain; we could not go to church, so Joseph must needs get up a congregation in the garret; and, while Hindley and his wife basked down stairs before a comfortable fire, doing anything but reading their Bibles, I’ll answer for it, Heathcliff, myself, and the unhappy plough-boy were commanded to rake our Prayer-books and mount – we were ranged in a row, on a sack of corn, groaning and shivering, and hoping that Joseph would shiver too, so that he might give us a short homily for his own sake. A vain deal! The service lasted precisely three hours; and yet my brother had the face to exclaim, when he saw us descending”.

“What, done already?”

“On Sunday evenings we used to be permitted to play, if we did not make much noise; now a mere titter is sufficient to send us into corners!”

“You forget you have a master here,” says the tyrant. “I’ll demolish the first who puts me out of temper! I insist on perfect sobriety and silence. Oh, boy! Was that you? Frances, darling, pull his hair as you go by; I heard him snap his fingers.”

“Frances pulled his hair heartily; and then went and seated herself on her husband’s knee, and there they were, like two babies, kissing and talking nonsense by the hour – foolish palaver that we should be ashamed of”.

“We made ourselves as snug as our means allowed in the arch of the dresser. I had just fastened our pinafores together, and hung them up for a curtain; when in comes Joseph, on an errand from the stables. He tears down my handywork, boxes my ears, and croaks:

‘ “T’ maister nobbut just buried, and Sabbath nut oe’red, and t’ sahnd uh’t gospel still I’ yer lugs, and yah darr be laiking! Shame on ye!! Sit he dahn, ill childer! they’s good books enough if ye’ll read ‘em; sit ye dahn, and think uh yer sowls!”

‘Saying this, he compelled us to square out positions that we might receive, from the far-off fire, a dull ray to show us the text of the lumber he thrust upon us.

‘I could not bear the employment. I took my dingy volume by the scroop, and hurled it into the dog-kennel, vowing I hated a good book.

‘Heathcliff kicked his to the same place.

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‘Then there was a hubbub!

“Maister Hindley!” shouted our chaplain. ‘Maister, coom hither! Miss Cathy’s riven th’ back off ‘Th’ Helmet uh Salvation,’ un’ Heathcliff’s pawsed his fit intuh t’first part uh ‘T’ Brooad Way to Destruction!’ It’s fair flaysome ut yah, let ‘em goa on this gait. Ech! Th’owd man ud uh laced ‘em properly – bud he’s goan!”

‘Hindley hurried yup from his paradise on the hearth, and sizing one of us by the collar, and the other by the arm, hurled both into the back-kitchen, where, Joseph asseverated, ‘owd Nick’ would fetch us as sure as we were living; and so, comforted, we each sought a separate nook to await hid advent.

“I reached this book, and a pot of ink from the shelf, and pushed the house-door ajar to give me light, and I have got the time on with writing for twenty minutes; but my companion is impatient and proposes that we should appropriate the dairy woman’s cloak, and have a scamper on the moors, under its shelter. A pleasant suggestion – and then, if the surly old man come in, he may believe his prophecy verified – we cannot be damper, or colder, in the rain than we are here.”

I suppose Catherine fulfilled her project, for the next sentence took up another subject: she waxed lachrymose.

“How little did I dream that Hindley would ever make me cry so!” she wrote. “My head aches, till I cannot keep it on the pillow; and still I can’t over. Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond, and won’t let him sit with us, nor eat with us any more; and, he says, he and I must not play together, and threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his orders”.

“He has been blaming our father (how dared he?) for treating H. too liberally; and swears he will reduce him to his right place – “

I began to nod drowsily over the dim page; my eye wandered from manuscript to print. I saw a red ornamented title – “Seventy Times Seven, and the First of the Seventy-First. A Pious Discourse delivered by the Reverend Jabes Branderham, in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough’ and while I was, half consciously, worrying my brain to guess what Jabes Branderham would make of his subject, I sank back in bed, and fell asleep.

Alas, for the effects of bad tea and bad temper! What else could it be that made me pass such a terrible night? I don’t remember another that I can at all compare with it since I was capable of suffering.

I began to dream, almost before I ceased to be sensible of my locality. I thought it was morning; and I had set out on my way home, with Joseph for a guide. The snow lay yards deep in our road; and, as we floundered on, my companion wearied me with constant reproaches that I had not brought a pilgrim’s staff: telling me that I could never get into the house

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without one, and boastfully flourishing a heavy-headed cudgel, which I understood to be so denominated.

For a moment I considered it absurd that I should need such a weapon to gain admittance into my own residence. Then, a new idea flashed across me. I was not going there; we were journeying to hear the famous Jabes Branderham preach from the text – ‘Seventy Times Seven’; and either Joseph, the preacher, or I had committed the ‘First of the Seventy-First,’ and were to be publicly exposed and excommunicated.

We came to the chapel – I have passed it really in my walks, twice or thrice: it lies in a hollow, between two hills – an elevated hollow – near a swamp, whose peaty moisture is said to answer all the purposes of embalming on the few corpses deposited there. The roof has been kept whole hitherto, but, as the clergyman’s stipend is only twenty pounds per annum, and a house with two rooms, threatening speedily to determine into one, no clergyman will undertake the duties of pastor, especially as it is currently reported that his flock would rather let him starve than increase the living by one penny from their own pockets. However, in my dream, Jabes had a full and attentive congregation: and he preached – good God – what a sermon! Divided into four hundred and ninety parts, each fully equal to an ordinary address from the pulpit and each discussing a separate sin! Where he searched for them, I cannot tell; he had his private manner of interpreting the phrase, and it seemed necessary the brother should sin different sins on every occasion.

They were of the most curious character – odd transgressions that I never imagined previously.

Oh, how weary I grew. How I writhed, and yawned, and nodded, and revived! How I pinched and pricked myself, and rubbed my eyes, and stood up, and sat down again, and nudged Joseph to inform me if he would ever have done!

I was condemned to hear all out – finally, he reached the ‘First of the Seventy-First.’ At that crisis, a sudden inspiration descended on me; I was moved to rise and denounce Jabes Branderham as the sinner of the sin that no Christian need pardon.

‘Sir,’ I exclaimed, ‘sitting here within these four walls, at one stretch, I have endured and forgiven the four hundred and ninety heads of your discourse. Seventy times seven times have I plucked up my hat and been about to depart – Seventy times seven times have you preposterously forced me to resume my seat. The four hundred and ninety-first is too much. Fellow-martyrs, have at him! Drag him down, and crush him to atoms, that the place which knows him may know him no more!’

‘Thou art the Man!’ cried Jabes, after a solemn pause, leaning over his cushion. ‘Seventy times seven didst thou gapingly contort thy visage – seventy times seven did I take counsel with my soul – Lo, this is human weakness’ this also may be absolved! The First of the Seventy-First is

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come. Brethren, execute upon him the judgement written! such honour have all His saints!’

With that concluding word, the whole assembly, exalting their pilgrim’s staves, rushed round me in a body, and I, having no weapon to raise in self-defence, commenced grappling with Joseph, my nearest and most ferocious assailant, for his. In the confluence of the multitude, several clubs crossed; blows, aimed at me, fell on other sconces. Presently the whole chapel resounded with rappings and counter-rappings. Every man’s hand was against his neighbour; and Branderham, unwilling to remain idle, poured forth his zeal in a shower of loud taps on the boards of the pulpit which responded so smartly that, at last, to my unspeakable relief, they woke me.

What was it that had suggested the tremendous tumult, what had played Jabes’ part in the row? Merely, the branch of a fir-tree that touched my lattice, as the blast wailed by and rattled its dry cones against the panes!

I listened doubtingly an instant; detected the disturber, then turned and dozed, and dreamt again; if possible, still more disagreeably than before.

This time, I remembered I was lying in the oak closet, and I heard distinctly the gusty wind, and the driving of the snow; I heard, also, the fir-bough repeat its teasing sound, and ascribed it to the right cause; but it annoyed me so much, that I resolved to silence it, if possible; and, I thought, I rose and endeavoured to unhasp the casement. The hook was soldered into the staple, a circumstance observed by me when awake, but forgotten.

‘I must a stop it, nevertheless!’ I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand!

The intense horror of nightmare came over me; I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, ‘Let me in – let me in!’

‘Who are you?’ I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself.

‘Catherine Linton,’ it replied shiveringly (why did I think of Linton? I had read Earnshaw twenty times for Linton), ‘I’m come home, I’d lost my way on the moor!’

As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely a child’s face looking through the window – terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it wailed, ‘Let me in!’ and maintained its tenacious gripe, almost maddening me with fear.

‘How can I!’ I said at length. ‘Let me go, if you want me to let you in!’

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The fingers relaxed, I snatched mine through the hole, hurriedly pulled the books up in a pyramid against it, and stopped my ears to exclude the lamentable prayer.

I seemed to keep them closed above a quarter of an hour, yet, the instant I listened again, there was the doleful cry moaning on!

‘Begone!’ I shouted, ‘I’ll never let you in, not if you beg for twenty years.’

‘It’s twenty years,’ mourned the voice, ‘twenty years, I’ve been a waif for twenty years!’

Thereat began a feeble scratching outside, and the pile of books moved as if thrust forward.

I tried to jump up, but could not stir a limb; and so yelled aloud, in a frenzy of fright.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (Penguin)

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Film Clip Details APPENDIX 2

Part 3 : Ghost Stories

CLIP 1 - The Others (2001) p 4

CLIP 2 - The Others EPK: Nicole Kidman (2001) p 5

CLIP 3 - The Others (2001) p 18

CLIP 4 - Down to the Cellar (1983) p 19

CLIP 5 - The Others EPK: Alejandro Amenabar (2001) p 24

CLIP 6 - Wuthering Heights (1992) p 28

CLIP 7 - The Little Vampire (2000) p 29

CLIP 8 - The Others (2001) p 30

CLIP 9 - The Haunting (1999) p 32

APPENDIX 3

Curriculum Guidelines

Although we don’t do the National Literacy Strategy in Northern Ireland, I have left these in because they may be useful when framing learning intentions.The following guidelines show how Part 3 of the pack can be used to cover the teaching objectives of the National Literacy Strategy at Key Stage 3 in

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Years 8-10. The sections of Part 3 which cover the objectives are shown in brackets.

YEAR 8Text Level

Reading:

Reading for meaning

6 - making sense of (film) texts through prediction (1; 2; 3; 4; 5)8 - inferring and deducing meaning using evidence in (film) texts (1; 2; 3; 4; 6; 7; 8)10 - identify how media texts are tailored to suit their audience (1; 6)11 - recognising how sound and moving images combine to create meaning (4; 5; 6)

Understanding the author’s craft

15 - tracing the way that narratives are structured towards an ending (3)

Writing:Planning

2 - collecting information in suitable planning format – tables / charts (1)

Imagine, explore and entertain

5 - structuring a story (insights emerging from filmed ghost stories) (1; 2; 3; 4; 7; 8)7 - narrative devices, e.g. withholding information (1; 3)8 - experiment with the visual and sound effects of language (throughout unit)9 - making links between their reading of fiction and the choices they make as writers (throughout unit)

Inform, explain, describe

10 - organising texts in ways appropriate to their content – by comparison (throughout unit)

Speaking and Listening:Speaking

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1 - talking to clarify ideas (throughout unit)2 - recounting a (ghost) story, anecdote or experience / contrasting it with a written version (3)3 - tailoring the structure, vocabulary and delivery of a talk or presentation (3)5 - promoting or defending a point of view using supporting evidence (discussing genre) (throughout unit)

Listening

6 - listen for and recalling the main points of a television programme (film) - reflecting on what has been heard (4; 5; 6)8 - identify the main methods used to explain, persuade, amuse or argue (throughout unit)

Year 9

Text Level

Reading:Research and study skills

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3 - making notes in various ways/representing information diagrammatically (1)

Reading for Meaning

4 - developing skills as critical readers of texts (film into written text) (1; 2; 3; 4; 6)5 - trace the development of themes, values or ideas in texts (film into written text) (1; 2)7 - identify the ways in which implied and explicit meanings are conveyed in different texts – symbolism, irony (film into written text) (4; 5)

Study of Literary Texts

14 - recognising the conventions and form of common literary forms (ghost stories) and how particular texts adhere or deviate from established conventions (throughout unit)

Writing:Imagine, explore and entertain

7 - experimenting with different language choices to imply meaning or establish tone (film as inspiration) (3)8 - develop an unusual treatment of familiar material (genre updating - writing a modern ghost story) (3; 6)

Analyse, review or comment

17 - integrate evidence into writing to support analysis (e.g. of a ghost story on film) (throughout unit)18 - writing an account of a substantial text (a ghost story on film/or written) (1; 2; 3; 4; 5)

Speaking and Listening:Speaking

2 - developing a (ghost) story idea/story orally (3)3 - making a formal presentation or commentary which links actions with images – talking to a sequence of images from ghostly films (7; 8)

Listening

7 - listening for a specific purpose, paying sustained attention and selecting

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relevant material for comment (music/sound effect as manipulators of mood in ghost stories) (4; 5; 6; 7; 8)

Drama

16 - collaborate in and evaluate dramatic performance(s) (as determined by the genre conventions of ghost fiction on film and in print) (knowledge to do this would emerge from this entire unit)

Year 10

Word LevelVocabulary:

7 - recognising layers of meaning in images – connotation, implied meaning and multiple meanings (throughout unit)

Text Level

Reading:Research and study skills

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1 - reviewing and extend strategies for locating, appraising and extracting information (from visual texts – both still and moving) (throughout unit)

Reading for Meaning

5 - reviewing their own critical writing (about ghost stories) (1; 3)

7 - compare the presentation of ideas, values or emotions (in related or contrasting ghost stories on film and in print) (throughout unit)

Understanding Author’s Craft

10 - comment on interpretations of the same text or idea in different media (text to film) (2; 3; 4)

Study of Literary Texts

14 - analyse the language, form and dramatic impact of scenes by published dramatists (film versions – the treatment of ghosts in various film versions of Macbeth) (post-unit work)15 - extend their understanding of the literary heritage by relating writers (filmmakers) to their historical context and explaining their appeal over time (2; 5)

Writing:

Imagine, explore and entertain

5 - exploring different ways of opening, structuring and ending (ghostly) narratives (1; 2; 3; 5)

Analyse, review and comment

16 - present a balanced analysis (of a visual text) (4; 5; 6; 7; 8)17 - cite specific and relevant textual evidence to justify critical analysis (throughout unit)

Speaking and Listening:

Speaking

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2 - using standard English to explain, explore or justify an idea (throughout text)

Listening

7 - identify the underlying themes, implications, issues raised (by a visual text) (2; 5)

Drama

15 - writing critical evaluations of performances (post-unit work)

APPENDIX 4

Images Menu Page

Part 3: Ghost Stories

Section 7

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