Learning to Read Movies

“I love to kiss my television” (Phoebe 1981)

Background to my research• Encountering film theory in 70s and 80s, eg auteur and genre theory;

semiotics and “film language”; narrative, psychoanalysis.

• Making the case to policy-makers for “moving image media literacy” as an essential part of every child’s education (eg Making Movies Matter, 1999).

• Seeing primary school teachers learning to teach about movies being invariably amazed at children’s responses and at their previously unseen capabilities.

• Asking myself what prior learning must have taken place to enable movie learning to be so different from other curricular areas.

My research

• Subjects: my twin grandchildren.• Context: my house and theirs; parents and grandparents involved.• Methodology: an ethnographically styled study of their TV and DVD watching, from

22 to 42 months, using video, observation and parental interviews and reports.• Data collection September 2011 – May 2013:

• Contact time of 2-12 hours almost every week• 65 videos (12.7 hours)• 13 interviews (8 hours)

• Interruption of study Sept 2013 – April 2015; data analysis currently under way.

Initial assumptionsUsing a linguistic approach to learning and literacy to identify what experienced “readers” of movies can do, ie:

• Make inferences and predictions (eg follow a narrative)

• Recognise genres (and therefore know the sort of things to expect from the type of text they are watching)

• Make modality judgments (ie figure out how “true” or “realistic” a moving-image text is meant to be)

Starting point: sudden distress at a familiar story: In the Night Garden “Mr Pontipine’s Moustache” (17 months)

Initial findings (1): intense, sustained concentration(Dora watching CBeeBies for 6 minutes without moving, at 22 months)

Initial findings (2): the desire to get really close to the screen Dora and Sam watching In the Night Garden at 23 months)

Signs of attention

Braced bodyChewing cheekFixed gazeFollowing movementFrownHand collectionHand gripHand stationingHands to mouthHeavy breathingJutting jawLicking lipsMuscle toneOpen mouthScanning screenWiping nose

Encountering non-mainstream film at 28 months(Animatou – Claude Luyet 2007

– available on Animagine, Film & Video Workshop)

Perspectives emerging from the data:(1) Social Learning

Perspectives emerging from the data:(2) Emotion

Some theoretical signposts

Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in SocietyBranigan, E. 1992. Narrative Comprehension and FilmBordwell, D. (1985) Narration in the Fiction FilmTrevarthen, C. (1998) The Child’s Need to Learn a CultureM. Coëgnarts and P. Kravanja (eds) (2015) Embodied Cognition and Cinema (and in particular, Mark S. Ward on sound design and affect and Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski on diakresis and anamnesis)Wojciehowski, H.C. and Gallese, V. (2011) ‘How Stories make us Feel: Toward an Embodied Narratology’. California Italian Studies, 2, 1.

Video (sorry - not available on Slideshare)

1. Baboon on the Moon (Duriez 2001, 6 mins; available on Starting Stories 1 BFI 2004) – note the sound design; think about “where” the sounds are coming from.

2. Dora watching Baboon on the Moon for the first time (6 mins): social learning; emotional response. Look out for gestures, gaze, changes of expression, breathing.

3. Sam watching Baboon on the Moon for the second time (extract, 4 mins): three different memories invoked; adult misunderstandings. Look out for tense jaw, licking lips, gaze, posture, gestures.

Thank you for listening- over to you!

Cary Bazalgettewww.carybazalgette.net