How to approach the relationship of scale in visual arts?

Film commentary: A different perspective

An alien gets caught up in the perspective game.

To approach the notion of stereotypes, before watching the film, ask the pupils to draw a flying saucer and then compare the shapes with the one in the film.

Questioning the film: A different perspective

Understand the story, the theme, express their sensibility and exercise their critical thinking skills.

1 Who is the main character in the film?
An alien.He arrives in a flying saucer whose shape and sound are typical of flying saucer stereotypes.
2 What is the name of what the character has around his head?
A spacesuit.It is a portable breathing apparatus for scuba diving or for astronauts inside their spaceships or for going out into space.
3 The character bangs his suit against something (2 min 33 sec). What is it?
The sun, the moon, another planet or star.
4 Is this accident possible in real life?
No, because this star is actually very far away.
The apparent size of objects depends on the distance between the viewer and what he or she is looking at.The further away the objects are, the smaller they appear to us. This is the same phenomenon that makes distant objects such as a mountain or the sun seem to follow us when we are travelling in a car, while trees close to the road are passing by at high speed. During the renaissance, artists invented a drawing technique to represent this phenomenon: perspective.
The author indicates in the title of the film "A different perspective" that he will play with this phenomenon. In fact, in a two-dimensional drawing such as the one of the spacesuit and the star, it is not possible to know whether the star is large and distant or, on the contrary, small and close; the author of the film makes it seem as if it were a small object of the same size as the spacesuit.
5 What other scenes in the film play with the ambiguity of near and far objects?
The scene with the barking dog (45 s).
The alien puts it on a distant mountain as if it were a clump of earth right next to him. The author reinforces the comedy of the scene with the sounds.The intensity of the dog's barking is different before and after.
The bullets from the gun ricochet off the distant mountains (58 s).
The dog becomes a giant dog (1 min 10 s).
The inhabitant saves the alien from drowning (1 min 28 s).

Download the PDF of the film's educational activities

Created with the support of the Ministry of Education and the CNC.
Viewing of the film with the family, educational activities with parents at home and with teachers in the classroom.
Approaching the notion of scale (Plastic arts) (Cycle 3)
Educational activities proposed by Karine Cheze based on the film A different perspective.

Discover other educational sheets created with the support of the Ministry of Education and the CNC...

Theme

Point of view

Genre and keywords

Comedy, Alien, perpesctive, animals, moon, sea, mountain

Recommended age

7 years

Running time

1 min 55 s

Title

A different perspective

Directed by

Chris O'Hara

Sound design by