Cinema frame

1- State the purpose of the analysis

We can start the project with a simple question about interpretation. The film is wordless and the animals are not portrayed very expressively. So how do we understand the details of the action, the intentions of the characters? And how does the viewer’s emotion evolve? We will therefore focus on the tools which will allow on the one hand the understanding of the situations of the story told and on the other hand the creation of an emotion. As we seek to concentrate on the images, we can start with a new viewing without sound, with these ideas in mind.

2- Present cinema vocabulary

Before beginning the study of the film itself, it is useful to introduce the usual notions used to describe images. We will define the following:

• The frame, as a cut-out (choice) in what we want to show, as well as the outside of the frame, what is suggested but not shown in the frame. We can make analogies with painting, photography, drawing.
• The shot as a temporal unit of the film and as a “frame which lasts over a certain duration” (we do not need to address questions of connection and editing)
• The different shot scales (extreme long shot, long shot, medium shot, American shot, medium close-up, close-up, extreme close-up), each scale corresponding to a certain relationship between the setting and the characters, which plays on the understanding and expressiveness of what is shown.
• Camera positions and movements (tracking, panning, zooming, high-angle/low-angle) as a means of maintaining or transforming a given framing, of introducing a particular feeling.
• Possibly certain editing devices used in the film: shot/reverse shot (alternation of two views from opposite directions allowing two points of view to be compared) and dissolve (used here mainly as an ellipsis).

3-Use the tools on selected sequences of the film

The exercise consists of asking the children to match the images from the film and the elements introduced previously, for certain chosen sequences. Each sequence is made up of a certain number of shots which must be described by reusing the vocabulary covered.

They can be asked to work in small groups of 2 or 3 on ready-made worksheet questionnaires with film stills illustrating the different shots, or to take part collectively in “breaking down” the shots, discussing the projected images. In this second case, they can themselves represent the plan in drawing (on blank questionnaires) to translate the plan scale.

When the vocabulary cannot be applied exactly or when they hesitate, children are invited to note this hesitation and the problem that arises there.

The suggested sequences are:

• The character's introduction sequence (0'00'' - 0'35'' - 6 shots)
• The wandering in the jungle and the appearance of the lemur (1’40’’ – 2’25 – 12 shots).
• Awakening and the journey (4’03”-4’49 – 5 shots).
• The failed reunion (5’16-5’37 – 4 shots).
• The crocodile attack (5’34-6’38” – 20 shots).
• The headlong flight up to the fall from the cliff (6’39-7’04 – 12 shots).

4- Discussion on the staging of the sequences

From the previous sheets, the children will compare their choices and discuss questions of staging, that is to say the choice of a certain technique in terms of understanding and expressiveness: how does this help to better understand what is happening? what emotion does this provoke? This stage takes place in the form of a collective discussion, led by the teacher.

At this point, it may be useful to remember that the vocabulary presented was originally designed to describe cinema: human characters, filmed with a real camera. There is therefore a priori a certain inadequacy with this film, a cartoon presenting animals. In particular, close shot scales are made to highlight emotions on the face, which finds a limit in our case. This is an opportunity to show that the forms and techniques of a medium like cinema produce codes which guide interpretation, codes which are widely exploited here.

To discuss the expressiveness of the scenes, the way in which emotions are suggested in the characters and in the viewer, transmitted or in reaction to them, we can introduce an additional tool. We could ask ourselves what the focal position is in each shot. Whose gaze does the image represent? To simplify, we can distinguish two cases: the image can thus be framed as if it were seen by a witness external to the story (“external” focus), or on the contrary by one of the characters (“subjective” focus). This will help to better understand the shots where fear is suggested by frames which are as if seen by a character outside the frame whom we have not yet met spying on the baby elephant. This is the construction of an asymmetry of gaze, where the spectator is disadvantaged, just like the character. Someone is looking at the character, about to interact with him, but we don't yet know who it is.

5- Consolidating and extending learning

Finally, the children are invited to choose one of the sequences studied and to draw on their memory to cite examples of scenes whose staging seems similar to them. The examples cited can come from cinema (film, cartoon), television (music video, advertising), comics, or even literature. This work can be given to them to do at home, for a period of one week, for example. They will have to give the precise reference of the source and describe the scene in question, as well as the reasons why they perceived the analogy in the staging. As it can be complicated to be able to physically show the sequence, they will have to describe it precisely in writing, thus reusing the vocabulary introduced.