Setting
Settings can quickly establish a situation or mood. It can help the audience to understand the actions and emotional lives of the characters in the story. Most films consist of both a main setting and minor settings. Often the constraints of a setting determine how the characters behave or give as an idea as to how the story will develop.
Viewing activities
Films often work against cliche - a romantic comedy set in a spooky castle?
Watch one of the films on this site. Discuss where the action is taking place and how quickly we are able to establish this. Does the setting lead to certain expectations?
Follow on activities
Draw a storyboard to create the opening of the film in a different place.
Print out a still of a setting. Can one pupil describe it to another pupil with enough detail for them to draw that setting? No questions allowed!
Make a class collection of pictures from magazines / leaflets etc of various settings. Let pupils select pictures to go with their story writing and see if they can describe everything they can see in the pictures in detail.
Working on my own or with others I have enjoyed choosing and exploring an extended range of media such as Moving Image media - Curriculum for Excellence Expressive Arts Outcomes
Stories set within other cultures can lead to lots of interesting cross curricular links - Geography, Religious and Moral Development, Personal and Social Development etc.
The Way We Played lends itself to lots of further development work on global awareness- and issues such as the Send My Friend campaign.