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CLASSROOM CINEMATOGRAPHY SERIES
Re-Create a Favorite Movie Scene
Grades 4-10 • Subject areas: art, media literacy, critical thinking • Lesson time: 40 minutes
Lesson Overview
In Re-Create a Favorite Movie Scene, students unpack and analyze the construction of their favorite films. In the process,
they learn the various roles in a film production, and they practice working as a team to create a finished project. This is an
ideal formative exercise to prepare students for more complex filmmaking projects.
Lesson Objectives
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To explore the process of setting up and shooting a scene.
To create a story from a series of images.
To analyze the technical and interpersonal processes involved in film production.
Materials
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Still or video cameras
TV or projector for watching film clips and finished student films (optional)
Computers with video editing software (optional)
Setup Activity
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Select scenes to recreate in class: students
may select scenes themselves as homework
(using youtube, or DVDs from home and from
the public library), or you may choose a scene
to present to the class.
Discuss: how do you think this scene was
made?
Review the Roles in a Film Production and
Shot List Handouts (available in the FilmEd.
Lesson Exchange).
Activity
Re-Create a Scene:
Break students into groups of four or five to complete the activity. You may encourage students
to repeat the activity several times, experimenting in different roles.
Using any filmmaking resources at your disposal (still cameras can yield a photographic
storyboard that simulates an actual movie), students remake a movie scene of their choosing.
Responsibilities should be divided among students as they collaborate to put together their own
sets/costumes/props, do their own camera work (dollying is easily simulated on a rolling chair),
and act out the performances.
Depending on your resources and the skill level of your class, you may ask students to edit their
footage into completed scenes, and then watch them as a class.
Follow-up Discussion
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What did you learn about the filmmaking
process through this exercise?
What did your group do well?
What would you do differently if you were to
repeat the process?
Follow-up Activities/Homeworks
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Re-watch the original scene that you chose to mimic. What do you notice about the
scene now that you have worked to recreate it?
Journaling assignment: why is group work and collaboration important in making a
film? What roles did you most enjoy in the film production process?
Framework For Assessment
Students may present small group work to the class to demonstrate that they have engaged with the assignment and
grasped the learning goals. You may choose to supplement discussion with a short writing assignment to encourage quieter
students to articulate their experience with the lesson. You may choose to assign formal grades to homeworks or follow-up
activities.
Common Core Standards
in this Lesson
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Filmmaking lessons may provide an entry
point to the Common Core’s framework of
creativity, collaboration, critical thinking,
presentation and demonstration, problem
solving, research and inquiry, and career
readiness.
The Classroom Cinematography series
equips students to analyze the “extensive
range of print and nonprint texts in media
forms old and new,” as outlined in the
Common Core definition of workplace
readiness.