SHORT FILMS ON YOUTUBE
The Crush A young boy has a crush on his teacher. Excellent longer film, contains coarse language.
Irish accent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2TL2gbcSxg&feature=related
Post it love: Shy girl meets shy boy in the office, and they find a new way of expressing their
affection. Good for office vocabulary, and a charming story. You can use it to talk about social
relationships, office romances, and feeling of shyness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsKghhQ41FM&feature=relmfu
The Black Hole: A sleep-deprived office worker accidentally discovers a black hole - and then
greed gets the better of him. Great for speculating about what is going to happen next.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5_Msrdg3Hk&feature=feedf
Bitch: A young man buys a tin of tuna, and gets a lot more than he was expecting in this take on an
old urban myth. Very funny clip, although be warned, it contains the vulgar language at the
beginning and at the end, so use with care. If you want to avoid this stop at 3.11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBcXtIDXro&feature=relmfu
The Passenger Funny animated story on the perils of playing your iPod too loud. Could lead to a
discussion on pet hates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGW0aQSgyxQ&feature=related
The Sign A short film about a language learner in London, and her unusual job. Good for starting a
conversation about jobs and job-hunting, or about living in a foreign city.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTFReQNvs2Q&feature=related
The Date: A short film about love and soup – actually an ad but very subtle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJZkwMXjYPk&feature=related
The dangers of fame: an animated story of an old street musician who wants to be famous. Could
provoke interesting discussion about the ending – why is he transported to a desert?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpmYzoPwIwA
Love sick: a longer story about a hopeless romantic falling in love. With a voiceover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFDAvcwDPTA
How To Break Up (Tales of Mere Existence) Life's dating ritual... in 64 easy steps. Lots of useful
language relating to relationships, but very fast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNu1ceKZgE4&feature=relmfu
Subsidized Fate: A man unquestioningly follows bright signs lit up with neon lights, but when they
guide him into a stranger’s bedroom things get out of hand.... Useful for speculating about what is
going to happen next. Also could provoke discussion on the pressure of advertising, and on free
will,
http://www.youtube.com/user/futureshorts#p/u/53/lg4wslGV3Hw
The Joy of Destruction A film about the human drive to destroy and the entertainment value
that's attached to it. Interesting mainly because there are so many phrasal verbs – knock over,
push over, blow up etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJji18OjP6Y
Snap An unusual camera thief – Great for prepositions of direction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmxX2r-uD8I
Blind date: funny film about a stray facial hair http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slqWjx21z0&feature=related
Wrong side of the bed - Normality takes a turn on his head when a man suffers a very unlucky day
when he gets up on the wrong side of the bed. This is done with split screen - you could show the
good day and then speculate about what goes wrong on the bad, day, or vice-versa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR_PzFZgsHU
Kick Start – film about perceptions of racism, set in Malaysia. Could lead to interesting discussions
on job hunting and racism in New Zealand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G_Lxlk4Fxk
Marry me please A wedding proposal from a hapless romantic. Great for descriptions of body
language and facial expressions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moJOgVWh62w&feature=related
The Switch: A young man on a mission racing against time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZsXo3Ku6rM&feature=related
Activities – adapted from Using Authentic Video in the
Language classroom by Jane Sherman
Previewing the film, predicting
Invisible music: Play the clip without the picture – listen to the music and discuss the pictures,
atmosphere etc that it evokes. The Passenger, Marry me please, Post it love all have very
distinctive music.
Picture it: tell learners the situation. Ask them what they expect to see. Ask them to list the items
that they expect to see (e.g. for the office in Post-it love– filing cabinet, computer monitor, mouse,
desk etc) View the sequence and check off what was seen, add extra items
Plot idea: invent a film after seeing the first scene. Compare it with what actually happens in the
film. Post it love, after watching the two office workers look at each other for the first time.
Reaction shots: write up a set of reaction adjectives: surprised, embarrassed, angry, including
some distracters not illustrated in the clips. Play the clips, showing just the reactions, speculate
about what caused them. Then view the whole sequence. (This would work well with Bitch, and
Marry me, please)
Schema: Identify the genre; ask what learners expect to see in this kind of film. Works best with
films that belong to a clear genre – e.g. romance, thriller.
Activities while watching the film – stopping and starting
Speculations: Stop the story and recap the actions. Learners then formulate the questions raised
by the actions so far. Stop again and see whether the actions have been answered, whether there
are more questions. This would work best for longer films
What next: Play half the scene, discuss what is happening: the personalities, likely developments.
Learners can then role play the ending of the scene as they imagine. Then watch the rest of the
scene.
Advice: Stop and give advice to someone who needs it, when it is clear that they are going to do
something stupid: e.g. the man with the Walkman in The Passenger, the teacher in the Crush.
Jumbled statements: Write statements describing the film. Keep stopping the film and discuss
which ones have already taken place. Expand the statements (Who? When? Why?).This could be
done with How To Break Up
Review after watching
Before and after: Replay and stop at important moments, asking Who? Why” What has just
happened? What next (good for tenses)
Turning points: Identify the crucial points of the actions, say what would have happened if thing
had been different. Kick start is a good one for this, as there are lots of moments in the
protagonist’s life that lead him to where he is.
Jumbled utterances: make sure the learners know who the characters are. Get each learner to
write one utterance that one character says as they listen – alternatively choose some in advance.
Collect all the utterances and Identify when they were said, why and by whom. There are some
good illustrative utterances in The Crush:
I’ll treasure it always (teacher)
No more cowboy films (Mum)
Mum, what age can a person get married at? (Ardle)
I got something special myself (Teacher)
I think you’ve fleeced me enough today as it is. (Boyfriend)
You’ll just see that I’m the one that loves you.(Ardle)
Meet me in a duel (Ardle)
My Dad’s a Garda (Ardle)
I thought putting a ring on her finger would shut her up for a moment (Boyfriend)
Maybe we’ll keep this between ourselves (Teacher)
Nah, girls are stupid. (Ardle)
Quotes: replay an important scene and get the learners to pick a couple of significant utterances –
decide which is the most important one as far as story development is concerned.
Sequel and prequel: Invite learners to say what happens to the characters after the movie, or
what has led up to the beginning of the movie. Blind date would be good for this.
Fly on the wall: learner prepares and presents an important scene in detail – from memory. Then
compare it by playing the scene again.
Missing scene: Reconstruct a missing scene that is implied, but not shown, between two scenes –
e.g. the scene when the boy takes the gun in The Crush
News story: Turn a newsworthy scene into a news story, with reports and interviews. (e.g. Black
hole “Man found locked into safe, died of asphyxiation, no clues how he got into the safe”)
Oscar write a film report recommending the film or not for an Oscar.
Diary Choose a character and write their diary for that day
Lifestyle. Choose a character and discuss their lifestyle – e.g. domestic routines, money, dress,
work, leisure, social life, attitudes and values. The young man in Love sick vs. the young man in
Kick start
Feelings – draw a graph showing the ups and downs of the feelings of the characters. Identify
what events triggered these feelings. Perfect for Love sick.
Make a case for character. For each character, ask learners to think of adjectives which describe
them, and to then identify the behaviours that support their choice of adjectives. Eg the old lady in
Bitch is devious and untrustworthy, because she tricks the young man into paying for her groceries.
Make a case: make statements that are obviously true about the action, characters or setting and
then find evidence to support this. E.g. it’s autumn in The passenger. Evidence: there are leaves
blowing around, and it’s stormy and cold.
Trigger: before the film, ask a general question related to a theme of the film: e.g. for The Crush
What qualities do children like in teachers? What makes a great teacher? After working on the clip
for comprehension or language, follow up with a more personal question - – e.g. Did you ever
have a crush on a teacher, or have a teacher you particularly liked?
Culture: discuss what is similar and different to NZ culture or to the learner’s own culture about an
aspect of the film. Kick Start
Film presentation – the learner finds a short movie and presents it to the class or the tutor.
Exploring the language of the film
How it’s done: Looking at how an action is done, using adverbs to answer the question How?
Imagine the action done in a different way – how else could it be done, Why?
Holophrases: Listen out for one-off functional expressions, that need to be heard in context. In
The Crush there is:
Come on
It’s a date!
I’ll keep you posted
You’ve got to hear this!
Come again?
Silly me!
What can I do for you?
Hold on there!
Interactive language: listen out for useful interactive language – multiword verbs, fillers,
expressing doubt, question tags: eg in Love sick, It couldn’t really end like this, could it? (notice the
rising intonation at the end to show his doubt)
Runabout – If you have a run, walk or chase, provide a list of appropriate prepositions of
movement and choose from them to describe where the character went. Subsidized Fate, Blind
love, Snap
Speech acts: Say some of the things the things that characters do with their words. E.g. someone
makes a request, someone agrees to do it. Someone insists that someone else does something. The
learner then identifies which character did what. E.g. in the Date: She suggests that he take her
out to dinner, she predicts that he’ll mess it up, he confirms that she’s coming over on Friday night,
she gives him feedback on the lighting and music, he praises the soup and she agrees, he asks her
opinion of the wheatberry soup, she reassures him that the other girl will love it, he apologises, he
cancels the dinner, she expresses relief.
Structures: Identify any target grammar structures in the script, get learners to count how often
they hear it, discuss why it is used in this context, repeat the sentence, create a similar dialogue.
For example in How To Break Up you can look at modifiers – really, sort of, absolutely, not quite,
The Sign has a lot of infinitives of purpose;
The shops need people like me to hold their signs,
I listen to music to pass the time
I listen to English music to learn new words,
Knowing English will make it much easier to find a good job anywhere,
I drink a lot of soup and tea to keep me warm
I’ve got enough time to think of things
Themes: to practice the structure noun phrases with participle – e.g. The Sign:
people walking past,
a girl wearing a beanie
a taxi stopping at the lights
a man carrying a suitcase
people waiting to cross the road
a man selling newspapers
Transcript: Get learners to write down what they hear. Give each learner a character and ask them
to write down what that character says, or if it’s a voiceover provide the first part of the sentence
and get them to complete it.
The Crush – Example Worksheet
1. Who says these things:
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Ardle
Teacher (Miss Purdie)
Ardle’s Dad
Ardle’s Mum
Miss Purdie’s boyfriend.
Who are they speaking to? What are they talking about? Why is this important in the film?
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I’ll treasure it always
No more cowboy films!
Mum, what age can a person get married at?
I got something special myself.
I think you’ve fleeced me enough today as it is.
You’ll just see that I’m the one that loves you.
Meet me in a duel.
My Dad’s a Garda.
I thought putting a ring on her finger would shut her up for a moment.
Maybe we’ll keep this between ourselves.
Nah, girls are stupid.
2. What do these mean? When do you use them?
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You didn’t have to!
I’ll keep you posted.
Come on!
Oh my goodness!
Congratulations!
What’s up?
Come again?
What can I do for you?
It’s a date!
You’ve got to hear this!
Silly me!
Just hold on there!