Filmmaking Teacher Resources

The biggest blockbuster of the year, the funniest romantic comedy, and the most emotional independent film all started in the same way: on the page. Young filmmakers learn about the role of the screenplay, as well as important parts of...

Did Mookie do the right thing? Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing, which discusses race violence and community, leaves viewers to decide. The cogent analysis of a film criticism video examines not only Lee's filmmaking techniques but...

Steven Soderbergh's The Limey may seem like a strange choice for one of the top ten films in a playlist on film criticism. The narrator makes clear that the story is a simple tale of revenge, but it is Soderbergh's filmmaking techniques...

Aspiring filmmakers and budding historians alike will love a storyboard project on the French Revolution. Learners plan a Hollywood blockbuster, complete with script and full storyboards, that cover important events of the French...

Author, filmmaker, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston was also a dialectologist. The dialogue of the characters in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God reveals her fascination with accents and dialects. A short video from the Great...

Adapting a much-beloved novel for the screen can be a tricky business. Each media has its own possibilities and limitations. The second PBS Jane Eyre resource in the Masterpiece series asks readers to evaluate how the filmmakers have...

Understanding how visual codes such as long-shots, close-ups, and camera angles affect meaning helps prepare young filmmakers to plan their own productions. The concepts embedded could also be used to analyze photographs and paintings.

The casual voice of the filmmaker explains standing waves using a linked chain bordering a neighborhood parking lot, a bucket of blue-colored water, and a rope tied to a fan blade. He uses the appropriate vocabulary (frequency,...

Believing the country is not ready for war with Japan and that he must first wipe out the Communists, Chiang orders his troops not to resist the Japanese as they invade Manchuria and attack Shanghai. Despite protests by his advisers, as...

Students Discuss the contributions of Albert Maysles to documentary filmmaking and learn how to correctly operate video recording and editing equipment to create a short film.

The formulaic films that once thrilled audiences in the early part of the 20th century now seemed stale after the stark reality of World War II. Foreign films and American independent cinema answered the call for authenticity, leading to...

Encourage your class to consider a beautiful short film about a boy named Theo who happens to be visually impaired. Over the course of the lesson, pupils work in pairs, discuss their ideas and the film as a class, view the film, take...

It's time to make a movie! Kids follow 15 steps to take their movie ideas from concept to script, following clear examples. The resource includes creative ways to guide learners into developing a few words and concepts into fully...

Students explore two processes: the filmmaking process and the process of converting a work of fiction to a film, The English Patient." They study World War II history in locations depicted in The English Patient: North Africa and Italy....

Revisit the documentaries viewed in the previous lesson plan in this series in order to take a look at the persuasive techniques employed by the documentary creators. Small groups watch the films a second time, taking notes on two...

The most impressive movie you've ever seen can't compare to the astonishment audiences felt when feature films began to synchronize sound with the picture. Learn about the complex path to the talkie, including the invention of the...

Did movies save America during the Great Depression? Or did the Great Depression save movies? Learn more about the Golden Age of Hollywood with a video that covers the five major film studios, the colorization of big budget movies, and...

Who's the most important person on a film set? The legendary actor? The influential producer? The head electrician? Or the person who needs to understand the roles of all three? A Crash Course video on film production focuses on the...

If you've ever been convinced to see a movie because of a compelling trailer, intriguing poster, or positive review, you have the film marketing industry to thank! Learn more about the ways marketing executives attract audiences to...

Gorgeous cinematography is the result of painstaking, detail-oriented work by many different departments of a film production. An informative video shines a light on the grip and electric departments, the ways they use filters, gels, and...

Seventh graders examine the style of Inuit.  In this Film lesson, 7th graders research the different ways to create a Hollywood film.  Students read various articles on this style of art. 

Students think about what it was like when audiences flocked to movies that simply showed glimpses of everyday life. They make a film n the style of the earliest cinema, when moving pictures were just that -- moving images of everyday life.

Take mitosis and meiosis out of the biology textbook and onto the screen! An innovative class project prompts young biologists to create an animation movie using clay, showing the phases involved in mitosis or meiosis by moving the...

Students explore Alice Programming Software. In this exploratory lesson, students design a unique storyboard which will guide the creation of their Alice World.  Students write and create their own films.