Tanya Treavett continues her look at film resources by considering how trailers can be used to stimulate writing in the classroom.

Using movie trailers to stimulate children’s writing

We are all constantly trying to find ways to stimulate narrative writing, especially amongst the boys in the class and the use of movie trailers on the Internet may provide a free and easy way to achieve this.

Movie trailers are readily available on the Internet. One site that offers a wealth of new trailers, that can be downloaded and used for free, is Jurassic Punk (www.jurassicpunk.com)) One of the great things about this site is that it is American. This means there are trailers for films that will not be released in the UK for months, and most children will not have seen them.

To download a trailer, navigate the site until you find the trailer you want, right-click on the underlined ‘Teaser’ or ‘Trailer’ and choose ‘Save Target As’. Save the trailer to an appropriate place on your computer and then double click on it to view it. You will have a choice of the same trailers to download. For display purposes, you want to download the ‘High Res’ trailer, as this will be larger on your screen. It is worth noting though that this resolution will take longer to download as the files are bigger. This also means that the file will take up more room on your computer.

You will need to have the latest version of Quicktime loaded on your computer and this can be downloaded from Apple’s site (www.apple.com).

Below are three trailers available on the site. There is a brief description of each clip and then some ideas of how it could be used in your teaching. The site is regularly updated, so even if there is nothing that grabs your attention at first, keep returning to look for new trailers. It is also important to download and save any trailers that you really liked using, as old trailers do eventually get taken off the site. 

Ice Age 2 teaser and the first minute of Ice Age 2 trailer

These two great clips feature a ‘spunky’ little arctic squirrel that is desperate to find a nut. In the teaser, he climbs a cliff (with some difficulty) and then finds a nut stuck in the slope. Upon pulling out the nut, a spurt of water erupts; this is soon followed by more spurts. The hapless squirrel desperately tries to stem the flow but to no avail. In the trailer, he again finds his nut but has to battle a school of piranhas only to lose the nut at the last minute.

Both clips could be used in many different ways:

• Character analysis – show one of the clips and ask children to write a description of the squirrel’s personality
• Incorporating a character’s thoughts into text – the squirrel has wonderful facial expressions but does not speak. Watch the clip and copy and paste a picture of the squirrel into SMART Notebook. Add a thought bubble to the picture and ask children to independently write what the squirrel could be thinking. This could then be transferred into their writing, if appropriate
• What happens next – there are a lot of opportunities to pause the clips and get children to think of and write the rest of the story
• Writing super sentences – show children a part of the clip, write a simple sentence on the board and then the children make contributions to improve the sentence, e.g. The desperately hungry squirrel took seized the nut out of the freezing ice
• Describing action – both clips have great ‘action’ scenes. These could be played and then used as a stimulus for children writing an action scene.

Wallace and Gromit clips

There are five Wallace and Gromit clips available, some from the latest film and two short, independent clips. ‘Launch and Activate’, ‘Mind-manipulation’ and ‘The Tellyscope’ feature some of Wallace’s wackiest inventions. ‘More Alluring’ and ‘Soccermatic’ show great interaction between Wallace and Gromit.

These clips could be used in many different ways:

• Writing instructions – children could write instructions on how to construct the ‘Tellyscope’ based on the clip
• Designing inventions – use the clips as a stimulus for children to design their own invention. This could be written up and even made
• What happens next? – ‘The Soccermatic’ and ‘The Tellyscope’ can be paused and children can think of and write the end of the story
• Character interaction – Watch ‘Mind-manipulation’, paste images of Gromit into SMART Notebook and ask the children to say what he might be thinking. Use their comments to write a passage, focussing on ensuring the reader understands what Gromit is feeling and thinking
• Diary entry – after watching one of the clips, assume the role of Gromit and write an entry in his diary.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer and teaser

This is a wonderfully visual trailer that children will be stimulated by even though they are familiar with it.

The trailer could be used in the following ways:

• Book versus text – display the text on the IWB and then show the corresponding part in the trailer. Compare these and discuss. This can relate to setting, action and character
• Description of setting – show the part of the trailer showing the main floor of the factory. Generate a list of words and phrases that describe the factory and then use this to model writing a description of the scene
• Creating imaginary settings – show the part of the trailer showing the main floor again but this time list the different ‘plants’ they can see. Then ask children to brainstorm what other things could be in the factory. Use this to write a description of their new factory (it is not necessary for it to be a sweet factory)
• Developing characters – show the trailer and brainstorm words and phrases that describe Willy Wonka. Then tell the children that Willy has been invited to meet the Prime Minister (or similar). Ask them to describe how he feels and what he may do. This could be done through hot seating.