You do not need to follow this structure exactly. In fact, Id rather you didnt I want you to sound like you, not like me.
You do not need to follow this structure exactly. In fact, Id rather you didnt I want you to sound like you, not like me.
This structure does work, though, and you can use it or adapt it as you see fit.
INTRODUCTION
ELEMENT EXAMPLE SCRIPT YOUR SCRIPT
Introduce yourself and your channel. Hey folks, welcome back to FilmGeek Extra. Im Terry. Good to see ya. Leave it blank
"Hook" your audience using either:
a rhetorical question
a joke
a hypothetical scenario
a true story
a shocking statistic
a controversial or dramatic statement I've got a question for you. Have you ever seen a film that feels like it was made just for you? Like the filmmakers hacked into your brain, downloaded everything that makes you you, put it all into a blender and smeared the results all over a cinema screen?
Introduce your chosen text - either American Born Chinese or The Shawshank Redemption. Well, I have. I've just rewatched my favourite film of the last few years, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Now I might not be a 16 year-old African-American boy genius with great hair, in case you haven't noticed, but I still feel a deep personal connection with this movie.
I love it for a lot of reasons its ground-breaking animation style, its insane soundtrack, its big metaphysical ideas and its amazing action scenes
State your CONTENTION - the central idea of your vlog.
What is the character, theme or scene that resonated with you? but what affects me the most is the relationship between Miles Morales and his father, because it makes me think about my own relationship with my son.
FIRST POINT
ELEMENT EXAMPLE SCRIPT YOUR SCRIPT
Identify that the first point that proves your contention. The first thing that struck me about Miles' dad, Jefferson, is that he has a very playful relationship with his son that Miles doesn't always appreciate. I can identify.
Give EVIDENCE from the text. Cite an EXAMPLE.
(But don't give us an unnecessarily extensive plot summary. You can assume that the audience has read/seen the text.) The scene where Jefferson drops Miles at school in his Police car, then uses his loudspeaker to embarrass Miles in front of dozens of his fellow students, cracks me up.
REFLECT on what this part of the text means to you, while identifying the attitudes, values, beliefs and/or cultural assumptions that are relevant to your discussion.
If you can, and if it's relevant, bring some of your own life experiences into the discussion.
If you aren't discussing your life experiences, be sure to focus on how your own attitudes, values and beliefs are reflected in the text you need to make this personal! It's a well-known fact that, in both the US and Australia, most parents love to embarrass their kids in front of their kids' friends. Sometimes it's unintentional - because, let's face it, we adults can be pretty clueless sometimes - but at other times it is very, very deliberate.
My poor son has to put up with a lot from me. I have been known to give him a big kiss and cuddle when he walks out of the school gate with his mates. I "accidentally" uncover stashes of baby photos when his friends come around. When I'm driving the boys to the footy I tell the lamest, most groan-worthy "Dad jokes" I can imagine, just to make him squirm.
LINK back to your Contention. Why am I like this, and why is Miles' dad the same? I don't know. We're both grown men who should be more mature than this. But I do know that when I saw that loudspeaker scene at the start of Spider-Verse, I instantly recognised that these were characters that I could relate to.
SECOND POINT
ELEMENT EXAMPLE SCRIPT YOUR SCRIPT
Identify that the second point that proves your contention. The second thing that really hit me hard in the film was the way that it examines the responsibilities of fatherhood.
Give EVIDENCE from the text. Cite an EXAMPLE.
(But don't give us an unnecessarily extensive plot summary. You can assume that the audience has read/seen the text.) As a father, one of my core values is that I want to be a good role model for my son. I want him to see me as a good person moral, worldly, brave and confident but the hard truth is that I'm human, I'm fallible and sometimes I get it wrong.
Jefferson can be harsh and inflexible with Miles. He drives his son hard in terms of his studies, he has huge expectations when it comes to Miles' grades, and he doesn't want to listen when Miles asks to drop out of his new elite college.
REFLECT on what this part of the text means to you, while identifying the attitudes, values, beliefs and/or cultural assumptions that are relevant to your discussion.
If you can, and if it's relevant, bring some of your own life experiences into the discussion.
If you aren't discussing your life experiences, be sure to focus on how your own attitudes, values and beliefs are reflected in the text you need to make this personal! Jefferson is a cop. I'm a teacher. They're very different jobs, but where they overlap is we both spend our working week doing a job that requires us to enforce rules in a rigorous, impartial, black-and-white manner. Sometimes, that might rub off on our parenting too. I want the best for my boy. I want him to do well in school so that he has plenty of options open to him in his adult life. That's something I believe in very strongly. You get out what you put in.
Do I sometimes push him too hard? Do I remind him a little too often about how harsh the world can be? Do I spend too much time ranting about how important it is for him to invest time and energy into his studies now so that he can reap the benefits later? The truth is I don't know. Maybe. Probably. Okay, I do. But does that mean I should go the other way and stop encouraging and motivating my son to be the best that he can be? I probably need to find a middle ground. But it's hard.
LINK back to your Contention. When I see Jefferson struggling with these questions in the film, I see a lot of myself in him. And I hate myself a little when I see Miles struggling with the burden of his Dad's enormous expectations.
THIRD POINT
ELEMENT EXAMPLE SCRIPT YOUR SCRIPT
Identify that the third point that proves your contention. There's one more thing about the relationship between Jefferson and Miles that gets me in the gut, and that is the idea of a father not being able to protect his son from harm.
Give EVIDENCE from the text. Cite an EXAMPLE.
(But don't give us an unnecessarily extensive plot summary. You can assume that the audience has read/seen the text.) In the climactic fight scene at the end of the film, Miles fights the Kingpin - an absolutely enormous man who is ten times the size of Miles and even three times the size of Jefferson, who is a pretty big dude himself. And they're doing this on top of a train speeding through thin air as the universe is exploding around them. Jefferson bursts into the Kingpin's lair and sees them fighting, and the fact that he doesn't realise that his son is Spider-Man doesn't stop this scene from being a gut punch to me.
REFLECT on what this part of the text means to you, while identifying the attitudes, values, beliefs and/or cultural assumptions that are relevant to your discussion.
If you can, and if it's relevant, bring some of your own life experiences into the discussion.
If you aren't discussing your life experiences, be sure to focus on how your own attitudes, values and beliefs are reflected in the text you need to make this personal! There's a core instinct inside any parent (hopefully) to protect their offspring at any cost. The thought of my son being harmed makes me sick to my stomach. It's a powerful, primal emotion that I didn't truly understand until I became a dad.
By the end of the film, I am so invested in the characters of Miles and Jefferson that the idea of this father watching his son in mortal danger - and being helpless to intervene - triggers a powerful reaction deep inside of me. I can't imagine anything more horrifying than being a helpless bystander as my son faced a potentially deadly situation. And that's also why the moment that Jefferson saves his son by shooting the Kingpin is such a punch-the-air moment for me. Go Dad!
LINK back to your Contention. This is one more example of how these characters seem so relatable and three dimensional to me, and how the film - despite all of the radioactive spiders, superhero shenanigans and multiversal madness - speaks to me as the story of a father and a son.
CONCLUSION
ELEMENT EXAMPLE SCRIPT YOUR SCRIPT
Summarise the main points, and remind us of your Contention.
Wrap it up and keep it short and punchy!
Aim for a memorable closing line dramatic or emotional or funny or insightful! Jefferson is a man who is trying to be the best father that he can be for the son who he loves so much, but he doesn't always get it right. That's me. He tortures himself about whether he is being too soft or too hard, too distant or too intrusive. That's me too. And he can be a huge dag, a goofball, an embarrassment definitely me. Watching this film makes me reflect, consciously or subconsciously, about the father that I am and the father that I want to be. That's pretty impressive for a comic book movie!
It's a vlog, so finish like a vlog Thanks for watching folks, and don't forget to like and subscribe. See ya next week
Mode / length Multimodal: 46 minutes per student (must include a combination of at least two modes, one of which must be spoken/signed)
Topic/s Topic 1: Responding to popular culture texts
Unit. Unit 4: Representations and popular culture texts
Technique Extended response multimodal response C
Context
You have studied The Castle in depth, viewed and discussed a number of television series including Black As, Kath and Kim, Russell Coight and Australian Story, as well as read and examined a variety of media articles. These popular culture texts all convey particular representations and characteristics that create stereotypes about what it means to be Australian. The influence of the 21st century mediums like the vlog (video blog) has also been examined.
Task
Construct a multimodal text (Vlog) responding to and engaging with a full length feature film popular culture Australian text. Explain the ways this text conveys points of view, perspectives, attitudes, values and beliefs about an Australian stereotype. Your audience is subscribers to your online viewing platform. Reflect on your text, and explain how language features and text structures are used to position audiences about the text's representation of an Australian stereotype.
To complete this task, you must:
choose an Australian film other than The Castle
identify how your chosen text conveys a representation/characteristic of an Australian stereotypeundertake some research on the representation/characteristics conveyed in your chosen textdevelop a clear, informed contention on the representation/characteristicsexplain the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin the representation/characteristics
identify the language features and text structures of your chosen text and explain the ways in which this text shapes meaning, creates representations and invites audience responsesselect and synthesise subject matter to support your contention
script and film a Vlog that conveys your contention and insights on how your chosen text portrays characteristics of an Australian stereotypedraft, revise, edit, proofread and rehearse your script before recording and submitting your final VlogScaffolding
Use the patterns and conventions of a Vlog, including:
an interesting introduction that hooks your viewer
a clearly established contention for the focus of the vlog
references to the text throughout to support your contention intellectual yet conversational tone using a variety of language structures, digital elements, such as excerpts from sources, interviews with key stakeholders, graphics, still and moving images, music and sound effects
a strong conclusion that invites your viewer to think about the topic you have discussed.
