2024 Film Matters Index
Looking back at a year of exploring ideas in film
As 2024 draws to a close, I thought I would create an index of this year’s Film Matters posts. The posts range from exploring film techniques and storytelling prompts to diving into representation and film history. Each post offers a quick and transferrable approach to bringing the idea into your classroom.
I have categorized them into two main areas: Film Language & Analysis and Film History & Culture.
Film Language & Analysis
Techniques and tools
Stop motion is not slow motion which is not time-lapse unpacks the three techniques.
(Dis)appear explores editing to manipulate time and space.
Between Worlds looks at creative geography and the illusion of seamless cinematic spaces.
Extending the Kuleshov plays with timing and how clever edits can transform meaning and create unexpected narratives.
Storytelling strategies
Cooking up a Western uses the idea of a recipe as a metaphor for understanding the codes and conventions of the genre.
6-word story is a minimalist approach to storytelling in just six words.
Cut! Find the story! suggests ways to find alternate edits to reveal hidden narratives.
Hop to it explores creating short adaptations to understand narrative structures.
Boat Harbour uses photographs as a tool for storytelling and narrative exploration.
Framing and visuals
It’s not the car is a simple introduction to unpacking mise-en-scène.
What’s the story? highlights the power of changing the narrative by erasing a single element within the scene.
Thinking beyond the frame offers an introduction to off-screen space and the unseen dimensions of storytelling.
It’s the hat looks at coding in film and how it serves as shorthand for cultural context.
I’m coming to London offers a quick filmmaking challenge to explore montage and editing.
Film History & Culture
Historical perspectives
Horses to bullets charts, via a few linked ideas, the evolution of film history from Muybridge to the Wachowskis.
Olympia questions propaganda and documentary in film framed by the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Cultural contexts
Thunderbirds & Cousteau introduces the idea that media shapes our worldview.
Censorship explores censorship and its relevance in today’s media landscape.
Challenging stereotype in film takes a look at representation and pushes for more meaningful portrayals.
Matoaka aka Pocahontas looks at the work done to reclaim the story of Pocahontas and how a group of Indigenous artists tuned the act of appropriation back onto Disney to set the record straight.
Intertextuality unpacks appropriation as a form of cultural reference.
Spotlight
Film in Focus - Close (2022) by Lukas Dhont offers ways to talk about themes of grief, friendship, and identity while analyzing moments in the film.
Non-original material in student film links to avant-garde filmmaking and explores the use of non-original material to construct new narratives.
Film in Focus - The Zone of Interest (2023) explores sound design and storytelling.
What’s next?
As we move into 2025, I aim to bring even more creative exercises, deep dives, and film-focused reflections via the newsletter. If there is a topic you would love to see covered, reply to this post or reach out via email. I would love to hear from you.
Happy holidays!