Making Fire
Now tell students that they are going to watch the same activity—building a fire — in four different types of media.
Have students watch the clips in the student chapter Making Fire.
After each clip, ask students:
What kind of media is this? (How-to video, reality show, feature film, documentary and cartoon respectively.)
What jumped out at you when you were watching it?
- What were the most memorable or interesting images and sounds?
- How (if at all) did each one use music?
What made those things interesting?
What did the media makers do to grab and direct your attention?
Do you think it was it made mostly to inform or to entertain?
- What makes you think that?
How accurate or realistic a portrayal was it of making a fire?
How useful do you think it would be to you in learning how to make a fire?
Once students have watched all the clips, ask:
What choices did the makers of each media work make that were different from the others?
Prompt students to think about things like camera distance and angles, length and pacing of shots, use of sound or music and casting of “actors.”
How did those choices help the work be entertaining or educational?
Make sure to point out that while you aren’t going to learn anything useful from a media work that isn’t accurate, being accurate doesn’t necessarily mean you can learn something useful: the cartoon, for instance, was made to teach you about fire, not how to make a fire.