June 13

Congrats! You’re almost done!  Your final project is below.

** All projects must be posted to your blogs by Thursday, June 16 at midnight.

 ** If you plan on working together with a partner, the pair has to be approved by Mr. Thies **

FINAL PROJECT

Touching Spirit Bear: Movie Trailer

 Create a trailer for Touching Spirit Bear! Consider the literary elements below and be sure to reflect them in your video.  Choose THREE elements and produce one well-written paragraph for each, describing how you portrayed the element in your video. Explain how that element is present, using examples from the novel to support your choice, as well as examples from your trailer which display the element.  The goal of your trailer is to capture the attention of the viewer, and get them excited about watching the movie! (There is no movie in real life)

Elements

Plot

Give the audience some intriguing information about the plot of the novel, perhaps leaving off with a cliffhanger. If you summarize part of the plot, be careful not to give away too much. If the novel is very complicated, don’t worry about including all elements of the story; instead, just choose one aspect that you think will engage the audience.

Conflict

Conflict is related to plot. Is there a central conflict in the novel that you might bring to life in your trailer? Some examples of conflict might be character vs. character, character vs. him/herself, character vs. nature, character vs. society, society vs. society, character vs. nature, etc.

Tone  

Is the novel suspenseful? Is it dark and brooding? Is it light and romantic? Brainstorm techniques that might capture this tone, such as lighting, voiceover, scenery, music, etc.

Character      

Expose your audience to the main characters from the novel and give the audience a sense of that person. Make the audience members want to know more about the character, tempting them to read the book. You may want to use dialogue or narration from the novel here, and you may want to choose more than one character to develop.

Theme           

Does the novel have a strong theme such as friendship, redemption, guilt, or family relationships? Consider choosing a theme as the central idea of your trailer, perhaps recreating scenes from the novel which illustrate that theme.

Setting           

Is the setting of the novel important? Is there any way you can recreate it or capture it? If the novel is set in the South during the Civil War, for instance, you certainly want to make that clear in your trailer, perhaps through accents, dialogue, costumes, and scenery. Music can also help to establish the setting. Try to find a song that might have been popular during the time period in which your books is set.

For inspiration, watch samples of book trailers and movie trailers. Remember to begin and end your trailer with a bang. Make it as interesting as possible so that the audience will not want to miss any of it and will definitely want to read the book. At some point—and perhaps more than once—remember to advertise the title and author of the novel. It’s also a good idea to display the cover of the book. Have fun!