Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Part A: What matters to you?

5 minutes

Part B: My audience

20 minutes

Part C: My archival documentary

10 minutes

Part D: Copyright - optional

40 minutes

Part E: Group archival documentary project planning

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students understand...

how important societal issues can be addressed through documentary filmmaking
how to construct a project plan for a documentary film
the processes and procedures of working with archival footage and related copyright considerations.

Students can...

devise a plan for an archival documentary
pitch their ideas for an archival documentary.

Part A: What matters to you?

Step 1

If students have completed the previous lesson, The Final Quarter - A Closer Look - Media Arts - Years 9 & 10, allow students a chance to review the analysis they completed on the clips.

Step 2

Hand out the Student Worksheet and invite students to complete the following sentence stems:

The thing I found most interesting/disturbing about The Final Quarter is:
The Final Quarter is an important archival documentary that everyone should see because:

Step 3

Explain to students that the following video shows director, Ian Darling and editor, Sally Fryer discussing their reasons for making The Final Quarter. Play the video:

TFQ Planning The Final Quarter (https://vimeo.com/390660530/9c9895e1d3)

Note: You may like to pause this video at 05:41 and play the rest at Part B, Step 3.

Allow students some time to share their thoughts on what Ian Darling and Sally Fryer said in the video.

Step 4

On one side of the board write: “What matters to you?”

Hand out one sticky note to each student and invite them to write an issue that they feel strongly about. E.g. Climate Change, Gambling, Refugees, Human Rights, Community Health, Homelessness, Illness, Crime.

Once sticky notes are completed, students can place them on the board under the question.

Step 5

Read out the sticky notes to the class and work with them to group them into themes.

Part B: My audience

Step 1

On the other side of the board, at the very top, write: “Who is your audience?” and below that: “What matters to them?”

Hand out two more sticky notes to each student and invite them to write each of their answers on one sticky note and place them on the board under the appropriate question.

Encourage students to think about whether they will target their film to their peers of the same age, adults, children younger than them, their community groups, sporting clubs or churches, or other demographic. Their answers to the second question should relate directly to their first answer.

Step 2

Read out the students’ answers for each question. Encourage students to discuss if and/or why they gave different answers to “What matters to you?” and “What matters to them?”

Step 3

Read this statement to students:

“Sell them what they want, give them what they need.”

Explain that this is a common advertising strategy. Invite students to discuss how this could relate to documentary filmmaking. For example, The Final Quarter might appeal to wider audiences because it appears to be about football, but it is actually a film about racism.

Note: If you opted to stop TFQ Planning The Final Quarter at 05:41 earlier, you can play the rest of the clip now.

Part C: My archival documentary

Step 1

Encourage students to think about the ideas they wrote down on the sticky notes. Ask them if there were any other ideas put forward that they felt strongly about. If so, they are welcome to choose that issue instead of their original suggestion.

Step 2

Students should jot down their ‘big idea’ in the centre of the ‘My Archival Documentary’ diagram on the Student Worksheet. They should also write their chosen audience (and related area of interest) beside the diagram.

Note: Make sure each student has chosen a ‘big idea’ they are genuinely interested in and/or passionate about before completing this next activity.

Step 3

Hand out the My Archival Documentary Pitch Sheet and invite students to note down ideas that they would like to use in their own archival documentary. They should also consider how they can best communicate this issue to their chosen audience. Students can also take note of any existing footage that they are aware of.

Set a timer for a short amount of time (e.g. two minutes) to create some excitement and urgency. This can encourage students not to censor their ideas and get them all on paper as quickly as possible.

Step 4

Assign students in groups of around four students and say the following:

“In this next activity you are going to pitch your archival documentary idea to your group. Once the group members have all shared their pitch, the group will collectively decide on one of the ideas to turn into an archival documentary. To do this, we are going to use a special protocol or set of rules to guide the group decision-making process so it is fair.”

Step 5

Direct students to ‘The Focusing Four Protocol’ on the Student Worksheet.

Help students form groups of four. Ensure each group nominates a facilitator to keep the group on track with this protocol. Inform students that the outcome of this activity will determine what topic they will be exploring for their group archival documentary task.

The Focusing Four Protocol

In groups of four, each person ‘pitches’ their idea to the rest of the group. Using The Focusing Four Protocol, one idea will be selected to develop as a group.

Sharing - Person A pitches their idea. (2 minutes)
Clarifying - Other group members ask clarifying questions about Person A’s work. (1 minute)
Repeat the Sharing and Clarifying steps for Persons B, C and D.
Advocating - All group members reflect on the ideas in the group and decide individually which ideas they might vote for. Individuals can vote for their own or another’s idea. They then give a brief justification to the group about why this idea is valuable - this is called ‘advocating’. (2 minutes)
Choosing - All group members vote on their first and second favourite options. The idea with the most votes wins. (2 minutes)

Note: If your student numbers don’t divide into groups of four, you can choose to make groups of three or five, but try to keep the groups as even as possible so you can still use the timing recommended and each group gets the same amount of time.

Part D: Copyright - optional

Step 1

Explain to students that one of the key challenges for an archival documentary maker is that they don’t own the copyright to the footage they may want to include in the film. In Australia, this means they need to get rights to use the footage, even if it has been aired on public television or is available on the internet.

Note: This law may be different in other countries.

Step 2

Read to students

"In The Final Quarter we saw an example where footage of Alan Jones was not released for the purposes of the film. The way the producers got around that was to have written text on the screen of his words and have an actor read them out. This means they used content that would not be an infringement of copyright law, but they could not use the full footage due to not having permission - which is required under Australian law."

You might like to show this clip to remind students what this looked like (play from 0:17 - 0:44):

I Agree with Alan Jones (https://vimeo.com/369740519/773a5c959d)

Step 3

Play this clip where Ian Darling and Sally Fryer discuss how they navigated copyright challenges for The Final Quarter:

TFQ Using Archival Footage (https://vimeo.com/390660959/0c8c77f92e)

Step 4

Invite students to ask any questions they might have about how copyright laws could affect them.

Refer to the teacher content information on ‘Copyright issues in The Final Quarter’ for information about ‘fair dealing’ in Australia.

Note: The Australian Government allows teachers and students to use material that would normally be copyrighted provided it is only for educational purposes and it is not aired outside the school. Source: https://www.copyright.com.au/licences-permission/educational-licences/

Part E: Group archival documentary project planning

Note: If students have completed the previous lesson, The Final Quarter - A Closer Look - Media Arts - Years 9 & 10, you might like to briefly go over the ‘Conventions of Archival Documentaries’.

Step 1

Ask students to quickly identify examples where/how the following codes and conventions were used in The Final Quarter:

Editing and editing effects
Music
Sound effects
Graphics
Titles
Archival footage.

Step 2

Draw students’ attention to the ‘Group Archival Documentary Rough Plan’ section on the Student Worksheet and read through the instructions with students. Answer any questions they have about the task.

Group Archival Documentary Rough Plan

You and your group will be creating a rough plan for a 4-5-minute Archival Documentary. You will be sharing your progress with the rest of the class before the end of the lesson.

Your plan should include the initial thoughts of all group members on the following:

Links to relevant archival footage you could use, including a variety of media forms
Graphics, titles and text ideas
Editing conventions you might consider using.

Step 3

Create a shared online document (such as a Google Doc) and ensure all group members and your teacher have access.

Step 4

Discuss your topic and note down as many ideas as you can think of.

Step 5

Conduct research to see what footage you can find and keep a record of useful links. You might find these links useful:

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/
Free footage https://www.videvo.net/stock-video-footage/
Find newspaper headlines/articles https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/
Music https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/
National Film and Sound Archives https://www.youtube.com/user/FILMAUSTRALIA/videos
Royalty/copyright-free footage https://www.videvo.net/stock-video-footage/australia/, https://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchives

Step 6

Invite students to spend at least 20 minutes researching examples of archival footage that they could use in their documentary, e.g. music, newspapers/online articles, interviews, live footage, images. Ask them to note down any initial ideas (on the Student Worksheet or Google Doc) about how they might use the editing conventions to create meaning.

Step 7

Invite each group to report to the class about their progress so far and encourage the class to respond with any fresh ideas to help them. Feedback could include ideas for enhancement of the project and/or suggestions of archival footage the group could use.

If running short of time, students in the class could write down their ideas on a slip of paper and give it to the group.

Step 8

Read through the ‘Homework Task’ on the Student Worksheet to ensure all students understand what is required for them to be able to get the most out of the next lesson.

Reflection

Invite students to answer the following questions on the Student Worksheet:

What are you most looking forward to about this project?
What parts do you think will be the most challenging?
How is your group working together? Are you finding it a positive experience? What are you learning about yourself and group dynamics?

Differentiated learning

Extension

Advanced students might like to start creating a storyboard of their ideas.

Provisions for Learning Support

Consider selecting the groups so you can mix weaker students with stronger ones to facilitate peer coaching and learning
You might like to prepare folders with topics and clips already selected for students to choose from
Ideas for the archival documentary could be recorded in audio form rather than writing
Students who struggle to work in groups may prefer to work in a pair or individually.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

The Final Quarter - Planning An Archival Documentary

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