Lesson
Three:
Understanding
Creative License
Written
By:
Kirsten
King and Laura Masterson
Unit:
Be Your Own Arthur Miller
Level:
Advanced Theatre
National Standards:
Content Standard #2: Acting by
developing, communicating, and sustaining characters in improvisations and
informal or formal productions
Content Standard #5:
Researching by evaluating and synthesizing cultural and historical information
to support artistic choices
Content Standard #7: Analyzing,
critiquing, and constructing meanings from informal and formal theatre, film,
television, and electronic media productions
Content Standard #8:
Understanding context by analyzing the role of theatre, film, television, and
electronic media in the past and the present
Educational Objective:
Students will demonstrate their understanding of how, when, and
why you would use creative license by analyzing film clips, and using these
principles to change the story of both a historical figure and a current event.
Materials Needed:
Three to five movie clips that demonstrate how filmmakers changed
historical fact to make the story more appealing to an audience. Examples: Pocahontas,
Finding Neverland, The Social Network, Argo, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter,
etc.
Handout with questions to discuss.
Article from The Daily Beast illustrating which parts in The
Social Network weren’t accurate.
Hook:
Discuss the movie Hook, perhaps displaying the movie
poster, talking about how the movie differs from the class Peter Pan
story.
What did they change?
Why would they have made these changes?
What did these changes add to the movie?
Transition:
Speaking of Peter Pan, the students are going to watch a
clip from another movie that changes/alters the story of how Peter Pan was
written.
Movie clip: Finding Neverland (starting at 1:28:32)
J.M. Barrie has brought the performance of his new play to the living room of
Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, as she was too ill to attend the opening night
performance. The movie shows Sylvia walking into “Neverland” and then it cuts
to the next scene at her funeral.
What they changed: Sylvia wasn’t too ill to
attend the opening, and she did not die that evening during a private
performance in her living room. She went on to live for another six years.
It is likely that the students won’t know the true story, and why
this is different. Discuss the differences in the movie and real life.
Why would they have made this change?
Is it okay that they did this, even if it isn’t historically
accurate?
Activity:
Pass out strips of paper to partners with the following questions
on them:
What
happened here?
How
is this different from what really happened?
Why
did they make this change?
How
did it help/hinder the telling of the story?
Movie Trailer: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (on youtube)
the movie trailer shows how as a young man, Abraham Lincoln became a vampire
hunter.
What they changed: As far as we know,
Abraham Lincoln did not hunt and kill vampires.
Movie clip: Pocahontas (starting at 1:05:17) The
Native Americans and the settlers have decided to go to war. Pocahontas goes to
Grandmother Willow for some advice, she realizes what she has to do and rushes
to stop her father from killing John Smith. She throws herself on top of him to
save his life and says to her father “I love him.”
What they changed: Pocahontas did not have a
romantic relationship with John Smith. She was ten or twelve years old when she
met him, and they were strictly friends. She did at one point save his life,
but not because of any romantic feelings between them. Disney ignored this fact
to make it a better story.
Discussion:
After each movie clip, students will get with their partner and
discuss the answers to the questions listed above. We will then as a class talk
about questions.
Students will then have to think of another movie they have seen
that takes creative liberties with historical events. Each student will tell
the name of the movie in small groups, what was changed, and why.
Activity:
Have students choose a different partner, then instruct them to
think of a famous historical figure. They will need to rewrite history and
change something in that character’s life. Give them a few minutes to come up
with something, then have partners come up to the front of the classroom and
act out what they have changed. Who did you choose? What did you change? Why?
Discussion:
Have students read The Social Network article, or
pre-chosen portions of it. Students will then discuss how this is different from
the movie clips we watched previously.
The story they have changed isn’t ancient history. It is something
that was happening then, very recent, and they still changed it to make it more
interesting or better for an audience.
Why did they make certain changes?
How did the changes make it a more compelling story?
Assessment:
Students will go home and choose a current event (or they start it
in class if they have time left over), something that speaks to them, and bring
a newspaper clipping or computer printout of the article to class next time.
They will need to, on a separate sheet of paper, detail three changes they
could make to the story, and why.
Article:
Handout - one per partnership
Discussion Questions:
What happened here?
How is this different from what really happened?
Why did they make this change?
How did it help/hinder the telling of the story?
