Think of a film for each of the genres below.
What kind of genres are your favourite?
Which ones do you dislike?
How often do you go to the cinema?
What was the last movie you saw? Would you recommend it to others?
What’s your all-time favourite movie? And what’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
With foreign films, do you prefer dubbing or subtitles?
Do you prefer domestic movies, European ones or films made in US?
Have you ever walked out of the cinema before a movie ended? (Why?)
When movies get made from books, do you like to read the book first or viceversa?
Do you ever watch black and white movies?
Are you in favour or against subsidized cinema?
Are you in favour or against actors taking part in politics?
How are the Internet and the new technology in general influencing cinema?
If someone made a movie of your life, what major events should it include? Who should play the lead?
To illustrate the topic, watch the trailer of the 2010 film Conviction, starred by Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell, based on a true story on a miscarriage of justice.
Answer these questions about the trailer:
a) What genre of movie is it?
b) Who is the hero?
c) What problem or challenge are they facing?
d) What other characters do we see and how are they related to the hero?
e) What happens to the hero?
f) Do you care about the hero or not? (Why?)
g) How might the story end?
h) Do you want to see this movie? (Why/Why not?)
Watch the trailer again. Answer these questions now:
a) What’s the crime?
b) What’s the relationship between Hilary Swank and the criminal?
c) What was the sentence?
d) How long did the struggle to set him free last?
e) What lengths did she go to achieve that?
f) How many clients does she have when she becomes a lawyer?
g) What’s the one thing they haven’t tried after sixteen years?
h) What does Hilary threaten to do if he doesn’t co-operate?
This is the same trailer with Spanish subtitles. It will help you check your answers to the questions above.
I got the idea of using trailers for the English class -and the first batch of questions on the trailer of Conviction, which you can literally use with any trailer- from Vicki Hollett and her extraordinary Simple English Videos.
