Upper School English teacher Cathy Schieffelin’s senior English elective, The Art of Watching Film, planned an intricate film festival for the whole community to enjoy a double-feature screening of “Miracle” and “Whiplash.” The audience was able to compare and contrast the thematic similarities, with the combined slogan “Greatness Takes Grit.”
This film festival is a new Kingswood Oxford event that will hopefully become an annual one. “As a school, KO is trying to move towards more IMPACT-oriented classes,” Ms. Schieffelin explained. “So, in part, there was the impetus to incorporate some of those drivers of our IMPACT program into the class. Being student-driven, interdisciplinary, and engaging with the community were important, and are all things that I value anyway.” Ms. Schieffelin also shared that she was tired of how she used to end the class.
“The Art of Watching Film” is an intro to film studies elective. “It’s trying to get students to see the different elements that go into filmmaking and how to analyze films more closely,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “We spend the first five to six weeks looking at different elements of film.” First, the class looked at more surface-level elements like plot and thematic choices, but then they moved on to the cinematography, editing, and sound. “We focused on areas such as lighting, shot and camera angles, color,” senior Olivia Pilecki explained, “just like any little thing that the producers included.”
The class began with analyzing clips and eventually moved on to a full movie. The class started preparing for the film festival right before Thanksgiving break, putting lots of effort into the decision-making process. The class split into three groups, deciding on two movies per group, and then the class voted on which movies to watch as a class. This year it was challenging for the class to figure out who their target audience was. “One of the reasons why we chose ‘Miracle’ is because it was kid-friendly,” Olivia said, “which meant that the Middle Schoolers could come, unlike if we were to choose a more mature film.” In past years, Ms. Schieffelin said that they analyzed movies as a class, but this year, the festival was a way to make the class more meaningful and to connect with KO in a fun and engaging way. “‘Miracle’ and ‘Whiplash’ are very different movies,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “They address similar central thematic questions, but they differ in style. Ultimately, it was a perfect pairing.” Ms. Schieffelin was pleased that the class was able to compromise and put the audience and community’s best interests over their own.
Each student in the class had a role relating to the planning and execution of the film festival. There were nine roles for 12 students. Each student filled out a Google form ranking their preferences for which job they would get. “Magically I was able to give everyone one of their top three choices,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “Everyone was so perfect for their roles. The students felt like they were all bringing unique skills and passions to the festival. I couldn’t imagine another version or another grouping of kids.”
Some of the roles include: Film Historian, Audience Experience Lead, MC, Outreach Coordinator, and Production Coordinator. “My assignments consisted of making a doc about how the night is gonna run and some ideas I had,” senior Production Coordinator Matthew Belo explained. As Outreach Coordinator, Olivia shared her efforts to make everyone aware of the festival, including speaking at Middle and Upper School assemblies and hanging up posters that senior Sienna DuBois designed in her role as Branding Lead. “ Everyone had separate rubrics for what their role was,” Olivia described. “Mine was to take pictures of the hung-up posters and explain why I put them in certain areas. I was graded on effort mostly.”
Ms. Schieffelin explained how it was challenging for her to come up with a distinct role for everyone. She described her Google Classroom as an “organizational nightmare,” yet stated that planning this unit was a labor of love. “ Now that I have it all planned, I feel like it would go really smoothly in subsequent years,” she explained, as she hopes it will become a KO tradition.
One of the biggest challenges was finding a date and time for the festival. They knew that a Thursday in January would be hard for everyone, and they wanted to maximize the turnout. Supported by Head of the Upper School Lisa Loeb, they offered free pizza and popcorn, and candy for purchase, with proceeds going to Team Tobati. The festival couldn’t overlap with Hockey Night, and it couldn’t run the following Friday because it was a long weekend, so people might be away. They didn’t want a Saturday because many people would not come to campus on a Saturday. “People are more likely to stay if they’re on campus already,” Ms. Schieffelin explained. They explored having it before Thanksgiving break, but that would put a time constraint on all they could get done in the course. The class ultimately decided on Thursday, January 8.
“It was hard to expect people to come for five hours,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “Everyone was invited to come to part of it, but it kind of defeats the purpose of these two movies being in conversation. In the end, the feedback was either to show one movie and really dive into it, or offer two short movies, but find a time where you’ll get more people.”
Matt shared his thoughts on future changes as well. “We should have only done one movie because the night kind of dragged on,” he explained. Matt thinks that next year they could analyze one movie, while still having a panel before and after to incorporate the work that gets put into the event. “ Everyone worked well together,” Olivia explained. “Overall, we did a good job of reaching out to the community and trying our best to engage everyone.” Ms. Schieffelin recognizes that the film festival is not quite yet built into the culture of KO in the way that events like Hockey Night are, but she hopes it will be in the future.
Everyone should come show their support to “The Art of Watching Film” class next year by attending the Film Festival!
