Oktapodi

Oktapodi is a french computer animated short film, that was a graduate student project from Gobelins School of Imagery.

The film is about a pair of love struck octopi who through a series of omical events are separated
and find each other.
Teaching Ideas
Retell the narrative using rich desciption and vivid imagery.
Write a dialogue between the two octopi at various points throughout.
Diiscuss what is going to happen to each of the octopi.
Write alternative endings to the story. 
Write stories with flashbacks, perhaps the octopus wakes up in
the truck and a flash back takes place remembering the tank.


Pigeon Impossible
Secret Agent Walter Beckett has a problem of pigeon sized proportions. 

When a pigeon gets trapped inside the spies briefcase all kinds of  mayhem ensue.
Teaching Ideas
- Create comic strips and picture boards from the story,
-  write more missions for Walter which are spoilt by the pigeon,
- Write a news report on events, interviewing key witnesses etc.
- Write a persuasive argument giving an argument for why it was not the pigeon's fault.
 - Should we feed the pigeons in the street? Discuss.
Check out the creator's website here = http://martellanimation.com/blog/ 

Click her to see work based on Pigeon Impossible

Reverso

A story about a man whose whole life is upside down.  Gravity seems to push him to the ceiling rather than pull him down to the ground.  He is an outcast in life, his attempts to make friends in work end in disaster.  He ends up getting fired. A walk in the park ends in  surprise.

Wait until the end of the credits for a surprise of your own.

Writing Ideas

Write a diary - a day in the life.
Write a newspaper report
about an accident caused by him.
Write a narrative flashback
about how he came to Earth
Watch up to the credits and ask
children to complete the ending to the story.
Reverso was created by a group of students in their final year of studies at ArtFx School artfx.fr.

Much Better Now (KS2)

A bookmark is stuck in a forgotten book that is one day knocked over by wind. It experiences its environment by surfing the pages that turn in to ocean-waves, enjoying the ride of its life. As the book cover closes light reveals new challenges.

Write the internal monologue for the bookmark.
Create own book mark characters and put them into their own original stories.

Hunted

A young hungry native attempts to steal food from a 'hunter/colonist' type camp in the jungle.  He unfortunately he falls into a trap and is captured as a trophy to go back to England.  The tribesman is clever enough to escape - much to the surprise of the hunter.  A chase ensues and there can only be one winner! Who will it be? 
Teaching Ideas

- Write letters home from the hunter describing what he has captured.

- Write a newspaper report about the event.

- Lots of discussions to be had about the morals of colonisation.

-link to destruction of rainforest and tribal customs in South America.

- Write some dialogue between the tribesmen, discussing what they should do with the hunter.

Marshmallows

A boy is camping in the woods (alone for some reason) when a vicious creature creeps up behind him.
Pause the film at 18 secs and ask the children to describe this monster creeping up on the boy.  A good point to use Show not tell writing.  Leave the reader guessing what it is.  You can point this out by explaining uses music to build tension and doesn't show the whole monster.  It just gives clues.
Can the children use imagery to make the monster sound vicious?  Perhaps use similes and metaphors.
Ask the children to make predictions about what they think will happen next.  (Monster chase the boy type answers will probably come out.) Then let the children watch the next section of the film - up to 1m5secs.  Is this what they thought would happen?  Can they alter their descriptions to make it sound like a friendly monster? 
The monster becomes scary again once the Marshmallows run out.  He chases the boy.... will he escape?  There is a twist at the end! The boy escapes. 
This animation shows a typical narrative structure. 
The children could track the plot using a story mountain/timeline.  There is a clear opening to describe a setting and or character.  Followed by the introduction of a problem - the monster. The boy has to resolve this problem so he can escape. There is a twist at the end then with the monster unable to enjoy his 'marshmallow.'

Lift - This is an advert for a foreign bank.

The children could write;
- instructions about getting ready for the lift,
- a description of the build up.  The sounds, the smells, the feeling etc Use similes and metaphors to support,
- write dialogue between the characters, boy persuading his parents to move or stay,
- a narrative based on the boy and his strange abode.