Getting Ready
for the Show
| Unit
5 Getting Ready for the Show |
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| The delivery end of Movie
Talk, as we have seen, consists largely of narrating movie
scenes and paraphrasing dialogue. The teacher therefore
has decisions to make. What should be said about each
scene? Which dialogues should be paraphrased, and how?
What else can be done to improve comprehensibility for the
students? We must keep in mind the great strength of movies: they contain a story line that gives coherent meaning to events and conversations. If our students are following the plots and subplots, they will have a better chance of understanding our narrations. We can help them understand what is going on by focusing our narration on significant plot elements, and by taking particular care to convey the meaning of any dialogue that is especially important to the plot. In this way, we and the story work together, each reinforcing the other. One of the most important things we can do to prepare, then, is to make sure that we know the movie well enough to evaluate each scene and conversation in terms of its role in the story. Our preparation must therefore begin with a careful, thoughtful viewing (or perhaps several viewings) of the movie. This unit, based on "Places in the Heart," demonstrates how a Movie Talk teacher might approach the preparation task. It contains the following sections:
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| 1. The Main Plot "Places in the Heart" takes place in Waxahachie, Texas (a small town south of Dallas) during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It contains several subplots, but the central story is about the Spalding family. Royce Spalding is the county sheriff. He and his wife Edna live in a modest but comfortable house just outside of town. They have two children, Frank and Possum. Royce is killed in an accidental shooting, and Edna, who has never held a job outside the home or dealt with financial matters, has no idea how to support the family. The day after her husband's funeral, she has a conversation with Mose, a homeless black man who offers to help her grow cotton (an important cash crop) in exchange for food and lodging. Edna, who has not yet realized how desperate the family's situation is, declines Mose's offer. Mose steals some silver from the kitchen and leaves. Mr. Denby, a bank officer, visits Edna and tells her that she will have to come up with a mortgage payment in a few months. Since she has no source of income and very little savings, Denby suggests that she sell the house and send her children to live with relatives. Edna adamantly refuses to break up her family. Edna then visits her sister Margaret, who supports her own family by operating a beauty shop. Edna asks Margaret for a job, but Margaret explains that the business won't support two families. Jack, the new sheriff, brings Mose to Edna's house and tells her that Mose was trying to leave town with some silver that appears to be Edna's. Edna, thinking quickly, tells Jack that she has hired Mose. After Jack leaves, Edna tells Mose he can stay and help her grow a cotton crop, which (assuming the current market value of cotton) should bring in enough to make the mortgage payment. As the cotton harvest approaches, the bottom drops out of the cotton market. The crop will no longer be enough to cover the mortgage. However, Edna learns that there is a $100 prize for the first bale of cotton brought to market every year. This would add enough income to make the house payment. She determines to be the first to bring her crop in, and, after driving herself and everyone else nearly to death, she does so. In a tense negotiation with the owner of the cotton gin, Edna shows her steel by outfoxing the greedy businessman. She sells him her cotton for more than the going rate. |
| 2. Key
Scenes and Dialogues Next, we present nine clips that are essential to the main plot. All of the clips except one contain important dialogues. We suggest you play the clips in order. Each clip is preceded here by a brief explanation of its significance in the movie. Suggested paraphrases for dialogues are provided, along with some suggested images that could be sketched or prepared in advance to provide additional help for beginning listeners. This aspect of Movie Talk—working with essential plot elements that cannot be seen—is probably the most challenging aspect of the technique, so we are going through these examples in some detail. |
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| I. Significance: Edna tells Margaret that she has no idea how to
support her family.
Paraphrases: "How will we live? I don't know how to get
money."
Images:  |
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| II. Significance: Mose suggests that he help Edna grow cotton to
make a living, but she turns him down.
Paraphrase: "You have a lot of land. You could grow cotton
and make money. I can help you."
"No, I can't give you a job." Images:  |
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| III. Significance: Mr. Denby explains the mortgage problem to Edna.
Paraphrase:"You have $116. You need to pay the bank $240 for
your house. How can you pay this?"
Images: |
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| IV. Significance: Edna asks Margaret for a job; Margaret explains
that it isn't possible, because she just barely has
enough income for her own family.
Paraphrase:"Can I work for you?"
"No, there isn't enough money to pay you." Images:  |
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| V. Significance: Mose explains that at current prices, Edna can
make $300 for a cotton crop. Edna agrees to let Mose
help her grow cotton.
Paraphrase: "If I
grow cotton, how much money can I make?"
"Cotton sells for six cents a pound. You have 30 acres. That's $300." "Can you do it?" "Yes, I know all about cotton." "OK." Images:  |
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| VI. Significance: Edna hears on the radio that cotton has dropped
to 3.5˘ / pound. Mr. Denby tells her that this will
come to only $175. Edna has only $24 in her account. She
won't be able to make her house payment.
Paraphrase: "The cotton price is now three and a half cents a
pound."
Images:"That's $175." "Will cotton go back up?" "No. How much money do you have?" "$24." "That's not enough for your payment."  |
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| VII. Significance: Edna sees pictures of people receiving $100 bonus
checks for bringing in the first bale of cotton each
year. That plus the price of the crop would be enough
for the payment.
(No
dialogue)Images:  |
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| VIII. Significance: Mose reminds Edna that she must get 3.5˘ / pound, even with the prize
money. (Since they are first in line, they have a good
chance for the $100 prize.)
Paraphrase:"You have to get three and a half cents a pound
plus the prize money."
Images: (Here, you could repeat what you used for segment
VII, since some time has passed in the movie since that
information was first presented.)
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| IX. Significance: Edna asks for 4.5˘ /
pound. The owner (Simmons) offers 2.75˘. They
bargain. He finally offers 3.5˘, the correct price. Edna
refuses the deal and starts to leave. Then she mentions
the honor of the first bale and points out that another
gin owner will get that this year. Simmons relents and
pays 3.75˘.
Paraphrase:"Cotton prices are low. I can't pay much."
"I want four and a half cents a pound." "Impossible! I'll give you 2.75 cents a pound." "Four cents." "Three cents......You want too much. OK, three and a half cents." "No." "Then I won't buy your cotton." "Then you won't get the first bale." "OK, come back." "What happened?" "3.75 cents a pound." Images:  |
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| 3. Awareness of Subplots In addition to the main plot, there are several subplots and themes that add greatly to the human interest of the movie. One of these is the Margaret/Wayne/Viola triangle. Wayne, who is Edna's brother-in-law, is carrying on a secret affair with Viola, the wife of his friend Bud. He has promised Viola that he will leave Margaret, but shows no sign of doing so, and it is doubtful that he wants to in any case. When Bud decides to leave Waxahachie to take a job elsewhere, Viola's relationship with Wayne becomes apparent to Margaret, who gets the truth out of Wayne and throws him out of the house. Later, during the cotton harvest, Wayne helps with the picking and tries to approach Margaret, who ignores him. Toward the end of the movie, however, they meet at a dance and appear on the way to reconciliation. This is confirmed in the final scene of the movie. |
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| Here is an
assemblage of scenes, in chronological order, that
represent significant points in this subplot. (You would
not present this assemblage to your students, of course;
we are presenting it to you simply to illustrate the kinds
of story elements that you can use to enrich your
presentation of the movie.) You can see at the very beginning of the movie that Wayne is checking his watch. We now know that he has an assignation that afternoon with Viola, and he obviously wants to make sure he won't be late. Knowing this, a teacher can draw students' attention to the furtive time check, and ask "Why is he looking at his watch? Let's find out!" The tryst in the empty house then provides the answer to this question; this is likely to amuse the students and heighten their interest in the characters. The other scenes in this assemblage also acquire extra meaning from their role in the subplot, which can help the teacher make intelligent, well-motivated decisions about what to comment on and what to include in the comments. |
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| 4.
Segments and Narration Finally, let's consider how to divide the movie into short segments for presentation. It is important to control the length of the segments carefully. If they are too long, they may challenge the students' attention span, especially if there is dialogue that they don't understand. However, if the segments are too short, the presentation becomes choppy and possibly somewhat annoying. The two segments we looked at in "Screen Test" were 2:14 and 2:25 (minutes:seconds) in length, both of which are rather long in terms of this technique. They were natural units, however, and since they introduced locations and characters with few events taking place, the lengths were probably not excessive. However, the clip we are about to look at runs 2:40, and it contains several dramatic events and changes of venue. We have therefore divided it into four shorter segments, each of which forms a logical unit based on location and dramatic function. We would show each segment as a whole, use the "back" control to return to the beginning of each segment, narrate and paraphrase (pausing as needed), and then go on to show the next segment, etc. This clip takes up where the second clip in "Screen Test" ended. See if you agree with our segmentations. Also, think about what you would say when narrating each segment, and then click the segment numbers just below this text to see what we came up with. |
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| Click to see narration: 1 2 3 4 | |
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