The Day The Earth Stood at The Movies

WebQuest

The Day The Earth Stood at The Movies
A WebQuest for 8th Grade (Art Education)

Introduction


Directed by Robert Wise. With Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe.
The robot Gort, able to destroy tanks with his deadly rays,
in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).


Congratulations!! You and your crew have been selected for a special mission.
You will be taking a journey into the world of special effects.

For centuries magicians have fooled people with the optical illusion. In the 1700s, magicians used many techniques that have influenced the field of special effects that are seen in movies today. The viewer was led to believe that a person in the form of a ghost was real. The magician used a box to project a light, which formed an image of a person. The image was a ghost. The viewer was tricked to believe the ghost was real. Today in the 21st century movies are saturated with the art of special effects. Millions of viewers watch movies that fool the mind. Do the movies really fool the mind?

The Task
The goal of this WebQuest is to review movies with special effects.
You and your crew have been chosen for this very special mission. Your mission is to preview special effects in movies. Your crew will travel into the world of cinematography. You will travel with in a vessel know as the Internet One. The crew captain will assign the crew members with a responsible duty. All crew members will report gathered data to the captain. The captain’s log will be the combined so that all data can be placed in to the crews main journal.

The crew will watch the latest movie previews on the Internet. The purpose is to gather data about movies the team would or would not recommend. The crewmembers will also read the story description for each movie. The crewmembers will decide if the story description has peeked an interest in the movie or not.


The Process
The first thing that the captain and the crewmembers need to do is decide which movies the group will review. The team should review at least 12 movies with special effects. The crew should also consider current movies playing the theaters. All crewmembers will watch the same previews. Selected crewmembers will read the story descriptions for three movies. The crewmembers assigned to review the movies will be called scribes. The story description will then be discussed among the crew. The scribes will write a report about the movie story description. All movie descriptions will be compiled into the captain’s log. The crew will gather and determine which movies it will recommend for viewing. The captain will present his or her log for the final presentation.

There are various roles for the crew. Below is a list of crew roles, which need to be selected.


The Captain
Every crew needs a leader. The crew captain is the glue that holds the team together. The captain is a motivator for the crew. He or she will show excitement and enthusiasm for the project. The captain will check to see that all crewmembers are on task.

The Navigator
The crew needs to know where to look for information. The navigator will know how to find information on the Internet. Crewmembers will contact the navigator to get help in order to find locations on the Internet.

The Researcher
All crewmembers on this team will be researchers. Each crewmember will be given an instruction manual that describes how to find all locations for the movie previews.

The Scribe
All crewmembers on this team will be scribes. The scribe will keep a written record of each movie previewed. The written record will include the title of the movie, the producer, the director, and two members of the cast. The scribe will also give the date that the move will appear in theaters.

Once all roles have been distributed, each crewmember should visit the web sites and begin to compile all of the information for which he or she is responsible.
After all information has been collected you must write your review of the movie and decide if it is worth seeing. Finally the crew will meet as a group and discuss which movies the group will recommend for viewing. All reviews will become a part of the captain’s log.

The following links will be extremely helpful to you when your crew researches its movie selections.

apple.com iTunes Movie Trailers

The Internet Movie Database

Yahoo! Movies


Evaluation

Crewmembers will be graded individually based on the following:
-Fulfillment of his/her job
-Quality of material included in the scribes journals
-Content, organization, and mechanics of the persuasive writing
-Creativity -neatness exhibited in the final piece

Each crew will also receive a grade as a whole and it will be based on the following:
-Overall appearance of the final product
-The collaborative effort exhibited to complete the captain’s log
-Met the requirements for the project criteria

Conclusion

The Internet can be a valuable resource to all people, particularly when they need to get information quickly and successfully. Traveling on the Internet can be just as enjoyable for cyber surfers as it is for movie enthusiasts. Not all people take the time to read the movie story description, so the Internet offers an opportunity that they may acquire information about movies of interest.

By completing this WebQuest, you have cooperated with your peers to gain knowledge about your selected destination and technological skills to create electronic products, and to improve your writing skills.

Credits
Special Effects
http://utminers.utep.edu/lacarrera/history.htm

The Day The Earth Stood Still 1951
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfpSXI8_UpY
The Day The Earth Stood Still 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_bNDv0-ZrU&feature=related

apple.com iTunes Movie Trailers
http://www.apple.com/trailers/

The Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com/
http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross?region=world-wide

Yahoo! Movies
http://movies.yahoo.com/

DEFINITION
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/DEFINITION