The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

particular country? Does it remind you of anywhere you have been? 
What are the main settings in the fi lm? List them. How do they help 
to tell the story? What do the settings and props tell us about the 
characters?
Materials:
Data Projector, whiteboard or screen and sound
Resources:
Any short animation clip of 1–3 minutes (see 
A Brief History
for 
links, p. 9 or 
Recommended Animators
p. 150)

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Cineliteracy
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WORKSHEET: FREEZE FRAME
Teachers’ note:
This exercise is another approach to deconstructing a media text. By 
looking at single frames from a fi lm, rather than sequences, students 
sometimes fi nd it easier to consider particular aspects of a fi lm’s 
construct. These include the composition of the scene, the position 
of actors, use of props, use of lighting and positioning of cameras.
The key point of the exercise is to encourage students to analyse the 
reasoning behind the director’s or lighting cameraperson’s decisions, 
and to consider the potential impact of changing any aspects of 
these.
Choose a short animation clip on DVD that can be stopped at 
random intervals. Choose a variety of frames that employ different 
camera angles and shot types.
Questions:
What can you see in the ‘frozen image’?
How are the elements of the image organized within the 
frame?
Why is the shot composed like this?
What difference would it make if it were composed 
differently?
How does lighting and colour affect what you see?
How does the lighting contribute to the atmosphere of the 
shot?
Where do you think the camera is, and why is it placed 
where it is?
What other clues are contained within the frame that help to 
tell the story?
What do they tell us about the time/place/setting?
What can you tell about the characters from how they are 
dressed?
What information can be gained about the characters from 
their dress and body language?

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The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
This type of analysis is closely linked to the French theory of mise-
en-scene. When applied to the cinema, it refers to everything that 
appears before the camera and how it is organized.
Mise en scene therefore encompasses both what the audience 
can see, and the way in which we are invited to see it. It refers to 
many major elements of communication in the cinema, and the 
combination through which they operate expressively.
(John Gibbs, Mise en scene: Film Style and 
Interpretation, 2002)