Unit 03 On the Screen

Unit 3 Page 30 READING exercise 5 A new kind of SUPERHERO Tim Burton is one of the most famous American film directors. His most popular films include: Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992) and Dumbo (2019). In 1990, he got a Daytime Emmy Award for his cartoon series Beetlejuice and in 1991 he got a Hugo Award for Edward Scissorhands. Tim grew up watching horror films and cartoons. He read Edgar Allan Poe's horror stories and he loved drawing. He also made short films in his back garden. After leaving school, Burton studied animation. Then, he got a job at Walt Disney studios. He was a very good animator, but he didn't draw in the Disney style. So he left Disney and started to make his own films. One of his most successful films is Batman. At first, people were upset when Tim Burton chose the comedy actor Michael Keaton to play Batman. Batman is a superhero who is taller and stronger than ordinary men, and Michael Keaton was too short. At 1.75 m, he was in fact the shortest actor ever to play Batman. However, the film was very successful and everybody loved Michael Keaton as Batman. One of Tim Burton's most interesting characters is Edward Scissorhands. The idea for the character came from a drawing that Burton made in high school. Edward isn't human and he has got scissors instead of hands. In the film, Johnny Depp plays Edward. However, his character in the film is not as scary as Tim Burton's original drawing. In one of his latest films, Dumbo, Dumbo the elephant has got bigger ears than the other elephants and they laugh at him. However, his big ears are an advantage. He can fly. This new film is more exciting than the old Disney film, but the CGI elephant is not as cute as the cartoon elephant in the 1941 film. There are some changes in the plot, but the new film is still as sad as the old one. Tim Burton has directed many other films, including some of the best-loved children's stories like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland. He still produces films today, and sometimes he shows some of his drawings and cartoons at exhibitions around the world.

Page 32 PRONUNCIATION exercise 1 Why don't we go to the cinema? We can see The Monster in the Computer. Tammy Baker plays the monster. Well ... there's also River Adventure. Tom Webster's a doctor in it. I know he's a better actor than Tammy Baker but River Adventure is a lot longer. If we see the shorter film, we can have dinner after. OK – it looks much funnier, too. And let's go to the Super Burger for dinner! Page 32 PRONUNCIATION exercise 3 Why don't we go to the cinema? We can see The Monster in the Computer. Tammy Baker plays the monster. Well ... there's also River Adventure. Tom Webster's a doctor in it. I know he's a better actor than Tammy Baker but River Adventure is a lot longer. If we see the shorter film, we can have dinner after. OK – it looks much funnier, too. And let's go to the Super Burger for dinner! Page 33 LISTENING exercise 7 Most of you will know what Lego is – the small coloured building bricks for children. Well, today we're with local girl Emma Harding, who's just won a prize for her Lego film. So, Emma, well done, how does it feel? Well, very cool. I was school when I heard that I'd won. I couldn't wait to get home and tell my Mum and Dad. I was so happy! And I still get emotional now when I think about it. What was the prize? Quite a lot of money! Page 33 LISTENING exercise 8 I'm going to use it to make my next film, I hope. Next film? So you're planning to do another one? Sure. And maybe one day, I'll be a film director full-time. I'd like to work on animated films. Really, you're an artist as well? Kind of – I love drawing and I like writing too. Great. Tell me, how do you go about making a Lego film? I'm sure it's far more difficult than it looks. Erm, it's not difficult but it takes a lot more time than most people think it does. First though, before you start, you should watch some Lego films. They'll give you some ideas. And then, of course, you need some Lego. OK, so what did you do first? Well, first I built the set! There was a Lego castle and a lake and two Lego mountains. I built everything with Lego. Then of course you need to get yourself a camera. Or you need to find a friend with a camera! So which did you do: get yourself a camera or find a friend with a camera? A friend with a camera. Her name's Lily and she helped me make the film. She took the photos and I moved the characters. And what about lighting? That was easy. We used two desk lamps. Then I suppose you also needed a good story. . Yeah, I already had the script. Lily read it and she had some ideas, too. And together we made the script a little better. We had to make it much shorter too. And then ... Were you ready to film? No ... we practised moving the characters first and we had some fun doing that. So what came next? We took a lot of photos. How many? Let's see. For every second of film there were more than 10 photos. Actually there're 18 photos per second. Eighteen photos look a lot better than 10 photos. It looks a lot more professional. So how many photos did you take? The film is 20 seconds long and we took 360 photos. Wow. So just one more question. When can we see your next film? Well, I only have a script – oh, and it's not a Lego film. Oh, right. So what is the new film about?

Page 34 READING exercise 2 THE HISTORY OF Watching TV The changing world of TV Television (TV) has been in people's homes since the 1930s, but our way of watching TV has changed significantly over the years. In the 1950s, families that had TVs, only had one TV set and three channels to choose from. Nowadays, we can watch a TV show on many different devices, anywhere and at any time of the day or night. Consequently, our generation is watching TV more frequently than any other generation before. TV as a family activity TVs were luxury items in the 1950s, and the families that did have one had to sit very close to it as the screens were very small. Then in the 1960s, TVs became cheaper and more families owned one. Most people had a TV in their livingroom and families sat together and watched their favourite shows. Oh, and there was no 'Watch next episode' button. People had to wait patiently for a week to watch the next part of their favourite soap opera. Non-stop drama Then, in the mid-2000s, TV broadcasters started to make programmes available via the internet. It was called on-demand TV and became very popular because people could choose when they wanted to watch a programme. Now, you could watch an episode of a sitcom straight away. Instead of watching one episode, people happily binge-watched six hours of their favourite TV series in one afternoon. Drama series became like one long film. And if you missed a documentary or an episode of your favourite reality show, you could easily watch it online later. During this decade, far fewer people sat down with their families to watch a TV show. However, people still preferred to watch major sports events (such as the FlFA World Cup) live. The rise in screen time In the 2010s, children and young adults began to watch much less broadcast TV than in the past. They watched their entertainment on smartphones, games consoles and via streaming services. This meant they could watch a show more easily at any time. Now, people spend more hours watching TV. In fact, the average person in Britain spends almost ten years of their life watching TV! As well as watching a show, they also need to read all the posts about it quickly, and tweet about it, too. This adds up to a lot more screen time.

Page 36 DEVELOPING SPEAKING exercise 1 Hi, Josh. Have you got a moment? I'd like some help with a Maths question. Hey, Megan. Sure. How can I help? Is everything OK? Looks like you haven't slept for about a week! Well, I didn't sleep much last night. Or the night before. In fact, I haven't slept well for three nights. Why not? It's that new drama – The Big Show. It came out last week. It's fantastic. And last night I watched it until ... well, quite late. How late? Well, three o'clock in the morning. I watched all 20 episodes in three nights. Wow! I'm not surprised you're tired and can't concentrate. But it's so good! Last night there were only two more episodes to watch, I had to keep going. It's like running a long race – it starts to hurt but you have to carry on! My parents always tell me not to give up halfway through something. But you shouldn't stay up all night. I know. But it's brilliant. Anyway – could you help me with the Maths problem? Please? Here, have a look at this. A book!? Yes, it explains everything. Just don't fall asleep while you're reading it, OK? Oh come on, Josh! Please help me. Sorry, I can't. I've got to go now. So, you'll have to do it yourself after all. Oh, and guess what? You've got ten minutes to do it before the lesson starts!