Quest Beyond Time

Winners
Level: Year 5 to Year 9
KLA outcomes:

English
Theme: Genre; Our Place in Space and Time; Film Language; War and Conflict
Description:
The film is useful for teaching about setting because it employs two different settings, the present in suburbia and the future in a rural setting. It can be used to demonstrate the relationship between setting and genre, setting and audiences' expectations, setting and mood.

Resources:

Video: Quest Beyond Time Winners ACTF

See Education Catalogue for video purchasing details and order form.

Other: film advertisements from newspapers.

Lesson plan:

Film language

1. Play the tape up to the point at which the hang-glider lands. Write on the board the equation

Setting = time + place.

Discuss the opening scenes in terms of the two settings - present and future.

Suggested questions

  • When do you think the film is set?
  • At what point did you change your mind about the time in which it is set?
  • How is the second hang-gliding scene different from the first?
  • Why do the characters dress like cave men when they actually live in the future?
  • What type of story did you expect at the beginning of the film?
  • Did your expectations change?
  • Why did they change?

Genre

As a whole class

2. Establish the genre of the film. A genre is a category or type; genres are differentiated from each other by characteristics of style, technique or narrative content.
List these genres and have students discuss where Quest Beyond Time should be placed - comedy, science-fiction, musical, Western, spy.
Ask students to list as many features of each genre as they can and examples of other films and TV shows which employ elements of that genre.

3. Genre is both an analytical category and a marketing device.
Distribute a set of film advertisements from the newspaper. Ask students to predict the genre of the film based on the images and words in each advertisment.
Discuss the class's favourite genres.

Individual activities

4. Ask students to design an advertising poster for Quest Beyond Time. They will need to stress its science fiction characteristics so as to appeal to fans of that genre.

5. Have students write a film review of Quest Beyond Time which praises or criticises the film as an example of its genre.
Use these notes for teaching students how to write a film review.

Film reviews:
Introduction - title, key actors and their characters, summary of the plot.
Development - opinion of the acting and opinion of the direction and editing.
Conclusion - opinion of the merit of the film.


6. Ask the class to imagine that they are Mike and have been on a journey to the future. Have students write a diary entry describing what life in a post nuclear Australia is like.

6. Ask the class to imagine that they are Mike and have been on a journey to the future. Have students write a diary entry describing what life in a post nuclear Australia is like. Read the stories aloud and compare their visions of this imaginary future.

7. Quest Beyond Time is a story of survival. What survival skills did Mike learn? Discuss other survival stories from literature, film and television. Draft a plot outline for a TV series to be called "Survivors". Discuss the types of stories and people which might be included in a non-fictional TV series on "Survivors".

 

Robyn Quin