Monday Morning Quarterbacking: John Carter Fail.

(Update) Alas, John Carter tanked at the box office to the tune of a 200 million dollar loss. One of the reasons I think it failed, from a storytelling point of view, is that there is never truly a sense of danger, death or destruction. Star Wars has its Alderan moment when a planet is destroyed. Mityazaki’s Naussica and the Valley of the Wind, which this film closely resembles, shows the destruction of the warring nations. Avatar has the destruction of the ‘Home Tree’ Without true death, suffering and sacrifice, the story of John Carter has little resonance. Stanton’s own Finding Nemo starts with the death of Nemo’s mother and hundreds of eggs. Wall E is set amidst the destruction of earth. John Carter never shows us the destruction of the planet’s civilization, so we don’t know what the hero is trying to rebuild nor what they are fighting against.

Kindergarten Should be Mandatory! Surprise, it’s not!

Kindergarten is not mandatory in New York State. It should be as the earlier a child is in kindergarten the sooner they are engaged with reading, writing and exposed to many areas of play and peers. They also learn school structure and expectations making learning more productive in first grade. Here’s an article about a proposed bill from the NY Times to make Kindergarten mandatory in the state.

This was always the intended last image of The Kindergarten Shuffle.

Many people say that you should write towards the ending to a film and in some ways this is true. I always knew that I was aiming for exactly this sort of image at the end of The Kindergarten Shuffle. From a story telling point of view, it is not a question of whether your protagonist will reach their goal. Even in a tragedy, the main character will complete their quest before their death. The true question is what is the protagonist willing to sacrifice and what they DO sacrifice to achieve their goal. This is why I feel How to Train Your Dragon had one of the most satisfying endings of a kids film. Hiccup lost a limb defeating the dragon that was causing the destruction of their village. It is this sort of sacrifice that has resonance.

2000 Miles to Maine now available for streaming and purchase

Although many of you are here for other films, 2000 Miles to Maine: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail is great fun. The film does contain some references to alcohol and drugs — though a squeaky clean one is also available from The Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Adventures on the Appalachian Trail

Click here to watch the movie or order the DVD

Seminar on Story

Andrew Stanton is heroically trying to drum up business for John Carter (of Mars) aka A Princess of Mars. Fortunately we are gifted a short seminar on storytelling.  Wall E is certainly one of my favorite films

Activities for Kids / Movie Screening for Parents March 9th

What: Activity and movie night for parents and children

When: Friday March 9^th at 5pm-7:30pm Open to the public!

Where: NEST+m 111 Columbia Street, NYC

For Kids: Join us for an activity night led by teachers and parents. Games, pizza and play. $5 donation per person appreciated.

For Adults: a screening of The Kindergarten Shuffle. The film is by  NEST+m parent Douglas Morse, who will be on hand for a Q&A afterwards. The film follows parents through the public and private school kindergarten admissions process including G&T testing, school tours, and a private school playdate. A parent’s eye view of the process. Informative, and entertaining. For more information, and a trailer, visit www.kindergartenshuffle.com

RSVPs appreciated on Facebook under the events tab or directly to president@nestmail.org

NEST+m is the only K-12 gifted program in the city. We’ll be happy to answer questions about gifted education in general and NEST+m in particular. The movie, The Kindergarten Shuffle, focuses on a mother who learns her child needs accelerated education.

Reshoots

Reshoots are an essential part of the process. I the last shot I got for The Kindergarten Shuffle was an insert of a sign outside a school that said “Kindergarten Admissions Open” I was nearly finished with the editing, saw the sign, and knew I wanted it for the scene where Jay races to register his son Jackson for Kindergarten (he’s put on a waitlist). So the fun part was holding the camera and rushing at and by the sign so it would read as a POV.

For The Jew of Malta, I just reshoot the opening monologue by Machiavelli. The original scene just wasn’t working and I thought about cutting it completely. But my advisory scholars told me that they all use Machavelli’s speech as a touchstone to guide their analysis of the entire play. Perhaps that’s the difference between analysis and storytelling. I didn’t see the storytelling value in it and so I am glad someone said that the speech does have value. Now that it’s in, the audience can judge how it affects the piece.

In a confluence of events, the 7th International Marlowe conference will be at Blackfriars in Virginia June 24-28, 2013 The theatre is a magnificant space. Looking at their current roster, I came across the name Ben Curns. He is playing Richard III and Benedick in Much Ado this season. And I’d like to think I plucked Ben from obscurity when I ‘discovered ‘ him playing Pistol in Henry V in Innwoodhill Park. I tapped him to play the Prologue in The Summoning of Everyman. So who better to play Machiavelli in The Jew of Malta six years later.

Ben Curns as Machiavelli in The Jew of Malta

Kindergarten Admissions Informational Event 2012

Inside Schools is hosting an event about applying to Kindergarten on Tuesday February 7th at 6pm Information HERE I’ll be answering questions as a parent of a child at the Citywide School for Gifted Children.

“Join Clara Hemphill, the staff of Insideschools and other experts to learn about elementary school admissions: What to look for in an elementary school, how and when to register, G&T programs, charter schools, special ed and more. Get your questions answered. Co-sponsored by Christine Quinn of the City Council. Admission is free but you must RSVP: centernyc@newschool.edu“

Location

The New School
55 West 13th St., 2nd floor

Shopping

Welcome to The Film Professor at WordPress. Our shop is at www.shop.grandfatherfilms.com

Revised G&T placement

So it’s been a while since my last post. I have a good excuse: I was busy  working on my next film, The Jew of Malta. It’s based on the Christopher Marlowe play from 1589 and will be seen in universities across the country and in Europe. For more information, visit www.jewofmalta.com

Of course I have still been following various developments in NYC kindergarten admissions and plan on sharing them with you over the coming months – especially as a new group of parents gear up for the private and public school admissions process.

One of the main messages of The Kindergarten Shuffle is that if you advocate long and hard enough, you will get what is best for your child. My friend, Lee has been at it for his two daughters for over two years now. Using the media, footwork, and determination, he actually was able to get some systemic change is seen in the letter below. In sum, though, it highlights on major flaw of the current G&T testing: the use of the Bracken. The Bracken is a kindergarten readiness test. It tests basic shapes, numbers, and colors. There are 80! Questions on it. The DOE insists on administering it before the OLSAT (which although classified as an ‘abilities test’ is the measure of identifying accelerated learners

My hypothesis is that the Braken totally skews test scores. Although it only counts for 1/3^rd of the score, forcing children to do 80 problems can skew performance. Perhaps it is why some incoming classes are skewed 55-60% in favor of girls as they are able to focus for longer periods of time. Perhaps. And also although the OLSAT is normed for age, again, the younger children may suffer because of the 80 questions they get BEFORE the real test kicks in.

Also, if a second or third grader takes the Bracken and gets every problem correct, they get significantly less than a perfect 99%. It’s a statistical thing, but suffice it to say that it brings down the total Gifted score so as to possibly exclude students who should qualify. Lee brought this to the attention of the chancellor and the result was this minor victory. I say minor because it is clear the powers that be still don’t understand the needs (and proper identification of) accelerated learners. But I hope Lee has better success this year than the past two….

 

Subject: DOE acknowledges problems with G&T scoring

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Last month, a concern was raised concerning the placement criteria for second grade students who were seeking admission to the Citywide Gifted &Talented (G&T) Program.  In response, we have looked into whether these concerns were valid and necessitate adjusting the placement criteria for this relatively small group of students applying to third grade Gifted and Talented programs.

Under the current policy, the City administers two separate assessments used to measure a broad range of each student’s ability.  In order to be eligible, students must receive a score in the 90^th percentile for eligibility to district programs and in the 97^th percentile for eligibility to citywide programs. For older students in Grade 2 to be considered eligible for a citywide program, students must receive a perfect score on the Bracken School Readiness Assessment (BSRA) and a near perfect score on the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT).

The BSRA requires students to demonstrate basic readiness skills, such as identifying colors, numbers, and shapes; it is logical to expect that children who have spent several years in school would excel at a test which assesses school readiness. Thus, we expect that students get a perfect score on the BSRA in order to qualify for inclusion in a gifted program. The OLSAT is a test of cognitive ability; in this case as well we have very high expectations for student performance and only the highest achievers qualify for our programs. Both measures are valid and should contribute to our decision to include a student in Gifted & Talented programs in New York City.

However, an independent analysis has shown that when older students score perfectly on the BSRA it may bring down their composite score. All scoring is based upon comparison to a student’s peers and since so many students score perfectly on the BSRA, answering all questions correctly does not necessarily provide a high percentile score. For this reason, we have decided that students in this category—those who scored perfectly on the BSRA but did not get a high percentile ranking based on their peer group, and who also scored at or above the 97^th percentile on the OLSAT—will have their score adjusted. The BSRA will be removed from the composite score and only the OLSAT score will be used. Your child is one of the students in this category.

Attached you will find your child’s revised score report. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Elementary School Enrollment

If you’ve seen The Kindergarten Shuffle, check out our post screening panel discussion with director Douglas Morse, actors Jay Douglas, Julia Motyka, Seth Duerr, and Patrick Terry.