From the great classics like Little Women to engaging young adult novels like How to Eat Fried Worms, books have long been a rich resource of quality storytelling for adaptation to film. Viewing these films in an educational context is an excellent way to discuss the quality, theme, structure and characters of the original source material while comparing and contrasting to its cinematic counterpart. It is also a wonderful means of engaging students in reading and writing. Upstart studios such as Walden Media have been creating wonderful film adaptations of books for young people with great frequency in the last few years, as other major studios continue to rework the stories of literary masters. Join us throughout the school year for educational screenings of several new film releases.

All our programs are designed to be interactive experiences rather than passive viewings, so students are expected to come prepared to ask questions of filmmakers and special guests and to participate in post-film discussions and Q&A. Study guides will be provided for teachers whenever possible.

Upcoming Events

Programs to be announced. Check back soon for more information.

Past Events

The Water Horse
Friday, December 7, 2007, San Francisco Public Library
About 80 elementary school students were paid a visit by Alex Etel, the 13-year-old British star of the new Christmas release The Legend of the Water Horse. After an introductory discussion with the librarian about Dick King-Smith’s book The Water Horse from which the film is adapted, the students first watched the trailer for the film. Alex then answered questions about the making of the film, including his experiences shooting in Scotland and New Zealand, how he rode on a jet ski to simulate his ride on the back of the giant water horse and how they got the dog in the film to chase after a computer-generated creature. Etel also gave us insight into how he creates emotion on the screen by sharing with us the methods used to make himself cry in some of the film’s more moving scenes. Etel then read to the students from the first dozen pages of the book and answered a few more questions about his acting career and how the other kids treat him at school now that he’s a well-known actor. The students then viewed several clips and behind-the-scenes footage from the film before wrapping up with several more questions about special effects, whether or not he’d ever seen the Loch Ness monster and how he kept up with school while he was making and promoting the film.

“Thanks very much for arranging for Alex to come to the Children’s Center. He’s a wonderful youngster and actor, and the teachers and their classes had an enlightening time. Thanks again and we look forward to further programs with you folks.” —librarian, Fisher Children’s Center, San Francisco Public Library

The Golden Compass
Wednesday, December 5, 2007, Landmark’s Bridge Theatre, San Francisco
A diverse audience of more than 300 students from 20 Bay Area public, private and home school groups (ranging from fifth through twelfth grade, plus a group from the San Francisco Art Institute) attended a free advance screening of The Golden Compass, adapted from the award-winning first novel in author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materialstrilogy. The book is part of the regular curriculum for many of the classes in attendance, so it was a perfect opportunity for them to compare the original written story to the special effects-laden film adaptation. Prior to the film, children’s librarian Barbara Vanderborght, from our community partner the San Francisco Public Library, spoke to the students about the book and the author and provided helpful information on San Francisco’s local libraries. After the film, visual effects supervisor Matt Jacobs and visual effects producer Carol Corwin from Tippett Studio demonstrated and explained some of the animated effects they helped create for the film. Jacobs showed clips of various compositing processes and answered questions from the students about how elements such as fur or snarling mouths were produced. He also talked about how he went from doodling in class as a kid to becoming a visual effects supervisor and showed a demo reel of the work he and Corwin have done with Tippett Studio on a range of well-known films. When asked what software programs had been used to generate the effects they created, Jacobs talked a bit about Maya but encouraged any interested students to play around with Photoshop as a perfect stepping stone to learning basic animation techniques and effects.

“I thought this movie was very unique and had a lot of wonderful settings. I hope they make a sequel to The Golden Compass for it was a very good movie and was very well done. I think that the theaters allowing schools to come for free to see these movies is very nice, and I love being able to ask questions for the special effects people who come and actors who are in these movies that take time to come to the movies as well.” —student

 “Thank you for providing such a wonderful opportunity for our young people to see great movies and learn from the special people who give up their time to answer questions. We are looking forward to future movies”—parent

“It was a fabulous experience. My students discussed it in class and then we read the reviews in the Chronicle and discussed that also. Thanks for providing the experience which was memorable for my special  education students who needs visual stimuli to help in their language arts learning.” —teacher, Marina Middle School