love at first sight instructions - Film English

Love at First Sight Language level: Intermediate (B1) – Advanced (C1) Learner type: Teens and adults Time: 90 minutes Activity: Writing a film narrative, predicting a film scene, creating a TV commercial, watching a short film and advertisement, and speaking Topic: Love and TV commercials Language: Narrative tenses Materials: Short film, TV commercial and poem

Overview This lesson plan is designed around a short film called White Night by Arev Manoukian and a commercial inspired by the short film, and the theme of love at first sight. Students write a narrative for a film, predict a story, watch a short film and TV commercial, create a television commercial and read a poem by Leonard Cohen.

Step 1 Write “love at first sight” on the board. Ask your students what the expression means. Put your students into pairs, write the following questions on the board and ask them to discuss the questions: Do you believe in love at first sight? Do you know anyone who’s fallen in love at first sight?

Step 2 Ask students the following question:

Students should be able to come up with a lot of films, if they can’t you could give them some examples such as Westside Story (1961), Scarface (1983), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Titantic (1997), Love Actually (2003), The Notebook (2004), A Cinderella Story (2004) and Mirror, Mirror (2012).

Love at First Sight

Have you watched any films in which two characters have fallen in love at first site?

www.film-english.com by Kieran Donaghy

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Step 3 Put students into small groups and ask them to choose a film they all know in which a character or characters fall in love at first sight; each group has to choose a different film. It’s important that the groups don’t know which film the other groups are working on. Ask them to try to remember what happens to the characters who fall in love at first sight. They should write a narrative describing the love story in 10 minutes. When they have finished a student from each group has to read out their story without using the name of the characters and the characters; the other groups have to guess which film they are describing.

Step 4

Love at First Sight

Show your students the 2 images below and tell them they are taken from a film in which a man and a woman fall in love at first sight.


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Put students into pairs and ask them the following questions:

Where and when do you think the film is set?

Step 5 Tell students you would like them to think about the following question:

What do you think is going to happen next in the film?


Love at First Sight

What emotions are the man and woman feeling at this moment?

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Give them some time to think and then give them 5 minutes to write a short narrative describing what happens next in the film. When they have finished they should read their narrative to another pair.

Step 6 Tell your students they are now going to watch the film. They should compare their stories with what the story they see in the film. Link: https://vimeo.com/9078364#

Step 7 Ask students the following question: How does the film make you feel?

Step 8 Ask students to imagine the following situation:

Put students into small groups and ask them to decide on the product or service you want to advertise and to create the 1-minute advertisement. Show the film again and give

Love at First Sight

You are an advertising executive who has just seen this film and really liked it. You’d like to contract the film director to make a 1-minute advertisement based on the concept of the film. You have to decide what to keep in the film and what to cut out. You also have to decide what product or service the advertisement will be for.


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students 10 minutes to come up with their advertisements. When they have finished get feedback from each group.

Step 9 Tell students that the situation you asked them to role-play actually happened and an advertiser contracted the film director to make a 1-minute advertisement based on the concept of his film. Show the advertisement and pause at 00:55. Ask students what they think of the advertisement and ask them to compare it with the short film. Finally, ask them what product or service they think is being advertised. Link: https://vimeo.com/30402087#

Step 10 Show the rest of the advertisement. Write the slogan on the board:

One of the differences between the short film and the advertisement is that the latter has a poem. Tell students sing-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen was commissioned to write the poem for the

Love at First Sight

“Don’t just watch. Feel.”


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Ask them if they think this is a good slogan for the advertisement and for Sony products.

Step 11

advertisement. Give students the hand-out with the poem. Ask them to read it and help with any vocabulary or expressions they don’t understand.

Step 12 Ask students if they think the poem goes well with the advertisement. Show the advertisement and get students to discuss the poem and the advertisement.

Love at First Sight

I hope you enjoy the lesson.


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