A young girl is busy taking pictures when she accidentally breaks her instant camera. Upset and not thinking of repair, the girl drops the camera into a trash can. But the broken camera has other ideas… if only it can get her attention.
Last Shot is a 2016 CGI animated short by Aemilia Widodo at Ringling College of Art + Design. Can the camera catch the girl’s eye? Will she give her camera a second chance?
Via Engage Their Minds: Alice Vigors of Thinking Pathways shares a Main Side Hidden teaching strategy that can help learners examine things from different perspectives. She includes lesson notes and a student template.
“The Main Side Hidden routine is designed to help learners: examine things from different perspectives; explore multiple narratives that are often present in a text, animation, image, event…
• Main: What is happening to the main character(s) in the story?
• Side: What is happening to the other character(s) in the story? What’s their story?
• Hidden: What is the theme or key message that is hidden beneath the surface of these stories?”
• Main Side Hidden Lesson Notes from Thinking Pathways.
• Main Side Hidden Student Template from Thinking Pathways.
• See Think Wonder, a teaching strategy outlined by Facing History.
How many other animated shorts can be used with this exercise? Try these handpicked options to start:
• Snack Attack, Eduardo Verastegui’s animated short about perceptions
• Omelette by Madeline Sharafian
• Alike, an animated short film
• Link, an animated short by Robert Löbel
• Hair Love, the Oscar-winning animation by Matthew A. Cherry
Bonus: Kintsugi & kintsukuroi – The art of pottery mending with gold.
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