Mindmapping The Movie

Noah Mass
RHE309k
The Rhetoric of the Road Trip
Spring 2010

Overview

This is a Mindmapping exercise in film analysis. For the second assignment in this class, which is devoted to exploring travel rhetoric, my students were asked to choose one of four films that we examined in the genre of “road movies.” Their goal is to analyze the film that they choose in terms of how it defines “road trip” or “the road.” As preparatory work, we devoted a class day to discussing how individual elements in each film contributed to the film’s definitional argument. In this exercise, we used Novamind mindmapping software to break down and consider the film O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) in terms of the ways in which that film used particular evidence to advance its argument. However, this exercise could be adapted to work for just about any film.

Goals Supported

My class is not itself a “film genre” class. However, I want my students to consider visual rhetoric, as well as musical elements and plot devices, when they analyze a film’s argument and effectiveness.

How This Lesson Meets the Goals

My students work in small groups and create maps of the film in question that are divided into three branches, with each branch devoted to a different “element”—scenes/dialogue; music; visual elements—they recognize how a film operates to advance a particular argument on a variety of different levels. When the time comes to write their papers, they will be able to consider how different types of evidence in a given cultural object work towards one overall rhetorical goal.

Length of Assignment

One class Period

Materials Needed

Novamind Software. At the beginning of the semester, I require my students to download the trial version of the program, although they can certainly familiarize themselves with the program in the lab prior to class.

Preparatory Steps

By class time, all of the students in class were assigned to watch the film O Brother Where Art Thou. Further, they were each assigned to post an entry on our class blog in which they pointed to a particular “moment” in the film that each thought illustrated the film’s definition of “road trip” or “the road.” That moment did not necessarily have to be a moment of dialogue, but could have been a visual or musical element. Whatever they chose, though, they needed to argue in their post for why they thought that that moment illustrated the film’s overall “road trip” definition.

In class, we engaged in a class discussion regarding some of the blog posts, and settled on a number of plausible consensus about the film’s “road trip” definition.

Student Instructions

Each group has the same task: to collaborate on creating three-branched Novamind maps, the three branches devoted to “Scenes/Dialogue,” “Music,” and “Visual Elements.” Each group has to identify what they thought was the most important “scenic/dialogic,” “musical,” and “visual” element in the film, and explain how that element illustrated the definition that the class has decided on. After each group creates its map, we will go around the room, and each group will briefly explain which elements they’ve chosen for each category. As a group presents, I will type their responses into a single “master map,” with individual responses demarcated by the group members who had chosen them. Following class, I will embed the complete map in our class Wiki.

Student Response

The exercise asked my students to consider the multiple levels on which filmic rhetoric operates, and to break down those levels visually. It worked quite well, and many of my students used versions of this exercise when planning their own papers for their writing assignments.

Evaluation

This assignment was not graded. However, my class evaluated their own work via the Learning Record, and many posted Observations on this assignment.