Which one, and one scene
Say what you chose, and name one scene from it in a single sentence. Do not describe the scene yet.
One prediction before you start.
1. Three minutes of plot. What goes wrong?
Summary, scene, meaning
Model — Ines, on a film
The summary. It is set in a small town on the coast, and it is about two sisters who have not spoken for years. The younger one turns up without warning and stays. It turns out she is running from something. Most of the film is the two of them in a very small flat, circling each other.
One scene. There is a scene about halfway through that I keep thinking about. It is late, and it is raining, and the older sister is doing the washing-up with her back to the room. The younger one is sitting at the table, and she has been drinking. She starts talking about their mother. The older one does not turn round. She just keeps washing the same plate, over and over, for about a minute of screen time, and you can see her shoulders. Nobody says anything for a long time.
What it meant. Nothing happens in that scene and it is the most tense thing in the film. That is the whole point of it — the tension is in what they do not say. I found it exhausting, in a good way. I would not watch it twice.
Work from the model.
1. How long is the summary section, roughly?
2. The scene uses is raining, is doing, is sitting, keeps washing. What are they doing?
3. The only real event in the scene is She starts talking about their mother. Why does it land?
4. The last section says I found it exhausting, in a good way. Which form and why?
Building a scene
The layers
| Layer | Tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Time and weather | past continuous / was | It is late, and it is raining. |
| What people are doing | past continuous | She is doing the washing-up. |
| What is already true | present perfect / had | She has been drinking. |
| The event | past simple | She starts talking about their mother. |
| The reaction | past continuous or simple | The older one does not turn round. |
One event per scene is enough. Three layers of background, one thing that happens, one reaction. That is ninety seconds, and it is more memorable than six plot points.
The model is in the present tense throughout because that is the plot-summary convention from Lesson 4. When you tell a scene from your own life, it goes into the past — and then the past continuous does exactly the same job.
Put the five layers in the order the model uses them.
Build one scene
Write the verb in brackets in the past simple or the past continuous. This is a scene from a student's own life, so it is in the past.
It (be) about eight in the evening and it (rain). My mother (cook) and my brother (sit) at the table not helping, as usual. Nobody (say) anything for about ten minutes. Then the phone (ring), and she (not / move) — she just (look) at it.
Four sentences, four errors. Rewrite each one in full.
1. While the phone rang, she looked at it.
2. It rained and she was doing the washing-up.
3. I was finding the scene exhausted.
4. Suddenly she was standing up and was leaving.
Three minutes, three sections
The longest speaking stretch of the unit.
Task card · Speaking
The film or series you chose, told to somebody who has not seen it.
Three minutes: forty seconds of summary, ninety seconds on one scene, thirty on what it meant. No spoilers.
- Summary in the present tense, four moves, as in Lesson 4.
- The scene: three layers of background, one event, one reaction.
- What it meant: at least two -ed / -ing adjective pairs, correctly.
- Then swap, and ask three questions about their film — none of which may ask what happens at the end.
Stop at ninety seconds and answer. Then carry on.
1. Which section are you in?
2. How many events have happened in your scene?
Three counts
Answer before your teacher reads the three counts.
1. Did the scene fill ninety seconds?
2. Which tense error was most common?
3. And the adjective pairs?
Carry the log
One question.
1. How many events should one scene have?
Before Lesson 6. Write down the two errors you are most sure you made — one tense, one adjective. From memory, without asking.
Lesson 6 compares your two with the log.