Learn film storytelling with an 1990s TV ad

The 1980s and 1990s were the golden age of British TV advertising. We didn’t have cable or streaming, so the two commercial channels had huge audiences. Airtime was expensive so advertisers created mini-epics. That makes the ads a great resource for learning and teaching about short film storytelling.

I’ve used this DelMonte ad many times to introduce the essentials of film storytelling to children and teachers. You can watch my video analysis (above).

This particular ad tells a complete story from beginning to end in thirty seconds. It’s a good model for learners’ own first films because it’s so short with no live sound or dialogue.

When I teach with the ad, I start by freezing on the first shot and asking what they can see in the shot, what country they think the film is set in, and how they know that. This ‘freeze frame’ technique is a good way for learners to explore how films tell their story in detail.

I go through ad pausing on each shot, asking questions and introducing film terminology. Then we play ‘spot the shots’: I play the ad all the way through and ask learners to guess how many shots there were. Even though we’ve been through it shot by shot, primary (K-12) children often guess much fewer than the actual number.

Finally, we explore how important sound is to the storytelling.

If you’d like to use the film yourself for teaching, I’ve created a PowerPoint version which goes into more detail than the video. The presenter notes suggest questions you can ask about each shot.

You can download the PowerPoint free at this WeTransfer link (223Mb).

Tom Barrance

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