On today’s podcast I chatted about a recent film that I had seen (The BFG - Big Friendly Giant) and used some movie-specific vocabulary and expressions to describe it.
First, why not clickhere to watch a trailer for The BFG.
What did you think about it?
Would you like to watch it?
Now, let’s look at some of the film vocabulary and expressions I used in the podcast.
1. “The movie is based on the children’s story The BFG.”
This sentence means that story in the movie came from a children’s book. Movies can be based on novels, children’s books, short stories, operas, plays and real-life events. In the podcast I said The BFG was first written as a book for children by Roald Dahl. Clickhere to read more about Roald Dahl.
2. “It’s an animated movie about a young girl called Sophie who meets a giant.”
Animated movies are different from normal movies. While normal movies use cameras to film real people (actors and actresses), animated movies film lots and lots of pictures to create moving pictures. These pictures can be hand-drawn or created on computers. The BFG is an interesting movie because it uses animation and real actors and actresses. Click on thislink to see a short animated movie clip.
3. “Mark Rylance plays the BFG and Ruby Barnhill plays Sophie.”
We often us the verb ‘play’ when we talk about movies. It tells us which actors/actresses play which character. In the above sentence Mark Rylance and Ruby Barnhill are the main actor and actress and the BFH and Sophie are their characters.
4. “The movie is directed by one of the most famous directors around, Steven Spielberg.”
The director is the person who directs (organizes/manages) the making of the film. Check out all of the films that Steven Spielberg has directed by clicking here.
5. “In the movie, the BFG takes Sophie to Giant country. But when she gets there she sees that the other giants are not vegetarians. In fact, they enjoy eating people.”
When we describe the plot (the story) of a film we use the present simple. In this way, it is different from telling a story ourselves, where we usually use narrative tenses, such as the past simple.
Question time
Ivan asked me this question: Do I say My Team is winning, or do I say My team are winning?”
The answer is you can say both. Team is a collective noun. Like some other collective nouns, a team can be seen as a single unit (use ‘is’ here) or as a collection of individuals (use ‘are’ here).
That brings us to the end of this podcast blog.
All the best and thanks for listening.
Mark
First, why not clickhere to watch a trailer for The BFG.
What did you think about it?
Would you like to watch it?
Now, let’s look at some of the film vocabulary and expressions I used in the podcast.
1. “The movie is based on the children’s story The BFG.”
This sentence means that story in the movie came from a children’s book. Movies can be based on novels, children’s books, short stories, operas, plays and real-life events. In the podcast I said The BFG was first written as a book for children by Roald Dahl. Clickhere to read more about Roald Dahl.
2. “It’s an animated movie about a young girl called Sophie who meets a giant.”
Animated movies are different from normal movies. While normal movies use cameras to film real people (actors and actresses), animated movies film lots and lots of pictures to create moving pictures. These pictures can be hand-drawn or created on computers. The BFG is an interesting movie because it uses animation and real actors and actresses. Click on thislink to see a short animated movie clip.
3. “Mark Rylance plays the BFG and Ruby Barnhill plays Sophie.”
We often us the verb ‘play’ when we talk about movies. It tells us which actors/actresses play which character. In the above sentence Mark Rylance and Ruby Barnhill are the main actor and actress and the BFH and Sophie are their characters.
4. “The movie is directed by one of the most famous directors around, Steven Spielberg.”
The director is the person who directs (organizes/manages) the making of the film. Check out all of the films that Steven Spielberg has directed by clicking here.
5. “In the movie, the BFG takes Sophie to Giant country. But when she gets there she sees that the other giants are not vegetarians. In fact, they enjoy eating people.”
When we describe the plot (the story) of a film we use the present simple. In this way, it is different from telling a story ourselves, where we usually use narrative tenses, such as the past simple.
Question time
Ivan asked me this question: Do I say My Team is winning, or do I say My team are winning?”
The answer is you can say both. Team is a collective noun. Like some other collective nouns, a team can be seen as a single unit (use ‘is’ here) or as a collection of individuals (use ‘are’ here).
That brings us to the end of this podcast blog.
All the best and thanks for listening.
Mark
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