The writing, shooting, and editing of a film is often a demanding, yet rewarding process. Before the final cut can be made to any project, filmmakers have many decisions to make and obstacles to overcome. Filmmakers must first think about the story that they would like to tell and how they can creatively express it in a narrative structure. Often working with many performers and technicians, clear and effective communication is essential. This collaboration includes helping the actors discover their character’s motivation in a supportive environment, enabling them to deliver their most compelling performance. After the shooting is complete, the various shots and angles must be concisely assembled, so each scene supports the narrative structure. Once a rough cut is made, some filmmakers seek the feedback of peers and test audiences. Through this feedback, a stronger cut can be released for a general audience.
This process of making a film, from start to finish, has many shared experiences with language teachers when making a lesson. Task-based language teaching focuses on the use of authentic target language to complete a pragmatic task and is widely adopted by teachers, so for the purpose of this paper this approach is discussed. When making a task-based lesson, a learning outcome with real-world application must first be decided for students, followed by creating and sequencing a variety of tasks to help facilitate this outcome. During the lesson, teachers can also provide a supportive classroom environment, enabling students to gain further meaning and, hopefully, develop a deeper motivation for learning. After teaching the lesson, the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson can be shared among the teachers in a lesson feedback document. Revisions based on this feedback can be made, so a more effective lesson can be taught the following academic year.