Text size: default | larger

Behind the Scenes

Introduction || Task || Process || Conclusion || Evaluation

Introduction

You are doing research for a movie script you are writing. The movie follows a family through two centuries - 18th and 19th. At the moment you are wondering what the sets in the movie will look like in order to capture the look of the different locations family members lived in during these centuries. In the script the family lived in Europe and the eastern part of the United States.

Task

You decide there's only one thing for you to do. You need to start looking at photographs and other images of buildings, people, and scenery from the time in which your movie takes place. Because of how you've written the script you'll have to locate images of both city and country life in the 18th and 19th centuries. You also want to look at both buildings used for business and those used as people's residences. When you are done with your research you should have located a series of images you can use as you consider the locales to use in your movie. You will also develop citations just in case in the movie credits you need to credit any of the images.

Process

Please note, some of the materials linked in the process section of this webquest are in .pdf. These documents require Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download the free Acrobat Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.

1. The one thing you are certain of as you start the research is that the place to use as a jumping off point is the New York Public Library's Picture Collection Online website. You go to the site and notice you are in luck, the front page tells you that there are images in the Collection through the first quarter of the 20th century. Before you go any further however, you decide to write down all the terms and phrases you can think of that might be used in searching for the type of images for which you are looking. You record them on a sheet of paper (File in .pdf).
2. After you write down all the terms and phrases you are ready to start searching The Picture Collection Online. You notice on the front page of the site a search box in which you can type in search terms or phrases. Before using one of the terms or phrases you just wrote down, you decide you want to read about how to search successfully at the site in the site's help section.
3. After you read the help information you are ready to start searching. You go back to the main page of the site and type in one of the terms and phrases you recorded previously in the search box. You press "Enter" and see your search results. You start browsing through the results to find images that you think will be useful in the development of background sets for the movie. As you look over the results you take notes on the images you think will be most useful on a sheet of paper you call image list. (File in .pdf.)
4. As you look through the images you realize that it would be a good idea to be able to collect those images in which you are most interested in some sort of Gallery. You realize that every image on the results list has a link labeled Add to My Gallery. You decide you need to go back to the help section to find out what this is.
5. You discover the My Gallery feature is exactly what you need so you start adding images to the gallery.
6. After looking through the images from your first quick search you decide to see what a search using the Advance Search function leads to. You select the Search link at the top of the page and access the advanced search screen. You select another phrase from the list you recorded on the sheet of paper and then you realize you need more help. So you visit the help section of the site and learn how the searches work. You return to the search screen, enter your phrase, make selections from the drop-down menus and perform your search.
7. You continue to look through the images, record notes on the image list, and add images to the gallery. When you have all the images you need in your gallery it's time to select those that will be most useful in writing the movie script. You go back to your image list and read what you wrote about why each image would be helpful in your script writing. You decide that now that you've completed your searching some of the images can be discarded so you delete them from the gallery.
8. When your gallery is complete you need to write citations for each image in order to make sure that when your movie is in the post-production phase you can properly credit each image used as you wrote your script. You print out your gallery and use the citation guide (File in .pdf) to write out the citations for each image in your gallery.
9. When you are done it's time to get back to the script.

Conclusion

The script is completed and without too much trouble you actually found a producer who decided to buy it. Production has started on the movie already. You just got off the phone with the set designer who called to tell you that the notes you have in the script about the look of the movie locations are perfect. He said he's never seen such clear notes and he's really happy that you included a printout of the images and image citations so he can do some follow-up research. All your hard work certainly paid off.

Evaluation

The following questions give you the chance to evaluate what you learned about The Picture Collection as you worked on this webquest. (Please note: when you submit the form below it will be sent to Picture Collection Online staff. They will use the information you send to evaluate the success of this webquest.)