A close-up versus a long shot. Backlighting versus ambient lighting. Dialogue versus music. These are some of the choices that cinematographers make that form the backbone of films, creating cinematic experiences with long-lasting impacts.

Fiction and Film, an unleveled English class offered to seniors, is taught by English teachers Rob Primmer and Jason Montrose. The flexibility and unleveled nature of the class, allows students to express themselves through creative projects and assignments. Simultaneously, they learn about the aspects and elements that go into creating films.

Primmer said that the primary aim of the class is to train students to view films in the same way that they read a book by analyzing the themes: figurative language and character development.

“It can feel very much like a regular English class, [but] the text is film rather than written text,” Primmer said. “There’s also times when we do a lot of hands-on things, [or] where they’re actually learning movie-making techniques…So not only are they learning to think analytically about film, but they’re also doing that same kind of work as well.”

Primmer said that there is an inclusive mix of kids due the class being unleveled, and that he values this diversity. He also said that most students who take the class are linked through their interests.

“You get kids who really like film and have always wanted to learn about film. Then you get people who really love to make films. Most people choose it because they want to learn more about film and so everybody’s sort of unified with that,” Primmer said.

Senior Samantha Rosenzweig said she decided to take the course because she wanted to learn more about the craft of film.

“I thought it would be interesting to learn about composition and choices that filmmakers make. So costumes, actors, actresses, stuff like that,” Rosenzweig said.

Like Rosenzweig, senior Christa Washburn said that they wanted to delve deeper into the specific elements of film. Washburn said they wanted to be part of a class that could touch on what they appreciate in film.

“When I watch movies generally, I tend to pick out different parts of things, whether that be the way that the set’s organized or just certain props that people are holding that have some form of importance,” Washburn said. “I wanted to be a part of a class that was able to pick apart things and dissect texts at the same time.”

Primmer said that the biggest difference between the Fiction and Film class and other English classes is that most of their materials are films rather than books.

“Instead of taking three weeks to read a novel and then being able to talk about the entire novel, we often can watch a film in two or three days and then be able to talk about the whole film much sooner,” Primmer said. “We can see the whole arc of the story a lot sooner than we can when we read a text and read a novel.”

Rosenzweig said the flexibility and independence provided by the Fiction and Film class enables a more enhanced learning experience.

“[I like] the freedom because we have term projects where we get to choose our own movie to write about,” Rosenzweig said. “I feel like you learn more that way. If you’re doing something that you enjoy, you actually wanna pay attention and understand it.”

Washburn said they appreciate how supportive and welcoming the environment is.

“It’s a space where we’re able to express ourselves. We wrote a screenplay already so the fact that I’m able to put my own ideas into it and kind of share my opinions on things is really good,” Washburn said. “The overall environment is really good.”