Interesting Movie Clips

“A math teacher’s presentation to other middle and high school teachers”

This site is a companion to the presentation “Math in the Movies – Using movie clips for motivation and mathematical connections.”

Movie clips are known to attract the interest of students and are often considered as efficient and real-life applications of mathematical topics since they are more fun, creative and more engaging. Using three-minute clips from well-known movies, one can determine the stage for a lesson or show a problem to solve for the students. The presentation will consist of different movie clips currently being used as learning materials with ninth and tenth graders.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, makers of ‘The Sound of Music’ have left so many wonderful songs in this most popular musical film of all time. One of the most beloved songs written for this film is the love song Edelweiss (a white flower found high in the Alpine Hills). Accompanied with a guitar, Capt Von Trapp(portrayed by Christopher Plummer) sung the song towards the end of the Saltzberg concert as he offers it to his fellow Austrians saying these lines ‘ I would like to sing for you now…a love song. I know you share this love. I pray that you will never let it die.’ Capt. Von Trapp became emotional towards the middle of the song that Maria joined him and the people sung with them. The Germans have no idea that it is a patriotic song and the Austrians are singing it out of great love for their country. Edelweiss was the last song written together by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The latter died of a terminal stomach cancer. Edelweiss as popular as it became was mistaken to be the national anthem of Austria.

A timeless classic, Casablanca has set a benchmark in the history of films. It is a story of love and self sacrifice in the midst of World War II. Humprey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman who played Rick and IIsa, had to sacrifice their love for each other for a greater cause. A film which gives significance to its musical score, anyone who had watched the film would never forget the scene where lovely IIsa requested Sam(the piano player) to play the timeless classic song’ As time goes by’. IIsa hum the song and Rick came out from the background and saw IIsa, the woman from his past. This particular scene from then on became one of the most romantic scenes in the film’s history.

Marilyn Monroe was not the only major sex symbol during the 50’s. Jayne Mansfield was an American actress and Playboy model who also became one of the contemporaries of Miss Monroe as the leading blonde sex symbols in the 1950’s. Born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933, Mansfield starred in many successful Hollywood films which popularized her platinum-blonde hair and sexy figure. She was awarded a Golden Globe Award and a Theatre World Award for two early screen and stage performances. Although her career was short-lived, she still managed to acquire celebrity status through several box office hits. She died in an automobile accident at 34.

Everyday, millions and millions of short video clips are uploaded on the web. These video clips are either produced by professionals or amateurs and are uploaded for sharing using a variety of video sharing sites like YouTube and Google video. Oftentimes, amateurs publish their video clips for the sake of having fun and entertainment by sharing them with other people. Professionals, on the other hand, produce and publish video clips to create traffic to their web sites in order to market or advertise their products or services for business. Such are reasons why one makes use of video clips either for entertainment or for profit.

As more and more video clips are getting uploaded on the internet every second, it would be interesting and entertaining, as well to see what videos are becoming popular in your region. This is what Rami Hababneh, a video clip fanatic, did in his informal research in which he meticulously searched the video sharing web application site YouTube in order to gauge which Jordanian clips are the most popular. Rami came up with very intriguing results for his research since two of the most popular videos he was able to search were about men giving women behind the wheel a hard time. These videos were Driving in Jordan and Liffi Liffi.

One of the most romantic comedy films of 1990s, Jerry Maguire has lots of unforgettable scenes and quotes. Directed and written by Cameron Crowe, the film is full of inspiring lines and sensible conversations. This is one excellent romantic movie about life, people and emotions. Lead actors Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger who acted out their parts so naturally were just perfect for their roles. One romantic scene that marks to our hearts is when Jerry(Tom Cruise) went to Dorothy(Renee Zellweger) to win her back. In this famous scene, the couple exchanged unforgettable quotes. Jerry uttered the famous line ’you complete me’ and Dorothy answered him back with ‘you had me at hello’. These lines surely fill the love letters of many since then on.

Every writer dreams being able to write that major work which will make him famous all over the world and will end his misery as the mediocre, no-name fool. Now, one way to go big time is to go into scriptwriting. Scriptwriting is, of course, not all that glorious, but if one really intends to make it big, then this field is the best path to take. Scriptwriting is one of the most challenging aspects of any film and most successful films rely on a heavy-impact script. That is why for writers who would want to take on this challenge, be sure to prepare yourselves for lots of tears, sweat and heartbreaks.

A math teacher’s presentation to other middle and high school teachers”

This site is a companion to the presentation “Math in the Movies – Using movie clips for motivation and mathematical connections.”

Movie clips generate high interest for students and often show real-life application of mathematical topics. Using three-minute clips from well-known movies, you can set the stage for a lesson or present a problem to solve. The presentation will feature several clips currently being used with ninth and tenth graders.

Back in the days of video tape, people would be often seen worrying about how to record their favorite scene from a movie into another video tape. It was such a hassle that people get so frustrated and give up on the chore. Luckily today, with the advancement of technology, one can simply copy a clip from a movie (or even copy the entire movie, which is illegal, but then again that’s a different issue) using the DVD player/writer of a computer. Watching movies have never been this fun and easy and people should be thankful for having a device which can record everything from video clips to movies in one simple click.