Project 3: Interview with a character in a painting or a work of art

Objective: To create a documentary or a radio show in which you interview a character that appears in a painting, a sculpture, a building decoration, or a dance crated by an artist from the country or region where the language you are studying is spoken.

Length: Length: 4-5 minutes for intermediate students. More than 6 minutes for advanced students. Remember that pauses are necessary.

1. Choose a time period that interests you or that you are studying in your history classes. For example, the 1920s, World War II, 1850, or the 1500s.  Find a painting, a sculpture, a building with decorations, or a dance that was created during the period you chose.

2. Prepare 10 to 15 questions that you believe would be ideal.

3. Use Wikepedia or Google to find enough information to answer10 to 12 of the questions.  You may rewrite some of the questions if you find interesting information that you want to include in your project.

4. Write an introduction in which you describe briefly where and when this character was created.  Write a conclusion to the interview in which you give him or her thanks for the interview.  You may talk about the artist’s feelings at the moment he or she started to create this piece of art.

5. Practice the interview.  You may interrupt the character in some of the questions, or make a comment before asking the next question.  The interview has to sound like a conversation. 

6. Find pictures and maps to include in your documentary.  If you are working with pictures and audio only, you will need more pictures and maps.  If you are making a video, you may tape your video in a living room, a park, or an empty classroom.

7. Record your audio or video and upload your file to your e-Portfolio.

Advanced. Include one of the following
a. What if… After the interview, explain what this work of art would look like without the character you chose.  Would it be as pretty or important as it is now?  If your character is an animal or a vegetable, what would the work of art look like if it was a human?

b. A different place...  Explain what other place or places you believe it would be ideal for this piece of art to be at.  For example, you may say that it would be better if the Statue of Liberty was in Washington, D.C., or if Mona Lisa was in Rome, and why.