Movies & Cinema: Talk About Films in English (3.21)

Someone in this episode admits they will not go near a horror film: "I do not like to be…scared." The images stay in her head all night. Someone else has a much bigger complaint about the cinema — trailers that ruin everything: "I know who…who falls in love, who dies and what happens." Between those two reactions sits fifteen words for talking about films, from the plot and the cast to dubbed, subtitles and genre, with pronunciation practice on every one.

What you'll hear in this episode

Katie recorded two conversations for this unit. In the first, she and Kami compare the films they avoid. Kami's least favourite is "the scary thriller type movies", and one of the hosts confesses to watching about five minutes of Hostel and being haunted by one scene ever since. They talk about films set on the moon or set in space, and Kami makes an interesting distinction: she can't get into sci-fi or horror, but she admires special effects — "the things that they can come up with to make things look so real". The trouble, she says, is that "they just feel too real and like it could happen". Given a free choice of any role in cinema history, Katie picks Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz; Kami goes for Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

In the second conversation, Katie and Alec discuss subtitles versus dubbing. One of the speakers tells a slightly embarrassing story about a colleague congratulating him on his Spanish after a film — "it was in subtitles" — and then refusing to accept he'd really seen it. Alec makes an exception for Japanese animation with American voices, wonders aloud whether Toy Story counts as animation, defends talking a film to death afterwards ("the more that you talk about a film afterwards, the…the better it is"), and explains how he uses Rotten Tomatoes instead of critics. Katie brings up Braveheart and its two thousand extras.

Quick facts

Episode	3.21 – Movies & Cinema
Pack	Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3
Level	3
Duration	18 minutes 38 seconds
New words and phrases	15
Audio	Free
Workbook	In the €39 all-in-one pack

What you'll learn

The useful thing about film vocabulary is that most of it comes in pairs learners mix up, and this unit pulls those pairs apart. On location and set in are the clearest example: a film can be shot on location in France without being set in France, and Katie makes the same point about Alien and Predator, which are "supposed to be on the moon or a space station" but were probably filmed in a studio. Subtitles and dubbed are the other pair, and you hear them used naturally by two speakers who plainly disagree about which is worse.

The pronunciation work is precise rather than general. Genre begins with the /ʒ/ sound English speakers borrow from French, and the teaching section drills it on its own before the whole word. Subtitles takes stress on the first syllable. And when you say to play the part of or to play the role of, the little words weaken: of becomes /əv/ and the becomes /ðə/. That schwa is the focus of the pronunciation exercise, where you mark every /ə/ in phrases like a trailer, an extra and to play a part. Get those weak sounds right and the whole phrase suddenly sounds like English rather than a list of words.

Vocabulary from this unit

the plot – the things that happen in a story. Katie uses it for Hostel; Alec uses it to complain about trailers.
scenes – part of a story that happens in one place. The one scene from Hostel that stayed with a speaker for years.
on location – at a place which is not in the studio and represents a place in the movie.
set on / in / at – put in time or place: set on an island, set in the 1950's.
special effects – something that is not real added to a movie to make it more interesting or impressive.
animation – films made with drawings / images / cartoons. Alec's Toy Story question sits exactly here.
to play a part / role – to act the character.
the cast – all the actors in a movie or play.
an extra – a very small, often non-speaking part in a movie.
a critic – a person whose job it is to tell people their opinion of movies, plays, restaurants etc.
a trailer – an advert for a new movie that you watch before the main movie.
a sequel – a movie that continues the story of a previous movie.
genre – a kind or type of movie, for example thrillers, science fiction, horror.
to dub / dubbed – a movie which has the original language removed and then replaced with the sounds of another language.
subtitles – writing on the screen that shows what is being said in another language.

The workbook

The workbook for this unit contains the full transcript of both conversations with Kami and Alec, so you can go back and see exactly how each word was used in speech, hesitations included. There's a glossary with phonemic transcription and a short definition for all fifteen items.

Then three practice sections. Practice 1 is five comprehension questions that test whether you really understand the distinctions — whether a film shot on location in France must be set there, whether an extra is a star, whether you can read a dubbed film. Practice 2 is a word-swap exercise: seven sentences with the bold words in the wrong places, so you have to work out that the war scenes needed extras rather than critics, and that it was the critics who loved the film. Practice 3 is the pronunciation task on the /ə/ sound. Answers for all three are included.

This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack — every episode's workbook, exercises and answers, for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Frequently asked questions

Is the audio free?

Yes. The English conversations and the teaching sections are free to download. The workbook with the glossary and exercises comes with the paid pack.

Are the conversations scripted?

No. Katie's conversations with Kami and Alec are unscripted, which is why you hear false starts and people changing their minds mid-sentence. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

What level is this episode?

Level 3, from the Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3 pack. You'll get most from it if you can already follow two people chatting at natural speed.

Do I need to know the films they mention?

Not at all. Hostel, Braveheart, Toy Story and the rest are just examples — the language works with whatever films you happen to watch.

How long is it?

18 minutes 38 seconds, covering fifteen words and phrases with meaning checks and repetition practice.

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