CBC Archives

Ask students what music awards shows they are familiar with and what the format and audience of each show is. Ask students what they think the audience would be looking for in a special tribute to a musician at one of these awards shows.

Tell students that they are going to organize a tribute to Leonard Cohen for a music awards show. With a partner, they are going to select 10 minutes of interview footage from the Leonard Cohen topic on the CBC Digital Archives Web site. They must decide which excerpts of the clips they would like to show in order to best represent the man in the allotted time. To fill in the gaps between clips, students may choose to add voice-over information about important details of his life. Students should list which clips they will use, the order they will show them, where they will add voice-overs, and what information the voice-overs will include. Students should write three paragraphs at the end of their tribute to explain their choices to the director of the award program.

Students can share their work with the class and expand on their analysis of the various interviews.

Have students audio-tape the tributes they have outlined, including the voice-overs they wish to add.