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Other Homework Help. Discuss your responses, Writing Assignment Homework Help

ASSIGNMENTS:

Most of the lessons have three parts: a journal section, a weekly review section, and
an essay section. Collect these three parts into a single document.

I. JOURNALS

You should write one to two pages for each Unit. A complete “journal” will include the
following four sections:1. Responses to the video. Write for at least ten minutes. You might include in
your responses any of the following:

a) notes of favorite clips, films, and issues that you would like to pursue further.
b) notes of your own film experiences, memories, insights, or critical responses to
the material. It may help to start with “I saw,” “I feel,” “I was inspired by” or “I

remember.”c) disagreements with points made in the videos.
d) reactions to the content of the videos. Describe what struck you most about the

viewing experience and for what reasons.
e) pertinent ideas from earlier videos or chapters.

2. Report of a discussion. Discuss your responses with another person and write
about your conversation. (Discussing the material is part of the required work of
this class. Your report on your discussion can be very brief, but it should provide
evidence that you are doing this part of the work.) Often students find someone
willing to watch the videos with them, but you can also report on a conversation
with someone who did not see the video with you.

3. Comments on the additional film you saw for each unit. Watch one
additional film each week. If you can, choose a film mentioned in the textbook’s
“Select Filmography” at the end of the assigned chapter (or chapters) for that week.

4. Responses to the questions listed in each lesson’s “Journal” assignment.

II. WEEKLY REVIEWS

Each of the Unit assignments includes a list of key terms.

For each term, write a brief definition. Don’t make any definitions longer than a
paragraph. On the other hand, make them look like definitions and not like crossword
puzzle clues. Boldface the terms you are defining, and remember to italicize film
titles.

Your responses should be

complete enough to explain the term to someone who never heard it before
in your own words
pertinent to the movies.

When it comes to the grades you will receive on your lessons and in the course, no
other part of the work has greater importance than these “Weekly Review” definitions
and identifications, so please do your most careful work on them. When you can, use
one or two short examples (for example, representative names or film titles.)

III. ESSAYS

Each week’s lesson also includes an “essay” section. Write one to three well-
developed, carefully-proofread paragraphs for each essay question that you answer.
Make your essay something different from what you already wrote in your journal.

PAPERS

Paper 1: Film Review

Write a film review. Copy the style and format of a review you like (but don’t copy a
review of the same film). Choose as your model a review that is at least five
paragraphs long. Include a copy of the review you are using as a model, and not just
a hyperlink. (If you do not include a copy of the review you modeled yours after, I will
return your work marked “incomplete” and “not accepted.”) I enjoy the reviews
published by The Stranger (web-posted) and Stuart Klawans’ reviews in The Nation
(which you can access through the Seattle Central library website.) The film reviews
posted for most films at the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) under the link
“external reviews,” often begin with the late Roger Ebert’s Chicago Sun-Times
reviews. I recommend those as well. Write one to three pages.

If your model review includes a sidebar listing the credits or other fancy formatting,
try to follow that part of your model also!

Remember to make it sound like a review. Most readers do NOT want to read a long
recitation of the plot. Do not give away the whole story, especially the ending.
What was good and bad about the film?

When watching the film, try to notice as many aspects of the production as you can,
including lighting, sets, costumes, dialogue, acting, cinematography, editing, and so
forth. In writing your review, however, focus only on those aspects that seemed most
important to your reactions to the film. (For example, if the editing was not unusual or
especially interesting, then do not waste time mentioning it!)

A well written review tells the readers what you thought about the film and why and
also helps the readers decide whether they might enjoy the film themselves. Do not
conclude by saying “I recommend” or “I don’t recommend” this film. By the conclusion
of your review, your readers should already know which aspects of the film you
thought were commendable and which were not.

In addition to the information and format, I will be looking at your writing style. Can
you be entertaining as well as informative? Have fun with this one.

Paper 2: Shot-by-shot description of a scene

If we are to discuss film as a medium, then we must have a shared vocabulary for
describing what we see. For Paper #2, describe a short film sequence (30 seconds
or less) from a major Hollywood movie. Tell the name of the film you are using for
this assignment, and briefly mention how the sequence you are describing fits into
the larger story. Watch it on web video so you can play it back many times (or on
tape or DVD, if the scene you chose is not web-posted.) Use cinematic terms from
the first three units of the course (Videos 1 – 3, Supplementary Units 1 and 2, and
the textbook chapters). For example, identify close-ups, long shots, establishing
shots, matching shots (all three types), lighting, cuts, and dissolves.

Be careful to accurately number the shots that you are describing.

If you use a web-posted video as your source, tell the URL and the time
(in minutes and seconds) at which the scene you are describing begins.

Once you have described each shot individually, try to draw connections between
them. What does each shot express individually? Explain how these techniques
affected your reactions to the film. For example, quick cuts might create a sense of
speed, fear, or excitement. Soft focus and slow dissolves might create a feeling of
romance. Describing the film’s technique is this assignment’s primary goal. The
secondary goal is to think through how these technical decisions affect your
experience of the film’s story.

Although both the Paper One and Paper Two assignments involve studying a film
and understanding how it achieves its effects, don’t mix up the two assignments.
Paper One should not be cluttered with details about individual shots. Paper Two
should not look like a film review. Here’s an example demonstrating the
suggested format for Paper 2:

I have chosen 30 seconds from the final scene of Singin’ In the Rain (1952), a great
musical based on the songs co-written by Arthur Freed. Freed was a graduate of
Broadway High School, which existed on the site where Seattle Central College now
stands.

I am describing the first 30 seconds of the scene posted at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LVgr-nk1mM. They show Lina Lamont (played by
Jean Hagen), a character who had been a star of silent movies, trying to disguise the
fact that her voice had been dubbed in her new talking picture, by fooling an audience
into thinking that she can sing.

Shot # 1: The sequence begins with a LOW ANGLE LONG SHOT of Lina on stage, in a
spotlight, in front of a huge curtain. We hear a small rustle of applause. The conductor
asks what she will sing. In the foreground we see about a dozen formally-dressed
musicians, so we know this is a big occasion. CUT TO

Shot # 2: a LOW ANGLE MEDIUM SHOT of Lina, still standing in front of an old-
fashioned microphone. Her fancy headband flashes quickly with reflected light. She
smiles nervously and backs toward the curtain. The Camera TILTS DOWN very slightly
to follow her motion. CUT TO

Shot # 3: a MEDIUM SHOT of Kathy Selden (played by Debbie Reynolds), clutching a
similar microphone and leaning forward (to the left) to whisper “Singing in the Rain” to
the curtain (and presumably to Lina on the other side of the curtain, whose question
she is answering.) Kathy, against her will, will be doing the actual singing while Lina
mimes the words on stage. CUT TO

Shot #4 a shot that mirrors the previous LOW ANGLE MEDIUM SHOT (shot #2): the
camera TILTS UP slightly as Lina approaches the microphone and tells the conductor
“Singing in the Rain.” CUT TO

Shot #5 a POINT OF VIEW MATCH to a HIGH ANGLE SHOT of the conductor telling his
musicians “Singing in the Rain.” Behind him we see formally-dressed audience
members sitting in the first three rows. He asks her the key. CUT TO

Shot #6 a POINT OF VIEW MATCH to that familiar LOW ANGLE MEDIUM SHOT of Lina,
as seen by the conductor. As in shots 2 and 4, she backs to the curtain (with the
camera TILTING DOWN), hears Kathy whisper A♭, and then returns to the microphone
(with the camera TILTING UP.) CUT TO

Shot #7 a return to ina’s POINT OF VIEW MATCH to a HIGH ANGLE SHOT of the
conductor, as seen in shot #5, telling his musicians the key and preparing to begin.
The song begins. CUT TO

Shot #8 another LOW ANGLE MEDIUM SHOT of Lina, this time smiling and moving her
elbows up and down a little foolishly as she prepares to sing CUT TO

Shot #9 a MEDIUM SHOT of three men facing forward in a line. First Cosmo Brown and
then R.F. Simpson and Don Lockwood, all formally dressed and standing backstage,
make matching rhythmic arm movements and smile sadistically.

The bright color photography and HIGH-KEY lighting throughout this scene help
establish that it is a comedy.

Paper 2 can take a lot of time, but often I have no comments to add after I read
them. (My main comments usually have to do with keeping track of how many
shots you are looking at.) Pick a scene that you will enjoy studying in detail.

IV. FINAL EXAM

The final examination is a two-essay assignment that you turn in like the others,
not a special event that involves working under a proctor’s supervision.

The questions appear in the back of this course guide.

Unit 1: The Hollywood Style
Read & View

• Chapter 1: “The Emergence of Cinema as an Institution”
• Chapter 2: “Classical Hollywood Cinema: Narration”

• Chapter 3: “Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style.”
• Video 1: “The Classical Hollywood Style”

Learning Objectives

Understand the basic narrative and stylistic components of the Hollywood Style.

Journal

Write one to two pages of journal, responding to the video, describing a conversation
you had with another person about it, and commenting on an additional film you saw
for this unit (as described in the Assignments section above, under “Journals”). Make
a list of what you associate with the word “Hollywood.” In other words, if someone
described a film they had recently seen as “very Hollywood,” what would you think
about it? Would your sense of “Hollywood” change if you were thinking of a movie
from the 1930s rather than a current film? [Spoiler warning: the video shows part
of the ending of Casablanca. (That doesn’t bother me, but a few students
complained. If you have not seen Casablanca yet {and most of us have not}, please
do!)]

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

• seamless editing• Citizen Kane• three point lighting (name and describe the three “points”)
• matching shots (name and describe the three types)• cut• dissolve• low angle shot• 180 degree rule

Essays

Define the classic Hollywood style.

Construct a simple sequence that conveys the following information: two people who
have not seen each other for a long time meet by chance. Use no more than five
shots. Describe each type of shot and cut. For example, you might (or might not) use
a close-up or a dissolve.

Unit 2: The Studio System
Read & View

• Chapter 4: “The Studio System”
• Video 2: “The Studio System”

Learning Objective

Understand how the business of filmmaking developed historically and how economics
shapes film content, production, and distribution.

Journal

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

• vertical integration
• oligopoly• block booking• blind bidding

• United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., et al.

(If necessary, use dictionaries and other supplementary materials, but be sure that
you avoid plagiarism; that you tell where you got your information; and that you
make clear how your answers connect to the subject of the Hollywood studio system.)

Essay

How did the studio system affect film content in the 1930s and 1940s?

Unit 3: The Star
Read & View

Chapter 5: “The Star System”
Video 3: “The Star System”
Supplementary Unit 1: “Film Language”
Supplementary Unit 2: “Thinking and Writing About Film”

Learning Objective

Understand what makes a star; how the film business uses stars; and the roles of
stars in society.

Journal

Write one to two pages of journal, responding to the video about stardom, describing
a conversation you had with another person about it, and commenting on an
additional film you saw for this unit (as described in the Assignments section above,
under Journals). Who are your favorite stars and why do you like them? In what films
have you enjoyed their performances? In what ways have your ideas about
masculinity or femininity been affected by film?

Weekly Review

Define

Essay:

What are some economic reasons for the star system?

JOURNAL FOR SUPPLEMENTARY UNITS (attach to a separate email message)

Write one to two pages of journal, responding to the half-hour supplementary videos
(11 “Film Language” and 12 “Writing and Thinking About Film”) and describing a
conversation you had with another person about it, as described in the Assignments
section above, under “Journals.” (This assignment is simpler than the others. It
includes no definitions or essays and has no reading assignment.)

[These videos are on the last disc of the DVD set. The “Writing and Thinking
About Film” video tells the ending of Fritz ang’s Scarlet Street (1945.)]

or identify:

persona
typecasting
United Artists
Konstantin Stanislavsky ( )
Judy Garland

Unit 4: The Western

Read & View

Chapter 11: “The Making of the West” Video: “The Western”

Learning Objective

Identify the components of the western genre film (stereotypes, plot motifs, settings,
myths); and how changes in the genre correspond to changes in society.

Journal

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

B picture
Manifest Destiny
stereotypes
genre

(Reminder: if you use dictionaries and other supplementary materials, be sure that
you avoid plagiarism; that you tell where you got your information; and that you
make clear how your answers connect to the subject of Westerns.)

Essay (choose one)

(1) Select the opening scene of a Western and describe it in detail. Name the shots
and explain how they relate to genre conventions.

(2) Are westerns a “guy genre”? Most people think so. What do westerns suggest
about masculinity and femininity? Why might they appeal to boys more than to
girls?

Unit 5: Romantic Comedy

Reading

Chapter 8: “American Comedy” Video 5: “Romantic Comedy”

Learning Objectives

Identify the components of the romantic comedy (stereotypes, plot motifs, settings,
myths); and how changes in the genre respond to changes in society.

Journal

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

the Tramp
animal comedy
Frank Capra
Production Code

Essays (choose one)

(1) What were the connections between screwball comedies and the Depression?
What were the connections between screwball comedies and censorship?
(2) What does the textbook say about how comedies work to achieve “social
cohesion, integration, and regeneration”? (Show evidence that you read what the
textbook said about this.)

Unit 6: The Combat Film

Read & View

Chapter 9: “War and Cinema” Video 6: “The Combat Film”

Learning Objective

Identify the components of the combat film (stereotypes, plot motifs, settings,
myths); and how changes in the genre relate to American military history.

Journal

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

stereotypes in combat films
newsreels
Office of War Information
pacifism

(Reminder: show how these are connected to the subject of combat films.)

Essay (choose one)

(1) How have combat films portrayed noncombatants? What stereotyped roles do
nonmilitary people have in these stories?
(2) How did combat films made during World War II differ from combat films made
after the Vietnam War? Use specific examples to support your points.

Unit 7: Film Noir
Read & View

Chapter 10: “Film Noir: Somewhere in the Night” Chapter 13: “Hollywood and the
Cold War”Video 7: “Film Noir”

Learning Objectives

Identify the components of film noir (lighting, music, stereotypes, plot motifs,
settings, myths), and consider film noir in its historical context.

Journal

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

cinematography

German Expressionism
deep focus
“The Hollywood Ten”

Essay (choose one):

(1)

(2)
(3)

How do noir films make you feel? How does the music, lighting, and setting
contribute to these feelings? What might explain why “noir” feelings were more
frequently expressed in the films of the 1940s than in those of the 1930s or
1950s?

What makes a film seem “realistic”?What lessons can we learn from Hollywood’s experiences of the Cold War?

Unit 8: Film in the Television Age
Read & View

Chapter 14: “Hollywood in the Age of Television” Video 8: “Film in the Television
Age”

Learning Objective

Understand how television affected Hollywood film economics, how television content
affected film content, and how the film industry adopted new technologies to fight
back.

Journal

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

anamorphic lens
letterboxCinerama3-D

Essay (choose one):

(1) How did the changing film business in the early years of TV influence the types of
films produced?

(2) How did widescreen projection change film content?

Unit 9: The Film School Generation
Read & View

Chapter 15: “The 1960s: The Counterculture Strikes Back” Chapter 16: “The Film
School Generation”Video 9: “The Film School Generation”

Learning Objective

Identify the major film school generation directors/producers and how they changed
film content.

Journal

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

Easy Rider
Roger Corman
auteur theory
the French New Wave
blaxploitation

Essay (choose one):

(1) Who are the film school generation directors? How did the economics of the film
industry allow these directors to come to the fore?

(2) How did Hollywood address the problem of racism in the 1960s?

Unit 10: The Edge of Hollywood

Read & View

Chapter 17: “Into the Twenty-first Century” Video 10: “The Edge of Hollywood”

Learning Objectives

Understand how the film industry encourages and discourages independent film
makers; identify the influence of genre films on independent films.

Journal

Weekly Review

Define or identify:

Reaganite cinema
Independent cinema
Fantasy films
digitization

(Reminder: use examples of specific films, when appropriate, in your definitions!)

Essay

What are some of the relationships between independent filmmaking and Hollywood?
What do independent filmmakers and the Hollywood motion picture industry get from
each other?

FINAL EXAM

Choose two out of the following four essay topics to write about. Each essay should
be about five paragraphs long.

Rewrite the question into the first paragraph, so your answer makes sense without
having to read the question.

Formatting, spelling and grammar count. Spell-check, copy-edit and proofread your
essays.

Do some research with the library resources. Don’t rely simply on your own
memories or on a websearch of publicly-available sources like Wikipedia. Put both of
your essays in a single document.

1) Describe the career of an individual associated with motion pictures (such as a star
or other actor, a director, or a writer.) How do you explain their success (or lack of
success)? What makes that career worth remembering? Use examples from at
least two of their films
2) Describe how one film genre has changed over time. How do these changes
correspond to the changes in American society? Refer to at least four specific films
for your examples.
3) Compare two or more versions of a film that has been remade. How do changes in
filmmaking technology, the organization of the film industry, the personalities of
their directors, audience tastes, or other things contribute to the changes we see
on the screen? (I offer these items merely as suggestions of some of the things
you might consider when trying to understand the differences. Do not waste time
in this essay talking about things that made no difference or that you can find no
interesting and directly pertinent information about.) You can find suggestions for
films to compare by looking at the Internet Movie Database’s “movie connections”
tab for films that you liked, and checking to see if anything appears listed as a
“version of” or “remake of.” Titanic (1997), appears in that database as a “version
of” six other films, including A Night to Remember (1958.) The

Nutty Professor (1996) was a “remake of” a film by the same title released in
1963. You are not limited to connections that the Internet Movie Database has
already made for you.
4) Compare two or more films that deal with similar subject matter. I think, for
example, that it might be interesting to compare Destination Moon (1950) and
Apollo 13 (1995.) These are both feature films that attempted to dramatize a
space mission very realistically (one as a prediction of the near future, and the
other as a dramatization of the recent past.) The Internet Movie Database’s “key
words” tab can help you find connections between different films (though you do
not have to limit yourself to what they have said.) How about A Mighty Wind
(2002) and Wasn’t That a Time (1982)? Choose films you love or hate.

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