Final exam (5%) is comprehensive and consists of (a) short essay(s) involving topics from the textbook and class discussions and film analysis.

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1 English , Film Studies Instructor: Dr. Scott Baugh Course Information & Syllabus Office: English/Philosophy 463 Summer I, 2003 Office hrs: M 1-2; T-H 4-4:15; & by app. scott.baugh@ttu.edu Phone: (74) x244 Course goals: The primary objective of English 3388 is to introduce students to film studies. More specifically, the course will cover foundational film concepts and reading strategies; these will provide students a method to actively read, analyze, discuss, and write about a representative sample of films. Text: Louis Giannetti s Understanding Movies, 9 th ed. (Prentice-Hall, 2002). Requirements & Grading: Participation (10%) involves careful and critical consideration of assigned material prior to and during each class. Strive to draw significant connections among the readings and screenings both in your observations and in your writing. In-class and out-of-class activities including exercises and quizzes will invite you to express your ideas about the assigned material and prepare you to share your ideas in class and group discussions. Response journal (5%) consists of three two-page entries (each approximately 500 words). In each prose entry you should apply film concepts from the textbook to an independently viewed film selected from the options list; aim to explore analytical interpretations of the film. Critical essay #1 (40%) allows you to apply film concepts from the first half of the course to an analytical interpretation of a film s scene/sequence that has not been discussed in class. Critical essay #2 (40%) allows you to apply film concepts from the whole course to an analysis of a film s scene/sequence that has not been discussed in class. The critical essays should be typed, double-spaced, and properly formatted. Essays not meeting the length requirement of three to five pages (750 to 1,250 words) or improperly formatted will be returned ungraded to be completed and submitted late. Evaluation is based on the originality and persuasiveness of the interpretation, the organization of the argument, and the clarity of the writing. Final exam (5%) is comprehensive and consists of (a) short essay(s) involving topics from the textbook and class discussions and film analysis. NB: All major assignments including response journal, both critical essays, and final exam must be completed in order to pass this course. Evaluation will be based on TTU s high standards: A consistently excellent, insightful work. B work of good quality, intelligent, organized. C work of average quality that fulfills the requirements of the assignment in a satisfactory manner; may be characterized by simplicity, repetition, underdevelopment, minor compositional errors. D work of below average quality; may be characterized by illogical structure or inadequate development. F work that does not meet the requirements of the assignment in some essential way. Final letter grades will be based on a 100-point scale: A= ; B= 89-80; C= 79-70; D= 69-60; F= 59 and lower; letter grades with +/- will follow TTU convention. -1-

2 Attendance: Regular attendance is expected and required. Students should come to class on time and prepared for the day's activities. Ultimately, students are responsible for all work covered in the course; accordingly, any student with excessive absences say, four or more out of our twenty-two meetings will be in jeopardy of failing the course. In extreme and/or extended cases of illness or emergency, contact the instructor and be prepared to provide your academic dean legitimate documentation. The instructor reserves the right to implement individualized tardy policies for students repeatedly coming to class late. Late work: In-class writing and exercises (including daily quizzes) missed due to absence or tardiness will not be accepted late; all other assignments are subject to a penalty if not completed and submitted on time. Late work will receive a 10% deduction for each class meeting it is late unless you have made prior arrangements with the instructor regarding an extension. Special accommodation: Any student needing special accommodations or assistance to meet the requirements of this course due to a disability should contact the Disabled Student Support Program office (250 West Hall) and notify the instructor as soon as possible. Other policies: Plagiarism is grounds for failure in this course; for TTU definitions and policies concerning plagiarism and academic dishonesty, check the University Catalog. Given the nature of the written assignments, there should be no reason to consult outside sources. However, if you do consult a work other than your primary text (the film you are reading), acknowledge your source; use MLA style. Occasionally during the semester, student-instructor conferences will need to be scheduled. If you need to reschedule or cancel an appointment, please notify me as soon as possible via phone or . Please note important dates on the University calendar and consider the course schedule. This is not to discourage you from completing this course; however, the workload can be quite intensive, though, and you do not want to fall behind and then not be able to drop the course. Appreciate and help maintain the academic environment of the classroom. Some students might find offensive certain subjects depicted in some films screened and/or discussed. If you encounter something offensive, feel free to remove yourself from the situation leaving the room, theater, etc. and contact the instructor as soon as possible to arrange for alternate assignments. Likewise, please show respect for your fellow classmates in your conduct. This includes listening to whomever is speaking and not interrupting presentations in progress, including class discussions and screenings. Also, please turn off all electronic devices cell phones, for example before class begins. It would be prudent to get contact information (phone number, address) of several classmates. Use this student network as a resource for studying, workshopping written work, screening films, checking assignments, etc. -2-

3 Tentative Schedule: Date Focus on... Assignment due Screening 5/29 Premiere 30 Got style? UM pp /2 Narratology UM ch 8 Citizen Kane 3 Cinematography UM pp Citizen Kane 4 Journal entry #1 5 6 Mise-en-Scene UM ch 2 All About Eve 9 Movement UM ch 3 All About Eve 10 Journal entry #2 11 Essay #1 thesis 12 Essay #1 workshop 13 Conferences 16 Essay #1 The Graduate 17 Editing UM ch 4 The Graduate 18 Sound UM ch 5 19 Journal entry #3 Taxi Driver 20 Ideology UM ch 10 Taxi Driver 23 Essay #2 thesis 24 Essay #2 workshop 25 Balcony's open 26 Essay #2 27 Wrap 7/1 Final Exam: 11-1:30 Additional TTU/Lbk screenings (optional): Date Location 6/7 Adam s Rib EN 001, 7 pm 6/5 Daredevil Allen, 8:30 pm 6/12 Bend It Like Beckham Allen, 8:30 pm 6/19 LOTR: Two Towers Allen, 8:30 pm 6/26 Just Married Allen, 8:30 pm 7/5 On Her Majesty s Secret Service EN 001, 7 pm 7/9 Civilization: 1916 Mahon, 6:15 7/10 Lilo & Stitch Rec Center, 9 pm 7/16 All Quiet on the Western Front Mahon, 6:15 7/17 Phone Booth Allen, 8:30 pm 7/23 J accuse Mahon, 6:15 7/24 Chasing Papi Allen, 8:30 pm 7/31 A Man Apart Allen, 8:30 pm 8/2 Chocolat EN 001, 7 pm 9/6 Coen Bros. Festival EN 001, noon-midnight -3-

4 Film options (for the response journal entries): Response journal entry 1: Narratology & Cinematography Alien (Scott) Greed (Von Stroheim) Blade Runner (Scott) The Insider (Mann) Cleopatra (Mankiewicz) Intolerance (Griffith) The Deer Hunter (Cimino) The Last Emperor (Bertolucci) Deliverance (Boorman) The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich) Easy Rider (Hopper) Life is Beautiful (Benigni) Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick) The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles) Gladiator (Scott) Metropolis (Lang) The Godfather I (Coppola) Modern Times (Chaplin) The Grapes of Wrath (Ford) My Darling Clementine (Ford) Response journal entry 2: Mise-en-Scene & Movement Age of Innocence (Scorsese) Face/Off (Woo) Apocalypse Now (Coppola) Gone With the Wind (Fleming) Ben-Hur (Wyler) Hiroshima, Mon (Resnais) The Blair Witch Project (Sanchez) It Happened One Night (Capra) Blue Velvet (Lynch) King Kong (Cooper) Butch Cassidy (Hill) The Last Laugh (Murnau) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Weine) Laura (Preminger) Doctor Zhivago (Lean) Lawrence of Arabia (Lean) The English Patient (Minghella) Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci) The 400 Blows (Truffaut) Malcolm X (Lee) Response journal entry 3: Editing & Sound Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein) Fantasia (Algar) Apollo 13 (Howard) Ghost Dog (Jarmusch) Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein) The GodfatherII (Coppola) Being John Malkovich (Jonze) The Horse Whisperer (Redford) Bicycle Thieves (De Sica) Jaws (Speilberg) The Birth of a Nation (Griffith) Jurassic Park (Speilberg) Das Boot (Petersen) M*A*S*H (Altman) The Cider House Rules (Hallstrom) Meet John Doe (Capra) A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick) North by Northwest (Hitchcock) Do the Right Thing (Lee) Pulp Fiction (Tarantino) Additional options: Ideology, etc. The Alamo (Wayne) Amores Perros (Inarritu) Awakenings (Marshall) Beloved (Demme) Big (Marshall) Blue Collar Work (Wertmuller) Boyz-N-the Hood (Singleton) Bringing Up Baby (Hawks) Casablanca (Curtiz) Chinatown (Polanski) The Color Purple (Speilberg) Contact (Zemeckis) Dead Poets Society (Weir) Desperately Seeking (Seidelman) Driving Miss Daisy (Beresford) Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick) Everybody Says I Love You (Allen) Fargo (Cohen) Forrest Gump (Zemeckis) Giant (Stevens) Good Will Hunting (Van Sant) Hamlet (Zeffirelli, Olivier) High Noon (Zinneman) Hud (Ritt) Invasion of the Body (Siegel) JFK (Stone) The Last of the Mohicans (Mann) Like Water for Chocolate (Arau) Little Caesar (LeRoy) The Maltese Falcon (Huston) The Manchurian (Frankenhei) Manhattan Murder (Allen) El Mariachi (Rodriguez) Mean Streets (Scorsese) My Family (Nava) On the Waterfront (Kazan) Patch Adams (Shadyac) Pay It Forward (Leder) Rear Window (Hitchcock) Rebecca (Hitchcock) Shakespeare in Love (Madden) The Shawshank (Darabont) Spartacus (Kubrick) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) Thelma & Louise (Scott) Unforgiven (Eastwood) What Dreams May Come (Ward) Wuthering Heights (Wyler) Men in Black (Sonnenfeld) Mission: Impossible (De Palma) Notorious (Hitchcock) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Speilberg) Rebel Without a Cause (Ray) Rope (Hitchcock) Saving Private Ryan (Speilberg) Searchers (Ford) The Seventh Seal (Bergman) La Strada (Fellini) Raging Bull (Scorsese) Ran (Kurosawa) Rashomon (Kurosawa) The Right Stuff (Kaufman) Singing in the Rain (Kelly) Stagecoach (Ford) Star Wars (Lucas) Top Gun (Scott) Touch of Evil (Welles) The Wall (Parker) Platoon (Stone) Pretty Woman (Marshall) Psycho (Hitchcock) The Public Enemy (Wellman) Rain Man (Levinson) The Red Badge (Huston) The Seven Samurai (Kurosawa) Schindler s List (Speilberg) Shane (Stevens) Silence of the Lambs (Demme) Sleepless in Seattle (Ephron) Sling Blade (Thorton) Some Like it Hot (Wilder) Sunset Blvd. (Wilder) Tootsie (Pollack) The Truman Show (Weir) The Usual Suspects (Singer) The Wizard of Oz (Fleming) Zelig (Allen) -4-

5 Critical Essay Assignment Descriptions: The goal: For each critical essay assignment, you will need to construct a sharply focused, clearly written argument that responds directly and purposefully to an interpretive film studies topic you have chosen. A number of topics (film concepts with guide questions) below should give you a starting point; you may choose to write on one of these, a variation of one of these, or a topic of your own devising. (Especially if you are creating your own topic, but even if you are not, do not hesitate to talk with me about your essay at any stage in the writing process. I cannot encourage you on this last point too strongly!) Journal entries will provide you the opportunity to test out an idea that shows how meanings are created through the film text s formal elements. Use journal entries as rough, rough drafts. In any event, you need to introduce and explicitly state your main point or thesis early in your essay; do not simply answer the questions below, but rather use the questions to formulate a single, thoughtful, analytical point. Keep in mind the target length for the critical essay is three to five pages (roughly 750 to 1,250 words) as you develop your argument's context. So, develop an argument around an analysis of a film s single scene or sequence not covered in class discussion. Pay very close attention to several (3 to 5) of the most significant shots in this scene/sequences according to your analytical interpretation; define the shots for size, angle, movement, content, pov, convention, and duration. In your analysis, you will need to show how cinematic techniques and concepts relate to the meanings of the film text under discussion. And, obviously, be as specific as you can about what those meanings are. The process: Effectively interpreting a film s theme, form, and style does not come easy. You may want to discuss your essay ideas (thesis, focus, method of organization, etc.) with your classmates and instructor. In addition, you will most likely need to see the film text several times probably first just to get the story, but then successive viewings with notetaking and stop-action to refine your analysis and revise your essay; class activities will model various analytical methods of reading film texts. All of this requires time, so plan accordingly and manage your resources. Some questions to ask as you initiate your analysis: Who are the central characters? Is there a clearly good and/or bad character? What do the characters (major and minor) represent in themselves and in relation to others? Is individual or society favored? Equality or hierarchy? Liberal or conservative values? How do the major actions create a story in the film? Is there some major conflict or goal? Is there a major turning point or climax upon which the conclusion depends? What kind of actions are exalted or criticized by the conclusion? Does the film s ending leave you feeling depressed, angry, happy, fortunate, confused? What is the style of the film? Realistic or fantastic? Are there any cinematic elements that draw attention to themselves as cinematic elements or do the cinematic elements seem invisible? With some answers to these questions, you might then turn to the topic suggestions and guide questions to try to refine your interpretation of the film text. Continue revising and refining your reading of thematic and formal properties of the film text, eventually developing a specific interpretation of the film text. You should assume that your audience is very familiar with the text under discussion, so you should not provide plot-summary. You should, however, use direct quotations and paraphrase to refer directly and specifically to the text. Use the citations to illustrate what you are stating, to help establish your reading, and to help you develop your thoughts. Define several (3 to 5) shots closely to technically describe visual information, action, and characterization (with careful consideration of the concepts from our readings and discussions) and either quote directly or paraphrase dialogue from your film selection as evidence to support your analysis. Make sure, though, you are not simply describing, but moving beyond description in your analysis, arguing persuasively how the film (theme and form) accrues meaning and what those meanings are. Be as specific as you can in your analysis. -5-

6 You will need to properly format your essay. Type/word-process a neat, final copy on lettersize non-erasable white typing paper, leaving one-inch margins on all four sides. Print on one side only. Staple the pages together--no folders or dustjackets, please. Cover pages are not really necessary; simply type your name, instructor s name, course number, and date on successive lines in the upper left-hand corner as your heading. Page numbers (as a header or footer) are useful. (I can help you with MSWord features.) Typically, in film analyses, the first time a film is introduced the writer should include the director s (and other relevant film artists ) name(s) and the year the film was distributed. Similarly, the first time a character is introduced, the actor s name should either follow the character s name in parenthesis or come before the character s name as in the examples below. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, check the course schedule for workshop and due dates. Pay attention to these deadlines and manage your time and efforts wisely. Topic suggestions and guide questions: 1. Is color a significant element in the film text? If the film is in color, are the colors cool or warm or pale, tending toward blue or red or yellow? How are colors presented through the mise-en-scene? If the film is in black-and-white, how does lighting help create contrast in the film images? Does lighting highlight portions of the set and/or deemphasize others? Does color and lighting reflect the tone, mood, and theme of the story? For example, in much of The Godfather such as the introduction of Marlon Brando s Vito Corleone, Francis Ford Coppola and Gordon Willis use subdued lighting so low that viewers strain their eyes to see into the underground activities of the family ; criminality is thus reflected in the darkness of the scene. 2. How is the major character introduced? How does the major character appear at the story s turning point? At the conclusion? Is she or he alone or with others? How do camera angles and shots reinforce viewers feelings of the character at any one of these plot points? For instance, in Mike Nichols The Graduate the camera and microphone follow Ben (Dustin Hoffman) into the pool and underwater in his parents swimming pool; his (and his generation s) isolation and feelings of listlessness are exaggerated by his submergence and breathlessness. 3. Are settings true-to-life or imaginary? What do the settings add to the film? Consider the vibrant colors and surreal textures of hell in Vincent Ward s What Dreams May Come as opposed to the gritty and frightening realism of the D-day invasion sequence in Steven Spielberg s Saving Private Ryan. How are subjects and props arranged in especially important shots or scenes? What is the relationship among objects in the primary focus, background, and foreground; are all in focus or is there a point of attention? Gregg Toland and Orson Welles use deep-focus during the celebration dinner party where practically every partier, dancer, and item in the frame is visible, reflecting Kane s complex and complicated biography and the multiple viewpoints that construct it. 4. Are there any significant images in the film that pan across or tilt up and/or down taking in a great deal of space? Are there any wide angle shots, featuring vast landscape or city skylines, for example, as in John Wayne s The Alamo or Woody Allen s Manhattan? Conversely, are shots cramped into closed forms and blocking; do telephoto shots create distance or isolation among characters and/or for viewers? What point-of-view does the film utilize? In Roman Polanski s Chinatown, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) bungles his searches for clues, and through over-the-shoulder shots viewers unfortunately feel as lost and clueless as the ineffective detective, perhaps reflecting a greater sense of helplessness in the 1970s milieu to which it speaks. -6-

7 5. How is time depicted throughout the film? A number of cinematic elements take advantage of the plasticity of the film medium in its compression or expansion of experiential time. Consider, for example, how Orson Welles Kane and his first wife grow less and less tolerant of each other and the marital bond they share. Dissolves show the deterioration of their mutual love, ending in a long shot of the two eating breakfast at opposite ends of a long, formal dining table. No characters, not even his wife, are allowed to trespass into the guarded secrets of Kane s tortured life. Or, as in Robert Altman s M*A*S*H, the nonlinear, improvisational, elliptical, and overlapping multiple-channel editing style dramatizes the boredom and seeming endlessness and pointlessness of war against the fragmentation of the soldiers lives. 6. How does pacing influence the plot, characters, and meaning of the film text? Are shots short in duration, less than a second as in many of today s actioners like the train fight scene in John Woo s Broken Arrow, or as long as several minutes as in Alfred Hitchcock s Rope? Is the editing smooth and unobtrusive ( invisible as in classical style) or are shots joined for some obvious effects? Consider the associational montage in Sergei Eisenstein s Odessa steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin, which reinforces the defense of the socialist revolution at the heart of the story. 7. How does off-screen sound create meaning in the film? Why might ambient sound be sweetened to intensify effects? Is the film narrated? Does voice-over narration work in conjunction with other elements of sound to tell the film s story? In Martin Scorsese s The Age of Innocence a feminine voice-over relates important details of the opening opera scene not available from her one male and two female major characters, helping to adapt naturalistic and social-darwinistic elements from Edith Wharton s novel. 8. How does the musical arrangement and/or track help create meaning in the film? How does a repeated song or motif suggest the theme of the film? In Mike Nichols The Graduate, music, especially ballads composed by Simon and Garfunkle specifically for the story, reveal the protagonist s attitude and aligns him with his turbulent social circumstance, both symbolically on a bridge over troubled waters. Do lyrics help develop a literal or ironic tone in a film? In Stanley Kubick s dystopic A Clockwork Orange, the usually joyous and optimistic Singing in the Rain is warped when it is sung by a drugged-up rapist; this points to the ugliness of this imaginary futuristic world and perhaps creates a warning against the standards of society that would allow such a future. 9. Where does the film fall on the leftist-centralist-rightist spectrum? How can a film use certain techniques (cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, sound, etc.) to implicitly or explicitly promote certain values? Which value or values are most distinctly either explicitiy or implicitly represented in the film? Are there certain actions and/or characters that represent one view, while others oppose that view? How do ideological values help inform the film s conflict? What are those ideological (social, ethnic, racial, gender, economic, religious, cultural, political) values demonstrated in a key shot, scene, or sequence? In Ridley Scott s conclusion to Thelma & Louise, for example, some feminist critics argued that instead of plunging to their death, the female rebels actually lift off, flying to previously unexplored heights of feminine strength and power. 10. Develop your own topic entirely. After you have formulated an idea, probably as a revision of one of your journal entries, consult with your instructor before proceeding. (Check with me during conference hours or we can schedule a mutually convenient meeting time.) -7-