UPDATED: January 14, 2016 1 Course Syllabus FILM 2332.001 and FILM 2332.501 Understanding Film Spring 2016 Thursdays JO 4.614 Professor: Dr. Shilyh Warren - shilyh.warren@utdallas.edu Office: Jonsson Building - 5.112 Office phone: 972-883-6316 Office hours: Tuesday 1-3pm or by appointment Teaching Assistants: FILM 2332.001 on Thursdays 4-6:45pm Tyler Cochran txc150130@utdallas.edu Office hours: 7-9pm on Thursdays in JO 5.708 FILM 2332.501 on Thursdays 7-9:45pm Tao Feng txf130230@utdallas.edu Office hours: 9:00-11:00 am on Fridays in JO 5.310 Course Description: This class is designed to familiarize students with the artistic, industrial, and socio-cultural dynamics of cinema and to enable them to become more informed and sophisticated film viewers, enthusiasts, and cultural critics. We watch a variety of film styles and genres over the semester and consider how external forces (economics, politics, culture, technology) shape film aesthetics and reception. This class is not a comprehensive historical survey of the moving image, but rather offers students a toolbox of critical concepts and approaches that can deepen their engagement with cinema. Our driving question is deceptively simple: how do films produce meanings & create experiences? Classes will consist of lecture and sometimes screenings as well as discussion of the readings and screening for the week. Students are fully responsible for all in- and out-of-class screening material, including the clips used in lecture. Required Book: Nichols, Bill. Engaging Cinema: An Introduction to Film Studies (W.W. Norton & Company, 2010). ISBN-13: 978-0393934915 ISBN-10: 0393934918 All other reading material will be available on e-reserves at the library. Navigate to the library home page. Click on Find Course Reserves. Enter Warren in the box for Instructor s Name. Password: cinema Copies of all of the films on the syllabus are on reserve at the Media Center in the Library. Most of these are also available on various streaming services.
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 2 Your final grade will be determined as follows: Attendance & Participation = 10 points Video Essay Group Project = 40 points total o PART 1 5 points o PART 2 5 points o PART 3 10 points o PART 4 20 points In-class Midterm Exam = 25 points Take Home Final Exam = 25 points Course & Instructor Policies: This class has a no laptop policy. Please do not use laptops in class unless prior arrangements have been made. Please also keep your phones on silent and out of sight. Electronics are wonderful, but they distract you and everyone around you, including your professor. Prepare to be challenged! Some of our films contain scenes of nudity, violence, sex, and other mature and controversial subjects. Enrollment in this class means you agree to watch every film, no matter your personal opinion of the themes at stake. Attendance in this course is required and I grant excused absences only for universitysanctioned events including religious holidays and sporting events. After 1 un-excused absence ½ point is deducted from your final grade for each absence from 2 to infinity. If you decide to miss a class, you remain responsible for all the material covered. Please contact your peers or your TA for information about what you missed. Make-up exams will be permitted only in the most serious circumstances, which must be documented. Out of class screenings are mandatory and should be taken seriously.
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 3 UT Dallas Syllabus Policies and Procedures. The information contained in the following link constitutes the University s policies and procedures segment of the course syllabus. Please go to http://go.utdallas.edu/syllabus-policies for these policies. Student Learning Objectives for Arts and Performance: 1. Describe and apply methodology processes Students will be able to describe and apply basic methodologies and processes by which aesthetic judgments are made 2. Demonstrate effective communication skills Students will demonstrate effective oral and written communication skills 3. Demonstrate knowledge of principals and history Students will demonstrate a broad knowledge of the principles and history of at least one major form of artistic expression 4. To gain experience and expertise Students will gain experience and expertise in at least one areas of the creative and performing arts Core Objectives: 1. Critical Thinking (CT) to include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information 2. Communication (COM)-to include effective development, interpretation, and expression of ideas through written, oral, and visual communication 3. Teamwork (TW)-to include the ability to consider different points of view and to work effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal 4. Social Responsibility (SR)-to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 4 Assignments & Academic Calendar Jan 14. Class 1. Introduction. In-class screenings: Workers Leaving the Factory (Lumière Bros., 1895) Arrival of a Train (Lumière Bros., 1895) Demolition of a Wall (Lumière Bros., 1895) The Sprinkler Sprinkled (Lumière Bros., 1895) Arrival of a Trail (Lumière Bros., 1895) The Kiss (Edison, 1896) Serpentine Dance (Edison, 1895) Sandow (Strong Man) (Edison, 1896) Cock Fight (Edison, 1896) The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) The Cabbage Fairy (Alice Guy Blaché, 1896) Falling Leaves (Alice Guy Blaché, 1912) Sherlock Junior (Buster Keaton, 1924, 45 min.) Jan 21. Class 2. Early Cinema Watch: The Story of Film: An Odyssey, Episode I Video Essay: The Cinema of Attractions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqpcaoc4x3q In class: Read: The Blot (Lois Weber, 1921, 80 min.) - Tom Gunning. The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde. in Early Film, ed. Thomas Elsaesser and Adam Barker (British Film Institute, 1989) - Shelley Stamp, Chapter 1: Creating a Signature, Lois Weber in Early Hollywood (University of California Press, 2015). Jan 28. Class 3. Hollywood Realism Watch: Citizen Kane (Orson Wells, 1941) Read: - Nichols, Ch 6: The Institutional and National Contexts: Hollywood and Beyond (209-248). - Bazin, The Evolution of the Language of Cinema, What is Cinema Vol. 2 [1967], 23-40. - Toron, Realism for Citizen Kane, American Cinematographer (February 1941): 51-57. In-class: Video Essay Group Making What Makes a Video Essay Great? https://vimeo.com/115206023
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 5 Feb 4. Class 4: Political Realism Watch: Caché (Michael Haneke, 2006) In-class: Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) Read: - Nichols, Ch 1, Film as a Language (29-69) - A.O. Scott, A Nice Middle Class Couple With Their Own Stalker, New York Times, December 23, 2005. - Michael T. Kaufman, What Does the Pentagon See in 'Battle of Algiers'?, New York Times, September 7, 2003. Due: Video Essay Part 1. CHOOSE A FILM. Post to e-learning by 11:59pm on Feb 4 Feb 11. Class 5. Storytelling and Narrative Watch: Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) Read: Nichols, Ch4 Storytelling and Narrative Fiction Film (136-172) Feb 18. Class 6. Genre Watch: The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014) and/or Welcome to Me (Shira Piven, 2015) Read: Nichols, Ch7 Genre Films (2d48-286) Due: Video Essay Part 2. SYNOPSIS AND CREW LIST Post to e-learning by 11:59pm on Feb 18 Feb 25. Class 7. Animation Watch: Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parannoud, 2007) Read: Introduction to Film Studies, Ed. Jill Nelmes (2008), Animation (229-258) **In-class Mid-term Exam** February 25. March 3. Class 8. Documentary Part I. Authorship and Ethics Watch: Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005) Read: Nichols Ch3, Documentary Film, 114-130. Nichols Ch2 Introduction to Documentary (2001): Why are ethics central to documentary filmmaking? (42-66). Workshop: Ripping. Bring your laptop and a DVD of your movie. March 10.
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 6 Class 9. Documentary Part II. History and Reality Watch: The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012) Read: Jonah Weiner, The Weird Genius of The Act of Killing, The New Yorker (July 15, 2013). Jill Godmilow, Killing the Documentary: An Oscar-Nominated Filmmaker Takes Issue With The Act of Killing, IndieWire, March 5, 2014. Workshop: Editing. Bring your laptop and digital copy of your video clips. March 17. No Class. Spring Break! March 24. Class 10. Documentary Part III. Social Change Watch: Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite, 2013) Read: Brammer, Rebekah. Activism and antagonism: The Blackfish effect. Screen Education, No. 76, Mar 2015: 72-79. Due: Video Essay Part 3. ROUGH CUT. Post to e-learning by 11:59pm on March 24 Workshop: Editing Sound or Writing Essay. Bring your machines & your materials. March 31. Class 11. Film Movements 1 - Italian Neo-realism In-class: The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) Read: Watch: Bordwell, David. Thompson, Kristin. Film History: An Introduction. Postwar European Cinema: Neorealism and Its Context, 1945-1959, 353-372. What is neorealism? A video essay: https://vimeo.com/68514760 April 7. Class 12. Film Movements 2 - French New Wave Watch: Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959) In-class: La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962) Read: Richard Neupert, The New Wave s American Reception, Cinema Journal 49.4 (Summer 2010): 139-145. April 14. Class 13. Film Movements 3 Blaxploitation Watch: Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974) In-class: Reckless Eyeballing (Christopher Harris, 2004) Badass Supermama (Etang Inyang, 1996)
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 7 Read: Ed Guerrero. Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film. The Rise and Fall of Blaxploitation, 69-111. Due: Video Essay Part 4. FINAL CUT. Post link to e-learning by 11:59pm on April 14 April 21. Class 14. Feminism and Film Watch: Jeanne Dielman: 23 quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Ackerman, 1975) Read: - Nichols Ch11, Feminism and Film, 395-434 - Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Screen 16:2 (Autumn l975) 6-18; reprinted in eds. Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary,Women and the Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977), 412-428. April 28. Class 15. Video Essay Presentations Final Take Home Exam Distributed Final Exam due Thursday, May 5
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 8 Video Essay Group Project Guidelines For this project, you are to collaborate with a group of peers to create a video essay. A video essay bears resemblance to traditional, written film analysis essays. However, the video essay uses the tools and techniques of filmmaking to make its points in the same medium as its object of analysis. In other words, your job is to make a film about film. For examples of video essays: http://vimeo.com/groups/audiovisualcy/videos/ http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/keywords/video%20essay http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/tag/video-essay Step-by-step how-to help: http://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/audiovisualessay/resources/how-to-guides/how-to-video-essaysby-greer-fyfe-and-miriam-ross/ http://ds106.us/docs/video_essay_tutorial Your video essays will be graded on these criteria: a. A clear main point b. A form of narration (voiceovers, intertitles, subtitles, or companion essay), which provides the analysis and interpretation c. clips and/or still images from the film under discussion d. duration: 3-4 minutes e. includes a smart title and a credits sequence that names your group members Things to keep in mind: and their roles in the production 1. Working with a group is hard! If at any point you feel a member of your group is not pulling his/her weight, please let us know so we can take action. If you do not tell us, we will not know, and your classmate might receive credit for your hard work. All members of the group are expected to participate fully, equally and consistently. 2. Make sure that you compose a group that includes individuals with necessary skills! You will need to have folks who know how to: rip video, edit video, edit sound, analyze films, write, record sound, post videos online, etc. 3. All videos should be protected by the Fair Use doctrine of copyright law, and so if you choose, you may include a statement that you believe you are adhering to the doctrine of Fair Use in your video. For more information see: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 9 Video Essay Part 1. CHOOSE A FILM. Post to e-learning by 11:59pm on Feb 4 This is the first stage of your group project. Include the following information: Film: Title (Director, year) Group Name: Group Members: the names and emails of group members Write a 250-word explanation of why your group is attracted to this film, and why it makes a good choice for a video essay. Each group member should post separately in the Discussion Forum for Video Essay Part 1. To navigate to the Discussion Forums in e-learning, just go to the Course Homepage and follow the Discussion Forum link. When you post your assignment on e-learning always include your group name in the file name. For example, The Nolan Freaks. Part 1. Video Essay Part 2. SYNOPSIS AND CREW LIST Post to e-learning by 11:59pm on Feb 18 Each group member should post individually in the Discussion Forum for Video Essay Part 2. Include the following information: Film: Title (Director, year) Group Name: SYNOPSIS: Write a 500 word synopsis of your video essay. - Explain the main point of your video essay - Describe the clips you plan to include - Describe the sound you will use: Music? Diegetic sound? - Will you include a written essay, voice-over narration, or subtitles? - Describe the effect you hope it will have on viewers CREW LIST: List each member of your group describe his/her work responsibilities. - Is the work equally distributed between members? - Is each and every group member contributing to the project? Video Essay Part 3. ROUGH CUT. Post to e-learning by 11:59pm on March 24 This is a first complete cut of your video essay. It should strive to meet all of the criteria listed on page 1 of this document.
UPDATED: January 14, 2016 10 Upload your video essay to vimeo or youtube. Please include Rough Cut in your title. Then, post the link to the Video Essay Part 3 Discussion Forum. Make sure to also include: the name of your group; names and emails of group members; the title, year, director of your film choice. Each group member should post separately in the Discussion Forum for Video Essay Part 3. Always include your group name in the file name. For example, The Godfathers. Part 3. Video Essay Part 4. FINAL CUT. Post link to e-learning by 11:59pm on April 14 Upload your video essay to vimeo or youtube. Please include Final Cut in your title. Then, post the link to the Video Essay Part 4 Discussion Forum. Each group member should post separately. Make sure to also include: the name of your group; names and emails of group members; the title, year, director of your film choice.