Los Angeles Mission College Arts, Media, and Humanities Department CINEMA 3: HISTORY OF THE MOTION PICTURES Fall 2015 3 units # 0196 Center for Math & Science Building CMS 30 Fridays 9:00 am -1:10 pm Instructor: Zareh Arevshatian e-mail: arevshz@lamission.edu Office Hours: Fridays 8:45 am 9:00 am CMS 30 1:15 pm 1:45 pm CMS 30 College Mission Statement Los Angeles Mission College is committed to the success of our students. The College provides accessible, affordable, high quality learning opportunities in a culturally and intellectually supportive environment by: Ensuring that students successfully transfer to four-year institutions, prepare for successful careers in the workplace, and improve their basic skills; Encouraging students to become critical thinkers and lifelong learners; providing services and programs that improve the lives of the diverse communities we serve.
CINEMA 3: HISTORY OF THE MOTION PICTURES COURSE DESCRIPTION AND REQUIREMENTS CINEMA 3 covers classics and important films from the birth of the medium to the present time. Films are screened and discussed with regard to their cultural influence. The course follows the evolution of the art, industry and technology involved in movie making and will survey films, filmmakers, and film movements that have been decisive in the consolidation of cinema as an art form. STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOME: Students will analyze a variety of feature films within the socio-political context of history and in relation to the artistic, economic, and technological history of motion pictures. TEXTBOOKS: 1) Wheeler W. Dixon & Gwendolyn A. Foster, A Short History of Film: 2 nd ed, 2013. 2) William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style: 4 th ed., 2000. EXAMS: There will be two in-class exams which must be taken on time to pass the course. Both exams count equally and are non-cumulative. The exams are comprised of multiple-choice, true or false, matching, short answer questions, and essays. They will cover the lectures, the films, in-class handouts, and the reading assignments from the textbook. No scantrons or bluebooks will be necessary for the exams as you will be writing on the exam sheets directly. There will be no makeup exams. QUIZZES: Due to a limited class time, you will be required to watch a number of films on your own in addition to the films shown in class. These films, marked with an asterisk (*) in the screenings schedule section of the syllabus, are on reserve at the library, and available for viewing during regular operating hours. A short quiz on each film will be administered at the beginning of the class as indicated on the enclosed calendar and the course outline of this syllabus. Students have one week to view these films. Those arriving late to the class will not be allowed to take these quizzes. There will be no make-up quizzes or film viewings. EXTRA CREDIT: This course does not offer pre-determined extra credit assignments. However, should an opportunity present itself, it will be announced and made available for all students to participate. Please keep in mind that such assignments require the student to go above and beyond the class material. When available, these assignments will be within the strict context of the course and the topics covered in class. When available, each student will be allowed only one extra credit assignment. Offering an extra credit assignment is not a policy and is at the sole discretion of the instructor. ATTENDANCE: Attendance at lectures and screenings is a requirement of the course. To be given credit, you must attend the complete class from beginning to end. The class has a start time and an end time, so please be punctual and refrain from packing up and getting ready to leave before the class is over. You are required to come to class on time and every time. Mechanical problems with 2
alarm clocks, medical appointments, sports practices or matches, work, childcare responsibilities, carpooling, car issues, etc., should be handled in advance so as not to affect your participation. Please do not make requests for exceptions. It is your responsibility to secure class notes, catch up on missed viewings, submit assignments, take tests on time, and to keep abreast of any schedule changes. If you are absent on the first day of the class without a prior notice, your name will be dropped from the roster and your seat will be given to another student. Attendance will be recorded during the first three weeks of the class. Any student with three consecutive absences during this period will be dropped from the roster. Do not e-mail the instructor asking for notes or lecture slides. If you miss class, fail to take notes or lose them, contact your peers. Odds are there are other students in class that have notes. It is your responsibility to catch up with missed work. Excused absence does not excuse you from the work required to pass this class. If you cannot attend faithfully, arrive on time, or turn in your assignments on time, please do not take this course. GRADING: The final course grade is based on the quantity of grade-appropriate assignment successfully completed. The class will be graded on a curve and the highest total score achieved by any student will determine the grade scale at the end of the semester. If there are any personal, educational, linguistic, or physical circumstances that may hinder your participation and success in the class, feel free to let me know. Whatever you discuss with me will be kept confidential. Mission College offers many solutions to these situations. WITHDRAWALS: It is your responsibility to file the necessary paperwork with the Admissions Office should you wish to withdraw from the class. Do not assume that simply by not attending, you will be automatically excluded form the roster. Failure to act accordingly will result in your name to remain on the roster and eventually in an F. Please refer to the calendar on the following page for the respective deadlines of Fall 2015. NOTE ON STUDENT CONDUCT: The films shown and discussed in this class cover a wide range of topics. They may contain adult subject matter, profanity, nudity, violence, disturbing images, or views contrary to yours. As such, it is expected of you to act and behave in a courteous and mature manner and to extend this class the respect you would expect from others. Please conduct yourselves in a manner befitting an academic colleague. Your behavior should be a credit to yourselves, to the higher academic units, and to the College. Do not disturb the class by talking or text messaging. If you have to, please leave the class and conduct your business outside. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION ETIQUETTE: Electronic communications from students run the risk of producing e-mails with the kind of sloppiness in spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. that have become a staple of text messaging, IM, or Facebook. These are not homey correspondence among friends they are to be formal and appropriate for a college student. Spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors break the flow of your ideas, debilitating the impact 3
and sometimes even preventing comprehension of what you re trying to say. This requirement is not mere academic pedantry it s practical advice. Please observe the following when communicating electronically with your instructor. Subject lines are for subjects. Put a brief explanation of the nature of the e-mail as "Cinema 3 - question about the quiz" in the subject line. Certain software filters automatically send e-mails to the Trash or Spam folders if the subject line is left blank therefore, make sure to provide all the necessary information when contacting your instructor. If you are writing about a different subject, do not use the reply function from a previous e-mail. A new subject must be addressed in a new e- mail. Never include demands such as "urgent request immediate response needed." That's the surest way to get your request trashed. Salutations matter. Instructors react very badly to e-mails that address them with Yo! Hey Professor, or even Dude. Let it be clear from the beginning that should such salutations be detected, your e-mail will be trashed without prejudice. Since we are neither buddies nor bros, you will address your instructor by his last name. The safest way to start any e-mail is with "Dear Professor. Don t e-mail your professor to ask for information that is already on the syllabus. Don't write in all uppercase letters, which is an e-mail convention for anger or other strong emotions. No one likes yelling. If you need to emphasize something use either bold letters or quotation marks. You are what you email. Your e-mails to your professors help shape their professional opinion about you. In some settings, e-mail is the dominant opportunity for the professor to form an opinion about you. Read each and every e-mail twice before sending! Important e-mail addresses: Professor Zareh Arevshatian arevshz@lamission.edu Vice Chair Curtis Stage stagecj@lamision.edu 4
The following is a listing of important deadlines and due dates. Please have these dates in mind when making decisions. Last day to ADD 16-Week classes in person, process AUDIT add Request and section transfer SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 Last day to DROP a class without a W, with a refund, and without incurring fees (On-line only) SEPTEMBER 13, 2015 QUIZ #1 SEPTEMBER 25, 2015 10 points Last day to file for CREDIT / NO CREDIT OCTOBER 9, 2015 QUIZ #2 OCTOBER 23, 2015 10 points MID-TERM EXAM OCTOBER 30, 2015 300 points QUIZ #3 NOVEMBER 13, 2015 10 points QUIZ #4 NOVEMBER 20, 2015 10 points Last day to DROP a class with a "W" (On-line only) NOVEMBER 22, 2015 QUIZ #5 DECEMBER 11, 2015 10 points FINAL EXAM DECEMBER 18, 2015 300 points 5
DATE TOPICS SCREENINGS BOOK Sep. 4 Sep. 11 Sep. 18 Introduction to the Course Early Cinema Pioneers & Innovators German Expressionism French Surrealism Eadweard Muybridge s Motion Studies (1872-1879) Lumière Films (1895-1897) A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, 1902) The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) The Immigrant (Charles Chaplin, 1917) 1 Un chien andalou (Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dalí, 1929) 2 * The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) The Battleship Potemkin - excerpts 3 (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925) Sep. 25 Soviet Montage QUIZ #1 Oct. 2 Origins of the Hollywood Studio & Star System I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang 4 Talking Pictures (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932) Hollywood & Censorship Oct. 9 American Cinema of the Forties / Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) 5 Orson Welles Oct. 16 Post-War Hollywood High Noon (Fred Zinnemann The Red Menace *On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) 6 Oct. 23 Early Italian Cinema / Neorealism The Bicycle Thieves QUIZ #2 (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) Oct. 30 MID-TERM EXAM Nov. 6 Japanese & Chinese Cinema *Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961) 7 Nov. 13 Nov. 20 French New Wave QUIZ #3 Decline of the Studio System The New Hollywood QUIZ #4 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 8 (Jacques Demy, 1968) *Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) 9 Nov. 27 THANKSGIVING NO CLASS Dec. 4 International Cinema Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988) *Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989) Dec. 11 Current Hollywood Cinema QUIZ #5 Dec. 18 FINAL EXAM 10:00 am 12:00 noon * To be watched on your own in addition to the in-class screenings. Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011) 10 6