Read the chapter in your textbook on auteur theory, and the four pdf’s below:
Paper topic is here.
Lots of Hitchcock on youtube. Try his short explanation of the Kuleshov Effect, the basic idea of how editing affects perception:
Looking at Girl, Interrupted through the lens of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest:
The assignment (choose one of the three topics)
Reviews of Girl, Interrupted
Reviews of Cuckoo’s Nest
a link to information about Borderline Personality Disorder and the DSM IV
transcript of the dialogue of Girl, Interrupted (sort of a film script) is here.
script of Cuckoo’s Nest is here.
Make a film, less than 10 minutes long, that tells a story without the use of dialogue.
Three act script is due right after Thanksgiving, so you have time to shoot the film for Christmas.
You need to:
Give My Word is a film I made for film class at New York University in the summer of 2004. You can watch it. Below the video is a pdf of my script and shot list, which you can use as a model for yours.
Here’s a link to a college film teacher’s clear explanation of the the three act structure.
… progress in Film Class seems to be a little slower than usual. Here’s the solution.
Finish watching Ghost World on yr. own by Tuesday/Wednesday October 26/27, so we can discuss it in class a bit.
Choose one of the assignments below. Write a 3-4 page paper, due October 28 and 29 for RED and BLUE:
1. Answer ALL the questions about Rebel Without a Cause (see post below)
2. Answer ALL the questions about Ghost World (see post below)
3. Write a paper that compares Rebel & Ghost World using the following to guide you: Compare and contrast the way these films portray “disaffected youth” through the lives and experiences of the main characters. You might consider what has changed in our culture from the “hot” and “emotional” problems of the teens in Rebel to the “cool” and “ironic” attitude of Enid. You might also consider which (if either) of these alienated teen movies most resonates with you (or your generation). Please note: though this topic isn’t broken down into separate questions, it’s a serious one that deserves at least as much attention and writing as the other two. Make sure you are pointing to specific things in the films to support your ideas.
Adolescence (and adolescent angst) is, arguably, a cultural invention. The movies have been as key as anything in teaching us how teenagers feel and how to feel like a teenager. We’ll be watching a few films on this theme, and I’ll be encouraging you to watch some others on your own. First up is Rebel Without a Cause.
The assignment questions
A retrospective review from the San Francisco Chronicle
Detailed (and I mean really detailed) description and analysis at filmsite.org
Film script in pdf form is here.
Next film-making project is a montage. “Montage” is just the French word for assembling (or editing), but it’s come to mean a specific form. We’ll study how they are put together and then you’ll be making one of your own.
The grand-daddy of film montage is the “The Odessa Steps” scene from The Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 silent classic by the Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. You’ll need to go to youtube for this, since they won’t let me embed it.
The mongtage in Team America, made by the South Park folks, teaches most of what you need to know:
And here are some other clips of famous montages.
Your assignment: make your own. There are many definitions/subsets of “montage,” but the one that we’ll use is “a short sequence of multiple shots totaling 2 – 4 minutes, that compresses time and illustrates a change.” Remember, you’re not necessarily telling a whole story, just making a sequence that shows the passage of time, with “a little improvement” (or just, “change,”). It probably helps to imagine the story in which this montage fits, but the only part you need to make is the montage itself.
Character developmentFocusing on one of these relationships…
…identify four scenes that show an evolution in the relationship between the two characters. Make clips of them. Then, write a paper (in Pages) which traces the relationship through your four clips. Place your clips into the paper in the appropriate “quote-sandwich-like” spot. That is, make sure you write something to prepare the reader for the clip (with the point you are going to make and the context for the clip) and then explore the clip carefully afterwards.
Click here for reviews from slate.com and the New York Times.
And click this one for a pdf of the script, courtesy of script-o-rama.com
Understanding Film 