Posts

Final exam 2014

/ Post

Understanding Film this year had three goals:

  1. to expand your taste, so that you became an audience for a wider range of films than the blockbusters at Regal Brunswick 10;
  2. to expand your awareness of what goes on in films, so that you see more in what you watch; and
  3. to give you some experience in making films that you could not have made before taking the course.

Write an essay in three sections (2+ ¶s each?) in which you show that you met these three goals. Use lots of specifics, examples, etc., as support in each. In the final section, be sure to refer specifically to your last film (in addition to your other films, if you wish). If you do not have a final film, refer to the other other films you made during the year. In either case, in all answers, throw around as much jargon and film terminology as you can.

Make it look like an essay — name, course, date, double-spaced. Email essay — as an attachment AND copy’n’pasted into the email itself.

American Hustle

/ Post

from Nofilmschool..com:

A lot of the more interesting stuff about technique comes around the 17 minute mark and later, but here are some of the biggest takeaways about David O. Russell and his style:

  • Lights for 360 degrees so that people can move in the environment, which keeps everybody on their toes
  • Never sits at the monitors and doesn’t have a trailer, so there is no down time on set
  • There is a frenetic energy that comes from doing things this way that can push people to give their all
  • Doesn’t care about breaking traditional notions of technique, things that are wrong by conventional methods, so you get a sense of invention on the spot
  • Doesn’t want actors to be precious about their performances, because he can’t be precious about the screenplay or the direction
  • He is there to be moved or tickled, so if he feels it, then the movie feels it

This is the end

/ Post

Last film.

Due May 28 for seniors

Due June 9 for undergrads

4 minutes or more of filmic greatness; exam is written defense of how much you learned this year, as demonstrated by your film — the more detail, the better.