The shot above of Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten...

...is impossible.

Anyone know why, and how it was done?

Film and Culture: Feminism and Joss Whedon

We're looking this week at how women are treated in film. This is an extremely complex subject, and one that I have a tendency in this course to reduce to basic elements for clarity's sake.

Our text, Benshoff and Griffin's America On Film spends one chapter on women in classical Hollywood filmmaking, and then another on how women are framed visually in film. This week's film, Serenity, is a useful tool for talking about how women are treated in modern filmmaking and how action-adventure and science fiction films frame women.

First off, we look at what gender actually is. This is the basic gender studies lecture about how sex and gender are separate. Usually the part about there being more than two possible genetic sexes and more than two genders causes some heads to explode. I use the genderbread person to help explain rudimentary ideas about gender and it's construction.

Then we talk about women in film specifically, using the other selections from this semester and using the Bechdel test to talk about how roles for men and women are treated differently both by Hollywood filmmakers and the viewing audience.

We then talk about Joss Whedon and his self identification as a feminist. What does it mean to have a popular cisgendered heterosexual white male self-define as a feminist filmmaker, and in looking at his work, does this idea pan out?

Then Serenity, which for the filmmaking crowd in the class is a treat visually. I often show the continuous shot inside the ship near the start of the film in my Intro classes as a demonstration of a long tracking shot that works well.

Then discussion, which in this class often goes to where it needs to. I am lucky to have a very diverse class this semester where students are quick to voice their opinions about the films and the subjects that we discuss. I am hoping to push the discussion towards analyzing female characters in the film as well as how Whedon frames/depicts women.

Intro: Moulin Rouge

Lets put things in context of the semester. We're about to come back from spring break. Major assignments are getting handed back (I am working on the pile of grading inbetween breaks to prep). I'm making lists of things to talk to students about regarding their essay writing. We've done a good chunk of work on the technical aspects of film and how they relate to the viewing experience.

Now, musicals. I've structured the course in the past to be roughly along the lines of Barsam and Monahan's textbook Looking at Movies, but this semester I've added some things in that I really want to talk about but don't ever get to. We're going to look at musicals and musical theater (this course is crosslisted as theater...), then academic and popular criticism, then some film history at the end.

We're going to look at a bit of Turandot first. We're going to talk about the connections between opera and musical theater - the difference between high art, low art, and even lower art (film). My copy of Turandot was filmed in the Forbidden City of Beijing, and is a fantastic look at the intersection of art, history, and performance.

Why musicals? Why do some people hate them so much? What can you do in a musical that doesn't make sense in a straight film? What's with Baz Lurhman? Does his cinematography help or hinder the telling of the story? Are jukebox musicals effective?

How does the music tell the story?

Alex

The basic method...

I follow a method in teaching film that has worked for me and seems to get students engaged and talking to each other. It is simple, straightforward, and can be adapted for any level of students. It is also not anything new, educators have been talking about this kind of method for years. Some call it Understanding by Design, some are using plan-do-review, some call it something else -- to me, it's all the same thing.

Step one: New knowledge. This happens in many different ways. Sometimes it's a reading followed by discussion, sometimes lecture, sometimes descriptive clips. Somehow, we introduce the new concept.

Step two: The Film. Sometimes this is integrated with step one (usually in Film and Culture, almost never in Intro...) but is often separate. We watch the film together (I think the communal nature of film viewing is very important) and look for the applications of the new knowledge in the film.

Step three: Class discussion. First, the opportunity to get gut-level reactions out there. "I liked it" / "I hated it" sort of stuff. Then go a bit deeper -- where did you see the new idea? How does the new idea explain this week's concept?

Step four: Online discussion. Now, a slightly more formal prompt. Extend the floor of the classroom. This is a particularly important step for purposes of differentiating instruction - some students aren't comfortable speaking in class but they are more comfortable posting online.

Step five: Formal application. There is usually some sort of essay assignment or formal assessment that students have to use their new knowledge and apply it in some sort of thoughtful way. They usually have a choice in new ideas to work with (depending on the semester, three to four ideas) and a choice in films. Hopefully the structure of the assignment keeps plagiarism at bay - there is always a component of how the viewer responds to the film, which is often personal and easy to catch when it isn't.

Introduction, purpose, etcetera

So.

(It's the first line of Beowulf -- it's a good enough start to my blog, right?)

My name is Alex Langshall. I'm entering my third year of teaching film as an adjunct at Salt Lake Community College. I hold a Master of Arts in Teaching degree and a B.A. in English, both from Westminster College.

I am feeling a definite lack of teaching community right now. I'm hoping that by posting some of what I'm doing in the classroom, and some thinking about what I'm teaching and how I'm teaching, I can start to generate the kind of community I'm looking for. I'm also hoping that by posting about my experiences that I can help generate some ideas about how to teach the subjects I'm teaching, and also maybe get some insights from others about things that are working.

I'm starting this during spring break, so you'll be getting an insight during the middle of the semester. This semester I'm teaching three courses: one section of Introduction to Film, one of Film and Culture, and a section of Elements of Effective Communication. The two film classes I've taught numerous times, the communication course is new to me, and by far the largest struggle.

I'm hoping to include this blog as part of my prep, fleshing out my teaching ideas in a narrative format. I hope that's something that works well for me, and we'll see how it goes.

Syllabi for my film classes are available at http://slcc.academia.edu/AlexanderLangshall

Thanks for stopping by!

Alex