Film and Culture: Week 2 - Film Form

Film and Culture Week 2

ñ  Pre-class survey or quiz on difficult parts of the textbook that need expanding.

◦   Use polleverywhere.com

ñ  Discussion of Pelada

ñ  Demonstrate online discussion

ñ  Film form lecture

◦   Mise En Scene

▪   Use shot from Kagemusha

◦   Shot – Scene – Sequence

◦   Cinematography

▪   Clip from intro video?

◦   Editing

▪   Three purposes of editing

ñ  Continuity

ñ  Meaning

ñ  Deception

▪   Kuleshov Effect

◦   Sound Design

▪   Room Tone Track

▪   Score

▪   ADR

◦   Diagetic elements vs non-diagetic elements

◦   Types of Film

▪   Narrative

▪   Documentary

▪   Direct Cinema

▪   Experimental

◦   Genres of film

ñ  Ideology / Cultural studies

◦   Discussion of what the terms in the book mean

◦   Idea of who is in power vs who is not – how they are represented

◦   Def of Culture (values, beliefs, and norms)

◦   Invisibility of Culture

◦   high art / low art

◦   communication model (graphic)

ñ  Studio system

◦   Traditional story structure

◦   “Golden Era” moviemaking

▪   Movie theater experience

▪   Big 5 (majors)

ñ  WB

ñ  MGM

ñ  20^th C Fox

ñ  RKO

ñ  Paramount

▪   Little 3

ñ  Columbia

ñ  Universal

ñ  United Artists (Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin)

ñ  Break!

ñ  Watch The Artist

ñ  Break

ñ  Discuss The Artist

ñ  Online Discussion 

Back to School, week 1

...aaand we are back.

I missed blogging the last few weeks of class mostly because I ran out of energy and time at the end of the semester. Let me alleviate that by showing you a student's final project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9f12u-MsZw

This week is mostly about reading syllabi, orienting ourselves to the content and form, and from my end there is a lot of registration headaches. Waitlists are supposed to make our lives easier and sometimes they just make things more confusing.

My first film and culture class was on Wednesday, this is what they came up with:

More soon - A. 

Intro to Film: Week 5

Intro to Film Week 5

Preclass: Need Steenbeck website, picture, Final Cut Pro picture, Serenity, Kuleshov video

• Discuss Million Dollar Baby particularly in terms of cinematography
• Start talking about final project
  • Proposal and Rubric due July 22^nd
  • Final Project due August 5^th
  • Gallery stroll due at the same time
    • Possibility of visitors
  • Criteria for project
    • Needs to be treated as a capstone worth 30% of final grade
    • Needs to reflect how your understanding of film as a whole has changed throughout the semester
    • Holistic – really should be an assignment that you do for yourself
    • Developing a rubric
      • MUST have following items (at least 10% each)
        • Quality of work
        • Quantity of work
        • Adherence to form
        • Demonstration of understanding
      • (Default rubric is 25% each)
      • Rubric will be used to grade project
      • Will be graded by me during final class period
      • Need to know any performance needs (video, audio, etc)
  • Questions / Discussion
• Editing Lecture
  • What is editing?
    • Physical film – editing table
      • (www.steenbeck.com)
    • Digital editing
      • Final Cut Pro (screenshot)
  • Relationship between Shot, Scene, Sequence
    • Good place for set procedure (shot)
      • Picture is up / Quiet on the set
      • Camera ready?
        • Ready
      • Sound ready?
        • Ready
      • Roll Sound
        • Speed
      • Roll Camera
        • Speed
      • Marker (or slate)
        • 2ac reads and claps
      • (dir only) Action
      • (dir only) Cut
    • Clip from Serenity, Talk about Russian Ark
  • Kinds of transitions
    • Cuts
      • Jump
      • Parallel movement
      • Match
    • Fade
    • Dissolve
    • Wipe
  • Purposes of editing
    • Editing for Continuity
      • Same people in the same place
      • 180-rule
    • Editing for Meaning
      • Kuleshov effect
      • Connecting ideas and people together through similar positioning
        • Match cut, parallel movement cut
    • Editing for deception
      • LOTR: sizes of characters
• Watch for all 3 types of editing in this film.
• Break
• The Social Network

Week 4: Cinnamontography

Intro to Film 8 Week version Week 4

• Extra Credit as Extras!
• Cinematography, DP
• B&W, Color
• Film stock
  • Variables
    • Sensitivity to light, tolerance for lighting conditions
    • Color reproduction
    • Amount / direction of grain
    • Contrast
    • Sharpness
    • Resolving power (ability to descrimintate fine detail)
  • Kodak 5287 – Dark blacks (used in Seven (1995))
  • Kodak 5289 – Manufactured for NASA / Air Force, Vivid primaries, looks “raw” (used in Clockers (1995), Summer of Sam (1999)
• Lenses
  • Shorter vs. Longer focal lengths
• Digital / Film
  • Digital
    • Easier to edit
    • Sharper detail
    • Can use traditional lenses
    • 1080 vs 2k vs 4k vs 8k
  • Film
    • “Cinematic” quality
    • Harder to find + find processing
    • Costlier
• Aspect Ratio / Framing
  • 1.33:1 (Nearly 4:3)
  • 1.85:1 (Nearly 5:4)
  • 2.35:1
  • “Letterboxing”
  • rule of thirds
• angle of camera / movement of the camera / LX
  • 180 degree rule
  • (Use Videos from tutorials)
• Break
• Assign Essay #2
• Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby 

Not film related: Why I love _Timmy Time_...

Timmy Time is a television show by Aardman Animation (Wallace and Grommit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep) geared towards a preschool audience. Their website is here, and the shows are on Netflix and probably available from your local library.

Reasons I <3 Timmy Time:

1. Positive depiction of a male caregiver. One of the preschool teachers is not only a male owl, but also a parent of one of the children. He isn't a buffoon -- he is depicted as a kind and sensitive male role model.

2. The lead character, Timmy, screws up. Often. This isn't a show where the lead is an angelic figure that we should all be more like. Timmy is sometimes mean, sometimes selfish, and reminds me of preschoolers I know.

3. Corollary to #2 - Timmy gets called on his stuff. Often. Timmy often gets caught when he does things that he shouldn't, and he is made to fix whatever he screws up.

4. Timmy shows genuine compassion and caring towards his friends. 

5. There are no words. Like Pingu and silent films, you immediately grasp the story because it's totally being done through visual elements and tone of voice. Timmy says "Baah", Osbourn the Owl (see #1) says "Hoot, hoot", Finlay the Fox says "Yip, yip".

Films I'm considering for Film and Culture in the Fall

Film Folks,

I like to change the films that I use for my classes on a regular basis. I'm starting the process of thinking about what films to show, and this list below is where I'm at right now. Comments, criticism, etc, are appreciated.

In no particular order:

American experience and Introduction: Not sure. I've used In America in the past, but maybe something different this time around.

Veterans: First Blood (Yes, that one.)

Ageism: Harold and Maude

African American representation: Do the Right Thing

Asian American representation: Eat a Bowl of Tea

Latino representation: Zoot Suit

American Indian representation: Smoke Signals

Gender: ....? Need to think about this one.

Class: ...? Last semester were Citizen Kane and Bulworth, need something new...

GLBT issues: Milk - Don't know how I feel about this.

Religion: Arranged - Seems to be my go-to film for this topic.

Disability: Murderball - Used this for the first time last semester, fantastic film, and great discussions afterward.

Thoughts / Comments / Criticisms appreciated!

Thanks,
Alex

[Added July 4th]:

I've gotten some commentary from other sources, and I'm considering a few changes...

For American Experience, I'm considering a soccer film called _Pelada_... I'm thinking about using it to try to discuss the American place in the global diaspora.

African American experience: I need to see _Fruitvale Station_ and think about it. Also _The Soloist_ is under consideration.

Gender needs to be broken into gender identity, and women in film. Thinking about _Thelma and Lousie_, but I'm coming up against a need to find more and more modern films. They (students) just don't relate as well to older films and don't find them as relevant. _Miss Representation_ is a possibility there... Gender Identity is hard because most of the really good films on this topic aren't American.

[Added July 5th]

I had forgotten about _Win Win_ for Masculinity. Also, perhaps _Hannah_ for women in film, and something else for gender ID.

Also forgot about _Walkout_ for Latino. _Reel Injun_ for Indian.

Intro to Film Week 3: Acting and Filmmaking

Friends,

This week was one of those teaching anomalies where a lesson plan in one class didn't work, then I tried it again in my other class and it did work. I don't think it had anything to do with the plan itself, but more the audience - something to always keep in mind. My monday night class is predominantly gen-ed students, but my Tues/Thurs class has a few students who are in the Film Production program. Same material, night and day response. In some cases I'd consider tweaking it, but talking about how acting and filmmaking are somewhat central to my learning goals... in this case, they just had to deal.

• Discuss Citizen Kane
  • Moving Camera in boarding house
  • Camera in the floor
  • Three-focus shot
• So you want to make a film
  • Preproduction
    • Writer: Outline, Synopsis or Treatment - storyboard
    • Rights
    • Funding / Budget
    • Directing
    • Equipment / Insurance
    • Casting
  • Production
    • Shooting script (script supervisor)
    • Shooting schedule
    • Shooting
      • Hours / Minors (12 hours rest daily)
    • Dailies
  • Post-Production
    • Editing
    • Sound
      • ADR
    • SFX
    • Reshooting
    • Clearing with rightholders / producers
    • Exhibition

• So you want to be an actor
  • Training
  • Opportunity
  • Historical
    • Stanislavski + The system
      • Physical action + magic “if”
      • Imagination
      • Concentration of attention: 3 circles
        • Self
        • Others
        • Outside
    • Straasberg + the Method
      • Using magic “if” to create emotional memory
      • Puts the self through circumstances similar to that of the character
    • Meisner + the Meisner Technique
      • Return to physical action
      • Imagination
      • Given circumstances of a text
      • Resists playing an action or an emotion – emotion is the job of the audience
  • Business
    • Screen
      • SAG http://www.sag.org/content/getting-started-actor-faq
      • Child actors and the Coogan Law
        • 15% of wages must go into a trust, accessable at 21
        • The money earned by a child actor belongs to them, legally
    • Stage
      • Equity
• Break
• Film: The Artist