Week 1 (Jan. 31)

Due Next Monday  @5:00: Self-Intro on Course Wiki. (2020: Due date moved to Weds.)

• Day 1: No Class Yet
• Day 2: Still No Class...
• Day 3: Course Introduction + Lumiere Brothers, Melies, Dickson, Hepworth
• "Screening 1" (Shown in Class, mostly...)
• Consider (1) How these demonstrate different Ideas about what motion pictures are supposed to do, and (2) how they show advances in film technique.
• Available in This YouTube Playlist:
    Low Budget Eadward Muybridge Documentary
    The Muybridge Horse, Animated
    Fred Ott's Sneeze (W.K.L. Dickson, 1894, for Thomas Edison)
    A Few More Early Edison Films
    The Arrival of a Train... (August and Louis Lumiere, 1895)
    On the Lumiere's Actualities (August and Louis Lumiere, 1896-1900)
    How It Feels to Be Run Over (Cecil Hepworth, 1900)
    Explosion of a Motor Car (Cecil Hepworth, 1900)
    The Gay Shoe Clerk (Edwin S. Porter, 1903)
    Rescued by Rover (Cecil Hepworth, 1905)
    Le Diable Noir (Georges Melies, 1906)
    The Devilish Tenant (Georges Melies, 1909)
•   Also watch this excerpt from Adam Magyar's Stainless.

Week 2 (Feb. 3, 5, and 7)

Due Monday @5:00: Self-Intro on Course Wiki. (Moved to Weds!)

Due Wednesday: Copy of screening notes due after class (by 5:00).

Due Friday: Choose scene for scene analysis assignment. (MAYBE...)

Remember: You'll need to watch and write about two Oakland fest films. Mark your calendar and plan ahead!

• Day 1: Looking at Movies
• Watch: L@M Media for Chapter 1: Film Analysis Parts 1 and 2 (Juno and Harry Potter) + the Hunger Games video. The latter part of the reading below repeats some analysis from the videos, and you may *skim* as you reach those portions, so long as you keep taking careful note of bold-ed terms...
  Read: L@M Chapter 1 ("Looking at Movies")
  Due: Self-Intro on Wiki, Due @5:00
• Note: The "Chapter 1" videos all demo the kind of close reading of film you're trying to learn to do in this course, and revisiting them as you work on course assignments may be very helpful for helping you understand the targets I'm asking you to hit in your writing. Whether or not I specifically assign or screen them, the L@M Media tutorials and animations are always helpful and worth your time. Note that chapters 1-10 of the text have one or more short tutorial videos or animations associated with them. *They will deepen your learning and help prep you for the tests!*
• Monday Night Screening
• - Read the "Short Analysis" Assignment Together
  - Talk About Strategic Note Taking
  - George Melies: Cinema Magician (21 Min.) (1978 Documentary)
  - "Buster Keaton: The Art of the Gag" (8.5 min.)
  - Portion of Seven Chances (Buster Keaton, 1925) (Final 15 Min.)
  - Modern Times Charles Chaplin, 1936) (83 Min.) (
• Extras (Not Required)
  - Nat King Cole sings Chaplin's "Smile" (Theme from Modern Times);
  - Chaplin (Trailer for the Robert Downey, Jr., Film)
• Day 2: Chaplin/Keaton Discussion
• Due: AFTER class (by 5:00) Screening Notes (Copy or Scan! Not Your Originals!)
• Due: Self-Intro on Wiki, Due @5:00
• Day 3: Principles of Film Form
• Read:  L@M Chapter 2 ("Principles of Film Form")
• Watch: L@M Media "Form and Content"; A Trip to the Moon" (Georges Melies, 1902) and clips from a hand colored version; and take another look at some of the Lumiere Brothers' Well Known Actualities from the 1890s (with my apologies for the soundtracks)
• Due: Choose a scene for formal analysis (at wiki). (Maybe...)
• Extras (Not Required): Smashing Pumpkins' Melies Tribute, "Tonight Tonight"; "What is Bullet Time?" (Matrix Featurette); Parallel Editing/Cross Cutting, Silence of the Lambs (Pretty Creepy, BTW); "Cinema and Its Ancestors" (Tom Gunning/U of Chicago); "2011: Water Moves: The Egg!" (BIOS) (A Contemporary "Actuality"!); Homemade Bullet Time (Sort of) (Cinefix)

Week 3 (Feb. 10, 12, and 14)

Due Wednesday: Mise en Scene Exercise

• Day 1
• Read: L@M Chapter 5 ("Mise en Scene"). Exclude the final section, "Looking at Mise-en-Scene." Actual book pages: pp. 153-181. (You'll pick up the "Looking at MIse-en-Scene section for Friday.)
• Be Thinking: Be thinking about questions you have about the critical response. Be ready to ask them, if you've got them.
• Plan This for Wednesday: This mise en scene exercise (intro'd in class today) will be due on Wednesday. With a partner, create two highly similar scenes. Make the mise en scene of your two scenes close to exactly the same, but just different enough that you suggest very different kinds of things about the scene. Use at least one actor in each scene. Photograph both and submit via email by Wednesday Night (11:59:59 pm). In your email, include a sentence or three about how you feel the shift in mise en scene affects the meaning of the scene.
• Monday Screening
• L@M Media: "Lighting" (9 Min.)
  "Lighting and Familiar Image..." (7.5 Min.)
  "Composing the Frame" (8.5 Min.)
  "Setting and Expressionism" (5 Min.)
  
• The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) (11 Min.)
  Train Robbery Online (Bad Music; we'll watch a better version @the screening.)
• A Day in the Life of a Coal Miner (Kineto Films, 1910) (9 Min.)
  Coal Miner Online (But we'll watch it at the screening.)
• Ida (Pawil Pawlikowski, 2013) (82 min.)

• Day 2
• In Class: Ida / Pawlikowski Discussion
  Introduce/Discuss "Theme"
• Due: Mise en Scene Exercise. (See directions @Monday, above.)
• Extra (Not Required)
  --A video about the history of combining one shot with another in the same frame, inc. some of effects Melies's work and shots in The Great Train Robbery: "Hollywood’s History of Faking It: The Evolution of Greenscreen Compositing"
  --More classical Hollywood mise en scene creation: "Matte Work in King Kong (1933)"
  
• Day 3
• Read: L@M on Film Production: pp 418-26
  (These pages are in Chapter 11, in two sections: "How a Movie is Made" + "The Studio System")
  
• Read: L@M Chapter 5, pp 182-86 ("Looking at Mise en Scene")
  
• In Class: Introduce/Discuss "Segmentation"
  

Week 4 (Feb. 17 and 19) 

Due Monday at 5:00: Short Analysis #1 (Chaplin, Pawlikowski, or--with Permission--one of the Short Films)

Due Wednesday (Class Time): Crooklyn Segmentation

• Day 1
• Read: L@M Chapter 6 ("Cinematography"). This chapter is very full. Give yourself time to digest and track the key terms it's presenting. I suggest taking notes by hand and defining terms for yourself as you go! Don't worry if the "open and closed framing" section is confusing.
• View: Watch all six videos from L@M Chapter 6 ("Cinematography"). Access most easily via the "Video" link online.
• Extras (Not Required): The Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers; DVD Beaver Compares Versions of It's a Wonderful Life; DVD Beaver Compares Versions of The Apartment
• Due: First Short Analysis, @5:00 pm
  (Chaplin, Pawlikowski, or--with Permission--one of the Short Films)
• Monday Screening
• - Brief discussion of segmentation; short storyboarding videos.
  - "Diegetic and Nondiegetic Elements" (9 Min.) (from Chap. 4)
  - "Suspense and Surprise" (2 Min.) (from Chap. 4)
  - Intro Film Grammar / Photo Story Project
  - Crooklyn (Spike Lee, 1994) (115 min.)

• Day 2
• In Class: Crooklyn / Lee Discussion;
• Due: Crooklyn Segmentation
• Day 3: No Class (Faculty Development Day)
• Recommended Ways to Use Your Time: (1) Review terms we've studied so far and prep your own study strategies for the upcoming first test. (2) Do some drafting work for Short Analysis #2.

Week 5 (Feb. 24, 26, and 28)

• Day 1
• Read: L@M Chapter 8 ("Editing") (Stop before final City of God section.) Physical book: pp 281-312.
• Watch: L@M Media: "The Evolution of Editing: Continuity and Classical Cutting" and "The Evolution of Editing: Montage"
• FYI: Important Films Addressed in the L@M Editing Videos
  The Work of the Lumiere Bros. and George Melies
  The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) (11 Min.)
  Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920) (107 Min.)
  See Also: The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915) (192 Min.)
  Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925) (65 Min.)
  (Close look at Odessa Steps sequence.)
• Bonus (Not Required):
  Roger Ebert on Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin
• Monday Screening
• -- Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017) (113 min.)
  -- "How to Do Action Comedy" from Every Frame a Painting (Tony Zhou)
  -- "How to Do Visual Comedy" from Every Frame a Painting (Tony Zhou)
• Day 2
• In Class: Baby Driver / Wright Discussion
• Due: TBA
• Day 3
• Read: L@M on Film History: pp 362-385
  (Chapter 10, "A Short Overview of Film History" Section, up to the end of the "French New Wave" section.)
• Watch: Entr'acte (René Clair, 1924) (The film is also here, if the other link isn't working.)
• Extras (Not Required)
  "Debaser" (The Pixies' great rock song for the French Avant-Garde).
• There are links to online examples of films from the various movements available at the course links page.

Week 6 (Mar. 2, 4, and 6)

Due Monday at 5:00: Short Analysis #2 (Any film since Ida.)

Wednesday @ Class: Test #1

• Day 1
• Exam Prep
• Intro of Formal Analysis
• Watch: The short storyboarding videos (10-20 minutes worth at regular speed) collected here.
• Due Today: Short Analysis #2
• Monday Screening
• Friday Night Lights Ep. 1.1, "Pilot" (Peter Berg, 2006)
• Exam Prep
• Day 2
• Test #1
  
• Day 3
• TBA: This may be an extension of Test #1, depending on how that comes together. Thank you for your patience!

Week 7 (Mar. 9, 11, and 13)

• Day 1
•  Read: L@M Chapter 9 ("Sound").
• Things We'll Look at In Class This Week:
  --Featurette on Sound in Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981)
  --Opening Scene of Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1968)
  --Opening Scene of His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
  --L@M Media on Sound
• Monday Screening
• -- Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952) (103 min.)
  -- Scenes from Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936)
• Day 2: Singin' in the Rain/Kelly/Musicals Discussion
• Day 3:
• Watch: L@M DVD "Genre: The Western"
• Hey, Notice: Readings are slow at this time, and it's big chance to get a jump on writing projects for the second half of the semester. Use it!

Week 8 (Mar. 16, 18, and 20)

Due FRIDAY at 5:00: Short Analysis #3 (Any film since Crooklyn.)

• Day 1: Read L@M Chapter 7 ("Acting")
• Monday Screening
• --L@M Media for Chapter 7 ("Persona and Performance" + "Editing and Performance in Snapshot") (~15 min.)
  --Hoffman, Tomlin, and Russell on Charlie Rose (~20-30 min. We'll watch at least minutes 20-28-ish.)
  --The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001) (110 min.)
• Day 2: Tenenbaums/Anderson Discussion
• Day 3:
• In Class: Film Grammar / Photo Project Discussion and Prep
  Due Today: Short Analysis #3
• Hey! --> It would be a good idea to read Devil in a Blue Dress over break, if you have concerns about work load in the week after break.
• **Spring Break Happens! Come back in a week!**

Week 10 (Apr. 6 and 8)

Due Friday at 5:00: Formal Analysis (Extensions Available w/Strong Reasons)

• Day 1: Read: Devil in a Blue Dress, Second Half
• Monday Screening
• Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin, 1995) (102 min.)
• Day 2: Devil in a Blue Dress/Franklin Discussion
• Day 3: No Class: Easter Break, Part 1

Week 11 (Apr. 15 and 17)

Wednesday and Friday @ Class: Test #2

• Day 1: No Class: Easter Break, Part 2
• Day 2: Test #2, Part 1
• Day 3: Test #2, Part 2
  

Week 12 (Apr. 20, 22, and 24)

Be Working Hard on Your Formal Analysis!

• Day 1
• Read: "Moral Monsters" (Ronald K. Tacelli); TBA on Independent Film
• Remember that you need to either PRINT texts for class or have some way (Kindle? iPad? Laptop?) to view your electronic copy in class.  Showing up for a discussion without a copy of the text under discussion is super lame.
• Monday Screening
• The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006) (137 min.)
• Day 2: Lives of Others / Donnersmarck Discussion
• Day 3: "The Citizen Kane Mutiny" (James F. Sennett) and "Liberation Through Sensuality" (Dallas Willard)

Week 13 (April 27 and 29; May 1)

Screening Notes Portfolio Due Monday in Class
Due Friday at 5:00: Formal Scene Analysis
Any Revised (or Replacement) Short Analysis Due by Friday at 5:00

• Day 1: TBA
• Due: Screening Notes Portfolio
• Monday Screening
• TBA
• Day 2: TBA
• Day 3: TBA
• Due: Formal Analysis
• Class Will Include Notes on Prep for the Final
  

Week 14 (May 4, 6, and 8)

• Day 1: In Class Screening: "Cousins" from Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
• Monday Screening
• Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2006)
• Day 2: Lost in Translation/S. Coppola Discussion
• Day 3: TBA

Week 15 (May 11 + Final)

• Day 1: Brilliantly well-informed class discussion of what it takes to be a super-sharp reader of cinema. Exam prep.

• Final.

  Final Exam Time: Thursday, May 14, 3:30-5:30 PM