EL 250 | Intro to Film Studies

(Spring 2018)

Find e-Texts

This course is an introduction to film studies within the context of English studies, focusing especially on how stories can be told through and with film. We’ll look at the conventions of storytelling in film and mass media. We’ll explore the ways film tells stories using form, style, social conventions, and all of those things at once. We’ll study the vocabulary of film criticism and technique, and we’ll consider how historical forces have affected the making and viewing of film. Along the way, we’ll look at as much film as possible, exploring a broad range of stylistic and storytelling choices. You may not like every film equally, but you ought to look at each one as an opportunity to think about the many different ways film can be used.

Short Version: You’ll be learning to see what happens in film more clearly, and to talk more effectively about what you see.

Assignments to Anticipate/Breakdown of Scores



---- The Schedule ----

Note that reading and viewing links may be added and altered as we go. Also, note that while I do a lot of work to keep links and linked documents up to date, the Internet is full of tricks and inconsistencies. If needed/required links are broken or documents are not available when you try to get to them, it's your responsibility to let me know that the links aren't working or the documents have disappeared. Send me an email right away if you have trouble getting to any assigned online text or document.

L@M = Looking at Movies, Fifth Edition (Barsam and Monahan)
L@M Media = The Media Included with the L@M E-Text

Quizzes can happen any time there are assigned readings and screenings.

Week 1 (Feb. 2)

Due Next Monday  @5:00: Self-Intro on Course Wiki.

  • Day 1: No Class Yet
  • Day 2: Still no class...
  • Day 3: Course Introduction + Lumiere Brothers, Melies, Dickson, Hepworth
  • "Screening 1" (Shown in Class...)
  • 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. 5, 7, and 9)

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.

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: Whether or not I specifically assign or screen them, the L@M Media tutorials on always helpful and worth your time. Note that chapters 1-9 of the text have one or more short tutorial videos associated with them. *They will deepen your learning and help prep you for the exams!*
  • Monday Screening
  • George Melies: Cinema Magician (21 Min.) (1978 Documentary)
    Portion of Seven Chances (Final 15 Min.) (Buster Keaton, 1925)
    Modern Times (83 Min.) (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
  • 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). 
  • 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. 12, 14, and 16)

Due Wednesday: Mise en Scene Exercise

Due Friday at 5:00: Critical Analysis #1 (Chaplin, Keaton, Hitchcock, or--with Permission--one of the Short Films)

  • Day 1
  • Read: L@M Chapter 5 ("Mise en Scene"). Exclude (or read only because you want to read) the "Open and Closed Framing" section (pp 199-201) and the final section, "Looking at Mise-en-Scene." Actual book pages: pp. 164-198; 202-204. (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 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 and Familiar Image..." (7.5 Min.)
    "Setting and Expressionism" (5 Min.)
    "Diegetic and Nondiegetic Elements" (9 Min.) (from Chap. 4)
    "Suspense and Surprise" (2 Min.) (from Chap. 4)
  • 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.)
  • Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) (112 Min.)
  • Day 2
  • In Class: Rear Window / Hitchcock Discussion;
    Introduce/Discuss "Theme"
  • Due: Mise en Scene Exercise. (See directions @Monday, above.)
  • Extra (Not Required)
    --"Rear Window Time Lapse" (Jeff Desom)
    --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 466-74
    (Chapter 11, "How a Movie is Made" + "The Studio System")
  • Read: L@M Chapter 5, pp 210-20 ("Looking at Mise en Scene")
  • In Class: Introduce/Discuss "Segmentation"
  • Due: First Critical Analysis, @5:00 pm
    (Chaplin, Keaton, Hitchcock, or--with Permission--one of the Short Films)

Week 4 (Feb. 19 and 21) 

Due Wednesday (Class Time): Kane Segmentation

  • Day 2
  • In Class: Citizen Kane / Welles Discussion;
  • Due: Citizen Kane Segmentation
  • Day 3: No Class (Faculty Development Day)
  • Highly Recommended: Get substantial work done on your photo projects 

Week 5 (Feb. 26 and 28; Mar. 2)

Due FRIDAY at 5:00: Photo/Film Grammar Project

Due NEXT Wednesday at 5:00: Festival Review Remember: You'll need to watch and write about two Oakland fest films. Also, we're watching Do the Right Thing as NEXT week's screening. You'll watch it at the festival, and then we'll cancel the regular Monday night screening for the week.

  • Day 1
  • Read: L@M Chapter 8 ("Editing") (Stop before final City of God section.) Physical book: pp 318-57 INCLUDING Table 8.1 (pp 356-57).
  • Watch: L@M Media: "The Evolution of Editing: Continuity and Classical Cutting" and "The Evolution of Editing: Montage" + (@Vimeo) "How to Do Visual Comedy" (on Edgar Wright's work).
  • 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
  • --Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)
    --Scenes from Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936)
    --"How to Do Action Comedy" from Every Frame a Painting (Tony Zhou)
  • Day 2: Singin' in the Rain/Kelly/Musicals Discussion
  • Oakland Festival

    All screenings in Robinson Teaching Theater

    Friday the 2nd
    The Salesman @7
    2017 Academy Award for Best Foreign
    Language Film.

    Saturday the 3rd
    Detroit Under S.T.R.E.S.S @7
    Documentary by WU alum David Van Wie ('94), who will be present to speak about the film.

    Sunday the 4th
    Do the Right Thing @3
    >> Required for Class <<

    Day 3
  • Read: L@M on Film History: pp 409-433
    (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.
  • Due Today: Photo/Film Grammar Project

Week 6 (Mar. 5, 7, and 9)

Due Wednesday (Class Time): Festival Review

Due Friday at 5:00: Critical Analysis #2 (Welles, Donen/Kelly, or Lee)

  • Day 1
  • In Class: Do the Right Thing Discussion
  • Read Ahead: L@M Chapter 9 ("Sound") will be due for Wednesday.
  • Monday Screening
  • Regular screening replaced by your viewing of Do the Right Thing at the Oakland Festival. Please also watch, independently, the short storyboarding videos (20 minutes worth at regular speed) collected here.
  • Day 2
  • Read : L@M Chapter 9 ("Sound")
  • In Class W and/or F:
  • --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
  • Extras (Not Required): Clips from Gene Kelly's "Dancing is a Man's Game" TV special.
  • Due: One-Paragraph Reviews of at Least TWO Oakland Festival Films from Two different nights.
  • Day 3
  • Read: NO NEW READING for TODAY
  • Due: Second Critical Analysis, @5:00
    (    Welles, or Donen/Kelly, or Lee)

Week 7 (Mar. 12, 14, and 16)

Midterm Exam, Part 1, is Friday!

  • Day 1
  • Watch: L@M DVD "Genre: The Western"
    In Class: Exam Prep
  • Monday Screening
  • The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) (~160 min)
  • Day 2: Leone Discussion
  • Day 3: Midterm Exam, Part 1

Week 8 (Mar. 19, 21, and 23)

Midterm Exam, Part 2, is Friday!

  • 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 Apostle (Robert Duvall, 1997)
  • Day 2: Apostle/Duvall Discussion
  • Day 3: Midterm Exam, Part 2 (Terms)
  • **Spring Break Happens! Come back in a week!**

Week 9 (Apr. 2, 4, and 6)

Due Friday at 5:00: Critical Analysis #3 (Leone, Duvall, or Coppola)

  • Day 1: Easter Travel Day (No Class) (But evening screening is still ON.)
  • Monday Screening
  • The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
  • Day 2: Godfather Discussion
  • Day 3:
  • Watch: L@M DVD "Narrators, Narration, and Narrative" +
    American Cinema's "The Film School Generation" Episode +
    "The Art of Editing and Suicide Squad" (Folding Ideas)
  • (~1.5 Hours for Video, but you can use fast speed on YouTube...)
  • Read: L@M Chapter 4 ("Narrative"). The final Stagecoach section is optional. Physical book: pp. 122-150.
  • Plus: Discussion of Formal Analysis.
  • Due Friday at 5:00: Critical Analysis #3 (Leone, Duvall, or, Coppola)

Week 10 (Apr. 9, 11, and 13)

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

  • Day 1: "The Citizen Kane Mutiny" (James F. Sennett) and "Liberation Through Sensuality" (Dallas Willard)
  • Monday Screening
  • The Lives of Others ( Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
  • Day 2: The Lives of Others/Donnersmarck Discussion
  • Day 3: TBA
  • Due: Formal Analysis Due Friday @5:00

Week 11 (Apr. 16, 18, and 20)

  • 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 min.)
    --Ida ( Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013) (82 min.)
  • Day 2: Ida/Pawel Pawlikowski Discussion
  • Day 3: Read: The Big Sleep, Chapters 1-17

Week 12 (Apr. 23, 25, and 27)

Due Friday at 5:00: "Bad Draft' for Critical Review of Reviews

  • Day 1: Read: The Big Sleep, Chapters 18-32
  • Monday Screening
  • The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
    Excerpts from His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
  • Bonus (Not Required, But Pretty Helpful):
    Big Sleep Character Connections Chart
  • Day 2: Big Sleep/Hawks/Chandler Discussion
  • Day 3: In Class Colleague Consultations on "Bad Drafts"

Week 13 (April 30; May 2 and 4)

Screening Notes Portfolio Due Monday in Class
Due Friday at 5:00: Critical Review of Reviews
Any Revised Response (or Replacement Response) Due by Friday at 5:00

  • Day 1: In Class Screening: "Cousins" from Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
  • Monday Screening
  • Lost in Translation (Sophia Coppola, 2006)
  • Day 2: Lost in Translation/S. Coppola Discussion
  • Day 3: TBA (Inc. Intro to Final + Final Film Selection)

Week 14 (May 7, 9, and 11)

Due Friday at 5:00: Critical Response Reflective "Meditation" Essay

Week 15 (May 14 + 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 17, 3:30-5:30 PM


-------------------------------------------------------------
Page Designed and Maintained by Fred Johnson.
Email • Simple Site Menu • Recommend a Link?