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’tJmveraity Mkrmihns M > Intemaiiona]
8612391
Lee, Tain Dow
REFORMING FILM STUDY AT THE LEVEL OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN TAIWAN, THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA
The Ohio State University Ph.D. 1986
University Microfilms I ntern sti O nel 300 N. Z e e t Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106
Copyright 1986 by Lee, Tain-Dow All Rights Reserved
REFORMING FILM STUDY AT THE LEVEL OF
HIGHER EDUCATION IN TAIWAN, THE
REPUBLIC OF CHINA
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate
School of The Ohio State University
By
Lee, Tain-Dow, B.A., M.A.
*****
The Ohio State University
1986
Dissertation Comni ttee: Approved by
Dr. John Bel land
Dr. Robert Wagner
Dr. W i11i am Taylor Adv i ser Dr. Clayton Lowe Education Theory and Practice Copyright by
Tain-Dow Lee
1986 To
My Parents
and
My Country
I I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Professor William Taylor, Professor Clayton
Lowe, and Professor Elsie Albert/ for their guidances and comments on the preparation of this study. I wish to thank Professor John Bel land for his willingness to allo t time in his already teeming schedule, and for his support and encouragement. A special gratitude is expressed to Professor Robert Wagner, the great educator, for the encouragement, advice, and criticism he gave me during all of my studies at The Ohio
State University. Finally, I thank my parents for their unshakable faith in me, and Marn-Ling Shing for her understanding and her patience with me during this research.
I I I VITA
October 20, 1954 ...... Born - Tainan, Taiwan, The Republit of China
1977 ...... B.A., Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
1977-1979...... Second Lieutenant, Marine Corps, R.O.C.
1981 ...... M.A., Film Department, College of Fine Art, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
1982-1983 ...... Public Program Coordinator, Department of Photography and Cinema, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
1985-Present ...... Chairman, Department of Drama and Cinema, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
FIELDS OF STUDY
Studies of Film and Communication: Professor Robert Wagner
Studies in Video Technology: Professor Clayton Lowe
Studies in Instructional Professor John Bel land Design and Technology; Professor William Taylor
Studies in Curriculum Theory: Professor Elsie Alberty
I V TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION...... i i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... i ü
VITA...... iv
LIST OF TABLES...... vi i
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTÎW...... 1
Statement o-f the Problem Purpose and Structure o-f the Study Terms Used in the Study
II. AN EXAMINATK^ OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE PRESENT FILM EDUCATION IN TAIWAN...... 15
An Overview o-f Present Film Study Programs The Situation o-f Teachers in Relation to the Planning Curricula The Situation o-f Students in Relation to Examination -for Higher Education Conclusion and Summary
III. SCME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATION OF DESIGNING THE FILM CURRICULUM...... 45 Identifying the Curriculum Goals Structuring the Coursework The C riteria of Structuring the Courses
IV. THE PROPOSED CURRICULUMFOR THE FILM STUDY...... 58
Unit I: Production ...... 59 Film Product i on I . Film Production II. Film Production III. Video Production
Unit II: History ...... 86 Film History I Film Hi story 11
Unit III: Appreciation ...... 101 FiIm Apprtciat ion I Film Appreciat ion II TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)
Unit IV: Screenplay Writing ...... 110 Studies o-f Screenwr i t ing
Unit V:...... Documentary ...... 119 Studies o-f Documentary Film I Studies o-f Documentary Film II
Unit VI: Theory ...... 132 Film Theory I Film Theory 11
V.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 148
The Need to Promote the Value o-f Film Education The Need -for a Cooperative Approach to Film Education in Taiwan The Need o-f Teacher Training The Need o-f the Extension o-f Film Study to All Levels o-f Education
BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 161
APPENDICES
I. Barron's Categorization o-f the Films Shown on The CBS News Hour in 1968 ...... 167
II. The Suggested List o-f Current Periodicals -for the Fi Im Study ...... 168
III. The Questionnaire Used in the Research of the Students' Response to Present Film Education, ...... 171
V I LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. The Required Course List o-f the Department o-f Drama and Cinema o-f Chinese Culture U niversity ...... 18
2. The Required Course List o-f the Film Section o-f the National Taiwan Academy o-f A rts ...... 19
3. The Required Course List o-f the Film Production Department o-f the World Journalism College...... 20
4. The Courses Tested in Each Section o-f the Nation's Four-year Colleges and Universities Joint Entrance Exam ination...... 36
5. 1983 Top Ten Departments in Section Two, the Nation's Four-year Colleges and Universities Joint Entrance Examination ...... 37
V I I CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This exploratory study is to develop a proposed curriculum -for the study o-f -film at the level o-f higher education in Taiwan, the
Republic o-f China. Ninety years is brief in human history but long in course o-f the rapid development of film. The medium that once was merely the nickelodeon is today being internationally described as the art of the present, the great global educator, the whole of art in one art, and the central and characteristic art of our age. And film, which once was one "number" in the variety show, now is many things art, education, entertainment, recorder of history, a medium of communication, and a language. However, even though the film has had considerable development and progress with enormous output since the six tie s, it s till has not acquired the public esteem in the Republic of China that it has long possessed in other countries of the world.
Statement of the Problem
The film medium has been regarded as an art form in Europe and
the United States of America and the makers of films have been
subjects of the study accorded creators in other art forms. In
England, picture makers are knighted; in France they are in ranks of
esteemed Académie Française; on the other side of the iron curtain
they receive the respect which might be expected for participants in
the medium which Lenin, Stalin, and Krushchev each described as "the
1 <1) most important o-f all the arts." In the United States, the widespread
recognition and acceptance o-f film as a significant new subject and a
potent environmental phenomenon have resulted in unprecedented
interest in developing curricula and teaching materials devoted to
film education at all levels of general education. Currently the
American Film Institute reports 3,126 faculty members in 650 colleges
and universities teach film, television, and media to students in < 2 ) 7,648 courses. Also, it has been estimated that film studies comprise
some portion of the curricula of over 22,000 elementary ' nd secondary (3) schools.
By contrast, Taiwan, the Republic of China, one of the fastest
growing countries in the world, is a place where the film is treated merely as a product of the speculative factory and is always lumped
together with vulgar literature, comic strips, and bad art. Few
people have written about the film, or, if they have, generally center
on the names, faces, and personal lives of movie sta rs. As far as
national acknowledgement of creators of films, there is l i tt l e .
Perhaps King Hu is the single exception who was singled out more for
his reputation gaining from abroad than for truly recognizing his
a rtis tic creativity to the art of filmmaking. Beinginformed about
this situation, many government o ffic ia ls often gave cordial
declarations that the government appreciated the a r tis tic , cultural,
and business value of the film and that it had worked to help its
development. However, it was nearly eighty-five years after the film was brought to this country before the f irs t film library in the Republic of China history was opened to the public in 1979; the firs t annual Gold Horse International Film Festival presenting recent award- winning or world wide praised films was held in 1980; and the first
Law of Motion Picture, which established the rules governing the guidance and administration of film industry and makers, was promulgated in 1983.
George Stevens, Jr. in this artic le "The Mass Media in a Liberal
Education" which discussed the similar problems in the United States in the six tie s concluded that education could be the best way to solve (4) most problems. Indeed, but, to make the matter worse, disdain for films is at its most dangerous in university faculties and educationists in Taiwan, who are still living in a print-oriented world and are unwilling to make the effort to learn and accept a whole new expanded language, which stresses the experience itself and not merely the expression or understanding of the experience.
Still others, retaining strands of the conservative ethic and rigid scholasticism, are strongly suspicious of experiences which require the involvement of the senses and which are enjoyable. And some of them in the field of art either will not accept film as an art form or prejudicially consider film as merely an extension of drama.
Those people often offer a ready confession of ignorance about the film while proudly claiming erudition in the more fashionable intellectual exercises such as opera, drama, symphony, ballet, and art exhibitions. They never bothered to understand the fact that the film is like drama in its expressive dimension, in that it directly presents the expressive, live world o-f gesture, action, and interaction. It is like the novel in its -formal dimension, providing us through a plot with a possible world in which, in experiencing it, one can live. It is like the photograph in its visual dimension, though, being temporal, it has -further complexity o-f composi t ion.
To respond to their prejudicial attitudes, the -facts that exist and were deliberately ignored need to be cited clearly and loudly.
First, statistical information shows the number of film productions of the Republic of China had already leaped from seventeen in 1959 to one hundred nineteen in 1969. From then on production has shown a steady increase. Within the years from 1972 to
1974 a total of 609 films were turned out (a monthly average of 17.5; and by 1978 a total of 292 films were made (a monthly average of
24.3). These enormous outputs make Taiwan as the third ranked film production center of the world, next only to India and Japan. By the end of 1978 there were 515 cinema theaters of various sizes in the country, on an average of one cinema per 6.99 arable square miles which is also one of the top records of the world. In sum, these statistics mean that in addition to 275 films annually imported from abroad, each year there are approximately 567 films shown in every <5) part of the country to a mass audience.
Second, owing to the economic growth, television sets in use had been estimated exceeding five million in 1932. In Taipei, the capital of the country, there is a television receiver for virtually every •family. For the rest o-f Taiwan the proportion is as high as 97 <6) percent. And programming of the three television networks, almost all in color, adds up to over 300 hours weekly. The majority of domestic shows are live: news and commentary, dramatic serials, Chinese opera, dance, quizzes, and sports. Foreign shows are on film and include a great number of leading American series (such as It Takes a Thief, The
Love Boat. The A Team, and Hotel . etc.) and worldwide box-office successes (such as Around the World in 80 Days. Battle of the Bulge,
The Sound of Music, and Star Wars, e tc .) . Furthermore, the U.S. moon landing and the Reagan and Mondaie Presidential Debate, 1984, have been aired live via the Pacific Satellite.
Third, in addition to the popularity of television, the rapid growth of the videocassette recorders has brought over 1,500 videotaped film s, provided by over 10,000 rental and sale stores around the nation, into the living rooms of the general public. The videocassettes include domestic kung-fu and swordsman movies, American westerns and gangsters, Japanese science-fiction and modern drama,
Ingnar Bergman's masterpieces and pornographies, and many underground
"black" movies banned by the government. A survey indicated that by the end of 1984, the total videocassette recorders in use had passed one m illion, and that each VCR-owned family spent an average of seven (7) hours per week on video viewing.
Fourth, according to the current report, television is ranked the f ir s t (74.1%) in terms of "the most favorable recreation activ ity of
the general public", and film is ranked the third (34.6%), next only to newspapers (57.4%); and seventy-five percent of the audience of ( 8) these two media is 24 years old or younger. Inferentially, this could mean that today's students in Taiwan spend the majority of their non school -hours with the media. Most important is the fact that more and more of these students come to the film and video not only for amusement but for sophisticated art appreciation. The best evidence of this is the great annual box-receipt increase of Gold Horse
International Film Festival which is one of the few chances approaching the world “art" works. The increased number of young people who go abroad for the film study in recent years is another reason for a concern for cinema in Taiwan.
Above indications tell us the film, television, and video, cannot be overlooked or ignored by the schools and the parents as irrelevant, time-consuming, or merely "fun". Whether they like them or not, film and television are seriously affecting our students - their attitudes, beliefs, emotions, knowledge, tastes, and awareness. Ironically enough, even business advertisers aware of this fact and pay millions to the film and television industry because of its power to influence human behavior and sell their products. How can educationists stubbornly refuse to accept the fact and to help shape this affect positively. How can intellectuals not enthusiastically devote to the improvement of film instead of negatively depriving young people from it.
In order to defend and promote national cultural, and to consider the balance between economic construction and cultural construction, since the mid seventies the government has been active with regard
tocultural reconstruction. Only recently the importance o-f film as
the dominant communication medium of contemporary culture has been noticed by the public. Yet, among the numerous plan for Chinese culture renaissance, the issue of film education has never been considered. The newly founded National College of Art, designed to cultivate talented artists, does not include film.
Today the mass media, television and video, all draw their fundamental techniques frwn the film. The teaching of science, art, medicine, language, and so many other subjects is more and more effective through film techniques. Many literary writers and playwrights frankly admit that film has great influence on their craft of writing. The recording of national culture - initiated by the pottery makers in their earthenware of the Shang Dynasty <1800-1400
B.C.), followed by the Buddhists on the wall of the Caves of Tunghwang
in Kansu Province (about 250-420 A.D.) and many painters, sculptors, architects, literary writers, and in recent times, still photographers
is becoming more and more dependent upon the motion picture medium.
George Stevens, Jr. notes;
This (cultural recording) demands men and women who are capable of using the medium effectively. Emerson said, "We infer the sp irit of the nation in great measure from the language." And it must follow in our age that the grammar and style of film will reflect our culture. Consider just one aspect, the legacy of history. It is said that civ iliz atio n s are remembered more for their arts than for their statesmen. And, in fact, statesmen are often remembered because of the a rts. Napoleon owes much to painters; the reign of many kings would be the less in history were it not for the mastery of Shakespeare's drama; the Italian Renaissance is a civilization remembered over others because painting and sculpture -flourished and its artists left a legacy; and the brilliance of the early Greeks endures by virtue of greatness in the w ritten word and architecture.
So in a large measure will the civilizations of our time be judged by that which survives on cullulcid. And history teaches us that that which is most artful re s is ts being obscured by the passing of time. C9]
Therefore, it is both obvious and reasonable that we should have a deep concern over the development of creative talent in a medium of communication so fundamental to our culture and our civilization. We recognize the need for training musicians, our dancers, our opera performers, and our dramatists, but we are careless about the training of our filmmakers and our video producers.
Purpose and Method of the Study
The major task of this study is to develop a model curriculum for
the study of film at the level of higher education in view of the previously mentioned facts. The purposes of this curriculum are:
1) To provide opportunity for young people to study the
film medium. That is to say, to develop visually as
well as verbally literate citizens.
2) To provide opportunity for young people to be trained
in the art of filmmaking That is to say, to cultivate
young talented image-makers in film and related visual
media.
As Robert Wagner states in the article "The Needs of F iIm/TV
Educat i on, 1977":
The encouragement of the production of images of quality depends upon the quality o-f image makers and consumers; upon the education o-f both; upon educators and industry with improving the state o-f cinema and television education , but also with defining instructional objectives, identifying specific needs of the field s, and exploring and developing the precise means by which such needs may be met. [10]
Though the curriculum developed in this study is for the university film education, the emphasis is placed upon the undergraduate area. It is there, as the foundation of future special education, that the most work is most needed.
In consideration of curriculum design, Robert S. Zais indicates:
The initial consideration in curriculum design is the determination of whether the focus is to be on general education or special education, or both. We have indicated elsewhere that general and special education are not discrete, that elements of both occur in all curricula, regardless of their intent. However, it is important for design purposes to establish clearly if the curriculum is chiefly to train for specific skills and knowledge or to educate for community participation and human development. cm
This critical disputation of whether university shall be a place
of general education for cultivatingall-round talents or special
education for training specialists is still progressing among many
educationists. Under the present system of higher education in
Taiwan, the focus is on the latter, because the university is composed
of many academic departments. On entering the university, a student
immediately belongs to a certain department just as if a soldier jr.
the army belongs to a platoon of a certain company. As the major of
this department, he musttake the whole package of courses specified
by the department so that he may graduate. Hence, the curriculum
designed in this study is basically packaged courses for the majors of 10
the film department. But since 1982 this situation has had some changes. Many departments have begun to reduce the number of the packaged courses gradually sothat students may have an opportunity to develop the study of other areas of interest. Accordingly some of the courses designed here are also provided as a regular part of general education in humanities.
The design of this study will proceed as follows;
First, examination of contemporary film education. In Chapter
Two an overview of the present film study programs found in three colleges in the Republic of China will be provided as the background and the foundation for the work of following chapters. There are two purposes involved in this investigation;
1) To examine the deeply-entrenched problems of the
programs, such as teacher education, learning
activities, teaching materials, the planning of
curricula, and school administrative system.
2) To enquire the situation of students in relation to
present university entrance examination system. What
kind of students are admitted to the film study
programs? What are their attitudes toward the film
study?
These two enquiries mainly are based on the teaching experience which this w riter had in two of the three colleges from September,
1984 to January, 1985, and the survey of 103 junior and senior film students which was made during this period. 11
Second, -formulation o-f the curriculum goals and coursework.
Nothing is more significant to educational planners in developing a curriculum than the determination o-f its purpose which are generally distinguished as aims, goals, and objectives. Formulation o-f clear and comprehensive goals provides an essential platform for the curriculum. In large part the goals determine what content is
important and how it should be organized. In reference to the aims of higher education in Taiwan, Chapter Three will identify the goals of the curriculum developed in the research. Then, following the guideline of the goals, the coursework is structured.
Third, construction of the model curriculum. The writer will draw together these enquiries, in Chapter Four, as the sources of the goals of film education and as guidelines for the identification, selection, and organization of content, a model curriculum is constructed.
Fourth, conclusion and recommendations. In order to promote all- out film education in Taiwan, four major issues needed further
investigation, and will be discussed in the final chapter. The four issues are: 1) the need to promote the value of film education, 2) the need for cooperative approach to film education in Taiwan, 3) the need of teacher training, and 4) the need of the extension of film study to all levels of education.
As indicated in the previous section, film has been long ignored in Taiwan, so it is not surprising that there has rarely been an 12
effort devoted to the fundamental issues offilm education. Thus, in
the study of designing film curriculum, the references will be made to
the significant literatu re on film coming from the American Film
In stitu te , the B ritish Film In stitu te, the University Film and Video
Association, and Center Internationale de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinema
et de Television (CILECT), and some doctoral dissertations concerning
the central issue of the study.
Terms Used in the Study
FILM - The term film is broadly defined, as an art form analogous to
painting, sculpture, music, and drama, and also as one of the basic modern ccxnmun i cat i on media. This includes film in its motion picture
form, film as projected on television, and also film as recorded on videocassette. In this study the term is used interchangeably with
"cinema" and “the motion picture."
FILM EDUCATION - This is defined as those courses, learning
activities, or experiences which have as their content the subject matter or discipline of film. Within the context of this enquiry film education includes experiences and activities involving the aesthetics, production, history, and criticism or appreciation of
film. In this study it is used interchangeably with "film study."
THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA - For a long time this has caused great
confusion with the People's Republic of China by so many people who are not familiar with modern Chinese history. The Republic of China was established in 1911 immediately after the National Revolution
led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. In 1949, after four years civil war, the 13
ccxnmun i sts assumed power and the new nation, the People's Republic of
China was founded. In the meantime, the Republic of China moved its government to island Taiwan, one of the provinces of China, and undertook the economic, social, p o litic a l, and cultural reconstruction of the island.
This study only addresses the part of the country known as the
Republic of China with its seat currently on Taiwan and 78 offshore
islands. However, it involves the sweep of Chinese history, its cultural heritage, lite ra tu re , and the arts. This study treats the ancient lore and oreat tradition of China as a whole. 14
End Notes
1. George Stevens, J r ., "The Mass Media in a Liberal Education", The Complete Guide to Film Study. (Urbana, Illin o is; National Council of Teachers of English, 1972) p. 4.
2. Charles Grande, Jr. (ed.), The American Film Institute Guide to College Courses in Film and T elevision. 7th edition (Washington D.C.: The Amer i can Film In stitu te , 1980), pp. 12-13.
3. Albert Arthur Anderson, J r., Film Study as Aesthetic Education: A Foundation for Curriculum. (unpublished Doctor's dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1974) p. 3.
4. George Stevens, J r ., "The Mass Media in a Liberal Education", The Complete Guide to Film Study, p. 6.
5. Min Chi, "Development in the Past Year", 1979 Year Book of Motion Picture in the Republic of China. (Taipei: The Foundation of the Motion Ficture Development, 1979). p. 7.
6. Questions and Answers about the Republic of China. (Taipei: Kwang Hwa Publishing Company, 1982). p. 118.
7. Central Daily News. International Education [Taipei], September 15, 1984, Sect. III.
8. 1984 Year Book of Motion Picture in the Republic of China. (Taipei: The Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, 1985). p. 18.
9. George Stevens, J r ., "The Mass Media in a Liberal Education", The Complete Guide to Film Study, p. 6.
10. Robert Wagner, "The Needs of Film/TV Education, 1977", Journal of the University Film Association. XXIX, No. 3 (Spring, 1977). p. 31 .
11. Robert S. Zais, Curriculum: Principles and Foundations. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, Inc., 1976), p. 437. CHAPTER II
AN EXAMINATION OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE PRESENT FILM EDUCATION IN TAIWAN
Though the study o-f -film in the Republic of China has now been available within the system of higher education for over twenty years, it s till has not been formally treated as a subject in the academic world. Nor has any effort been made by any educational organization on the fundamental issues of film pedagogy as has the Aner i can Film
Institute, British Film Institute, and the University Film and Video
Association did in the six tie s and the seventies. There is no consideration of who should teach about film, of what should be taught, or to whom it should be taught, of what constitutes an essential curriculum, and of what the basic needs are for offering film studies. Thus, many people with different backgrounds come into the schools to teach film, many untrained pedagogues serve as curriculum experts constructing the confused and clouded courseworks, and numerous students with different volition come in the programs to studv film. As a result, the situation of film study is totally unorganized and undisciplined.
An Overview of the Film Study Programs
Presently supporting an enrollment of approximately 250 majors, the Department of Drama and Cinema of the Chinese Culture University in Taipei is the only four-year university in the country offering a
15 16
■film study program and awarding a Bachelor's Art degree. But contrary to what the t i tl e indicates, the department is two unequal divisions.
Film is simply taught here as the extension o-f drama. In the area o-f drama, the primary study includes production, theory and criticism, stage techniques, and play writing; in the area of film, the program only offers some courses of fundamental production and appreciation.
With regard to the facilities and equipment, there are eight Super-8 cameras, one viewing and editing room, four 500-watt lights, two 16mm cameras, and two videocassette monitors and players in Beta format.
The departmental library houses a collection of nearly forty videotaped films, as well as 500 literary works, mainly in drama. One film society run by students screens a limited number of videotaped films weekly, including some provided by the French Culture and
Technology Center and the United States Information Service.
A similar program, with basic Super-Bran single system equipment,
is found in the Drama and Cinema Department of Political College. The
Section of Drama and Cinema of the night department of National Taiwan
Academy of Art also offer some fundamental film courses as a subordinate study of drama.
The Film Section of National Taiwan Academy of Art, operating with small staff and supporting with 55 students, was formerly also one small division of the Theater Department, re-organized as an
independent section in 1980. Because the program concentrates on three-year study of film production, the section owns complete Super-8 double system production equipment, one large ‘’capacity 100) screening 17
room, one sound studio, -four editing rooms, eight 1000-watt lights, three 16mm cameras, and two videocassette players in Beta -format. On the other hand, the collections o-f teaching materials and literary works are very poor. One -film exhibition program supported by the school regularly shows some outstanding commercial films to the publi c .
The Film Production Department of the World College of
Journalism, established in 1966, is the only program independent of the umbrella of drama since its establishment. It also offers a three-year study equally balanced between screenwriting and film directing and film production technique. With regard to the former, the emphasis is on screenplay writing, film directing, history, appreciation. On the other hand, the study of the la tte r covers sound recording, editing, cinematography, set design, and production management. The f a c ilitie s and equipment owned by the department are twelve Super-8 cameras, three 16mm cameras, ten 1000-watt lights, fourteen viewing and editing rooms, two magnetic recorders, and one sound mixer.
In addition to the above programs, the Department of Mass
Communication of Fu Jen Catholic University, the Communication
Department, and the Mass Communication Section of Ming Chuan Business
College, have a course in "Film Production" available to students majoring in radio, television broadcasting, and Journalism. 18
Table 1: The Required Course List o-f the Department o-f Drama and Cinema o-f Chinese Culture University.
General Courses
Chinese 8 credi ts Engli sh 8 General Chinese History 4 Contemporary Chinese History 2 Ph i 1 osophy o-f Life 2 Thoughts of Dr. Sun Yet-sen 4
Sub-Total = 28
Drama Courses
Introduction to Theater 4 credi ts Western Theater History 4 Chinese Theater History 4 Theater Theory and Criticism 4 Theater Practicum 2 Fundamental Acting 2 Stage Technique 4 Selected Play Reading 6 Theater Production 4
Sub-Total = 34
Film Courses
Film History 4 credi ts FiIm Techn ique 4 Introduction to Film 4 FiIm Product ion 4 Film Direction 4
Sub-Total = 20
Drama and Film Courses
Art Appreciation 4 credi ts Play Writing 4
Sub-Total = 8 19
Table 2: The Required Course List o-f the Film Section o-f the National Taiwan Academy o-f Arts
General Courses
Ch inese 8 credi ts English 8 Contemporary Chinese History 2 General Chinese History 2 Philosophy o-f Life 2 Thoughts o-f Dr. Sun Yet-sen 4
Sub-Total = 26
Film Courses
Introduction to Art 4 credits Introduction to Film Art 4 Basic Screenplay Writing 4 Basic Film Technique 4 Basic Film Direction 4 Film Editing 2 Film Hi story 4 Studies o-f Chinese Popular Literature 4 Film Structure 4 Studies o-f the Documentary 4 Studies o-f Image 4 Studies o-f Aesthetics 4 Studies o-f Film Thoughts 4 Screenplay Writing Practicum 3 Film Direction Practicum 3 Film Technique Practicum 4 Film Production Practicum I 3 Film Production Practicum II 3 Graduate Project Production 6
Sub-Total = 72 20
Table 3: The Required Course List of the Film Production Department of the World Journalism College
General Courses
Ch i nese 8 credi ts English 8 n Contemporary Chinese History 2 Modern Chinese History 2 ■ Ph i1osophy of Life 2 ■ Thoughts of Dr. Sun Yet-sen 4
Sub-Total = 26
Courses for Beoinnino Students
Basic Journalism 4 credi ts Development of Drama and Film 2 Introduction to Drama 2 Introduction to Music 2 Theory of Electricity 2 Basic Photography 2 Introduction of Production Technique 2 Art Design 2 Lighting, Set Design, and Make-up 2 Film Appreciation and Criticism 2 Film Production Management 2
Sub-Total = 24
Courses for Film PI ayino and Directi no
Screenplay Writing 10 credits Film Direction 6 H Film Acting 4 H Animation Film 2 m Selected Chinese Play Reading 4 u Selected English Play Reading 4 n Film Production Practicum 2 m Lighting, Set Design, and Make-up Practicum 2 ■ Screenplay Writing Practicum 12 m Film Direction Practicum 6 n Film Acting Practicum 4 # Animation Film Practicum 2 a
Sub-Total = 58 21
Table 3: The Required Course List o-f the Film Production Department o-f the World Journalism College (Continued)
Courses -for Film Production Technique
Cinematography 8 cred i ts Film Sound and Recording 6 Film Editing 6 Film Processing and Chemical Theory 4 Practical Lighting 2 Animation Film Production 4 Film Production Practicum 2 Cinematography Practicum 10 Lighting, Set Design, and Make-up Practicum 6 Film Sound and Recording Practicum 2 Film Editing Practicum 4 Animation Film Practicum 2 Film Processing Practicum 2
Sub-Total = Dé 22
The Situation of Teachers in Relation to the Planning Curricula
Almost every inquiry or scholarly research concerning organizing
or reviewing a film program has normally focused on discussions such
as the qualifications of teachers, the content of curricula, the
development of teaching m aterials, and budgetary problems related to
high rental and equipment costs. The questions, however, such as where film teachers come from or what Kinds of people are teaching
film, are always first to be mentioned. It is typical that the
curricula are often built around the interests of teachers, and that
it is teachers who implement the curricula. Also, the work of
developing materials must rely on close cooperation with the faculties
for information on course design, student interests, and teaching
needs.
The credentials of film teachers cf Taiwan is both diverse and
disordered. Literary writers, language experts, historians,
journalists, painters, dramatists, photographers, and even many
retired government o ffic ia ls are teaching film and publishing on that
subject. Generally, these people have had a four-year university
education or a three-year college education with a Bachelor's degree
or diploma in areas other than film. Some of them are even well
reputed. They have come into film with great enthusiasm for the
medium, but l i t t l e or no formal training in practical s k ills , nor have
they undertaken any theoretical coursework in the field. They
structure their courses through their personal interest and self
training without being fully aware of the fact that as the dominant 23
communication medium o-f contemporary culture. Also, they have given l i t t l e attention to the -fundamental issues o-f -film pedagogy which is how to make use o-f the nature o-f -film its e lf to make the medium clear to the students.
There are also a great number of faculties, so-called
■sp e c u la tists” by the students, mixing up among them. The term
"speculatists“ refers to those people who, after so many years of frustration within the industry, have come to school not for teaching, but for making a living. Many of them even do not have a university or college education in any area. They neither have any concern with theoretical studies nor have any practical skills in making film, but they always proudly claim (heir good connection with the industry.
Thus, their lectures are actually flaunting their personal experiences rather than imparting factual knowledge.
Above diverse-backgrounded teachers are the people whose interest in the medium brought film studies into higher education institutions, and produced many students who become the workers in the industry today. Ironically, their students are generally opposed to them.
M.L. Tu, a former film student, accuses these teachers on a seminar concerning the situation of film study in higher education notes :
The school offers a lot of courses, such as "Film Directing", "Film Acting", "Logic", "Film Ethic", and "Film Philosophy", etc. But it is a pity that the teachers are not so sonorous as the courses. Many not well qualified people are allowed to be instructors to teach the subjects. Therefore, the classes are tasteless, the students are 24
lifeless. The whole education system in film is just a waste under these circumstances. Even the administration has problems. Eventually, the one who still stands on the platform is 'aged* and 'no where to go', always talks about the a ffa irs with some actresses in the good old days. Unfortunately, the young and well-educated leave the position one after another. (1)
Besides the students, the new generation of'young and well educated" teachers, also furiously accuse them of dysfunctioning the film education. The new teachers as well as domestic film critics, generally have studied the medium on the graduate level with Master's degrees from foreign universities, especially the schools of the
United States. The emphasis of their work is on h isto rical, c r itic a l, or theoretical studies, but rarely on production. Few have a undergraduate background in the medium. That is to say, few students in domestic film programs continue further study after graduating from schools; on the other hand, many students of other academic areas do so. The reason for this will be discussed later in this chapter.
Generally, their critical writings have adapted the body of knowledge from their favorite subjects (philosophy, theater, literature, painting, etc.). After cannibalizing the most useful parts of discipline's critical principles, they have colored it with their personal preferences, and added a flavoring of acid sarcasm, ludicrous assertation, wordy trickery, or pedantic lesson. Their lectures are full of enthusiasm for foreign 'art films', represented by the works of F ellin i, Godard, Antonioni, Bergman, Ozu, or Bresson, to devalue inferior hc%ne movies which they feel have 1ittle to do with truth or art. In spite of the fact that their attitude is prejudiced, they 25
are -frequently the most interesting of instructors, and their teaching
is of the highest order. They command the respect and admiration of their students.
But, partly because the most limited positions are s till occupied by the old, and partly because the career goal is mainly aiming at the
industry rather than at the under-paid teaching job, most of these young teachers are only part-time instructors. With regular work in
the industry or the private commercial studios, they take a few hours weekly teaching as a side job. Many stay in schools on one hand, and enthusiastically seek for an opportunity of getting into the industry on the other. Consequently they are the transients of the schools and never become a main force in the teaching of film.
Thus, the background of the fa cu ltie s is diverse; their offerings
are uneven. For a long time the c o n flic ts between the pioneers who brought film into higher education, and those newer faculty numbers, have caused the problem of confused curricula.
Summarizing current film study in the United States on the
university level. Dr. George Semsel in his doctoral dissertation "The
Use of Filmmaking Techniques in Teaching about Film," indicates that
film subjects are divided into six major categories or areas of
concentration. They are: 1. Film appreciation, 2. film production. < 2 ) 3. history, 4. criticism , 5. theory, 6. aesthetics. However, in
reviewing the film education in Taiwan on the basis of his commentary
on the study of these areas, we may simply categorize it into three
areas: 1. Film history, 2. film production, 3. film appreciation. 26
Let's start from -film history. This has long been offered in the study of film often as a fundamental course designed to introduce the development of the motion picture industry of the Republic of China from 1896 in the mainland to the present day in Taiwan. Generally it
is taught under the t itle s "Development of the Motion Picture" and
"Historical Development of Film", by those re tire d government officials, historians, and the speculatists we mentioned previously.
Most courses concentrate upon how the undaunted workers of the industry forged ahead during the period, through drastic social reforms, violent upheavals and numerous untold hardships, and how the films have now developed into a giant invading the southeast Asia motion picture market. With regard to the development of world cinema, most of them place undue emphasis on the films of few developed countries, such as the United States, France, and Japan, and the works made by other countries, especially the countries of the third world, are totally ignored. Because the focus is exalting the achievement of Chinese film, the significant s h ifts of film from the beginning as a number of variety shows to the present as the product of the interaction of economics, political ideals and realities, sociology, psychology, in addition to technology and aesthetics are also neglected.
The making of films in the higher education program is a simulation of professional practices. Students are required to learn not only the grammar and syntax of visual images, but also the mechanisms and processes used in the industry through making films. 27
To meet this purpose, 16mm film and systems is considered the best gauge. Though it is an expensive process, it is still far less expensive than 35mm processes of feature film industry, and most non commercial films are made and released on 16mm. The image quality and production hardware are of a high order. Students can achieve professional standards with it, and they can reproduce their films for release purposes.
At present stage in Taiwan single system super-Smm is the main gauge of student film production. On the other hand, the more professional gauge of 16mn is used only on very few group projects.
The reason is partly because the teachers themselves do not have sufficient skills in practical production processes as we mentioned before, and partly because the costs of Super-Smm are relativ ely low so that students may afford to work with it, and the departments have easier access to the production hardware. So the film production courses, such as "Fundamental Film Production," "Film Technique,"
"Film Editing," and "Sound Recording," e tc .,are normally aimed at the learning of production processes in the Super-Smm gauge.
Unfortunately, though, within the past ^ecades the technology of the smaller gauge has not greatly improved. It is s till not possible to offer the same technical skills and processes as 16mm, because 8mm exposure and focus systems are highly automated and prints are seldom produced. TheFilm Section of the National Taiwan Academy of Arts is the only exception to this situation. There, some works done with 28
double system Supei—8mm are quite sophisticated, involving processes
similar to 16mm, including sound recording and editing. Yet, because
of the cost involved, it is still used on limited projects.
The preference of the smaller gauge, as a re su lt, had led to the
problem that students do not actually make contact with the
professional technology of the medium and the process of professional
filmmaking. They often romanticize the complicated process involved.
And the purpose of bringing the experience of film from the audience-
screen relationship into fuller understanding of film-as-process is
never accomplished.
In learning the syntax and grammar of visual images, the single
camera video technology, in which the basic grammatical and
syntactical rules are the saii.e as the film, is an ideal tool that may
enhance and assist the training of film as well as being a useful and
creative medium in itself. Yet, due to this medium with virtually no
tradition, it has been totally disregarded in these schools.
Film theory, criticism, aesthetics, and appreciation, they are
combined in courses such as "Introduction to Film Art," "Film
Appreciation and Criticism," "Film Structure," and "Si.;d:?s of Film
Thought," etc., which may be relegated to a homogenous category - film
appreciation. Usually these courses try to cover broad aspects of the
film, from basic structure to production, from essential terminology
to theoretical and aesthetic concepts. 29
The majority of teachers begin with an analysis of art. Art is usually presented as an intellectual activity which leads to modes of expression. Film then is related to novel, poetry, prose, music, photography, and especially theater. Some stress superficially the relationship of film technology m atters, such as the mechanics of camera, the effective use of sound, screen size and shape, and systems of projection. Several young teachers concentrated upon the parallel relationship between film structure and language systems. Students are introduced to such matters as the functions of signs in film, the grammar and syntax of visual images, the codifact ion of images, and the like. Also a few emphasize the development of film and the significant sh ifts in the aesthetic.
However, these diverse-backgrounds of teachers with their own interpretation of the medium and their personal favorite aspects of stress, and the lack of reconciling these among the faculties, becomes the most confused and controversial area in film study.
While reviewing the curricula of these film programs, one can not but wonder what the courses, "Studies of Image," and "Film
Structure," are and what the differences are between"Basic Film
Technique" and “Basic Film Production". Also it is not clear, for example, how courses, such as "Film Ethic," "Film Philosophy," "Film
Psychology," and "Studies of Film Thought," etc., should be taught and how they are defined. Consequently, these cause reiteration 30
in content. C.S. Tang, a junior film student of National Taiwan
Academy of A rts, notes:
In the freshman year, "Film History" traces the development of the moving image in China from concepts, which are a kind of folk art now known as Shadow Play, to the present day. "Studies of Film Thought", in the Junior year, introduces chronologically the major film movements from the early th irtie s to the eighties, which is rarely different from the former. Similarly, this happens to "Introduction to Film Art" and "Studies of Image" which both stress to such matters as the relationship of film with other visual art. It is really difficult for us to figure to, since so many courses are eventually the same, for the sake of time saving, why can we not just comprise them into certain ones? (3)
There is much necessary content which is unbelievably omitte't. while many are unnecessarily repeated. K.C. Tu, a junior film student and the Chairman of Film Society of Chinese Culture University, notes:
— it is the first time after three years study of film to know Auteur theory when I read special issue "The Auteur Theory Re-examined" published in the periodical Film Apprec iat ion. Speaking of "Montage", "Mise-en-Scene", "Jump Cut", and "Cinema Verite", etc., to tell the truth so far, I am still a kind of blur with these terms. But for reviewing a Kodak publication "Basic Production Techniques for Motion Pictures" by accident, I should never realize what is key light, fill light, light ratio, and gray scale, etc. I did not get much information from teachers, but from self-study. (4)
These are two examples chosen from 45 complaints made by the students to this writer. They are definitely not special cases.
Similar complaints may be found in the final report of Seminar on (5) Contemporary Film Education.
Another problem that exists in this category is that the study of film is heavily centered on the commercial narrative. In reviewing
the curricula, there is only one course, "Studies of the Documentary", 31
which deals with non-narrative -films. Some courses do include
consideration o-f the documentary. However, they are often treated
cursor ily.
To concentrate in -film studies upon the narrative -film alone is
somewhat like basing the study o-f literature only upon the popular
novel because its number outweighs all other kinds o-f aesthetic works
in p rin t. In Taiwan, the majority o-f creative -filmmaking, about
ninety-six percent of annual output, is narrative of feature length,
while a few documentaries are made only by the government or with the
support of some certain foundations. Normally they are not available
to the public except on some special occasion.
With preference on the narrative, students are led to narrowly-
recognized film to be a lite rary form. But the nature of film and the
fact that film as a complex conmunication phenomenon demands broad
study from different standpoints (sociological, political, and
historical, etc.) are neglected.
Teaching about film demands screening of films. This raises the
need for filmic m aterials. One cannot teach montage theory without
showing, for example, E i senste i n •'s The Battleship Potemkin <1?25) or
Pudovkin's Mother <1926); sim ilarly one cannot introduce French New
Wave without projecting, for example, Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1958)
or Godard's Breathless (1959). But generally films are too expensive
to be purchased by a department. So the av ailab ility of the filmic materials in easily accessible and inexpensive format that allows
for simple projection of high quality is one of the film education 32
problems existing internationally. The usual way to provide the diversity o-f -filmic materials necessary to -film study courses in the
United States is to rent prints -from commercial d istrib u to rs. In
Taiwan, those world -film classics, owing to the lack o-f commercial value, have never been imported into the country. As -for those
Chinese -film classics, the general public has not even recognized the value o-f the medium as we mentioned in the previous chapter, much less paid attention to preserving and collecting them. Consequently, the study o-f great -films is -frequently in terms oral descriptions by those teachers who themselves may have never seen them, -for students who have no way o-f seeing them.
The Film Library of the Foundation of the Motion Picture
Development, f ir s t opened its door to the public in 1979 with one of its goals that of preserving and collecting the world classics, presently owns 600 internationally praised films. But the rental is not cheap. The cost of a one-time rental can easily exceed twenty hundred Taiwan dollars (U.S. $50.) depending upon the length of the film. Few departments can afford such cost. Thus, the problem of the constant need for films in the classroom had no solution until the eighties.
On entering the eighties, the rapid growth of the videocassette suggests a solution to this need, in spite of the fact that many people still find fault with its image size and quality not being the same as a 16mm film projected onto a large screen. The new technology however, allows a teacher to fully control the screened event, to 33
alter speed and direction at will. It is also easily made available to students who must make a close study o-f what they see. Now, almost every department already has videotape players generally in Beta
■format and many -film classics are also available in the videocassette rental market. But it is up to the knowledgeable teachers to structure their courses and bring the -films into classrooms.
According to Changan Wang, the President o-f Taipei Cinema
Association, until recently there were still a great number o-f -film students who after three years study, have never seen the great classics, such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Nanook of the North
(1922), Battleship of Potemkin (1925), Citizen Kane (1941), and 8 1/2 (6 ) (1962), etc.
So far we have examined the serious teacher-centered problems of contemporary film education in Taiwan, the Republic of China. In the following part of this chapter, we are going to review another unique problem rarely existing in the film study programs of other countries
in the world.
The Situation of Students in Relation to Examination for Higher Education
In ancient China, the intellectuals have the highest social status. And the belief, “learning is the noblest of human pursuits", has been the holy motto of the people at least for three thousand years. This has a close relationship with the imperial examination 34
system established duringthe Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.). The examination was held every three years by the emperor in the capital of the nation to select the most learned scholars asthe government officials. In order to pass the examination so as to have a bright official career and advance in social rank; to be educated had been the only goal in one's life .
Though this examination has been abolished quite some time ago, the old belief s till firmly exists in the people's mind, and the policy of qualification by examination still exists in contemporary society. There is an Examination Yuan in the government in charge of
Nation's Higher Examination and N ation's Ordinary Examination for selecting the persons of merit for employment in different levels of government service. There is an examination department in the
Ministry of National Defense qualifying the people for m ilitary office. In addition, there is a special, committee in the Ministry of
Education qualifying the students who wish to receive a higher level of education. That is, after a nine-year compulsory education, students who wish to attend senior high school are required to pass a
District's Joint Senior High School Entrance Examination; then after three years those who wish to go to college will have to take the
Nation's Four-year Colleges and Universities Joint Entrance
Examination or the Nation's Three-year Colleges Joint Entrance
Exami nat i on.
With the recent growth in the economy, higher education no longer
is the privilege of the rich or certain classes; and owing to the 35
modernization, the advance of technology has brought a great deal of
new complicated and specialized knowledge into human life . To be
educated is more necessary than ever. Overpopulation also contributes
to the continuing struggle for existence. So, higher education
becomes one major factor to win in the competition of modern society,
and the entrance examination becomes the inevitable trial of the
students.
Both examination systems are divided into four sections = 1)
Engineering and Science, 2) Humanities and Social Science, 3)
Medicine, Physical Education, and Biology, and 4) Law and Business, within each section students are tested in various courses. Students
may choose any one section. The questions of these two entrance
examinations are closely based on the textbooks edited and published
by the government. (See Table 4.) Each section has a number of
choices available. When students' final scores have been tabulated,
each student is assigned to the proper academic department of a
certain school according to the priority made when they registered for
the examination. For example, the 1983 top ten choices of Section
Two, four-year colleges entrance examination are listed in Table 5.
There are 102 choices which means 102 academic departments of
sixteen four-year universities and colleges in this section. The
seventy students with the highest scores (no lower than 437.32) and with f ir s t p rio rity choice of English Department of National Taiwan
University will he assigned to the academic department they request.
The next forty-five students whose scores are no lower than 433.76 are 36
Table 4; The Courses tested in each section of the N ation's Four-year colleges and universities Joint Entrance Examination
Section One. Engineering and Science
Ch i nese (100 points) Engli sh (100) Mathematics ( 120) Three Principles of the People ( 100) Phys i cs ( 100) Chemi stry ( 100)
Total Score = 620
Section Two. Humanities and Social Sciences
Chinese (120) English (100) Mathematics (100) Three Principles of the People (100) History (100) Geography (100)
Total Score = 620
Section Three. Medicine. Physical Education, and Biology
Chinese (100) Engli sh (100) Mathematics (100) Three Principles of the People (100) Biology (100) Chemistry (100)
Total Score = 600
Section Four. Law and Business
Chinese (100) English (100) Mathematics (100) fiireo Principles of the People (100) History (100) Geography (100)
Total Score = 600 37
Table 5: 1983 Top Ten Departments in Section Two, the Nation's Four- year Colleges and Universities Joint Entrance Examination.
Col 1eoe Department Minimum Score Number Students
1. Nat onal Taiwan U. Engli sh 437.32 70
2. Nat onal Normal U. Engli sh 433.76 45
3. Nat onal Taiwan U. History 426.79 45
4. Nat onal Normal U. Educat i on 426.50 45
5. Nat onal Normal U. History 420.20 36
6. Nat onal Normal U. Social Ed. 415.93 30
7. Nat onal Taiwan U. Ch i nese 415.83 40
8. Nat onal Cheng- Chi U. Engli sh 412.15 30
9. Nat onal Normal U. Geography 412.10 25
10. Nat onal Taiwan U. Library Science 411.66 45
85 Ch i nese Culture U. Drama & Cinema 338.51 60 38
assigned to their second p rio rity choice which is the E rilish
Department o-f National Normal University, though their -first prior y choice is the English Department of National Taiwan University.
Four-year colleges are the main preference of the students, because they offer bachelor's degrees which s+uJents may need for further study domestically and abroad. An additional reason could be that an academic degree is often a prerequisite for employment in
Ta i wan .
Approximately 100,000 high school graduates take this examination e-v-.ry year, and only about 25,000 of them are accepted. The ra tio of acceptance is four to one. Though some of those who fail the examination then try the three-year colleges' entrance examination, a great m ajority would rather wait for one year and retake the examination. The record shows that in 1967 the number of students who
took the four-year colleges entrance examination was 55,854, which
is 150.4% of the high school graduates that year; and in 1981 the participants were 97,963, which is 184.6% of the high school graduates <7) that year.
Therefore, because of the intense competition of the examination
itse lf and the hope of having a b rillia n t future, students give up any
kind of activ ity other than reading the required textbooks over and
over again for three long years, and commit them to memory firmly.
High schools provide thousands of tests which simulate the college
entrance examination in order to determine their students' learning
deficiencies, because the reputation of one high school will be mainly 39
evaluated by the number of their graduates passing the examination.
So from sunrise to sundown, from month to month, students are obsessed
with the idea of being accepted by colleges. But the question "what
academic field are you interested in?" is secondary, and this attitude
is the central concern of this section.
(Return to Table 5.) For example a student whose real interest
is to be an educator, but his score is only 412, will have to be
assigned to the rank 10th, the Library Science Department of National
Taiwan University, to be a librarian in the future. Though they may
register for the priority they want before the examination, students
actually do not have the final choice. It is determined by the score.
Consider another example. A student who is ambitious and wants to
study Chinese, may have to be a foreign language expert, because his
score comes out only 415.82 which is 0.01 point short of the score
required to be admitted to the Chinese Department of National Taiwan
University. The same situation also occurs widely in the three-year
college entrance examination system. Similarly, thissituation brings
many students who express no interest in the field to study film, and many students who are interested in film are assigned to other
academic field s.
Evidence by a survey, a total of 103 Junior film majors of the
Chinese Culture University and National Taiwan Academy of Arts were
asked reasons for studying film. Only nineteen (18.5%) indicated it
was their willingness, while eighty-four (81.5%) responded that their 40
decision was the result of their assignment by the examination ( 8) comm itte e .
According to the report, that on entering the programs, besides the curiosity of the new field, the only knowledge of film is that
"movies are projected on a rectangle-shaped screen on the wall," and the idea of film study is that they are going to be trained as those <9) great movie stars on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, their willingness and dedication to study is low. The rate of absenteeism is high. And it is a normal phenomenon that many students drop out to prepare retaking the examination the next year in order to enter the field they are really interested in. For those students, by entering the programs the most needed thing is a stimulant to agitate their desire for the medium. Unfortunately, those unqualified instructors and the ill-organized curricula do little about this. On the contrary, the curiosity which is the only thing students brought with them when they came to the program is totally frustrated by those instructors. Eventually, students remaining in the programs maintained the attitude that it was best to continue with the program, then after three or four years complete the degree. The same
103 junior students, all of whom have studied the medium for nearly three years, were asked about their future plans as to whether they would choose film as their life career. Fifty-two (51%) answered they did not know yet, and twenty-six (25%) answered no, and they would change to another field . Only twenty-five (24%) answered ( 10) affirm atively that they would. As was mentioned before - most students 41
in the domestic film program do not continue with their study of film, but those who are in the other areas do so.
Conclusion and Summary
Here we see the p lu ra listic problem involved in reforming the present film education in Taiwan, the Republic of China. Not only do the teachers need formal training and the curricula need reconstruction, but in addition, the entrance examination system needs reformatting so that the right students are admitted to the proper field of study. It also is necessary to establish as a priority category, the reconstruction of the curricula.
Nothing is more basic to the educational process than a properly prepared teacher. We hope that there will be more and more students who will develop a serious research commitment to cinematic studies, and who will become qualified teachers. Teaching faculty remuneration must also be increased so that those knowledgeable people will be more inclined to devote themselves to the work of film education. However, this prospect takes time. Until then film courses will continue to be taught by the faculty who have shown interest in the subject, but who do not have formal training in the discipline.
The improvement of the entrance examination system is not an isolated problem happening only in the area of film study, but is prevalent in almost every area of higher education. For over fifteen years various proposals have been made by the educators both 42
domestically and abroad, and numerous seminars -focusing on this issue have been held, but one perfect resolution has never resulted.
Although some pilot projects -for improvement have been put -forth recently, results o-f these studies will not be available -for evaluation until the next -few years. It needs the Joint effort from various areas. And the leadership in the planning of curricula, this
is the main concern of this study.
In considering the development of a new exemplary film curriculum, based on the review of present film education in this
chapter, the guidelines of the task in the next chapters are as f ol 1 ows ;
1) To study film history. The development of Chinese
film shall be emphasized in addition to the history of
the worId films.
2) To study film production. It must be taught from
the present use of Super-8 single system to more
sophisticated Super-8 double system and 16mm system so
that students will learn all the standard processes
within the industry.
3) To learn the syntax and the grammar of visual
images economically. The new creative medium of the
video technology, must be added in the curricula.
4) To improve the situation by concentrating on the study
of commercial narrative, the documentary should be
also emphasized. 43
5) To redesign the courses in the category of film
appreciation. The purpose and the content of each
course shall be clearly specified. 44
End Notes
1 . The Report o-f Seminar on the Contemporary Film Education in Taiwan. the Republic of China, ed. D.M. Lee (Taipei: Influence Quarterly Press, 1978), p. 51.
2. George S. Semsel, The Use o-f Filmmaking Techniques in Teaching abou t Film: _____A Study of Film Games at University Level (Unpublished Doctor's dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1982), p. 40.
3. Based on personal correspondence between C.S.Young and this w riter. January 7, 1985.
4. Based on personal correspondence between K.C. Yu and this writer. December 24, 1984.
5 • The Report of Seminar on the Contemporary F' Im Educat i on in Taiwan, the Republic of China, p. 42.
6. Changan Wang, "Re-consideration and Prospect of the Teaching in Film Department or Section within Our Country," Preceedinos of Asian Pacific Conference on Art Education. Taipei. Taiwan, the Republic of China. August 2-6, 1981 (Ranchiao Park, Taipei: National Taiwan Academy of Arts, 1982), p. 402.
7. K.S. Young and C.J. Yen, The Contemporary Social Problems of T a iwan (Taipei: Chu-liu Publication Co., 1984), p. 357.
8. Based on the unpublished survey of the situation of film students in relation to Examination for higher education, made by this w riter. December 24, 1984.
9. The Report of Seminar on the Contemporary Film Education in Taiwan, the Republic of China, p. 43.
10. Based on the unpublished survey of film students in relation to Examination for higher education, made by this writer. December 24, 1984. CHAPTER I I I
SOME PRELIMINARY CWSIDERATIDN OF DESIGNING THE FILM CURRICULUM
In the process o-f developing exemplary coursework -for the study of film at the level of higher education, this chapter is addressed to some fundamental issues of curriculum design offered as the premises for the construction work in the following chapter. This chapter consists of three sections. In reference to the general aims of higher education in Taiwan, the f ir s t section centers on identifying
the goal of the curriculum developed in this research. The second section following the guideline of the goal involves the work of designing the courses. The final section is concerned with establishing the principles of determining content structure and
1 earn i ng ac tiv ity .
Identifying the Curriculum Goals
Nothing is more significant to educational planners in developing a curriculum than the determination of its aims, goals, and objectives. Aims are the most general statements that proclaim to the world the values that some group holds for an educational program.
Goals are the statements of intent, midway in generality between aims and objectives. They describe the purposes held for a school program
to provide a greater focus on anticipated outcome and to provide
45 46
curriculum designers with the basis -for the selection o-f curriculum content. Objectives are typically specific statements of what students are to be able to do after having experienced a curriculum.
While discussing their priorities, Elliot Eisner states;
In the standard curriculum literature, goals are supposed to be deduced from aims. Having deduced goals, one then proceeds to formulate curriculum activities. The planning process is supposed to be a step-by-step process from the general to the specific, from ends to means. (1)
Now l e t 's follow this process to identify the goal of the film curriculum developed in this study.
To begin with aims — what purposes, what general social ends should be served by higher education in Taiwan? Professor P.M. Chia, referring to the "Law on Higher Education," summarizes them as f ol 1 ows :
1) Training recruits for professions requiring broad culture as well as detailed knowledge — in other words, vocational training.
2) Training scientific workers and preparing them for research and teaching.
3) Training well-rounded citizens for developing the national culture and promoting social progress. (2)
In short, the responsibility of the higher education in Taiwan is to cultivate the broadly educated sp ec ialists to meet the needs of the national development. Ideally, these three are attractive and carry reasonable force, but they nevertheless raise controversy in implementation. The first, vocational training, is good. We must recognize that in our modern times, progress - and particularly the 47
maintenance o-f competitive position - depends to a much greater extent
than ever before on skill demanding special training. A "good general
education", valuable though it may be, is frequently less than we need
to solve many of our most pressing problems. The second, training for
scientific workers for teaching and research, is also beyond all
question, because it is one of the essential functions of higher
education. However, with regard to the third, under the present
higher education system, upon entering an institution, one immediately
becomes the major of a certain department required to take a great
number of departmental courses (approximately 80 to 100 credits).
Many educators have wondered if, besides the departmental courses, the
remaining small number of general courses (about 25 to 30 credit
hours) can be served as the implementation of "training all-rounded
citizens." So in a practical sense, present higher education actually
achieves only the first two aims.
To draw an inference from above, the aims of film study at the
level of higher education should be mainly as follows:
1) Providing the training of creative technicians seeking
a life-time career in film.
2) Training knowledgeable film scholars for dedicating
academic research and pedagogic instruction.
Based on these two, the third should be:
3) Preserving and transmitting the traditional cultural
heritage and transforming new visual culture through 48
the -film. (Since it is one o-f the most dominant
communication media o-f contemporary culture.)
Institutions o-f higher education vary both in their -functions and in the way in which they discharge them. The vocational emphasis - the training o-f -film technicians - will be more apparent in three-year colleges than in -four-year universities. The theoretical, c ritic a l, and historical studies - the training o-f -future -film scholars - will be more prominent in -four-year universities than in three-year colleges. Furthermore, the emphasis on research will be placed more at the graduate than at the undergraduate stage. The idea here is that, although the extent to which each aim is realized in various types o-f institutions will vary, yet the -function o-f the study at the undergraduate stage, as the -fundamental study o-f certain academic
-fields and the preparatory -for more advanced study, is sim ilar. (All the -film programs in the country are available only at the undergraduate level.) Therefore, the curriculum developed in this study attempts to be a foundation for film education for undergraduate study. It is intended as a core of courses commonly needed by various purposed institutions. These courses should make students broadly aware of the various aspects of this highly complex medium of our modern culture so that they may nourish more intensive study of specific fields of film to pursue, whether in production or in scholastic research.
So the goal of the exemplary curriculum proposed in this study is
"TO HELP STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE FILM," an understanding they can 49
apply to their -future film experiences, and a goal which may lead to achieving the aims of film education.
After determining the goal, the next task is to study a dominant communication medium of our modern culture with multi valent nature and functions, what specified aspects of it weshal1 emphasize? Referring to the foregone notable assertions propounding the approaches to the study of film which spring out of the very nature of the film, we may generalize them into five individual but related categories:
Fi r s t . film as a r t . Film study as art appreciation. As a contemporary visual art, film shares a number of the older visual a rts, and certainly film study could be directed to the goals of art appreciation. This approach, originating from the efforts of the
British Film In stitu te , seems mainly concerned with making students aware that film is an art and its similarity and distinction with the other arts. It tends to center around film classics and to cover those aspects of film which are uniquely its own, such as camera movement, pictorial composition, cinematography, and editing, etc.
Second. film as a language. Film study as comparable to literature. The central concern of this approach is to help produce more perceptive and critical film viewers. To carry a step further, to explore the significance of visual expression and visual modes of thought. In other words, it wishes to enable students to view film with active understanding and perception rather than with passivity and casualness. So the teaching of this approach is to train students 50
to be aware how the form, technique, and tools of cinematic language
reveal mood, idea, and content - as in the case of literature.
Third, film as a communication medium. Film study as a mode of
environmental awareness. Film is being examined as one of the media presently shaping our environment. Along with TV, video, radio, and
even computer, the emphasis here is on the "medium" as well as the
"message". In discussing this approach, Ronald E. Sutton notes:
Looking at everything from AlKa Seltzer commercials to Citizen Kane prepares the student to handle the differences between the reel world, and the real world. This approach to film study is rarely considered complete unless the students themselves explore their own environments with cameras and tape recorders in hand. A study of the media can assist the student in understanding the culture of which he is a part. (3)
Fourth, film as information. Film study as a way of developing
personal understanding. Numerous researches made during the last
fifty years showed that, no matter what types they are (dramatic,
documentary, informational, or experimental), films can, and do,
delight, instruct, involve, and motivate students' awareness and
understanding of the world of significant human experience and values.
Based on the re su lts, this approach emphasizes viewing and then
discussing certain films in order to foster students' habit of
analysis, criticism, and understanding in a disciplined manner.
Fifth, film as means of expression. Film study as the practice
of visual expression. The purpose of this approach is to help students
learn how to express themselves visually through the actual making
of films. The content of the study would center on introducing the 51
Chemical, physical, and mechanical devicesof the medium, and basic film techniques and processes in making film.
The above five are what appear to be the major emphases taken as the approaches to achieve the goal of understanding the film. This study attempts to integrate the best aspects of each approach so that the study of film will not limit itself to a particular emphasis. As
William Kuhns and Robert Stanely note: “The best efforts in film study occur from an amalgam of the various approaches: so that the danger of total formlessness (and perhaps chaos) inherent in the (4) totally inductive approach is obviated, ."
Structuring the Coursework
To approach the above emphases here, the following structure is suggested :
1. Comparative: the relation of film to other arts.
2. Thematic: the analysis of the content and values of films.
3. Creative: conception and production of films; writing for films.
4. Aesthetic: the relation of the material and formal elements of the film.
5. H istorical: origin and growth of film.
6. Sociological: impact of film on society, film as social criticism; film as propaganda.
7. Technical: understanding of the mechanical, chemical, physical devices of the film.
8. Psychological: the effect of films on viewers. 52
Following this structure, the specific coursework of the study
includes:
Un i t Courses Credits
Product i on Fi1m Production I 4
Film Production II 4
Film Production III 4
Video Production 4
Hi story Film Hi story I 4
Film Hi story II 4
Appreciat ion Film Appreciation I 4
Screenwr iting Studies of Screenwriting 4
Documentary Studies of Documentary Film I 4
Studies of Documentary Film II 4
Theory F iIm Theory I 4
Film Theory 11 4
The unit of production concerns how films are made. Students
learn to know the technical devices and the grammar and syntax of the medium to translate visual realities and abstract concepts into
effective film form through the actual process of filmmaking. Since
the script is the initial element of the process of filmmaking, the
unit of screenwriting is included in the coursework. The unit of
history and of theory is intended to provide students with the
knowledge of h isto rical, technical, and aesthetic development of the 53
medium and its relation to the material and -formal elements which can help make them aware o-f where we are now and how we get here, and also the film phenomenon in a more rational way. The appreciation unit presents the various aspects of the medium, from basic structure to aesthetic concepts, from its relation to other arts (especially drama and novel) to the analysis of the theme and values of certain outstanding classics. Finally, documentary, the creative presentation of human's relationship to his life in society - social, political, economic, or sc ie n tific , is one of the most dominant genres of the film which has its origins at the beginning of the medium itse lf.
Without considering the documentary, a film education with a goal of helping students understand the film is actually a fragmented study.
The detailed description of each unit and the specific objectives of each course, will be discussed in the next chapter.
So far we have gone through the process from referring to the aims of film study at the level of higher education, determining the goal of curriculum for undergraduate film study, to developing the coursework. Before proceeding to the next chapter, it is very necessary to establish the criteria for structuring the content and learning ac tiv ity of the courses.
The C riteria of Structuring the Courses
In the broadest sense, curriculum ordinarily is referred to as a plan for the education of the learner. It provides direction for classroom instruction to accomplish the intended outcome of education 54
Then, what is the boundary o-f curriculum and instruction? How wide is
the scope o-f curriculum? What do we do in designing a curriculum?
What else shall we allot to instruction? The answers o-f these depend
on how one defines curriculum.
B.O. Smith, W.O. Stanley, and H.J. Shores refer to curriculum as
“a sequence of potential experiences set up in the school for the
purpose of disciplining children and youth in a group way of thinking (5) and acting," and Franklin Bobbit describes it as: "that series of
things which children and youth must do and experience ways of
developing abilities to do the things well that make up the affairs of (6 ) adult life." Also Edward Krug defines curriculum as: "All the means
employed by the school to provide students with opportunities for (7) desirable learning experiences." With regard to these statements we may say that the curriculum is actually a blueprint for education
consisting of the experiences planned for students to have.
On the other hand, Mauritz Johnson critic iz e s this "planned
learning blueprint" as too broad adefinition of the curriculum. He
debates that curriculum must be viewed as anticipatory, not
reporterial. It prescribes the result of instruction, not the means.
So he insists that the curriculum can only consist of "a structured ( 8) series of intended learning outcomes." All other planning, such as
content, learning a c tiv itie s , and evaluation, are viewed as
instruction. The same attitude can be found in George Beauchamp's
definition of curriculum as: "A document designed to be used as a (9) point of departure from instructional planning." 55
In discussing the approach to designing the curriculum, Hilda
Taba -feels the -former, such as Edward Krug's and Franklin Bobbit's
design is too broad and vague to permit precision in thinking, and the
la tte r, -for example Mauri tz Johnson, excluding -from curriculum
everything except the statement o-f objectives and content outlines
and relegating anything that has to do with learning and learning
experiences to instruction might be too confining to be adequate -for a modern curriculum. Therefore, Taba only draws a very hazy conception
of curriculum as “a plan for learning" which is that, as Robert Zais
tends to agree, the broad aspects of purposes, content, and method
belong in the realm of curriculum while the more proximate and ( 11) specific aspects are allocated to teaching and instruction.
The inference to be drawn from the above observations seems to be
that any definition of curriculum will necessarily vary according to
the purposes which are to be accomplished. The purpose of the
curriculum developed here is to propose a program which is composed of
a cluster of courses for reforming and developing the film education
in Taiwan. It is meant to be an anticipatory, structured, written
plan for instruction. However, a curriculum with only course titles
and statement of objectives reveals very little with regard to
learning a c tiv itie s and experiences which teachers need for action.
It is not enough to accomplish our purpose. Hence, in designing this
film study program, adapting Taba's view, the statement of objectives
and content outlines are indicated specifically, and also the detailed 56
content, learning activities, and instructional materials are stated
in detail as much as possible in a "suggestive" way so that teachers may select the proper ones according to their specific knowledge and
skills, and student's specific needs and interests. 57
End Notes
1. Elliot U. Eisner, The Education Imagination: on the Design and Evaluation o-f School Programs (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co. Inc., 1979) p. 117.
2. P.M. Chia, An Introduction to Education (Taipei: Wu Nan Literary Press, 1981) p. 262.
3. Ronald E. Sutton, 'Toward a Confederation of Film Study Organizations', The Journal of Aesthetic Education. Vol. 5, No. 2, (April 1971) p. 131.
4. William Kuhns and Robert Stanley, Teaching Program : _____ Explor i ng the Film (Dayton: Geo. A. Pfiaum, Publisher, 1969) p. 5.
5. B.O. Smith, W.O. Stanley,and H.J. Shores, Fundamentals of Curriculum Development (New York: World Book, 1957) p. 3.
6. Franklin Bobbit, How to Make a Curriculum (New York: Houghton M ifflin Company, 1924) p. 7.
?. Edward Krug, Administering Curriculum Planning (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965) p. 4.
B. Robert Zais, Curriculum: Principles and Foundations (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1976) p. B.
9. George Beauchamp, Curriculum Theory. 2nd. ed. (Wilmette, 111: The Kagg Press, 1968) p. 6.
10. Hilda Taba, Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1962) p. 9.
11. Robert Zais, op. cit.. p. 12. CHAPTER IV
THE PROPOSED CURRICULUM FOR THE FILM STUDY
Now we arrive at the major phase o-f the developing work. In this chapter, to draw together the various threads of inquiry and approaches developed in previous chapters, a core curriculum of the undergraduate cinema study is designed. The curriculum consists of thirteen courses of the six units. Each course is planned for a eighteen week semester system which is the only system used in Taiwan at all levels of education.
For the general format, at the beginning of each unit a discussion about the subject will be provided, as the introductory remarks, and then a brief course description, the course objectives, the suggested learning activity, and the suggested readings for the course follow. For some units, the detailed course outline is presented.
Most reading materials listed at the end of each course mostly have been confirmed and are available at the Film Library of the
Foundation of the Motion Picture Development and the Library of the
American Culture Center in Taipei. The films suggested for each course generally can be borrowed or rented from, besides these two organizations, French Culture and Technology Center, and videocassette distributors in Taipei.
58 59
UNIT I: FILM PRODUCTION
The unit, which is the very -first step of the study of film, focuses on the understanding of the technical nature of the film medium and its various processes of image making. The courses of this unit are designed, based upon the proposition that: "The best way to understand and increase the pleasures of film viewing is not to study literary criticism or the application of measurement to art but to experience as directly as possible the way an artist works and the way ( 1) a film works."
During the past forty years with the efforts to promote film study at various levels of education, hundreds of educators agree that film is a means of expression, an instructional medium, a language, an art, and many things. Yet, before accepting these declarations, we should always remember the fact that the film is many things based upon the modern technology. In other words, we must recognize that fundamentally the medium of film cornnun i cat i on is a machine - a crystal of physics, chemistry, mechanics, and an instrument whose evolution can be traced to a human fascination with simulating reality and movement that appeared very early in human culture.
In discussing the relationship of arts shaping and technology,
James Monaco notes:
Every art is shaped not only by p o litic a l, philosophical, and economic factors, but also by its technology. The relationship isn 't always clear; sometimes technological development leads to a change in the esthetic system of the art; sometimes esthetic requirements call for a new 60
technology; often the development of the technology itself is the result of a confluence of Ideological and economic factors. But until artistic impulses can be expressed through technology, there is no artifact.
Usually the relationships are crude: the novel never could have come into being without the printing press, but the recent rapid increases in the technology of printing have had little discernible effect on the esthetic development of the novel. What changes have occurred in its three-hundred-year history find their root causes in other historical factors, mainly the social uses of the art. Stage drama was radically altered when new lighting techniques allowed it to be brought indoors and sheltered behind the proscenium arch, but the contemporary reversion to the thrust stage is mainly due not to developments in technology but to ideological factors. In short, although there has been a communion between art and technology that consists of more than an occasional genius like Leonardo da Vinci combining good work in both field s, a communion that belies the modern conception of the two fields as mutually antagonistic: nevertheless one can study the history of painting without ever having gained any knowledge of how oils differ from acrylics, and students of literature can certainly succeed in mastering the basic history of literature without having studied the operation of the linotype or the offset press. (2)
However, this is not the case with the film. The great single
artistic contribution of the industrial age, the recording art - film,
sound recording, and photography - are inherently dependent on a
complex, ingenious, and even more sophisticated technology. During
the past eighty years the technological development from the camera obscura to the highly evolved battery of instruments used in present day filmmaking (camera, projector, optical printer, sound system,
etc.) have profoundly affected the form of the medium and the
aesthetic system of the art. Some of the most striking a rtis tic
effects are the products of expanding film technology. For example. 61
the awesome composition in depth and shadow o-f Welles" Ci t i zen Kane
(1941) are p artia lly the result o-f the conversion -from carbon arc
lamps to incandescent lighting in the studios and the development o-f
high-speed panchromatic -film, which allowed much greater depth-o-f-
field, and wide-angle lenses. And the advent of sound-on-film gave
further impetus to the growth and development of the documentary at
the beginning of the th irtie s . It is absolutely impossible for one to
comprehend fully the ways these effects are accomplished without a
fundamental understanding of the scien tific and systemic procedures
that make them possible.
Usually the study of film production at the level of higher
education means training students to work in the film industry as
technicians, directors, writers, or independent filmmakers, which is
only necessary for the professionally bound students. But filmmaking
can also be seen as a process valuable to all, even if the persons
involved have no intention of working professionally in the field of
film. According to the teaching experience this writer had during
September, 1984 to January, 1985 in Taiwan, the central interest of
students had not been in the plots, content, or theme of the films
under study, but in the process of making them. While discussing
films, such as Psycho (1960), The Searchers (1956), North by
Northwest (1959), and Fanny and Alexander (1984), etc., their
questions were always centered on how that murder scene is made, why the director used that shot to portray the actress, or how
the long-take in the stre e t scene is managed by the director and the 62
cinematographer, etc. It is the process they anxiously want to know.
George Semsel in his doctoral dissertation, reports the conclusion
reached encountered in teaching at various institutions of the United (3) States and Canada. In the same survey conducted by this w riter, 103
junior film majors in Taiwan being asked what special field in film
they would choose as their profession if they decided to get into the
industry, 91'/. of the students answered “d irec to r” , the next category was “producer" (69%), "cinematographer" was the third (55%), and
"screenplay writer" (9%) and “film critic" (6%) were in the lowest (4) places. From the above, we may conclude that students' initial
interest in the medium is in film-as-process, and that is the area which must be studied prior to others. Semsel notes;
Film is an artifact; it can be controlled, studied, understood. The mysterious properties of which so many speak are inherent in film-as-process. When we deny students access to the process, we cripple their chances for fully grasping the medium. The best, most direct way to generate understanding is to bring people through some form of hands-on experience. -----
The failure to engage students in film-as-process is the failure to recognize that in film, as in most art-making processes, there is a pleasure to be derived from the activity, and correspondingly, that from the activity, one will invariably gain insight into the nature of the involved medium. (5)
The study of film production in Taiwan, seldom recognizes this
need to broaden students' learning experiences into a full
understanding of the nature of the medium and the visual images people
have created. Consequently, this problem reduces the students'
experiences, to that of the ordinary viewers in the theater, on the 63
one-way relationship of screen - audience, and leaves a gap between
students and filmmakers as the figure indicates.
The Work Screen
Students
The fundamental purpose of film study is to expand, refine, and
elevate students' cinematic awareness from passively viewing films to
then understanding the process of how images are made and finally
using the medium effectively as both consumer and producer. That is,
to create two-way communication between the film and students. Let's ( 6) explain this by adapting Wilbur Shraiwn's model :
1) Filmmaker, as a message sender, transfers abstract information onto celluloid.
2) Film, as the message-medium, is projected on screen.
3) Student, as a receiver, receives the information.
Mediui ssage Rece i ver — > Students
Feedback
Only where the filmmaker's and student's perceptual fields of
experience overlap is there communication and feedback. In order to 64
create greater overlapping fields of experience and the possibility of
more effective feedback - two-way conanunication from filmmaker to
students and then from students to filmmaker, it is very necessary to
have students understand how the medium works and how filmmakers manipulate issues, controversies, and concepts - through narrative
components, montage, camera angles and movement, music, and
juxtapositions of sight and sound. The best way to engage students
into the complex process is to have them experience as directly as
possible the way a filmmaker works and the way a film works and
finally learn to express themselves visually as filmmakers.
This unit is composed of four sequential courses - Film
Production I, Film Production II, and Film Production III, and one
Video Production course.
Film Production I
Course Description
As an introduction to the technique of filmmaking, the course is
intended for students in their first year to give them a practical
understanding of principles and procedures of film production and some experiences in applying them to work of their own design for producing
Super-8mm silent films. The emphasis of this course is film as a means of visual expression, the study of filmmaking through learning
to express the idea visually. 65
Course Objectives
I. Understanding the historical evolution of film technology.
This objective emphasizes the essential concept that the medium
of cinema communication is based in technology. An introductory
description of the basic techniques of filmmaking, dealing with the
evolution of each filmmaking tool is absolutely necessary, because an
understanding of these techniques allows the students to see how the
technology profoundly affects the form of the film that students
experience. The source of this information include:
James Monaco, How to Read a Film. Revised Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981) pp. 49-118.
George Wead and George Lei lis . Film: _____Form and Function (Boston: Houghton M ifflin Company, 1981) pp. 3-29.
II. Understanding the techniques of cinematic communication.
Since the f ir s t movie was made in human history, filmmakers have
developed many techniques to simulate the human experience of movement, space, time, sound, and color. This objective should
include the explanation of these techniques, suchas the types of
shot; image composition, pictorial continuity, the power ofeach
camera angle, and the general rules of shooting, e tc ., to show
students how the modern movie expresses the abstract concepts to the
viewers. The source of information can be found:
Arthur L. Gaskill and David A. Englander, How to Shoot a Movie Story: The Technique of Pictorial Continuity. Third Edition (New York: Morgan & Morgan, Inc., Publishers, 1970) . 66
III. Demonstrating skills in the operation of Super 8mm film
equ i pment.
The study should include:
1) Camera : the mechanical device of camera, film
loading, lenses, exposure, and camera operation.
2) Filmstocks: the types of film, film speed (ASA.DIN),
and the unique characteristics of each type of film.
3) Lighting; key light, fill light, back light, and
lighting ratio, etc.
4) Picture Editing: cement editing and tape-splice
edi ting.
The source of information can be found:
Selection and Use of KODAK and EASThtftN Motion Picture Films. KODAK Publication No. H-1.
IV. The ability to translate abstract ideas into effective
film form as demonstrated by production of Super 8mm
silent films.
Suggested Learning Activities
Film viewing. Almost none of the Chinese movies made during the silen t era (1909-1931) are available in Taiwan now, but many foreign
silent masterpieces on videocassette, such as Ci ty Lights (1931),
Modern Times (1936), The General (1927), and The Birth of A Nation
(1915), etc., can be purchased at a very affordable price from foreign
video movie d istrib u to rs. These classics should be shown to students
so that they many learn how filmmakers at the initial stage of film
development imitated a wide range of human perceptions, just like they
are now. 67
Test roi 1. Students should make a 3-minute silent film demonstrating the sk ills as follows:
1) exposure: one f-stop overexposure, correct exposure,
and one f-stop underexposure.
2) camera operation: pan, t i l t , zoom in, zoom out, high
camera angle, eye level camera angle, 1 (%j camera
angle, and mobile camera movement.
3) lighting: light ratio 2:1, 4:1, and 8:1.
Uncontrolled event project. Students should make a 3-minute silent film of an uncontrolled and unplanned event, such as Chinese
New Year dragon parade, Chinese follower festiv al, or a basketball final, etc., for practicing recording reality and reorganizing the visual re a lity through editing.
Controlled event project. Students should make a 3-5 minute silent film to actually engage in the process of filmmaking, from pre planning and production to postproduction, and to exercise discipline in telling a story visually. In a controlled event project, a script and story board planning should be required. In addition, the benefits of the story board should be addressed to students as f o l1ows:
1) Story boards are valuable for generating, collecting,
and organizing ideas and visuals. Students can
shuffle ideas, add them, or delete them.
2) Story boards facilitate production and help students
eliminate wasted effort when they reach the production 68
sta g e .
The best text for preparing the story board will be;
Basic Production Techniques for Motion P ictu re. KODAK Publication, No. P-18.
Suggested Readings for the Course
In Chinese:
I. Liu (tra n s.), How to Shoot a Movie Story; The Technique of Pictorial Continuity, by Arthur L. Gaskill and David A. Englander (Taipei: Huang-Kuan Press, 1974).
T.M. Si (trans.), Directing Motion Pictures, by Terrence St. John Marner (Taipei; Chih-Wen Publisher Co., 1978).
In Engli sh;
Basic Production Techniques for Motion P ictures. KODAK Publication, No. P-18.
Film Maker's Guide to Super-Smm. by Super-8 Filmmaker Magazine (San Francisco: Sheptow Publishing, 1980).
James Monaco, How to Read a Film. Revised Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).
Selection and Use of KODAK and EASTMAN Motion Picture Films. KODAK Publication No. H-1.
Splicing Motion Picture Film with KODAK Film Cements. KODAK Publication, No. S-38.
Elinor H. Stecker, "Splicing: The Craft Behind the Art of Editing" Popular Photography. Vol. 84, No. 3, (March, 1979) p . 101 .
Film Producti on II
Course Description
This is the second in the series of three courses dealing with the production of film. The course is designed to give students 69
additional understanding of the principles and procedures of filmmaking and some experiences in applying them to work of their own design by producing Super 8mm single-system sound films. In addition to visual expression, this course also puts emphasis on the practice of sound techniques.
Course Objectives
I. Understanding of the basic elements of sound.
The study should comprise the following parts:
1) The nature of sound: frequency and wavelength,
amplitude and loudness, dynamic range and noise, and
acoustics, etc.
2) Magnetic optical vs. recording: recording and
playback, the tape transport system, bias, and
equalization, etc.
3) Tape recorder components: tape and tape speed, the
types of microphone and the unique advantages and
disadvantages of each microphone, and volume control,
e t c .
The source of information can be found:
Lenny Lipton, Independent Filmmaking. Updated and Revised Edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.) pp. 279-303.
II. Understanding the principles of the recording
techn i que.
The study of recording techniques should include the following strateg i es :
1) the strategy of ambient sound recording 70
2) the strategy of recording in noisylocations
3) the strategy of recording in different sizes, shapes,
and space locations
4) the strategy of music recording
5) the strategy of sound effects
6) the strategy of mixing, transferring, and re-recording
The detailed description of these strategies can be found:
Edward Pincus and Stevens Archer, The Filmmaker's Handbook. (New York: New American Library, 1984) pp. 207-26.
Sound: Magnetic Sound Recording for Motion P ic tu res. KODAK Publication No. S-75.
III. Understanding single system sound.
Those who choose to work in single system mainly do so for the relatively low cost and simplicity of the equipment. Students may easily carry and operate the camera with the microphone attached, and with automatic level controls, they are free to concentrate on the shooting. If editing is to be done, this is an extremely convenient way to work, although, students miss much of the versatility of double-system techniques. In single-system editing, the picture must be cut whenever the sound is. Other problems are caused by the separation between sound and picture. In Super-8mm, for example, the sync sound accompanying any given frame of picture is found IS frames ahead of the picture.
There are some ways to circumvent these problems. One is to transfer the sound to double-system. To make the transfer, play the film on a dubber and re-record the sound on a sync recorder. Another 71
is to use a displacement recorder which sh ifts the sound 18 frames back on the mag stripe. After the film has been run through a displacement recorder, every frame of picture and its sync sound are
in line with each other on the film. Besides being aware of these facts, students also should know some techniques in single-system sound pre-production planning and editing, such as;
If you choose to edit single system in its original form, certain shooting techniques can be used to minimize the discontinuities at splices. Sometimes it is preferable to have a shot begin in silence rather than to have it accompanied by the sound of the previous shot.
In single system sound editing, especially in super 8, the projector often plays an integral role in the creation of the sound track, a role assumed by multiple tracks of mag film in double system editing. Many projectors are capable of recording a second sound track, which may be used to mix in music, sound effects or background sound (all of which help mask discontinuities at splices). (7)
IV. Demonstrating sk ills in the operation of the motion
picture camera, editing and sound system to translate
the abstract ideas into effective film form.
More clearly, the study of this objective is to learn the
technique for single-system filming.
One of the biggest drawbacks of working in single system is the 18 or 26 frame separation between sound and picture that can make editing so difficult. Unless you plan to transfer your single system footage to video or to double system, it makes sense to tailor your shooting style to the lim itations of the medium. Plan your shots so that they go together with as little editing as possible. Shoot longer takes than you might otherwise, and do not divide a scene into many separate shots or angles. If you begin and end each shot when no one is speaking (or at least when nothing crucial is being said), when you splice shots together you will not lose important sections of the sound track. Of course, if there are scenes for which you will not use the 72
synchronous sound, you can take more liberties with short shots and quick cuts. (8)
Suggested Learning Activities
Film viewing. The selected exemplary -feature films, especially
at the early stage of the development of sound film, show to students.
Through the films viewed, students may learn hovj sound restructures or destructures the meaning of visual image. Students' written critiques
of viewings.
Test roll. This project is a short exercise to familiarize students with the relationship of visual image and sound elements.
The exercise should include demonstrating the skills as follows;
1) Two person conversation empty room with hard, smooth walls. 2) Two person conversation (over-shoulder-shots) in a room with carpets, furniture, and irregular walls. 3) Two person conversation (over-shoulder-shots) in a wide-open outdoor situation, such as a park or a quiet ne i ghborhood. 4) Two person conversation (over-shoulder-shots) in a noisy location such as Chinese New Year Dragon Parade, Taipei Grande Central Station, or Chinese follower f e s tiv a l. Field trip. Visitations to local recording studios, television stations, or film studios should be arranged. At present poorly- equipped departments in Taiwan seldom can provide students with 73 sufficient experiences to fulfill the objectives we stated above. In order to make up this deficiency, the field trip is extremely important in the study of sound techniques. Final project. Students should make a 3-5 minute film, which demonstrates the knowledge they acquire during the course, to practically experience how sound may restructure the meaning of image by creative combinations of dialogue, music, sound effects, or even s i 1ence . Critical writings. Students should synopsize three films viewed outside of class, which demonstrate some knowledge of what they learn during the course. Suggested Writing for the Course In Chinese: I. Liu (tran s.) How to Shoot a Movie Story: The Technique of Pictorial Continuity, by Arthur L. Gaskill and David A. Englander (Taipei: Huang-Kuan Press, 1978). T.M. Si (trans.), Directing Motion Pictures, by Terence St. John Marner (Taipei: Chih-Wen Publisher, Co., 1978). S.C. Sheu (tra n s.). The Technique of Film E diting, by Karel Rei02 (Taipei: Chih-Wen Publisher, Co., 1981). In Engli sh : Basic Production Techniques for Motion P ic tu res. KODAK Publications, No. P-18. Editing Single-System Sound Super 8 Film. KODAK Publications, No. S-66. Film Maker's Guide to Super-8, by Super-8 Filmmaker Magazine (San Francisco: Shepton Publishing, 1980). Janet Kealy, “How to Shoot Better Super 8 Sound", Popular Photography. Vol. 1.84, No. 9, (September, 1979) p. 96. 74 Sound; Magnetic Sound Recording -for Motion P ictu res. KODAK Publication, No. S-75. Film Producti on III Course Description This is an introductory course in 16mm filmmaking. The intention is to provide students information and experiences concerning the basic norms and standard procedures of professional film production. Owing to the emphasis on the process of professional filmmaking and to reduce the student's cost, students are required to produce the projects in a collaborative way <3-5 persons) and to have taken two previous production courses. This course will not go beyond editing single strand camera original, and non-synchronous sound tracks. Course Objectives I. Identifying the basic difference between Super 8mm and 1 6mm. The detailed comparison of the two guages can be found: Edward Pincus and Steven Archer, The Filmmaker's Handbook (New York: New American Library, 1984) pp. 1-20. II. Demonstrating skills in the operation of 16mm equipment. In spite of camera, filmstock, editing bench, and sound recorder, the learning of the operation of light meter is very important in 16mm f iIm product i on. 75 III. Understanding o-f the process of pre-production. This should include: 1) Preparing the budget. 2) Preparing a final draft shooting script and story board. 3) Selecting and scheduling the cast, crew, equipment, and necessary facilities. IV. Understanding the process of production. This should include: 1) Lighting sets. 2) Shooting and recording. 3) Keeping camera and recording records. 4) Directing the camera, actors, and crew. V. Understanding the process of post-production. 1) Cutting the workprint. 2) Recording the sound tracks (re-recording, mixing, and transferring, etc). 3) Shooting titles and other graphics for the film. 4) Editing the original film. 5) Preparing the film for printing A and B ro lls). Suggested Learning Activities Test rol1. Students should shoot a roll of film, to familiarize them with the operation of the camera and the quality and capability of the film stock. 76 Final p ro je c t. At the end of the course students should complete a 5-10 minute sound film. Looq ino. Students should keep a log of time spent on pre planning, production, and post-production including a detailed description of each activ ity , including time and cost. Field trip. In order to comprehend the standard professional film production procedures directly, some v isita tio n s to the local film studios or film laboratories will be required. Guest lectures. Producers, directors, cinematographers, writers, editors, and even actors should be invited to class, addressing their experiences in filmmaking to students, and giving them some suggestions in preparing for their future career in the industry. Rush screening. Students should present their rushes to their classmates so that they may exchange opinions and experiences with each other. Suggested Reapings for the Course In Chinese: I. Liu (tra n s .). How to Shoot a Movie Story: The Technique of Pictorial Continuity, by Arthur L. Gaskill and David A. Englander (Taipei: Huang-Kuan Press, 1974). T.M. Si (trans.), Directing Motion Pictures, by Terence St. John Marner (Taipei: Chih-Wen Publisher, Co., 1978). S.C. Sheu (tra n s .). The Technique of Film Editing, by Karel Reisz (Taipei: Chih-Wen Publisher, Co., 1981). In English Basic Production Techniques for Motion P ic tu res. KODAK Publication, No. P-18. 77 John Burden, 16mm Film Cutting (New York: Hastings House, Publ1shers, 1975). Lenny Lipton, Independent Filmmaking, Updated and Revised Edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1983). Edward Pincus and Steven Archer, The Filmmaker's Handbook (New York: New Aitier i can Library, 1984). David W. Samuel son. Motion Picture Camera Techniques, 2nd Edition (Boston: Focal Press, 1984). 78 Video Production The sing1e-camera video technology with its relatively lightweight vidicon tube video cameras and recording equipment was ■first used in Taiwan in the early seventies by one o-f the three television networks -for news reporting. In a short span o-f fifteen years, this new medium not only has almost entirely replaced film in this area, but has also been used in over two thirds of the prime-time (9) networks of three television programs. Many ancient costume television dramas and swordsman fight series, which once involved expensive set-ups, multi-cameras, and large studios, are new employing this small-scale and relatively inexpensive new technology. Television commercials, too, have almost completely switched from film to video tape production. The newly-developed technology also has caused tremendous shock to the film industry. The popularity of video-cassette players and cheap video-taped movies have kept a large number of people, who are faithful audiences of movies, in their comfortable living rooms. The movie box-office receipts decreased and annual production output abruptly dropped from a total of 192 films in 1979 to only 72 films in ( 10) 1983. Consequently, many film directors, actors, producers, and technicians are forced to use the handy video equipment to produce film -style dramas and series on tape to meet the great demand of the video rental market. 79 With the increasing number o-f video production, by the end o-f 1985, the video market will need 4,000 w ell-qualified new technicians ( 11) which is twice as many as the present number. It is very obvious that for a modern film and television training program, the new video technology is a subject which cannot be neglected. Here, as with the goal of understanding of the film medium, we simply treat the video as an ideal tool for learning the basic grammar and syntax of film. While film and video are at different stages of development, there is one fundamental similarity between the two which is the moving image central to both film and video. Hence, the basic grammatical and syntactical rules for their language are the same. However, the video tape is much cheaper than film stock and is reuseable. Once we have recorded something on film, it is there to stay. If we don't like it or can't use it, there is nothing to do but throw it away. Record the same thing on tape, we can erase it and use the same recording medium over and over again and it does not have to be processed, work printed, etc., all of which are expensive for students. According to Edward Pincus and Stevens Archer in 1984, minute to minute, three quarter inch tape is about one-tenth the cost ( 12) to processed 16mm color film. Exactly, owing to its similarity with film and its low cost, the video is generally recognized by people as a tool which can enhance and assist the training of film. Screen director and film teacher Janos Hersko notes: ...F ir s t the pupil must learn the syntax and the grammar and for this the one-camera video electronic editing are 8 0 revolutionary because (they do not cost) so much m oney...(If) I learn a language I must exercise it each day, i-f I learn music I must play each day, if I learn drawing I must draw each day, but in our schools (I don't speak of production, I speak of exercise), we haven't had the opportunity to give our students an exercise every day. Once a month, twice a month we could give them the opportunity to make a little film; (now) we have (on video) an opportunity to give them each day an exercise in granmar and in syntax...it's not only cheap, it's quick; you can show the re su lts — you can also see what is wrong, what is good, you can repeat it and repeat it and after three weeks you can translate it to film. (13) Another reason for video to become the tool for learning is that the image of the video camera can be seen "live" and it can be played back immediately which allows the possibility of correction or improvement at l i tt l e or no cost. Colin Young, Director of the National Film School of the United Kingdom, indicates; ...There is perhaps another distinction to be made between different kinds of curriculum problems which video has been summoned up to solve. There are those of operating the equipment, there are those of basic technical considerations and there are those of basic narrative elements of story construction. In all of these, however, video has an immediate feed-back benefit so that the work of the student can be directly monitored...the basic technical problems I am speaking about are, for example, focus and depth of field , camera movement, composition, lighting e f f e c ts .. .but the whole question of staging, of putting a performance in space and of the performance its e lf, these can all be monitored much more readily with video as a recording instrument than they can with film. (14) Course Description This course is basically designed for film students who want to use video. It is not intended as a primer for training video makers, but intended as an orientation to the new medium, so that along with certain fundamental concepts, some practicalinformation about how video cameras work, how film -to-tape transfers work and so on. On 81 entering the course students are required to have some familiarity with the language of film and to know the basic technique of film production (camera movement, pictorial continuity, lighting technique, sound recording, and editing, etCc). Course Objectives 1. Understanding of video equipment and its sim ila ritie s with film equipment and its use. The content of this objective should include: 1) basic video equipment, such as video camera, the pickup tube, the raster, the monitor, NTSC, PAL, SECAM standards, etc. The source of this information can be found : LennyLipton, Independent Filmmaking. Updated and Revised Edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1983) pp. 402-14. Gerald M illerson, TV Camera Operation (New York: Hastings House, Publishers, 1973) 2) the advantage and disadvantage compared with the film. The source of the information can be found: Leslie Hauser, Videotape and Its Applied Use in Medicine. Law and Business and Industry between 1947- 1983 (Unpublished M.A. thesis. The Ohio State University, 1984) pp. 10-20. Steven S. Ryan, "The State of the Art; Film vs. E.N.G.* Journal of Uni"c.sity Film Association. XXX,2 (Spring 1978) pp. 53-56. 3) the video formats. The description of the various video formats and their unique characteristic, advantage, and disadvantage can be found: 82 Peter Utz, Video User's Handbook (Englewood C liffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hal1, Inc., 1982) pp. 35-37. II. Understanding the historical development of the video technology and its applied use in various areas. The resource of information can be found: Leslie Hauser, Videotape and Its Applied Use in Medicine, Law and Business and Industry between 1947- 1983 (unpublished M.A. thesis. The Ohio State Un ivers i ty , 1984). Gene Youngblood, Expanded Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1970) Herbert Zettl , Sight, Sound. Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1973). III. Demonstrating skill in the operation of the portable one tube video camera and three-quarter inch electronic editors and sound mixing consoles, IV. Understanding the interconnections of film and video. The content of this objective should include: 1) film-to-tape transfer and its quality. 2) tape-to-film transfer and its quality. 3) the knowledge of shooting film for video, such as using the low light ratio, framing for television cut off, etc. 4) the applied use of video in filmmaking. The resource of information can be found: Edward Pincus and Stevens Archer, The FiImmaker's Handbook (New York: New American Library, I t 94) pp. 17-21. 83 Lenny Lipton, Independent rilmmakino. Updated and Revised Edition (New York; Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1P83) pp. 418-29. V. Understanding o-f the aesthetic differences between film and v i deo. There are significant aesthetic distinctions between film and video. Though both are visual media, the degree of visual density differs in each. Because of its small screen, video tends to favor close-ups and medium shots. Beyond the full shot range, the monitor screen begins to lose definition, and small details are lost. A movie like Man of Aran (1934) with its long and extreme long shots, is likely to lose much of its effectiveness on the monitor screen. Conversely, many films made for television tend to look technically inferior in the theater. Visual blemishes that would hardly appear on the small screen are exaggerated when they're blown up for the movies. Because of its greater effectiveness in the closer ranges, video tends to emphasize editing rather than mise-en-scene, for cutting between shots is more effective in pointing out a sequence of specific details than mise-en-scene which encourages the viewer to analyze the contents of a detailed long shot on his own. Suggested Learning Activities Video tape viewings Selected exemplary video tapes should be shown to students so that they may comprehend how the video is used in various areas; such as education, experimental, medicine, public service agencies, and industry, etc. Students' individual critiques of viewings are necessary. 84 Production projects Students should use portable one tube cameras to produce two projects, one from three to five minutes and the other from five to ten minutes, in any form - documentary, experimental, narrative, and instructional, etc. Transfer project Students should use a film made before (Film Production 1, Film Production II) and transfer it onto video tape in film to compare the d istin t ion between the original images and the video-taped images. A critique of the comparison should be made. Field trios Some field trips should be arranged for visitation to video production agencies and television stations so that the students may relate practice to knowledge orally imparted by the instructor and gained abstractly from the readings. Suggested Readings for the Course In Engli sh; John A. Bunyan, James C. Crimmins, and N. Kyri Watson, Practical Video: The Manager's Guide to Applications (White Plains, N.Y.; Knowledge Industry Publications, Inc., 1978). Leslie Hauser, Videotape and Its Applied Use in Medicine. Law and Business and Industry between 1947-1983 (Unpublished M.A. thesis^ The Ohio State University, 1984). Lenny Lipton, Independent Filmmaking. Updated and Revised Edition (New York; Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1983). Steven S. Ryan, "The State of the Art: Film vs. E.N.B." Journal of the University Film A ssociation. XXX, 2 (Spring 1978). Peter Utz, Video User's Handbook (Englewood C liffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hal1, Inc., 1982). Gerald Millerson, TV Camera Operation (New York: Hastings House, Publishers, 1973). 85 Gene Youngblood, Expanded Cinema (New YorK: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1970). Herbert Zettl , Sight, Sound. Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1973) . Periodicals in English: The Journal of Film and Video (The Journal of the University Film and Video Association). On Locations The Film and Videotape Production Magazine. The Television Quarterly (Journal of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences). 86 Unit 11 ! Hi story One student wrote a very simple but rarely mentioned question years ago: "We all study film history, but why do we study film history? For just reciting a list of characters and films?" Indeed, almost every film program in the world has a course in film history listed. For students it seems an indispensable step to the film study. But what's the value of the film history for students? Today the fact that the projected image is the dominant communication medium of contemporary culture and a most influential one for the current generation of students is quite well established. Those young students prefer seeing films to reading novels; movies to writing poetry, especially as they live through the historical evolution of film in learning the craft. They begin by trying to record technically correct pictures on film, perfecting their ability to obtain clearly focused, properly exposed images. They then realize the power of different pictorial compositions, the strategies of long shots and close-ups, the effect of different lenses, and filters. Then they discover the power of editing in creating a film's tone and meaning. Their f ir s t works are usually black-and-white silent films with musical accompaniment - precisely the kind of film that evolved during the first thirty-five years of film history. Only after they gain some confidence with this kind of experience do the young filmmakers experiment with color synchronized sound. And this is the very value of film history, just as ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. 87 Just as the history of the novel is, to some extent, a catalogue of outstanding novels, and the history of drama a catalogue of important plays, the history of film as an art centers around important films. In film history, a discussion of the significant films is especially relevant, for not only are the individual films milestones on an historical path, but also significant artistic discoveries that immediately influenced other directors and today influence viewers all over the world. Through the study of film history, students emphasizing theory and criticism obtain an understanding of how motion picture aesthetics, society, and culture are mediated by the particulars of film economics, business and industry, and vice-versa. Production students, through the study of film history are introduced to an overview of the various methods of artistic creation, distribution, marketing, exhibition, as an appropriate supplement to their technical and stylistic skills. In short, the knowledge generated from film history may result in a more realistic appraisal of all facets of film culture as well as our very society itself. As indicated ea rlier, the study of film history in Taiwan partially emphasizes domestic film evolution, while almost all the film history w ritings in the English language a llo t the most space to the description of Western movies. An eclecticism is definitely needed iiere. It is true that in educating Chinese image-makers of the future, the content must emerge frwi) the resources, human and technological, of our nation. The basic education must begin with the Chinese film 88 industry and contribute to it in a meaningful way. However, the film is the product of Western technology. During its years of evolution the Western films have had tremendous influence on the Chinese films. Only by knowing their correlation may students fully comprehend the present state of the Chinese film evolution. Although its formal history spans less than a century, the motion picture exhibits a compressed, intricate structure of development. That is the reason why there are so many different approaches propounded by film scholars to interpret the eighty year development of the medium with various emphases. In general, we may classify these approaches roughly into three categories which are structured by 1) era. 2) by nation, and 3) by aesthetics. The typical example of structure by era, is Thomas Bohn and Richard Stromgren's book titled "Light and Shadow; A History of Motion <15) Pictures". In the book the authors divide the development of film into three parts: 1) the silen t era which presents the earliest beginning of film and continues through the technological and a rtis tic developments that helped create an industry; 2) the sound era which begins with an introduction of sound and tells the story of Hollywood's "golden age", the swift rise of the documentary and slow decline of the European film; 3) contemporary cinema which begins with an international renaissance, the simultaneous arrival of television, and crucial court decisions, and the beginning of a "new realism" directly after World War II, and carries film's historical narrative 89 through the turbulent and uprooting 1950's and 1960's into the present environment. In "A History of Film", which is the example of the second category, Jack Ellis organizes the film history on the concept that certain countries at particular times have contributed most interestingly and importantly to the evolution of this art form. In accord with this concept he attempts to keep track of the major trends (16) and contributions of these dominant countries chronologically. Rather than take a single aesthetic standpoint from which the whole of the cinema's output is to be assessed, Roy Armes's writing (17) "Film and Reality" adapts a triple perspective: 1) the uncovering of the real, which stems the evolution of a re a list aesthetic. The a r t i s t 's prime concern is not to invent or to imagine, but to place people, objects, settings as directly as possible in front of the camera to make people see. This tradition begins with the age of Lumiere and Melies, Flaherty and the idea of documentary, documentary movement in the thirties, realist fiction film, neo-realism, and contemporary cinema verite. 2) Theimitation of the real, which discards the direct link with reality and fastens instead on the film's power to offer a resemblance of life. This tradition mainly concerns the cinema's role as storyteller and the description of the growth of an international entertainment industry. 3) The questioning of the real, which uses film not to convey surface re a lity or to sustain a make-believe, but to explore an inner reality beneath the surface. This tradition begins with the early silent experiment of 90 Russian, the expressionism movement in Germany, Bunuel's surrealism, the relationship of film and modern novel, and underground film exper iments. These, briefly, are what appear to be the major approaches taken as methods of structuring the history of Western film. With regard to structuring the Chinese film history, the situation is more simple. Although there are different interpretations of the Chinese film evolution, generally they all subscribe to the following ch aracteristics: 1) the initial stage <1896-1937): from the f ir s t introduction of the motion picture to China to the beginning of the Si no-Japanese War. The preliminaries of the earliest filmic activity to the spread of film industry from Shanghai to other treaty ports along the coast. 2) The war period (1938-1949): from the time of Japanese invasion, through the Japanese occupation, restoration, to the communist takeover of the mainland. A chaotic period between wars. The film industry moved from the coast to the hinterland. 3) The progressive period (1949-present). This period covers the history, background, and the development to the present situation of the film industry of Taiwan. In correlating the history of Western films with the development of Chinese film to organize two semester courses of film history, among the previously stated three, we decide to adapt Thomas Bohn and Richard Stromgren's approach in their book “Light and Shadow: A ( 18 ) History of Motion Pictures". As indicated, their structuring history by era is very close to the cla ssific a tio n of Chinese film evolution. This will be detailedly described later in this unit. 91 Film Hi story I Film Hi story 11 Course Description As a comprehensive introduction to the motion picture evolution during the last eighty years, these two sequential courses are intended -for students in their -first year o-f undergraduate study. Course Objectives I. Identifying noteworthy -films and -filmmakers during eighty years o-f the development o-f motion pictures. (See course content) II. Understanding -film as the product o-f the interaction of economics, political ideas and realities, sociology, psychology, in addition to aesthetics and technology. The main concern of the second objective is that any film history that intends to reveal the genesis of today's film world, in addition to treating the film solely as entertainment as in Taiwan today, must also discuss three related problems that have always influenced the creative product, and continue to influence it today: the film as business, the film as technology, and the film as art; because no other art is so interdependent with the functions of both high art and popular culture. No other medium so completely f u l f i l l s contemporary social thoughts, the fears, Joys, obsessions, and taboos of the time and it Just as surely reinforces and modifies our understanding. 92 attitudes and beliefs about the world around us. In addition, for all this interaction, film is often a strongly personal medium reflecting the dreams, ideas, and inspirations of producers, directors, screenwriters, and actors as well as the audiences themselves. Thus the history of motion pictures is necessarily the history an industry, of technology, society, art, and personality. Furthermore, this history reflects not only independent parallel events but strongly interdependent activities as well. III. Understanding of the correlation between the development of Chinese film and of Western film. IV. Understanding of the present situation and prospecting the future development of the film in Taiwan. The eighties seems to be a critical era for the motion picture. Facing the challenge of videotapes, videodiscs, and cable television, movies s till serve as prestigious models for these media, but film now no longer exercises the economic leverage it once did. Movies are best seen as part of a varied panoply of entertainment and communications media clearly dominated by television in all its forms. Theatrical filmmaking is simply one of the numerous facets of this media system. This perception is particularly important for students who newly approach the film. Course Content Chinese Film Development Western Film Development Part One: The Initial Stage. Part One: The Silent Era. <1896-1937) <1895-1927) 93 Course Content (Continued) Chinese Film Development Western Film Development Auqu=' r and Louis Lumiere exhibited films first time in history in 1895. The -film was -first introduced into China in 1895 (during the The beginning of the industrial Ching dynasty). development from 1895 to 1912. The Chinese began to produce The birth of narrative the early their own movies in 1906. Ren pi oneers such a Georgs lies, Ying Hu a made 3 copies of the Louis Lumiere, and Ferdinand Zecca documentary. in France; Edwin Porter and David G riffith in America; Cecil Hepworth In 1909 Benjamin Brasky, an in England. American, established the f ir s t movie company in Shanghai. Brasky went to Hong Kong in The evolution of American silen t 1914 and with Li Min We i made genres: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Chuan Tau Shih Chi. This was Keaton, Harold Lloyd, von Stroheim, the f ir s t Chinese movie to be Josef von Sternberg, and Cecil De exported to <^erica. Mille. In 1918, the Shanghai Chamber German expressionism movement: of Commerce established a movie Robert Weine's The Cabinet of Dr. department. For the f i r s t time Cali oar i (1919). Chinese movie industry became F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) independent of foreign business E.A. Dupont's Variety (1925) men . r r i U Lang's Metroüül i s (i927) Ming Hsing Movie Company was founded in 1923 and new com The establishment of Hollywood, the panies sprang up overnight in star system, and exhibition system. Shanghai. The rise of Chinese Kung-fu Soviet Social realism movement: genre. Sergei Eisenstein's Potemk i n (1925) V.I. Pudovkin's Mother (1925). Dizga Vertov's The Man with A Movie Camera (1928). Part Two: The Sound Era (1927-1945) The f ir s t sound movie The Jazz Singer (1927). 94 Course Content (Continued) Chinese Film Development Western Film Development In 1930, Lo Ming Youn started The development of color. a Chinese social realism film movement opposing the current In the early 30s, the studio system Kung-fu, mystery, and other was at its height. Hollywood was violent mov i e s . dominated by eight major studios. Chinese movies entered the Non-narrative development: British talkie period in 1931 with the documentary movement, John Grierson help of American technicians. Paul Rotha, and Basil Wright, etc. In 1937 the whole nation was American documentary - Robert fighting against the Japanese Flaherty and Pare Lorentz, etc. invasion, many anti-Japanese Nazi propaganda - Leni Riefenstahl. movies were made. This was the most important theme of the later 30's and the early 40s. The evolution of the American genres: musical, gangster, western, and comedy. Part Two; The War Period <1937- 1949) The Japanese occupied Shanghai in 1937. The movie industry Documentaries and propaganda films moved to Chungking to produce in the World War 11. continuously, anti-Japanese movies, and also some adventure movies and Chinese musicals were made in this period. In 1945, immediately after the Part Three: Contemporary Cinema victory over the Japanese, came (1945-Present) the four year civil war. The movie industry again entered a Italian neo-realism movement: period of difficulty. Robert R o ssellin i's Open City (1945) Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves Part Three: The Progressive (1948) Per i od (Present-1949) Luchino V isconti's La Terra Trema (1948) Communists took over the main- Cesare Zavattini. land in 1948. The movie in- dustry moved to Taiwan . 95 Course Content (Continued) Chinese Film Development Western Film Development In 1954; the Chinese Central The emergence o-f television. Movie Company was -founded in Taipei. However, because o-f a Hollywood started to react to the dwindling market and a short challenge o-f television: ness o-f personnel, -few Chinese Technology - Magnascope, cinerama, movies were produced in the 50s. cinemascope, 3-D, 70mm. Independent production. During the 50s. ninety percent The System Change. o-f the domestic market was oc cupied by Hollywood's eight studios. In the later 50s an era o-f co French new wave : production has been established Francois T ruffaut's The 400 Blows between Taiwan and Hong Kong. (1959). The cooperation included a non Jean-Luc Godard's Breath 1 ess (1959) communist movie community in Allain Resnais's Hiroshima. Mon -financing, marketing, and exhi Amour (1960). bition. B ritish Free Cinema: Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting The emergence of new social Life (1963) realism movement in the late Karel Reisz's Saturday Night 50s and the early 60s. and Sunday Morning (1961) Tony Richardson's The Loneli ness of the Long Distance Runner (1963) In the mid 60s, the Chinese movie industry entered a period The emergence of new documentary of prosperity. Both private and forms ; public companies strove to pro duce Mandarin movies and great Television documentary - Edward R. efforts were made to catch up Murrow and Fred W. Friendly's with the Technicolor and Cinema See it Now (1951-1958). scope age. Cinema Verite - Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin's Chronicle of a Television was brought into Summer (1961). Taiwan in 1969. Direct Cinema - Frederick Wiseman's The Tit i c u t Follies (1967). In the early 70s Chinese Kung- The rise of new American films and fu movies created an interna f iImmakers: tional demand and were shown in Europe, America, Africa, Middle Arthur Penn, Martin Scorses, Sam East, and Latin America. Peckinpah, and Robert Altman, etc. 96 Course Content (Continued) Chinese Film Development Western Film Development The rapid growth of television International cinema: technology had put increased pressure on innovations, a new approach to the film since the mid 70s. economics of film production, and a new sense of the political and social value of film have combined to form numerous new waves in In the later 70s, the overseas Eastern Europe, Latin <^erica, markets started to dwindle Asia, Africa, and even Western (Southeast Asia area). Europe, On entering the 80s, Chinese The advent of video forms of media movie industry has threats from in the 80s makes film now no television, market dwindling, longer exercised the economic videocassette, and foreign im leverage it once did. ported movies, and falls into a serious depression. 97 Suggested Learning Activities Film viewing. The selected exemplary films of each era should be shown to students chronologically so that they may trace the trends to be aware how the film was born and how it developed. The suggested list of films is as follows: Chinese Films Western Films The Street Anoels. 1933 The Birth of a Nation. 1915 (USA) Twin Sisters. 1935 Strike . 1921 (USSR) City Night. 1936 The Gold Rush. 1925 (USA) The Fishman. 1939 The General . 1926 (USA) 400 Heros in Shanghai. 1942 Metropolis. 1927 (Germany) At Dawn. 1959 B1ue Ange 1. 1930 (Germany) Goodbye Allen. 1961 Grand Illusion. 1937 (France) The Dragon Gate Inn. 1967 Stage Coach. 1939 (USA) The Winter. 1970 Ci t i zen Kane. 1941 (USA) Autumn Execution. 1972 Bicycle Thief, 1948 (Italy) The Rain in the Mountains. 1979 Gate of Hell. 1953 (Japan) The 400 Blows. 1958 (France) Breath 1 ess. 1959 (France) La Dolce Vita. 1960 (Italy) Black God. White Devil.1963 (Brazil) Silence. 1963 (Sweden) Bonnie and Clyde. 1967 (USA) 98 Film viewing (Continued) Chinese Films Western Films A Clockwork Orange, 1972 (British) Distant Thunder. 1972 (India) The Shadow Warrior. 1980 (Japan) Gal 1i poli. 1981 (Australia) Cami1 a 1984 (Argentina) Ran. 1985 (Japan) 99 Class discussion. The -following list o-f points should be covered and expanded in the classroom discussion: 1) Who are the major Chinese directors, producers, writers, and actors, and what are the important companies that constitute the mainstreams o-f Chinese cinema? 2) How have the currents of foreign thoughts and movements shaped and affected the Chinese film production line? For example, does the postwar Italian neo-realism have any Influence on the Chinese new social realism developed in the late 50s? 3) How do outside environmental factors - legal political, socio-cultural, educational, commercial - affect the Chinese film development? 4) How does the film industry influence people's behaviors, social attitudes, and children's activities, etc? 5) What is the relationship between the various tiers of the industry, such as distribution, domestic exhibition, foreign exhibition, production, etc.? 6) In compared reference to the relationship of film and television in f%nerica, what is the relationship between the Chinese film industry and television? 7) What are the prospects and the probable hardships that can be anticipated for the Chinese film development over the next decades? The Suggested Readings for the Courses In Chinese; W.N. Chang (trans.). Film and Reali tv: _____An Historical Survey. by Roy Armes (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1974). 100 The Suggested Writings -for the Courses (Continued) In Chinese: Y.T. Chang, Chinese Film Industry: An Introduction Taipei: (Chinese Film Literature Press, 1970). R.O.C. Ministry of Education, The Production of Chinese Film 1950-1970. 1971. ______. Some Notes on the Postwar Chinese Film, 1971 . Y.C. Tu, The Chinese Film History (Taipei: Taiwan Chamber of Commerce Press, 1978). The Year Book of Motion Picture in the Republic of China. Volume I (Taipei: The Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, 1969). The Year Book of Motion Picture in the Republic of China, Volume 2 (Taipei: The Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, 1974). 1979 Year Book of Motion Picture in the Republic of China. (Taipei: The Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, 1980). 1984 Year Book of Motion Picture in the Republic of China. (Taipei: The Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, 1984) . In Engli sh : Thomas W. Bohn and Richard Stromgren, Light and Shadows: A History of Motion Pictures. Second Edition (Sherman Oaks, California: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1978). Thorold Dickenson, A Discovery of Cinema (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971). Lewis Jacobs, The Emergence of Film Art (New York; Hopkinson and Blake, 1969). Gerald Mast, How to Read a Film. Revised Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981). David Robinson, The History of World Cinema (New York: Stein and Day, 1973) Andrew Sarris, The American Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1968). 101 Unit III: Appreciation This unit is designed for students with serious interest in the art of film to view the outstanding film classics and then discuss them so as to develop in the students appreciation and criticism of the cinema in a creative and disciplined manner. The intention of this unit is focused on two major problems of present higher education in Ta iwan. The first, as indicated earlier, because of the "examination for higher education", is that students learning at the stage of pre college education are mainly limited to textbook memorization. The scope of knowledge is that contained in government published textbooks. After being admitted into the colleges, they immediately become the major of some department, and are required to take a large number of special courses. As a result, students are trained to be the specialists of their own fields; the fields to which they are assigned by the scores of the entrance examination. Basically, the purpose of higher education in Taiwan, as (19) Professor P.M. Chi a stated, is not only to cultivate students with vocational training, but als < >o nourish them intellectually with the sentiment of living. Students, through study, should learn the relation between themselves, between selves, between selves and natural environment so that they may handle the complicated society in which they meet life, after they graduate. However, under the present situation students are restricted to the knowledge and methods used in 102 their studied -field only. Consequently, Chinese education is incapable of presenting students with a comprehensive enough view of the world, life, and growth. They are lacking of the ability to understand, to absorb, to Judge, and even to integrate the knowledge outside their fields. The problem is especially serious with those students who are in the fields of engineering and science. In a special article "The Disabled Education", M.I. Wen and S. Lee note: "It is almost unbelievable that for so many years our colleges have been producing thousands of graduates who have skills in computer, chemistry, mechanics, electronics, and many others, but who are, in the larger sense. Just modern barbarians - the men with no humanistic ( 2 0 ) sense. “ To notice the importance of guiding students to learn for themselves and extend their senses, recently a series of interdisciplinary plans have been put into effect. Among the many efforts, the interdisciplinary study in the humanities is the notable one with which we are concerned. The major function b f'the humanities program is to cut through the gaps between the specialized subjects which really act as barriers to a broad understanding of man and of the world. Film study by its nature is consequently highly suited for humanities programs. Film is a presentational medium, a moving structure of coherent rhythms, a synthetic unity of sound and composed shots, concerned with the world as lived. Film exploits the visib lity of the seen, it is concerned with creating an analogue of the lived world. In 103 experiencing a film, the camera becomes our virtual body and the spectator. Identifying with the perspective of the camera, is a disembodied state of diminished self-consciousness; the viewer temporarily becomes other than himself. Film, in creating an illusion, provides a basis for self-discovery and self-knowledge. Above all arts, movies have the capacity to reveal the self - our ways of being in the world, by providing us with other voices, other worlds to be in, presenting us with an illusory world. The successful film is a metaphor, a shaped object that will provide us with a horizon on not merely our personal world but a common expressive world. A successful motion picture will teach one to see and hear in a new way, by exposing the emotional import of things. Film, like the best of all art, is a humanizing force. lust as the study of literature, drama, painting, and music is strongly recommended by present Chinese educators for the development of our students, the study of film, as one of the most significant humanities which can make students aware of the world of human experience and values, should definitely be included into the curricula of Chinese general education. Besides, today's generation of the students are so saturated with visually-oriented activities such as television, video, and film, they should be educated to evaluate and appreciate this proliferation of visual activities. The second problem of present higher education in Taiwan is the authoritative nature of instruction. To impart the information of the subject orally, is the traditional and dominant method of instruction 104 used in the school education. In China the teacher, traditionally respected as the father-like master, has always been the leading figure in the classroom. By contrast, students have been conditioned to remain silent, passive, and submissive, and to receive what the authority passes on to them. As students have been trained to faithfully accept the knowledge imparted by the teacher, the student's reaction to the subject matter has never been encouraged and their personal opinion and uncertainty regarding the lecture have never been considered. As the result, the years of school education has failed to develop in the students the ability to express themselves through discussion with their classmates. George W. Lytle, a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at Yale University and the visiting instructor of the English Department of the Chinese Culture University, tells this writer: "In general , Chinese students are really good at noting the lecture and memorizing the assigned readings. However, when they are asked to express their ( 2 1 ) understandings or to discuss the subject, they just act as 'dumb'". •To focus on this problem, the learning of this unit is deliberately designed with the procedure of viewing a film classic and then discussing it in company with the other members of the class. The discussion is valuable not only for film appreciation, but also for fostering the habit of analysis, criticism, and communication. J.M.L. Peters in his book "Teaching About the Film" provides a detailed justification which is worth quoting at length: Generally speaking, the aesthetic appreciation and critical assimilation of a film are not rational but predominantly 105 emotional processes (suggestion, identification, projection, etc.). The discussion of films is valuable from a pedagogical point of view, particularly because Judgments and opinions which have been formed in that sphere of the mind where the processes of appreciation and assimilation happen automatically, are now subjected to rational examination. Discussion thus helps to externalize and "objectify" the film experience, thereby enabling the students to integrate this experience into the structure of their own personalities. If used with some regularity, this may cultivate a "habit" (not an automatism) of (rationally) assimilating films, and this in turn may lead to a more rational choice of the films one goes to see. To be able to share the artist's creative experience, and to integrate the film's social and cultural tenets with one's own world and life, one has to undergo a learning process which has very little to do with the memorizing of facts. It involves the need for continuous definition of one's own position and attitudes. The best method of achieving this end is "to think aloud," in company with the other partners of the group, about one's own film experience; and this is precisely what we mean by film discussion. Moreover the group is man's natural social element. Group experience has a strong suggestive effect, and it also tends to develop a spirit of sound competition. (22) Film Appreciation I Film Appreciation 11 Course Description These two semester courses are designed for the students with serious interest in the art of film as a part of their general education in humanities. Through the general procedure, film viewing and group discussion, the courses are intended to introduce students to various aspects of the medium, and enable them to observe, absorb, and understand the film phenomenon they have experienced for so many years in a disciplined manner. The main emphasis is on the creation of the film, therelation of film to novel and drama, the structure of film language, and types of film, or genres. 106 Course Objectives I. Understanding the creative process and the problems of produc i ng a film. II. Comparing the similarities and differences in form, structure, technique, and theme of film with the novel and with drama. III. Understanding the language of film. The concern here is to stress how the form, technique, and means of cinematic language reveal mood, idea, and content. Only by understanding this, the students may be aware how the film is structured, the contributions of actors, directors, cinematographers, editors, and writers to the film art. Thus students may develop their own criteria for aesthetic awareness with which to evaluate film. IV. Understanding the various types of film - the forms they take, the functions they serve, the themes they advocate. V. Appreciating and understanding of the problems, experiences, ideas, and values raised by films viewed in the courses. Suggested Learning Activities Film viewing. According to the objectives, the films used in the courses are suggested as follows: 1) The creation of the film. Day for Night <1973), Francois Truffaut Elements of the Film. OFM Productions Ideas and Film. Critic and Film Series, British Information Service 107 The Nature o-f Film Medium. OFM Productions Understanding the Movies. Teaching Film Custodians 2) The comparison of film with novel and drama. Jade Woman (1984), adapted from short story by I. Chang The Growing Up (1983), adapted from short story by K.H. Chen At Dawn (1965), adapted from Chinese short story by J.S. Sung The Red Chamber Dream (1978), adapted from ancient Chinese serial novel by H.S. Lee The Water Margin (1972), adapted from ancient Chinese serial play by C. Chang San Ja Kou (1970), adapted from Chinese opera by King Hu Romeo and Juli et (1968), Franco Zeffirelli MacBeth (1971), Roman Polanski 3) The structure of film language. Th Birth of a Nation (1915), David Griffith A Touch of Zen (1968), King Hu Citizen Kane (1941), Orson Welles Potemk i n (1925), Sergei Eisenstein Seven Samurai (1954), Akira Kurosawa North by Northwest (1959), Alfred Hitchcock 4) The types of film. Louisiana Story (1948), Robert Flaherty The Temple (1961), J.T. Chang One-armed Swordsman (1965), C. Chang 108 The End o-f Summer <1961), Yasujiro Ozu Pi ckpQcket (1959), Robert Bresson Fiddler on the Roof <1971), Norman Jewison Psycho (I960), Alfred Hitchcock Un Chien Andalou <1926), Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali The Searchers <1956), John Ford Persona <1966), Ingmar Bergman Discussion. J.J. Camel in advocates five phases in film discussion quoted by Ralph J . Amelio in his writing “Willowbrook Cinema Study Project": J.J. Camel in advocates five phases in film discussion: <1) Evocation: factual discussion of most important, relevant, impressive scenes; <2) Classification; reactions of audience are classified into aesthetic, psychological, moral, philosophical, technical, and social aspects; <3) Comprehension: understanding of moral or aesthetic meaning of film; <4) Appreciation: different aspects and viewpoints compared with reality and other media; and <5) Explanation: why the film-maker's treatment of the subject in this way. <23) The teacher here should be an objective guide, not an authoritative master, to encourage the students to say things with which they are concerned and to express their own feelings. The teacher must introduce the subject; though, if there are study guides available these may also be used. Suooested Readings for the Courses In Chinese: K. Hua (trans.). Film: A Montage of Theories, by Richard Dyer MacCanns, ed. (Taipei; Liang-Jeng Press, 1975). S.Y. Liu (trans.). The C i nema as Art. by Ralph Stephenson and Jean R. Debrix (Taipei: Chi-Wen Publishers Co., 1977). 109 S.S. Wang (trans.), The American Cinema, Donald Staples, ed, (Taipei; Shing-Ya Publisher, 1975). In Engl i sh: Lee R. Bobker, El ements o-f Film, Third Edition (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1979). Dennis DeNitto, Film: Form and Feeling (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1985). Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies. Third Edition (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982). Thomas Sobchack and Vivian C. Sobchack, An Introducti on to Film (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980). no Unit IV: Screenplay Writing “The art o-f the motion picture," Lee Bobker writes, “ is made up of four seperate elements: writing, directing, cinematography and editing. Although many factors contribute to the total ■---■ork, it is <24; from these four basic elements that the finished film is created." Almost every film begins with translation of an initial concept into a literary script that will serve to guide the film's production. So the study of film or the examination of film art is best started from scriptwriting. However, this perception is seldom recognized by most people. In the sumptuous panoply of contemporary film criticism of the Western countries, the writer has been shunted to the side much as a slightly embarrassing distant relative at formal reunions, while the director has been enshrined as the august auteur receiving all the credits the final work. The writer's situation is no better in Taiwan. Normally a feature-length film with a budget of U.S. $175,000, only about $1,000 1,500 (27.) goes to the remuneration for the scriptwriter, while actors take approximately $10,000 and the director has about $6,000. A writer rarely has a chance to become involved in the process of film production. On finishing the script, his job is done. And on the occasions of film conference, the writer is never invited. Therefore, few people are willing to devote their life to the work of scriptwriting. But the need of scripts for image production (video dramas, television serials, feature-length movies, etc.) grows 111 exponentially, along with the proliferation of video technology and the prolongation of the programming hours of three television networks. As a result, many junior, and senior students from various areas, who sometimes have no knowledge at all about the visual media and their techniques, are recruited by agencies to write screenplays. And those students' payments are low. These situations explain the reason why for so many years people have kept on blaming the vulgar quality of Mandarin movies and television programs on the script. In the complex procedure of filmmaking, the script is the beginning, the blueprint, the design, and the plan. An excellent script, usually, has already provided an insurance for the film to become a masterpiece. On the contrary, a poor script, with only a few exceptions, rarely becomes a good film. The finished work will rarely exceed in quality the initial concept as expressed in script form. So, after understanding its importance and its need in present image production, in the task of reforming film education, the study of screenwriting must be one of the areas to be emphasized. In preparing the study of screenwriting, an inevitable question is "What is the ideal screenwriter we shall train?" William Miller provides a good statement about it in his writing titled "Screenwriting for Narrative Film and Television": He's educated enough to know his way around words. At least he is able to spell them decently and to place them into sentences in a reasonable and interesting fashion. [He's also knowledgeable about the medium and its techniques. 112 He's developed the ability to think in terms of visual images, sinceimages, not words, are the basic units of screenwriting. He's learned the script vocabulary to translate these images to the page (CU, MS, LS and so on).] He's rather sensitive to himself, and the inner journey he's made to become the person he now is. He's similarly perceptive of others and of their uniquenesses. He's tuned to the world around him - to its social problems, inequities, joys and follies. He's done concrete research about the world. He's studied locations, people and institutions. He's developed an ear for dialogue and the unique ways that people communicate, both verbally and non verbally. All of these have been the long-term perparation to make him a creative screenwriter. (25) However, designing the course for undergraduate study, we shall mainly concentrate on "He's also knowledgeable about the medium and its techniques. He's developed the ability to think in terms of visual images, since images, not words, are the basic units of screenwriting. He's learned the script vocabulary to translate these images to the page (CU, MS, LS, and so on)." The two courses of this unit designed here are to enable students to understand the process of screenwriting the relationship between script and film, form and structure, and the elements of the script. Studies of Screenwritino Course Description This course is designed to give students direct, guided experience in awareness of the process of screenwriting - the initial stage of the film art, and to provide them with knowledge of screenwriting techniques and of the relationship of the script (word) and the film (image). Students taking the course are required to have some familiarity with the language of film and the basic techniques of film production; that is, they must have taken the Film Production I 113 and Film Production II. But they are presumed to have little or no experience in screenwriting. Course Objectives I. Understanding the relationship between script and -film. The relationship between script and -finished film is unique. In no other art form is the original design (the script) subject to change at so many stages of production. Unlike the novel or tne script for a stage play, the film script is not a finished work. It undergoes many reworkings by people other than the script writer - notably by the director, and to a lesser degree by the editor and the cameraman. Often the actors influence changes in the script. However, in the final analysis film is primarily a director's medium. The director takes the written word and translates it into film, imparting to it a breath of life. (26) The key concern is to enable students to know the collaborative interrelationship of writer, director, actor, editor, and cameraman. Sometimes director and writer have collaborated quite closely on a film and the director fully concurs with the writer's vision. The finished work reflects almost completely the writer's original conception. By contrast, some directors simply use the writer's literary work as a blueprint and re-develop the plot according to their personality and preference. II. Understanding the form and structure of screenplay. Normally a screenplay consists of shots, scenes, and sequences. It is very important for students to define the difference between them. 1) A shot is a single piece of film from the time the camera begins running to the time it stops running. The image may change in composition depending on the movement of the camera, but from camera start to camera stop there is only a single shot. 114 2) A scene is a unified action, often at a single time and place. It may consist of a single shot but usually is a group of shots. 3) A sequence is a group of scenes comprising an entire dramatic segment of a film with a recognizable beginning and end. The beginning and end are usually related to time or place or both. <27) III. Understanding the elements of a screenplay. A question often asked by screenwriters or filmmakers is “How much detail should a script contain?" The answer is “Just enough to enable the reader to see and understand the finished film." That is to say, a screenwriter must understand and be able to “see”all the elements of the screenplay and his writing must communicate this vision of a finished film to the filmmaking team. “When stripped to essentials, any good film script should describe all visual and aural detail. It should also describe specific relationships between shots, scenes, and sequences; between successive sounds (whether dialogue, music, sound effects, or silences); and between sound and picture. Minute descriptions of transitions (dissolve to, fade in, and so on) are usually unnecessary in the script unless they provide a significant instruction to the director or film editor. The script, howev:r, must clearly project the filmmaker's (or writer's) vision of the final work as it is conceived prior to filming. If the film is to be an artistic success, all those who will later work on it must at least perceive and hopefully share the author's intent." (28) IV. Understanding of traditional narrative structure. Since the dramas of ancient Greeks, the rising dramatic curve, which precisely coincide with the traditional four cardinal steps of Chinese opera - the introduction, the follow-up, the transition and the conclusion, has been part of narrative structure. It sketches out 115 a simple dramatic story with a conflict/introduction near the beginning which undergoes increasingly intense and suspenseful development/follow-up before reaching the climatic conclusion, when the conflict is resolved and the story is over. climax denouement development confli c t V, Understanding the process of screenwriting, Here is the process. It begins with a basic story idea, which contains the complete story in capsulated form. This is a concise statement expressing whose story it is and the conflict-development-resolution storyline that patterns the narrative. For the next stage, the basic story is expanded into a narrative synopsis outline, which fills in more details and clearly shows the plot developments of the story. (This may range from six or so pages for a half-hour television program up to thirty pages for a feature film.) Then comes a scene outline or scene breakdown—a scene-by- scene narrative outline of the film, which allows the writer to organize the flow and rhythm of his scenes. Finally there is a first draft screenplay, followed by subsequent drafts, culminating in the final draft script. (29) VI. Understanding literary adaptation. Though many screenwriting educators suggest that a beginning writer is best advised to write an original screenplay which demonstrates his own imaginative ideas, yet adaptations are prevalent in film. It has been estimated that for the last three years the (30) proportion of Chinese films based on novels is around 62 percent. 116 The real problem of the adapter is not how to reproduce the content of a literary work, but how close he or she should remain to the raw data of the subject matter. The degree of fidelity is what determines the three types of adaptations. "Faithful adaptations, as the phrase implies, attempt to recreate the literary source in filmic terms, keeping as close to the spirit of the original as possible. Andre Bazin likened the faithful adapter to a translator who tries to find equivalents to the original. An example of a faithful adaptation is Richardson's Tom Jones. John Osborne's screenplay preserves much of the novel's plot structure, its major events, and most of the important characters. Even the witty omniscien. narrator is retained." “The loose adaptation is barely that. Generally, only an idea, a situation, or a character is taken from a literary source, then developed independently. Loose film adaptations can be likened to Shakespeare's treatment of a story from Plutarch or Bandello, or to the ancient Greek dramatists who often drew upon a common mythology. A film that falls into this class is Kurosawa's Throne ofBlood, which transforms Shakespeare's Macbeth into a quite different tale, se^ in medieval Japan." "Literal adaptations are pretty much restricted to plays. As we have seen, the two basic modes of drama— action and dialogue—are also found in films. The major problem with stage adaptations is in the handling of space and time rather than language." (31) VII. Understanding standard script format. A correct and convenient screenwriting format must be introduced to students. “Format is necessary because: (1) it aids considerably in moving the story away from literature or theater and into film; (2) the specifics of format (such as spacing, margins, indentations, use of caps for certain terms, pagination, and much more) present a work that averages a minute of screen time per page. This makes judging the potential of the film much easier; (3) the screenplay can be read at about twenty 117 seconds per page; hence, the reader acheives a -flow, or rhythm, for the ongoing events and actions and therefore is able to feel the movement of the story; <4) the visual style of the picture becomes evident in the spacing and in the succinct manner in which the descriptive passages are presented; (5) the script is offered in a professional manner— in fact, in the only manner most people in the industry will read; <6) the commonly-accepted format in all its specifics precludes extraneous or idiosyncratic format inventions by the writer that would get in the way both of the story and of the cinematic qualities of the narrative. (32) Suggested Learning Activities Film viewing The selected exemplary films must be shown in the classroom, and students are encouraged to see movies outside the classroom, so that they may discuss them from a writer's point-of- view. Critical writings Students should write synopses of three films recently seen, and specify the character molding, conflicts, narrative development of these films. Guest lectures Some professional screenwriters should be invited to the class, lecturing on their personal experiences in screenwriting, and giving students their suggestion in preparing screenplays. What are their relationship with director, actor, producer, editor, cinematographer, etc., in the process of filmmaking? What are their personal methods or systems in developing a script? Narrative Project students are required to write a ten to fifteen minutes shooting script in proper script format, so that they may develop skill in screenwriting and practical understanding of the 118 screenwriting. The project should include, besides a final shooting script, log of time spent developing the script from basic story idea to narrative synopsis outline, scene breakdown, and a final draft, and a short description of each activity. Adaptation project Abstracting any part from Chinese classic serial novels “The Red Chamber Dream" and "The Water Margin", students should develop it into a ten to fifteen minute shooting script. Also the project should include the description of each activity in processing the script. Suggested Writings for the course In Chinese: 1. Y.S. Chang, Autumn Execution (Taipei: Chi-Wen Publi shers, 1972) 2. Tain-Dow Lee, A Proposed Screenwriting Format for Chinese Film and Television (Taipei: National Taiwan Academy of Arts Press, 1984) p. 43. In English: 1. Richard M. Blumenberg, "College Course File: Film Planning and Scripting", Journal of Film and Video. XXXVI, (Summer 1984) pp. 65-74. 2. Lee R. Bobker, Elements of Film. Third Edition. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1979) pp. 9-50. 3. Syd Field, Screenplay: The Foundation of Screenwriting. New Expanded Edition (New York: Delta, 1982). 4. William Miller, Screenwriting for Narrative Film and Television. (New York: Hasting House, Publishers, 1980) 119 Unit V: Documentary Most filmmakers in the fifties, commercial and documentary, were watching with a fearful eye the development of a new medium - television. As it turned out, the commercial film was the real casualty as television revitalized the documentary form and provided it with shovjcase it had always lacked. This new medium was responsible for producing most of the interesting documentaries in the United States throughout the fifties and the sixties. CBS's See It Now and ABC's Closeup were perhaps the best known documentary series during that p=-i'iod. The former was produced by the team of Edward Murrow and Fred Friendly who made Harvest of Shame. McCarthy and His Critics, and many other documentary films of distinction. The latter was inaugurated in 1960 and was produced by Robert Drew. Drew Associates employed some of the most gifted filmmakers including Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, and the Maysles brothers. Arthur Barron, a television documentary producer, in “Toward New Goals in Documentary" made an extraordinary comment about this form of (33) documentary from 48 films (See appendix 1) which showed on The CBS New Hour in 1968. After listing the films and categorizing them by content, Barron notes: Something that strikes me immediately about this list is that virtually all the films represent only one documentary tradition, the reportage tradition of journalism. If you examine this list, you will find that, almost without exception, they are news documentaries. And this emphasis on news, on reportage is not exclusive to CBS; it is true of all the commercial networks as well as the 120 educational network, NET. It is true of the new Public Broadcast Laboratory. It is true of the local independent stations around the country. <34) Then, he further indicates that those films all are topical. They are about war, peace, crime - the great issues. They are filled with facts, peopled with experts and authorities. They are word-logic pictures; play the soundtrack without the pictures, and often we still are able to understand the point of the film. Indeed, the pictures are often there merely to illustrate the words, often spoken by a sentorian and authoritative narrator. Sometimes controversy is offered but the controversy is often balanced. If A speaks, then B must speak too. Objectivity also characterizes the news documentary, not merely in the sense of "fair" but cinematical1 y objective. One is quite aware, in watching these films, that the filmmaker is not inside the film, but outside, observing and recording the events, not living them. In these films, the filmmaker is presenting a forum for the presentation of ideas, always ready to evaluate, instruct, interpret, always keeping its cool, not grooving with the film, but being objective, somehow above it all. Since filmmakers are always representing ideas objectively and always keeping their films cool so that most films somehow are short of a kind of creative spirit of art. And when the subjects are dull and uninteresting, objectively recording these produce films dully and uninterestingly. The documentary movement after the World War II in the Far East is exactly contradictory to that of America. John Grierson, in "The Last Interview," which was published in 1972, indicates that some 121 distinct documentary -forms today: the travelogue, the "on the spot (35) with living people" -form explored by Flaherty; a "drama on the doorstep" approach, which seems to -follow his own tradition o-f discovery o-f the working people; and finally the cinema verite, which he designates as internal communication o-f the local community. And he also says that nobody has taken up the poetic line in documentary begun in the thirties. But probably he never imagined his advocacy o-f documentary has been in vogue since 1960 in the countries of this area. Since the film industry of these countries was newly established after World War II, they are either supported by government (such as Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Philippines, etc.) or managed by government (such as Red China, North Korea, and Thailand, etc.). Under such circumstance, filmmakers become government officials. To make a documentary film, means to accomplish a mission assignedby government. Basically, documentary to them is nothing but an instrument of public education and a pulpit used as propagandist. They believe that documentary film is essential if a government hopes to survive. Only when citizens are aware of what's going on in the public sector are they likely to select the best leaders and the most responsive social programs. Documentary is primarily an instrument of communication and persuasion, and only secondly an art form. They emphasized pre-planning, especially in the scriptwriting stage. A certain amount of discovery and improvisation was allowance, but they do not sanction the kind of random experimentation that characterized 122 the approaches o-f Vertov and Flaherty. In their thought that the script is the major -force behind a documentary, though o-f course the collaborative nature of the process doesn't always permit such easy distinctions, and they are the first to acknowledge this fact. (36) According to the reference book "Free China on Film", during the past ten years 65 documentary films were made in Taiwan. Twenty-eight dealt with praising government leader or policy: Free China Mourns President Chianq (1975), and Hello, Mr. President - Chiano Chinq-Kuo and His People (1981), One Big Family - Social Welfare in the Republic of China (1985), and The Fruits of Labor - The Republic of China's International Cooperation Programs (1985), etc. Seventeen of the films dealt with folk art: Chinese Folk Arts (1976), Seven Chinese Festivals (1972), Ancient Chinese Paintings (1978), and Her i tape of Chinese Opera (1978), etc. Eight films dealt with tourism: The Other Faces of Taiwan (1976), Taiwan - Taiwan's Cultural Capital (1978), and New Faces of the Republic of China (1982), etc. Six films dealt with nature environment: Harvest from the Sea (1977), Tea in Taiwan (1978), and Dr. Lee's World of Insects (1977), etc. Finally six films dealt with various subjects: The Story of Salt (1978), A Harmony of Great Reliaions (1982), and Barefoot Little Leaguers (1979), etc. These films are either pro-government or non-political. They are all filled with propaganda. As a result, in Taiwan people feel that documentary is a type of film which is boring and uninteresting. 123 Barron in his article expresses his frank opinion of the American documentary as of the 60s. He says: As for me, I'd like a little less information and a lot more feeling. I think we know enough facts; what we don't know is how to feel, to identify with others. I think the goal of the filmmaker should try more to help make us more feeling,more human. We should try more to benovelist and poets of film rather than such damn good reports. I want to make people weep and cry. I want to approach documentary with all the skill and sensibility that Fellini and Bergman and Godard bring to fiction films. (37) Similarily, of the documentary in Ta iwan, this writer wouId like to say: "We would like a little less propaganda and a lot more facts. We think people know enough about our government policy. What people don't know are the real problems of our society. We think the goal of the filmmaker should be to help make people to know about them and to find ways to solve them. We should try to be realists and socialists of film, rather than such damn good progagandists. We want to approach documentary with all the reality that Richard Leacock and Frederick Wiseman bring to the American documentary. " Studies of Documentary Film I Studies of Documentary Film II Courses Description These two sequential courses intend to give students a correct conception that documentary film should not be synonymous with 124 dullness. Rather, it is the creative treatment o-f reality, the power-ful portrayal o-f reality, and anthropology on -film. Though some domestic documentaries will be shown, the emphasis o-f the courses is mainly on -familiarizing students with the various -forms o-f the world documentary. Students who take the courses are required to have the knowledge of historical development of the medium and the experiences in documentary filmmaking. Courses Objectives I. Developing and defending a valid definition of documentary film. II. Identifying ' the noteworthy documentary films and filmmakers during eighty years of the development of the motion pi cture. III. Understanding the possibilities of fiIm-as-propaganda for educational and informational purposes. IV. Understanding the way documentary filmmakers manipulate time, space, and reality, and the way the external influences - financial, censorial, professional, cultural, etc. - manipulate the fiImmakers. V. Identifying the major factors obstructing the development of the Chinese documentary over the last sixty years. 125 Course Ou 11 i ne Section One; The origins o-f the documentary. The suggested -films -for the class are: Nanook o-f the North (1922), by Robert Flaherty (the romantic tradition) The Man with the Movie Camera (1928), by Dziga Vertov (the newsreel tradition) The -following issues should be covered in the study: 1) The origin o-f the documentary. 2) Close examination o-f the works o-f Robert Flaherty and Dz i ga Vertov. 3) The beliefs' and methods o-f these two documentary p i oneers. 4) The contributions o-f their works to the later development o-f the documentary. Section Iwo: The documentary o-f the thirties. The suggested films for the class are: Song of Ceylon (1935), by Basil Wright The River (1937), by Pare Lorentz Tr iumph of the Will (1936), Leni Riefenstahl The following categories should be covered in the study: 1) The growing up of the social documentary movement in Great Britain. 2) The dominant figures and the principles of British movement. 126 3) The value of a documentary as tool of propaganda. 4) Comparison of the documentaries of this period with Chinese documentary movement in the thirties. In the early thirties, Chinese problems were serious because of Japanese Invasion. The whole country was fighting against the Japanese and many anti-Japanese movies were made. This was the most important theme of this decade. In 1937 the movies united the entire nation's movie personnel to work together to take part in propaganda work. Section Three ; The documentary of the forties. The suggested films for the class are; L i sten to Britain (1942), by Humphrey Jannings Prelude to War (1943), by Frank Capra The Roar of China (1943), compiled by China Film Stud i o, Taipei. The following categories should be covered in the study: 1) Propaganda film development in Britain, Germany, United States, and China. 2) The effect of World War II on the documentary development. Section Four: The documentary of the fifties. The suggested films for the class are: Night and Foo (1955), by Alain Resnais 127 Free China is Alive and Well (1954), by China Film Stud i o, Taipei 0 Dreamland (1953), by Lindsay Anderson The following categories should be covered in the study: 1) The transition of the documentary after World War II. 2) The compilation film, which was one very important form in Chinese documentary development. 3) British Free Cinema, and its influences on the later documentary of the sixties. 4) The role of the documentary in the political struggle between Nationalist government in Taiwan and Communist government in mainland China. Section Five: The documentary of the Sixties. The suggested film for the class are: Law and Order (1969), by Frederick Wiseman Pr imary (1960), by Richard Leacock, Robert Drew, D.A. Pennebaker, and Albert Maysles. Chronicle of a Summer (1961), Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. The following categories should be covered in the study: 1) Similarities and differences between “direct cinema" and “cinema verite", in terms of philosophical base, form, and method. 2) The content of the documentary during this period, and its differences from the films of previous period. 128 3) The major ■figures of the documentary during this period. 4) The shift of the theme of Chinese documentary from anti-communist propaganda to other non-political issues, such as art, culture reconstruction, social welfare, and tourism, etc. Section Six; The contemporary documentary. The suggested films for the class are: Harlan County. U.S.A. (1976), by Barbara Kopple Woodstock (1970), Michael Wadleigh China (1973), Michelangelo Antonioni The Beauty of Our Heritage (1981), by China Television Station, Taipei Death of a Princess (1980), by Anthony Thomas The following categories should be covered in the study: 1) The extensions and transitions of direct cinema and cinema verite on entering the seventies. 2) The advent of television documentary and its formats. “Docu-drama“ and "true-life adventure" have become mainstays in the age of television documentary. The recording of real life drama has now been extended in both commercial theaters and on both local and network broadcasts in the United States. Such prestige 129 documentaries as The Execution o-f Private Slouik <1974), Hoi ocaust (1978), and Death o-f a Princess (1980) have received both critical acclaim and modest commercial success. However, these mainstays also have raised controversial problems. “Almost all present-day documentaries contain a social or political message, stated or implied, and evaluation o-f this message is, o-f course, part o-f the teaching/learning process. Normally, the documentary's point o-f view is not too difficult to ascertain and evaluate. A relatively new development, however, the “docudrama,” has complicated the process. In general, the docudrama is a dramatization (with actors) of current newsworthy events and trends, rather than creative reportage. Although the makers of docudramas insist their films are dramatizations of fact, not fiction, the line between “docu“ and “drama" may sometimes be difficult for the viewer to draw. Evaluation of point of view may, hence, also be comparatively difficult." (38) Suggested Learning Activities Class Discussion. The following suggested questions should be comprised by for the discussion in class; 1) What is the definition or definitions of documentary film? 2) What are the boundaries between documentary and fictional film? Distinguish the documentary ingredients from other types of film. 3) How does film present, distort, or create truths? Is there an authentic cinematic truth? 4) What is Chinese documentary in relation to the foreign's during the eighty years development of the genre? 5) How do films manipulate reality? What is the filmmaker's responsibility to himself, the subject, and the audiences? 130 6) What are the consequences o-f our current involvement In craftsmanship and technology, particularly videotape? 7) What differences are there between televisiondocumentary and independent-produced documentary in terms of content, form, and technique? 8) What is the difference between emotional commitment and propaganda? Is propaganda always good or bad? Cite some examples. Critical Writing. Students should write a paper of general statement about the future development of Chinese documentary. The following aspects should be covered in the study: 1) What areas of contemporary Chinese social issues are being filmed and which are not? Why? Because of the sponsorship, censorship, or exhibition? 2) What obstacles are impeding our documentary film development? The public neglect of the genre? The lack of technology and personnel? Or others? 3) What should be the documentary function in the effort for national reconstruction? Suggested Writings for the Courses In Chinese: W.N. Chang (trans.), Film and Reality: An Historical Survey. by Roy Armes (Taipei: Chi-Wen Publisher Co., 1977). K. Hua (trans.). Film: A Montage of Theories, by Richard Dyer MacCann, ed. (Taipei: Ling-Jeng Press, 1975). In Engli sh: Erik Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the Non-fiction Film (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974). Richard Meran Barsam, Non-fiction Film: A Critical History (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1973). Richard Meran Barsam, (ed.). Nonfiction Film Theory and Criticism (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1976). Douglas Brode, "Video Verite: Defining the Docudrama," Television Quarterly. Vol. xx. No. IV, 1984, pp. 3-11. 131 Robert Edmonds, Anthropology on Film (Dayton, Ohio: P-flaum Publishing, 1974). Louis D. Giannetti, Understanding Movies 3rd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1982). John Grierson, Grierson on Documentary, edited by Forsythe Hardy (New York: Praeger, 1971). Lewis Jacobs, The Documentary Tradition: From Nanook to Woodstock (Hopkinson and Blake Publishers, 1971). Thomas Sobchack and Vivian C. Sobchack, An Introduction to Film (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980). 132 Unit VI : Theory None o-f the present film programs in Taiwan offer individual courses in film theory. “Film needs no theory. David Griffith who inspired so many artists had no theory, Steven Spielberg has no theory, nor do our domestic film directors," N.S. Wang, M.A. in film from U.C.L.A. and present Chairman of Film Section of National Taiwan (39) Academy of Arts, told this writer in an interview. If so, then, we may wonder what we need film theory for, and those abstruse theoretical writings should have been thrown into a trash can a long time ago. Indeed, at the initial stage of film development, very few filmmakers had any interest in theory. They knew instinctively what had to be done. Little by little, however, as film art became more sophisticated, a bridge between theory and practice was established. Many of the more interesting contemporary filmmakers now proceed from strong theoretical bases, unlike their predecessors. What is film theory? James Monaco in his book titled “How to Read a Film" cites a serious question: “Two dollars" we pay for a movie; what do we get for it? How do we determine cinematic value? How do we know what's “symbolic of junk?" There are others in the audience with Mel Brook's critic who seem to be enjoying the film. Are values, then, entirely relative? Are there any true universal “rules" for film art? What does film do? What are its limits? (40) 133 Questions like these are the province of film theory and criticism! two related but not identical activities that have as their common end an increasing understanding of the phenomenon of film. More clearly, film theory, which is an awareness of how the film works, helps us to understand the phenomenon we have experienced for many years. Many people argue that film theory does not necessarily aid our experience in film viewing. This may be true to some degree. However, we believe that those who study film are able to experience more kinds of film than those who do not study, and that students of the art see the simple films in a fuller and more intense way. Dudley Andrew notes: Film theory is another avenue of science, and as such is concerned with the general rather than the particular. It is not concerned primarily with individual films or techniques, but with what might be called the cinematic capability itself. This capability governs both filmmakers and audience. While each film is a system of meanings which the film critic tries to lay bare, all films together form a system (Cinema) with subsystems (various genres and other kinds of groups) suscep+ible to the analysis of the theorist. (41) Thus, the purpose of film theory is to formulate a schematic notion of the capacity of film so that we may put our emotional and impressionable film viewing activity into a rational way. But film theory is not only valuable for schematic and scientific "appreciation" of films. It is also important for those who work at filmmaking. The motion picture cannot be worked alone. The film maker copes with an enormous tangle of technical and economic apparatus and a baffling variety of people. He must understand what editing can do. 134 since the art of editing is basic to the art of the film. He must be able to control the camera and the cameramen without being awed by the demands of the machinery. The mechanics of film must be understood both theoretically and practically before a filmmaker can adequately express himself. But the artistic director knows that technical knowledge is only a part of his equipment. After he understands it, he should be able to- leave most of it to others. He should be thinking, instead, of the orchestration of emotion and mood, duration and rhythm, conflict and climax. In other words, in order to be an artist, after one knows experientially what had to be done, he should move further ahead to pursue an increasing understanding of the phenomenon of film. Richard Dyer MacCann notes: “Theory rallies (42) enthusiasm and starts achievement." Therefore, the study of film theory is necessary and meaningful. But the theories conflict and are abstruse. Many cinematic theories are concerned with the wider context of the medium, its social, political, and philosophical implications. Some theories are more useful than others in understanding specific movies. Also some have explored the essential nature of cinema, what differentiates it from other art forms or what its basic properties are. No single theory can explain them all, and this has frustrated so many students to approach them. However, this is exactly a benefit for students. Richard Dyer MacCann notes: The theories conflict. Those who love movies should not be upset by the fact that there seem to be deep contradictions. What kind of aesthetic theory can reconcile realism and fantasy, entertainment and education, mysteries 135 and musicals, slapstick and spectacle? The true philosopher o-f -film is interested in every new artistic event. He will admit any subject, any style, any -function -for -film, setting up his standards o-f excellence and noting his personal tastes within the wide range o-f these alternatives. (43) But, on the other hand, this is a thorny problem when we come to design an introductory theory course. How do we make the profound and conflicting world of film theory accessible to a largely mystified Chinese student? Perhaps Dudley Andrew's "The Major Film Theories: An introduc- (44) tion" will be the best solution of this. The very first reason is that this book has been translated into Chinese, one of the few cinematic theory writings available in Taiwan, which could be the best reading for class. The second is that the author means to simplify countless film theories into only some advocated by those who best articulate a position which has behind it either extensive thought or an important tradition. He then attempts to set off the major theorists one against the other, forcing them to speak to common issues, making them reveal the basis of their thought. The third is that in structure the author systematically divides the selected ai,d noted theorists into three chronological sections: 1) the formative tradition - Hugo Munsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Sergei Eisenstein, Bela Balazs; 2) the realist film theory Siegfried Kracauer and Andre Bazin; 3) contemporary French film theory - Jean Mi try, Cristian Metz, Amedee Ayfre and Henri Agel. Each category has significantly influenced film criticism and aesthetics. Compared with Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen's "Film Theory and 136 (45) (46) Criticism" or Richard Dyer MacCann's "Film; A Montage o-f Theories", the structure o-f this book is more clear and concise -for our purpose o-f organizing an introductory theory course. But Andrew is only cursory in his examination o-f auteur theory, -for he considers it as not a theory at all but a critical method. While this "method" may be peripheral to a book on theory, it has unique meaning to students o-f Taiwan. The Chinese -film industry is an interesting and phenomenal one, but unremittingly commercial. It operates almost entirely in terms o-f -formulas, and a when -formula is proven at the box office, it is exploited to death, not only by the big studios but also by the unnumbered small fly-by-night companies. And these formulas frequently are explored by many talented film makers working within the studio system. So we may say that the directions of the Chinese film industry are led by the studios, some of which are controlled by government, and some of which are managed by private consortiums. Since the Chinese film mainly aims at commercial value, it is not surprising that it, like the American film, it has long been considered unworthy of serious attention, even though it is one of the top four film production centers in ti.e world and once received international film critics attention. The American film has been frequently relegated into one homogeneous lump - as studio/factory turnouts that do nothing more than tell a simple story which ends happily. Film critic John Simons feels that until the 1970s, "The American film was a vast wish- 137 fulfillment industry... and had, with very few exceptions, little or (47) nothing to do with truth or art." Mordecai Richler, novelist and screenwriter, writes in June 1975, “In all these years, the American cinema has yielded only one undisputed classic, Citizen Kane, and it's (48) a shallow one at that." However, a similar re-evaluation was going on in Europe in the 1950s, but it looked in the opposite direction. The critics at “Cahiers du Cinema“ (Godard, Bazin, Chabrol, Truffaut, and so on) sought a thorough revaluation of the American cinema. They established the auteur theory and demonstrated that the American film was not an homogeneous lump but a highly complex body, and that directors working within the studio system and dealing with the most despised of genres often turned out highly individualized works. Andrew Sarris, more than any other, has been responsible for establishing a stronghold for such an approach in America. Only recently has the American cinema begun to receive the sort of domestic critical attention it deserves. Only recently have the smug assumptions of critics like Simon been widely questioned. The Chinese film is not so lucky in the critical sense, as the American film, because there are neither Cahier du Cinema-like critic groups abroad nor Andrew Sarris-like critics in Taiwan. For so many years, few people have written about the home movies, or, if they have, have treated them as a sociological, an economic, or even a anthropological phenomenon, rather than as an aesthetic one. And the newly emerged young critics, who received the academic film education abroad, are full of enthusiasm about foreign 'Art films' 138 and devalue 'inferior home movies' which, as John Simon feels about the American film, have little to do with “truth or art." One critic writes; " ...it is significant that film has been least valued in Taiwan and Hongkong, where the commercial film trade's grip of mass entertainment was for a long time strongest. In these two places, for many years cheap, stereotyped, mass-produced films were turned out by studios and like sausages, and people of discernment could hardly but (49) be discontented with the standard of test displayed." Here comes a serious problem that worries us a lot. People help those who help themselves. The Chinese film critics must explore their own film history before other foreign critics can evaluate it. If Chinese film critics despise their films beforehand, and transplant blindly foreign films into Chinese film circles, and then, sooner or later, Chinese film circles will become a foreign film colony. This problem suggests the idea that the auteur theory which was originally responsible for re-evaluating the American film may be applied to re-evaluate Chinese film, since these two share so much in common with each other. Film Theory I Film Theory 11 Course Description These two semester courses are designed for the third year film majors to give them a schematic notion of the capacity of film. Both of the two courses are a history of film theory and an introduction to the work of the most important and influential theorists on the 139 subject. The -first, Film Theory I, dealing with the -formalist -film theory and the realist -film theory stresses Munsterberg, Arnheim, Eisenstein, Balazs, Kracauer, and Bazin. The second, Film Theory II, concentrates on auteur theory and contemporary -film theory, mainly on Jean Mi try and Christian Metz and the semiology o-f the cinema. Course Objectives I. Identifying the consideration o-f each theorist for what the basic material of film is. (50) According to Dudley Andrew, the basic material includes questions about the medium such as those which seek its relation to reality, photography, and illusion, or those which follow out its use of time and space, or even tnose which aim at such processes as color, sound, and the make-up of the movie theater. II. Identifying the consideration of each theorist for what process turns the basic material of film into something significant. The concern of this objective is the methods and techniques of film which comprise all questions about the creative process which shapes or treats the material, from discussions of technological developments to the psychology of the filmmaker or even the economics of film production. III. Identifying the consideration of each theorist for what the most significant forms which that transcendence assumes are. 140 The -forms o-f cinema is the concern containing questions about the kinds o-f -film which have been or could be made, and about cinema's ability to adapt other artworks or genres and audience exception and so on . IV. Identifying the consideration o-f each theorist -for the value the whole process o-f -film has in our lives. The purpose and value o-f cinema is the concern, according to (51 ) Dudley Andrew, which interfaces with the larger aspects of life, for here fall all questions which seek the goal of cinema in man's universe. What does it mean for mankind, once the raw material has been shaped by a process into a significant form? V. Understanding of the advocacies and the practices of the most significant stages in the development of theories of film authorship over the past thirty or so years. The study includes France's "Cahiers du Cinema", Britain's "Movie", America's Andrew Sarris, and more recently the Auteur- structuralism approach. VI. Analyzing the strengths and limitations of auteur theory. VII. Developing a working familiarity with auteur methodology and practice, and with the works of noteworthy Chinese filmmakers. 141 Suggested Learning Activities Film viewing. The fgllowing films are chosen as the best exemplary works to expound the advocacy of theories dealt in the courses. These films either are cited by those theorists themselves to exemplify their views or are used often by many critical writers in practicing those theories. The films are: 1) The formalist tradition: The October (1928), Sergei Eisenstein The Battleship Potemkin (1925), Sergei Eisenstein Ivan the Terrible (1946) I, II, Sergei Eisenstein The Scarlet Empress (1934), Josef von Sternberg The Last Laugh (1924), F.W. Murnau M (1931) , Fritz Lang The Storm over Asia (1928), Vsevolod Pudovkin The Third Man (1950), Carol Reed 2) The realist film tradition: The Day in the Country (1936), Jean Renoir Diary of a Country Priest (1950), Robert Bresson Grapes of Wrath (1940), John Ford Man of Aran (1934), Robert Flaherty Cit i zen Kane (1941), Orson Welles Umberto D (1953), Vittorio de Sica Bi cycle Th i eves (1948), Vittorio de Sica La Terra Trema (1948), Luchino Visconti 142 3) Contemporary -film theory; Young Mr. Lincoln <1939), John Ford The Seventh Seal (1956), Ingmar Bergman Un Chien Andalou (1928), Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali The Gold Rush (1925), Charlie Chaplin Red Desert (1964), Michelangelo Antonioni A Marri ed Woman (1964), Jean-Luc Godard The Lady from Shanghai (1946), Orson Welles 4) Auteur theory: Rear Window (1954), Alfred Hitchcock To Catch a Thief (1955), Alfred Hitchcock The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Alfred Hitchcock North by Northwest (1959), Alfred Hitchcock The Grass in Green (1982), C.S. Hou The Man from Fun Kuei (1984), C.S. Hou Tung Tung's Vocation (1984), C.S. Hou The Youth (1985), C.S. Hou Critical Writing. The topic selected for the writing should be the subjects dealt with in the courses. It could be in the form of a critique of one particular theory, and it could be a comparison of the theories of different camps or within the same camp. The four basic issues, 1) the raw material, 2) the methods and techniques, 3) the forms and shapes, and 4) the purpose and value need to be covered in the discussion. In addition, some contemporary films seen outside the courses should be cited as the exemplars. 143 Theory into practice. To prepare this project, students should apply the advocacy and viewpoints o-f certain particular theories to criticize one Chinese -film seen outside the courses. This project could be in the form of oral presentation. Theory into practice. Students should be required to apply the auteur methodology and practice or to develop their oivn auteur methodology and criteria to evaluate Chinese film directors and their works. This project also could be in a form of oral presentation. Suggested Readings for the Courses In Chinese: K.F. Chen, (trans.). The Major Film Theories;______An Introduction. by Dudley Andrew (Taipei: Chi-Wen Publisher Co., 1983) K. Hua (trans.). Film: A Montage of Theories, by Richard Dyer MacCann, ed. (Taipei: Liang-Jeng Press, 1975) S.Y. Liu (trans.); The Ci nema as A rt. by Ralph Stephenson and Jean R. Debrix (Taipei: Chi-Wen Publisher Co., 1977) S.Y. Liu (trans.). Film Technique and Film Acting, by V.I. Pudovkin (Taipei: Su-Lin Press, 1982) S.C. Sheu (trans.). The Technique of Film Editing, by Karel Reisz (Taipei: Chi-Wen Publisher Co., 1981) In English: Dudley Andrew, Concepts in Film Theory. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) Sarris Andrew, "Toward a Theory of Film History", The Amer i can Ci nema (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1968) Rudolf Arnheim, Film as Art (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957) Bela Balazs, Theory of the Film: Character and Growth of a New Art (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1970) 144 Noel Burch, Theory o-f Film Practice (New York: Praeger Pub!ishers, 1973) John Caughie, ed. Theories o-f Authorship: A Reader (London; Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981) Sergei Eisenstein, Film Form (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1949) ______, Film Sense (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942) Hugh Gray (trans.). What is Cinema? 2 vols, by Andre Bazin (Berkeley: University o-f California Press, 1957 and 1971) Siegfried Kracauer, Theory of Film; The Redemption of Physical Reality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960) Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen, ed.. Film. Theory and Criticism, 3rd. edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) Michael Taylor (trans.). Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema, by Christian Metz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974) Peter Wollen, Signs and Meaning in the Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972) 145 Endnotes 1. George Semsel, The Use of Filmmaking Techniques in Teaching about Film (Unpublished Doctor's Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1982) p. 4. 2. James Monaco, How to Read a Film. Revised Edition (New York; Oxford UniversityPress, 1981) pp. 49-52. 3. Semsel, op. c i t . . p. 11. 4. Based on the unpublished survey made by this writer. December 24, 1984. 5. Semsel, op. c i t . . p. 15. 6. Robert Heinich, Michael Molenda, and James D. Russell, Instructional Media (New York; John Wiley & Sons, 1982) p. 16. 7. Edward Pincus and Steven Ascher, The Filmmaker's Handbook (New York; New American Library, 1984) p. 313. 8. Ibid., p . 226. 9. 1984 Year Book of Motion Pictures in the Republic of China (Taipei: The Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, 1984) p. 131. 10 . Ibid., p . 142. 11. Ibid., p . 143. 12. Pincus and Ascher, op.ci t . , p. 19. 13. The CILECT Congress. Volume I; Report. (Sydney; Australian Film and Television School, 1983) p. 16. 14. Ibid., p. 17. 15. Thomas W. Bohn and Richard L. Stromgren, Light and Shadow: ______A History of Motion Pictures. 2nd Edition (Sherman Oak, Calif.; Alfred Publishing Co.,) 1978) 16. Jack C. Ellis, A H i story of Film (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Prentice-Hal1, Inc., 1979) 17. Roy Armes, Film and Reality (New York; Penguin, 1974) 146 18. Bohn and Stromgren, op. cit. 19. P.M. Chia, An Introduction to Education (Taipei; Wu Nan Literary Press, 1981) p. 262. 20. M.l. Wen and S. Lee, “The Disabled Education” Common Wealth Maqazine, Vol. XI, 2 (April 1983) p. 45. 21. Based on personal correspondence between George W. Lytle and this writer. January 8, 1985. 22. J.M.L. Peters, Teaching About the Film (New York: International Documents Service, 1961) pp. 64-65. 23. Ralph J. Amelio, Willowbrook Cinema Study Project (Dayton, Ohio; Geo. A. P-flaum, Publisher, 1969) p. 8. 24. Lee R. Bobker, El ements o-f Film. Third Edition (NewYork; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1979) p. 11. 25, (New York ; Hast i ngs House, Publishers, 1980) p. 13. 26. Bobker, op . cit. ,, P . 11 . 27. Bobker, op . cit. I PP • 27-28. 28. Bobker, op . cit. , P . 43. 29. Miller, op . cit. , P . 30 . 30 . 1984 Year Book of Motion Picture in the Republic of China, p. 35 31 . Lou is Gi annetti , Understanding Movies, Third Edition (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Prentice Hall, Inc., 1982) pp. 328-329. 32. Richard M. Blumenberg, “College Course File; Film Planning and Scripting," Journal of Film and Video. XXXVI, (Summer, 1984) 33. Lewis Jacobs, ed.. The Documentary Tradition; From Nanook to Woodstock (New York; Hopkinson and Blake, 1979) p. 496. 34. Ibid., p. 497. 35. “The Last Interview," Film Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1, Fall 1972, pp. 24-30. 36. Free China on Film. Third Edition (Taipei; Kwang Hwa Publishing Company, 1985) 147 37. Jacobs, op. c i t . . p. 499. 38. Heinich, Molenda, and Russell, op. c i t . . p. 204. 39. Based on personal correspondence between N.S. Wang andthis writer. October 24, 1984. 40. James Monaco, How to Read a Film. Revised Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981) p. 309. 41. Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories: An Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976) p. 4. 42. Richard Dyer MacCann, Film: A Montage of Theories (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1966) p. 22. 43. Ibid., p. 14. 44. Andrew, op. cit. 45. Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen, ed.. Film Theory and Criticism. Third Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) 46. MacCann, op. cit. 47. William Luhr and Peter Lehman, Authorship andNarrative in the C i nema (New York: Puttnam, 1977) p. 293. 48. Ibid., p. 283. 49. Liu I, The Art of Cinema (Taipei: Huang-Kuan Press, 1974) p. 110. 50. Andrew, op . c i t . , p. 7. 51. Ibid., p. 7. CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS AND RECOmENDATIONS In the light o-f the preceding analysis o-f the goal o-f undergraduate -film study in Taiwan, the Republic o-f China, the curriculum constructed in this research is devoted to the effort to bring students a new approach to the medium and its extension into television with which they have been saturated for so many years. The courses, progressing from the most specific and fundamental introduction of cinematic mechanics to the most abstract and comprehensive film theory, cover factual knowledge about the practices and materials of filmmaking, to improve the ability of students to perceive and criticize the visual images projected on the screen, and to re-shape their ideas about the nature and importance of the medium. However, the work developed in this study is only a foundation for the film education. In the article "Screenwriting Training for Writers and Directors in the U.S.A.," Fay Kanin and Robert W. Wagner quote the statement of one Columbia University publication: "For a student to leave the school and become a successful film writer, director, producer, scholar or critic there is one thing they must know — everything; literature (classic and contemporary), music, theater, the film arts, sociology, psychology, ( 1 ) history, science, politics, religion, philosophy -----" The proposed 148 149 ■film curriculum consists o-f thirteen courses with a total o-f 52 credits. To accomplish the 128 credit graduation requirement o-f the university, there is a large space left -for each individual institution to afford more specialized courses in accord with its functions, and for students to pursue the interdisciplinary study in the areas they are interested. In addition, it should be emphasized that in the effort of reforming and developing film education in this nation, this study is only a starting point. There are still many arduous problems to bo further investigated and overcome. The Need to Promote the Value of Film Education At the begining of this research, it was pointed out that young students in Taiwan are saturated with the visually oriented activities such as film, television, and videotape, yet until the moment of this writing there are still no programs to educate students to evaluate and appreciate this proliferation of visual activities. Chapter Two closely examined the deeply-entrenched problems of existing film education, such as untrained teachers, clouded and confused curricula, and depressed students. While constructing the curriculum coursework in Chapter Four, another problem was raised, which is the lack of educational materials including both films and books in the Chinese language. Consequently, the supplementary readings for the film study must heavily rely on the foreign publications. Fundamentally, all these problems, it is fair to say, are caused by the mis-perception of the value of film held by the general public. 150 Film and television are motion. This characteristic gives the moving image a distinct advantage over the other media for use in instructional situations in which the concept of motion can contribute to the learning process. Film presents process. Industrial operations, for example, manufacturing processes and assembly-line procedures, can be studied and observed through the use of film, with the camera offering manipulated views of such processes unobtainable with other media. Film dramatizes events. Dramatization can bring historical personages and events to life. It can deepen students' understanding and appreciation of the creative merit of literary works. Film creates emotional impact. Films are very effective for teaching and learning within the affective domain. Personal and social attitudes can be changed by film designed to do so and even by those not deliberately intended to affect behavior. All these values have been Justified by many other leading researchers as early as the ( 2 ) thirties, for example, the Payne Fund Studies <1929-1938), while in Taiwan film and television are considered as nothing but a time-wasted en ter tai nment. This situation leads us to the necessary task of reforming and developing film education. The biggest challenge is to teach the power of the film. An organization, similar to the University Film and Video Association in the United States, including those teachers who are willing to dedicate themselves to the work of film education, should be established to educate industrial executives, educationists, sociologists, scientists, anthropologists, historians, and many others 151 in the multiple uses of film and other related visual media in Taiwan. Especially, the government must notice the importance of providing the opportunity for filmmakers to learn and the opportunity for young audiences to develop a taste for excellence. These are two aspects of modern Chinese life which will have considerable effect on the quality of Chines culture in the future. And only in this way, might more financial support be alloted to the film study from the industry, the government, and the other private foundations, and will the more talented young students be willing to devote themselves to the creation of film art. Besides teaching the society the value of film, the organization should also assume the following responsibilities: 1) To undertake research concerning curricula planning not only at the level of higher education, but also at the level of elementary and secondary education. 2) To develop conference, workshop, seminar, and literature concerning the issues of film pedagogy to provide the training for the teachers already at work. 3) To establish relationships with the leading film organizations in the world, such as the University Film and Video Association (UFVA), American Film Institute, British Film Institute, the Federacion Internationale des Archives de Film (FIAF), and especially the Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinema et de Television (CILECT), so that we may share their valuable experiences for future developments in film education in Taiwan. 4) To contribute to the development of educational materials to service a large body of film educators. The materials should include reference articles, study guides, the reports of above mentioned film organization, and those outstanding film scripts. 152 Also many notable foreign books and other publications should be translated into Chinese and annotated. The Need for a Cooperative Approach to Film Education in Taiwan Film education is costly. All the present film institutions are suffering from the deficiency of budget and the high cost of the hardware as well as film and video materials. An effective and economic approach to film programs in the future, is the cooperative approach. Shared film courses, faculty, equipment and facilities are the obvious advantages of working with other institutions. Film is combined in the same department with drama and because of its university standing, the Department of Drama and Cinema of Chinese Culture University may specialize in acting, critical and theoretical study, comparative study of arts, and offer a wide range of humanities courses. The Film Section of National Taiwan Academy of Arts, with its modern and sophisticated production facilities and equipment, may concentrate on the training of filmmaking and the more intensive study in related technical areas. As one of the academic units of the communication school, the Film Production Department of the World College of Journalism may emphasize the comparative study of the communication media and specialize in screenwriting for film, television, and video. However, the emphasis of each individual program should be based on the core of courses designed in this study. That is to say, before proceeding to more specialized study, students should have a broad 153 understanding of the various aspects of the film so that they may not be limited to a single, specialized approach. With regard to the advanced study at graduate stage, another cooperative approach is needed. A similar integrated pattern for another national film institution, as a report for the CILECT '84 (3) congress classified, is absolutely needed. To be more specific, this institution with both theoretical and practical programs should be located on one of the notable university campuses in the nation but be independent of this university system, because the filmmaker's studies, no matter what specific area one may emphasize, must be interdisciplinary. In order to reach their career goal, the future artists and scholars need to combine various subjects offered by this university in their studies. On the other hand, the institution should be independent of the university so that it will be free from being restricted by some aspects of the present higher education system. It may advertise for talented young men and women who are dedicated to and especially qualified for film, instead of through present entrance examination system. Furthermore, though films still serve as prestigious models for those in media, facing the challenge of television, videotapes, videodiscs, film no longer exercises the economic leverage it once did and it is simply one of numerous facets of this media system. No mooern institution with more than a casual study in visual images can afford to ignore these other visual media. Thus, this national 154 institution, in addition to the study o-f film, should also include programs -for training in television and related media. Organizing such an institution is another area -for -future investigation. The significant reference here is a publication titled “Bridging the Gap,“ a report on the development of film and television training for the developing countries, based on a CILECT (4) research project conducted by the Danish National Film School, 1982. The Need of Teacher Training The curriculum developed in this study is an anticipatory and structured written plan for instruction. But the credentials of film teachers in Taiwan are diverse and disordered. There is no national agency of accreditation for film teaching in Taiwan, nor is there in the United States. There is no national agreement on who should teach about film on any level, on what they should study, and on who would best teach them. Consequently, the situation supports a popular opinion "Anybody can teach movies, so long as he watches a lot of movies and has a ready tongue." Facing such a problem, teacher training for the future film education is both difficult and an urgent issue needing further research. To deal with this problem, the first step is to clarify to the public that film is not easy to teach; that a film teacher requires special education, background, and practical experience like the teachers in any other fields. The qualifications required for a film teacher in higher education must be established. A publication titled 155 "A Report on Three Surveys for the CILECT '84 Congress" proposes the following qualifications required as a teacher in film education: 1) A teacher should have not only a satisfactory professional experience but also a high reputation as an artist and/or technician. 2) A teacher should be merited for teaching by a pedagogical education and/or experience. 3) A teacher should also have a background of theoretical education. (5) The problem of teacher education breaks into two parts: 1) inservice training and 2) the training of future film teachers. For those at work in the field there is the need for continued inservice training opportunities. Conferences, workshops, seminars, and summer schools must be developed in enough quantity and quality to provide necessary in film pedagogy, theoretical studies, and practical skills for those who are already at work. Film research and publications, such as the CILECT reports, the Journal of the University Film and Video Association, and many dissertations should be translated into Chinese. All these works should be included in the objectives of the film organization as proposed. However, before this organization is founded, at the present stage, such inservice training is the inevitable responsibility of Ministry of Education, the Foundation of the Motion Picture Development of the Republic of China, and the National Institution of Compilation and Translation. As for the training of the future teachers in screen education, the one convenient way, is to send knowledgeable young students abroad for advanced study in film. At the present, each year the Ministry of !56 Education provides a great many scholarships for supporting distinguished young university graduates abroad for more advanced study in the fields to cultivate manpower for the needs of national development. These fields, besides science, engineering, business, social science, and education, include music, dance, fine arts, drama, and communication. However, film is an exception. The government must include film in this scholarship plan. However, students sent abroad, should be chosen for their superior talent and their ability ( 6) to enhance their training at home by such international experiences In addition to the government, the Foundation of the Motion Picture Development and the industry, have an inevitable responsibility for cultivating the teachers of future image makers, and should provide similar scholarships annually so that within a short period there will be teachers who not only are qualified with practical skills, theoretical studies, and film pedagogy, but also who are able to organize our own programs for training our film teachers. The Need of the Extension of Film Study to All Levels of Education A major purpose of education is to offer the student the skills with which to live in, understand, and appreciate our world. Film has the potential of providing man with necessary insights for understanding and humanizing himself. Seventy-five percent of today's audience of film and television in Taiwan are students under the age of 24. Thus, the effort to develop visually as well as verbally literate future citizens and to help shape the effect of these media on our students should not be limited to higher education, but should 157 extend to all levels o-f education. Under the present "examination -for higher education" system, and people's prejudiced opinion about the visual media, this is a very difficult task. Recently, in order to defend and exalt national culture, and to consider the balance between economic construction and cultural construction, a series of plans for Chinese culture renaissance have been promulgated by the government. Some most notable are as follows: First, to build a multi-level system of art education. In cultivating the nationwide artistic education population, how to build a multi-level system of art education is one of the central problems of cultural construction at present. Ideally, the structure of this system should be like a pyramid, more diversified at the basic level than at the top, while every level within the education system should be connected with the other, and not be treated with partiality. This system will allow the student to study something more deeply and to pursue advanced learning. Many projects initiated to build a multi level system of art education have been prepared, and some of them are being acted upon and some will be put into effect within a short time. One of the most notable projects being acted upon is the Plan for Developing Curricula at all Level Education on the Appreciation of Literature and Arts. Second, the setting up of a "cultural center." In September, 1977, President Chiang Ching-Kao proposed that after having finished the ten major projects, the government would put through another twelve major projects and add cultural construction into them. He 158 said: "We especially include cultural construction in the twelve major projects, and plan to set up a cultural center in each county within five years; then push the long-term project of synthesizing cultural construction so as to better develop in our citizens the (7) spiritual aspects and make our country more glorious day by day." The expenditure of this plan has amounted to almost U.S. $87,500,000 and ( 8) as of 1985 this plan is coming true all over the country. Third, the setting up of the Program for Strengthening Culture and Education - Recreational Activities. There are twelve suggestions in this plan such as to found a special managing institute of culture, to create a cultural foundation, to awa^d cultural prizes, to hold seasonal activities for literature and art, to cultivate people of talent in literature and art, to raise up the level of music to patronize native and spoken drama, to amend the copyright law for the preservation of cultural property, and so forth. As of 1985 all these suggestions are being acted upon one by one. After reviewing these plans, it seems logical that film and related visual media be included in these plans for Chinese culture renaissance. If the visual media are the subjects of the projects initiated to build a multi-level system of art education, if those cultural centers' programs include visual activities; and if the program is intended to strengthen cultural activities, then the aims of extending film study to all levels of education and developing visually and verbally literate citizens should be part of these plans. 159 Conclus i on In the previous chapter we have developed a curriculum -for the purpose o-f reforming the present film study in Taiwan, the Repub'*'c of China. In order to promote all-out film education in the nation, four major issues which need further investigation have been identified in this chapter. But we believe that the task of teaching our society the value of film must be the base of all future efforts. Film and related visual media are valuable in education, entertainment, communication, human development, recording national history, and numerous other areas. It is these values that make visual images the dominant figures of our modern culture and the most influential experiences for the current generation of students. Mr. Huan Lee, Minister of Education, the Republic of China, at the opening ceremony of Egyptian Ancient Culture Exhibition in Taipei stated: "Both China and Egypt are two ancient nations with long glorious histories. Owing to their efforts and wisdom, our ancient saints and sages for the past several thousand years have brought together today's brilliant national culture. Now, how to disseminate our cultural heritage and to enrich it, is both a challenge and a (9) responsibility for we modern people." Thus, it is the moment for us to cultivate our visual artists and artistic population for developing our new visual culture. 160 End Notes Fay Kanin and Robert W. Wagner, "Screenwriting Training -for Writers and Directors in the U.S.A.” Journal o-f the University Film Association XXXII. 4 (Fall, 1980) p. 17. Some examples are: 1) Ruth C. Peterson and L.L. Thurstone, Motion______Pictures and the Social Attitudes (Now York: The MacMillan Company, 1933), 2) Herbert Blumer, Movies and Conduct (New York The MacMillan Company, 1933), and 3) Edgar Dale, The Content o-f Motion Pictures (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1935), etc Report o-f Three Surverys -for the CILECT ' 84 Congress (Stockholm: Dramatisk institutet, 1984) p. 4. 4. Henning Camre, Bridging the Gap : A Report on the Development______o-f Film and Television TrainTraining -for the Developing CountCountries (Copenhagen: The Danish Nati onal Film Schggl , 1982). A Report on Three Surveys -for the CILECT 84 Congress (Stockholm: Dramatisk institutet, 1984) pp. 24-25. 6. Robert W. Wagner, “Introduction," The Education o-f the Filmmaker: An International View (Paris, The Unesco Press, 1975) p. 26. C.C. Lin, "The Combination o-f Cultural Construct i on with Multi- Level Art Education," Proceedings o-f Asian Pacific Conference on Art Education. Taipei. Taiwan, the Republic o-f China. August 2-6. 1981 (Pancho Park, Taipei: National Taiwan Academy o-f Arts, 1982) p. 610. 8. Ibid., p. 610 . 9. Central Daily News. International Education [Taipei], September 15, 1985, Sect. III. BIBLIOGRAPHY A Report on Three Surveys -for the CILECT 84 Congress. Stockholm, Sweden : Dramatiska Institutet, 1984. Amelio, Ralph J . Willowbrook Cinema Study Project. Dayton, Ohio: Geo. A. P-flaum, Publisher, 1969. Anderson, Albert Arthur, Jr. Film Study as Aesthetic Education: A Foundation -for Curriculum. Unpublished Doctor's Dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1974. Andrew, Dudley. The Major Film Theory: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. Armes, Roy. Film and Reality. New York: Penguin, 1974. Arnheim, Rudolf. Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1954. Arnheim, Rudolf. Film as Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. Barnouw, Erik. Documentary; A History of the Non-fiction Film. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974. Barsam, Richard Meran. Non-fiction Film; A Critical History. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1973. Barsam, Richard Meran, ed. Non-fiction Film Theory and Criticism. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1976. Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema? Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1967. Blumenberg, Richard M. “College Course File: Film Planning and Scripting.* Journal of Film and Video. XXXVI, (Summer 1984), pp. 65-74. Bobker, Lee R. Elements of Film. 3rd ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. Bohn, Thomas W. and Richard L. Stromgren. Light and Shadow; A History of Motion Picture. 2nd. ed. Sherman Oak, Calif.: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1978. 161 1 62 Bridging the Gap: A CILECT Report on the Development Film and Television Training -for the Developing Countries. Copenhagen: the Danish National Film School, 1982. Brode, Douglas. "Video Verite: Defining the Docudrama," Television Quarterly, Vol. XX, No. IV, 1984. pp. 3-11. Burch, Noel. The Theory of Film Practice. New York: Praeger, 1973. Caughie, John, ed. Theories of Authorship. London; Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981. Chang, Y.T. Chinese Film Industry: _____An Introduction. Taipei: Chinese Film Literature Press, 1970. Chia, P.M. An Introduction to Education. Taipei: Wu Nan Literary Press, 1981. The CILECT Congress. Volume 2: Collected Papers. Sydney: Australian Film and Television School, 1983. DeNitto, Dennis. Film: _____Form & Feeling. New York: Harper & Row Pub!i shers, 1985. Dickenson, Thorald. A Discovery of Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. The Education of the Filmmaker; An International View. Paris: The Unesco Press, 1975. Edmonds, Robert. About Documentary; Anthropology on Film. Dayton, Ohio: Pflaum Publishing, 1974. Eisenstein, Sergei. Film Form. New York; Harcourt Brace & World, 1949. Eisenstein, Sergei. Film Sense. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, 1949. Eisner, Elliot W. The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1979. Cans, Herbert J . Popular Culture and High Culture. New York; Basic Books, 1974. Gaskill, Arthur L. and David A. Englander. How to Shoot a Movie Story: The Technique of Pictorial Continuity. New York: Morgan & Morgan, Inc., Publishers, 1960. 163 Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. 3rd ed. Englewood Clifts, New Jersey: Prentice-Hal1, Inc., 1982. Granade, Charles, Jr., ed. The American Film Institute Guide to College Courses in Film and Television. 7th edition. Washington, B.C.: The American Film Institute, 1980. Grierson, John. Grierson on Documentary. Edited by Forsythe Hardy. New York: Praeger, 1971. Groves, Peter D., ed= Film in Higher Education and Research. New York: Pergamon Press, 1966. Heinich, Robert, Michael Molenda, and James D. Russell. Instructional Media and the New TEchnologies of Instruction. New York: John Wiley & Sons , 1982. Hoban, Charles P., Jr., and Edward B. van Ormer. Instructional Film Research. 1918-1950. New York: Aron Press & The New York Times, 1970. Hong Kong. Urban Council. Hong Kono Film Survey 1946-1968. 1979. Hong Kong. Urban Council. Martial Arts and Martial Arts Movies. 1980 . Huaco, George A. the Sociology of Film Art. New York: Basic Book, 1985. Jacobs, Lewis, ed. The Documentary Tradition: _____From Nanook to Woodstock. New York; Hopkinson and Blake, 1979. Jacobs, Lewis, ed. The Movies as Medium. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970. Kanin, Fay and Robert W. Wagner. "Screenwriting Training for Writers and Directors in the U.S.A." Journal of the University Film Assoc iat ion. XXXVI, 4 (Fall, 1980), pp. 15-25. Kuhns, Williams and Robert Stanley. Teaching Program: Exploring the Film. Dayton, Ohio: Geo. A. Pflaum Publisher, 1968. Kracauer, Siegfried. Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Real ity . New York: Oxford University Press, 1960. Lipton, Lenny. Independent Film Making. Updated and Revised Edition. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1983. Lyons, Timothy J. "Some Thoughts on the Value of Film Education." University Film Association Journal. 27 (Fall 1975), pp. 7-9. 164 MacCann, Richard D. Film: A Montage o-f Theories. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1966. Marner, Terence St. John, ed. Directing Motion Pictures. Cranbury, N.J.; A.S. Barnes, 1972. Mast, Gerald, and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism, Srd.ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Mclnnes, James. Video in Education and Training. New York: Focal Press Inc., 1980. Metz, Christian. Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema. Trans. Michael Taylor. 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Ministry of Education. The Production of Mandarin Film 1950- 1970 . 1971. R.O.C. Ministry of Education. Some Notes on the Postwar Mandarin FiIm. 1971. R.O.C. Ministry of Education. A Survey of Film Market and Studios. 1970 . 165 Rose, Ernest D. "Problems and Prospects in Film Teaching." University Film Association Journal. 21 (Spring 1966), pp. 95- 101, 110. Ryan, Steve S. "The State o-f the Art; Film vs. E.N.G." Journal o-f the University Film Association. XXX, 2 (Spring 1978), pp. 53-56. Sarris, Andrew. the American Cinema. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1968. Selby, Stuart A. "The Screen and Humanities in General Education." The Journal o-f Aesthetic Education. Vol. 3, 2 (April 1969), pp. 119-127. Semsel, George Stephen. The Use o-f Filmmaking Technique in Teaching About Film. Unpublished Doctor's Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1982. Sobchack, Thomas and Vivian C. Sobchack. An Introduction to Film. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980. Staples, Donald E. , ed. the American Cinema. Voice o-f America, Forum Series, 1973. Stephenson, Ralpn, and J.R. Debrix. The C i nema as Art. New York: Penguin, 1965. Sullivan, Sr. Bede. Movi es : _____Universal Language. Notre Dame, Indiana: Fides Publishers, Inc., 1967. Sutton, Ronald E. “Toward a Confederation of Film Study Organizations." The Journal of Aesthetic Education. Vol. 5, No. 2, April 1971, pp. 125-137. Taba, Hila. Curriculum Development; Theory and Practice. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1962. Tu, Y.C. The Chinese Film History. 3 Volumes. Taipei: Taiwan Chamber of Commerce Press, 1978. Utz , Peter. Video User's Handbook. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hal1, Inc., 1982. "Videotape and Film." American Cinematographer. October 1972. (Spec i al Issue). Wagner, Robert W. "The Needs of Film/TV Education 1977." Journal of the University Film Association. Vol. XXIX, No. 2, Spring 1977, pp. 31-38. Wead, George, and George Lei lis. Film: Form and Function. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Co., 1981. 166 Uollen, Peter. Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. 2nd. ed. New Ygrki Viking, 1972. The Year Book o-f Motion Picture in the Republic o-f China. Vglume I , Taipei: The Foundation o-f the Motion Picture Development, 1969. The Year Book o-f Motion Picture in the Republic of China. Volume 2, Taipei: The Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, 1974. 1979 Year Book of Motion Picture in the Republic of China. Taipei; The Foundation of Motion Picture Development, 1980. Zais, Robert S. Curriculum: Principles and Foundations. New York: Harper & Row, Publisher, 1976. APPENDIX I : BARRON'S CATEGORIZATION OF THE FILMS SHOWN ON THE CBS NEWS HOUR IN 1968 "Instead, consider the list o-f programs which did actually make it on the air last season on the Tuesday night "News Hour." There were 48 -films in all. Eleven o-f which, deal tthe largest single category. deal tthe with Vietnam: The Letters o-f Ho chi Minh. Air War in the North, etc Six of the -films dealt with other -foreign affairs issues: How Israel Won the War Inside Red China, etc. Eight of the films dealt with domestic social problems other than race : A i r Pol lut ion, The College Admissions Crisis, etc Four films dealt with race: The Tenement. Can We Prevent Tomorrow's Riots? Six films dealt with politics Young Mr. W h atEisenhower WhatEisenhower Happened to Alf Landon? etc Two films, Inside Pop and Gauqu in in Tahiti deal t w i th art. Four films persi sted i n following the test format with diminishing returns. We had The Nat i onal Dr i vers' Test. The National Science Test. The National Current Events Test. and The National Sports and Physical Fitness Test It's an unreward i ng format, but if they ever decide to do a __Nat i onal Sex Test, I'd like to produce it myself. Finally, there were seven films on various subjects: Scotland, Mind Research, etc Quoted from: Lewis Jacobs, ed. The Documentary Tradition: From Nanook to Woodstock (New York: Hopkinson and Blake, 1979), p. 495. 167 APPENDIX II : THE SUGGESTED LIST OF CURRENT PERIODICALS FOR THE FILM STUDY In Chapter Four, many literary writings that clearly apply to specific subjects has been indicated in their appropriate units. The ■following is a list o-f periodicals which are currently being published and which are valuable to both film students and film teachers for further exploration of the subjects discussed in this study: * American Cinematographer, published monthly by American Society of Cinematographer in Hollywood, focuses on movie production and photography, providing behind-the-scenes looks into film and video production and information on new equipment and books. * Amer i can Film is published ten times a year by the American Film Institute. This magazine has been the standard publication on film and television for a popular audience in the United States. Its articles are based on scholarly research, but they have a lighter touch than articles in scholarly journals. Most issues feature articles on current productions, a bit of film or television history, a glance at independent filmmakers, columns on both media, and book rev i ews. * Audio-Visual Communications is a publication intended for the educator which contains surveys and reviews of the latest movie equipment designed for the classroom and media centers. « Cinema Journal is a publication of the Society of Cinema Studies in the United States and is one of the important film journals. This journal is published semi-annually and is scholarly and serious and focuses on articles on the h i story of film. * Film Appreciation, the leading film magazine i n Taiwan, is published bi-monthly by the Film Library of the Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, the Republic of China. Since its goal is to promote serious attention to the film art, the publication broadly contains articles on film history, theory, or criticism. 168 APPENDIX II; (Continued) * Film Comment. one o-f the important -film periodicals, is published bi-monthly by the Film Society o-f Lincoln Center. It contains scholarly articles and reviews, articles by ■filmmakers that tell how they made their important films, and columns on both the industry and the independents. This magazine is a slick production of good quality, and it publishes book reviews, interviews, and reviews of the international festivals. * Film Quarterly is another of the important film journals. It includes interviews, scholarly articles on recent films (narrative, experimental, documentary, and animated), general criticism, and lengthy reviews of recent films. % Journal of Popular Film and Television is a quarterly containing articles on the roles of television and film in popular culture. It also contains book reviews, bibliographies, and filmographies. Journal of Film and Video is published quarterly by the University Film and Video Association in the United States, featuring scholarly articles on film theory and criticism, as well as film education. It is an important Journal for college-level teachers and students. Popular Photography contains information for both still photographs and movie makers. This monthly provides "how to" articles, as well as surveys of newly released movie equipment, especially cameras and projectors. There is a monthly column on "movie method," which covers topics such as better editing. * Quarterly Review of Film Studies is a scholarly Journal. It identifies a single general theme for each issue, themes such as semiology, structuralism as practical film criticism, feminism, and ideological criticism. In addition to articles, it also contains book and film reviews. * Sight and Sound has been quarterly published by British Film Institute since Î932, but is widely circulated and highly regarded in Taiwan and Hong Kong. It includes interviews and lengthy articles on British films and others on film history and theory. 169 APPENDIX II: (Continued) Take One is the leading Canadian journal uiidpl> distributed in the United States. A monthly publication, it contains interviews, -filmographies, general articles, reviews o-f books and -films, and columns on the -festivals. It is o-f special use to the teacher o-f film studies. Television Quarterly, the Journal of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the United States, contains data and comment on currently broadcasted network programs, as well as television reviews. Video Review, a monthly magazine focuses on the information of current video market news, software and hardware productions, and video reviews. * The magazine is available at the Film Library of the Foundation of the Motion Picture Development, the Republic of China. 170 APPENDIX III: THE QUESTIONNAIRE USED IN THE RESEARCH OF THE STUDENTS' RESPONSE TO PRESENT FILM EDUCATION 1. Before you came to study the film, how many times a month did you go to the movies on the average? 1) 8-5 2) 5-3 3) 3-1 4) 1-0 2. What were the reasons for going to the movies? (You may choose more than one) 1) for fun and entertainment. 2) to get different ideas of life. 3) to discover future plan of life. 4) to see certain stars in action. 5) it's someplace to go when I have a date. 6) to take mond off certain things and to relax. 3. What was the reason that you came to study the film? 1) It was on my own initiative. 2) It was the result of the assignment by the examination comm ittee. 3) It was my parents' idea. 4) Others ______. 4. For the past two years your attendance at lectures/labs was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 5. For the past two years your overall class participation was: i) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 6. For the past two years your overall progress in the study was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 7. For the past two years your overall contribution to the study was : 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 8. In general, the organization and structure of the coursework was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 171 APPENDIX III; (Continued) 9. In general, the program content was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 30. In general, the lab facilities and hours were: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 11. In general, the text and library resources were: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 12. In general, the relationship of the program to your own needs and i nterest in film was : 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 13. In general, the instructor's apparent knowledge of the film was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 14. In general, the instructor's ability to encourage students was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 15. In general, the instructor's ability to stimulate ideas was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 16. In general, the instructor's preparation for classes was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 17. In general, the instructor's use of examples, prints, slides, film abstracts, and other teaching materials was: 1) excellent 2) good 3) fair 4) poor 18. What special field in film will you choose as your profession if you are going to enter the industry now? (You may choose more than one.) 1) producer 2) director 3) cinematographer 4) editor 5) screenwriter 6) film critic 172 APPENDIX III: (Continued) 19. After having studied the medium over two years, will you choose ■film as your life career? 1) Yes 2) No 3) Don't know yet. 20. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: (Please elaborate on items you mark "fair" or "poor".) 173