Allison deFreese_ENG 195: Film as Art_Spring 2014 Portland Community College Dual-Credit Program Proposal for ENG 195: Film as Art Minority Perspectives in Film Course Number : ENG 195 Course Title : Film as Art College Credit Hours : 4 High School Course Title : Film as Art Lecture Hours : 40+ Date : PCC Spring 2013 Term/ RAHS-POIC Quarters Three and Four Meeting Place : Rosemary Anderson High School Library/Portland OIC Meeting Place : Rosemary Anderson High School /Portland OIC, Room TBD 717 North Killingsworth Ct. Portland, OR 97217 Time : Monday-Friday, 5th Period Instructor : Allison A. deFreese, M.A., M.F.A. Ph. 503-797-7222, etc. 302 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Office Hours : Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 10:00-10:30AM (Room 22) or by appointment 6th Period and afterschool. Required Texts : Screenplays for Casablanca (multiple writers) and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing ; excerpts from Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven ; excerpts from Robert Coover’s A Night at the Movies, or, You Must Remember This ; Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience;” movie reviews; scholarly articles on film; essays by film students; film blogs and director interviews (online sources and class handouts) Recommended Texts: A collegiate dictionary and thesaurus Required Materials : A three-ring binder with lined paper, flash drive, pocket folder, pens and highlighters 1 Allison deFreese_ENG 195: Film as Art_Spring 2014 Course Content and Outcomes As per Portland Community College’s Course Content and Outcome Guidelines for ENG 195, Film as Art, students will: • Enhance their understanding of film through analysis of film history and form; • Develop visual literacy and analysis skills (course offers a range of tools to study any film); • Analyze ways in which a film may both contribute and react to its time and culture; • Analyze film through studying the techniques by which it was made; and substantiate observations with examples taken from film tradition and from the film itself. Prerequisites WR 115 and RD 115, equivalent placement test scores or PAVTEC instructor permission Intended Outcomes for the Course Upon successful completion of ENG 195, students should be able to: 1.) Analyze films while demonstrating an understanding of film technique and film as an art medium 2.) Articulate a position, orally and in writing, by situating a film in a cultural context, and substantiating observations with examples taken from that tradition and from the film itself. 3.) Use reflective visual reading, writing listening and speaking skills to recognize, develop and articulate personal standards, predispositions and theories regarding film and critical responses to film. Outcome Assessment Strategies Assessment tools may include informal responses to study questions; evaluation of small- and full- group discussion; in-class and out-of-class writing, including informal responses to study questions and other forms of informal writing; analysis of film reviews; frame and/or sequence analyses; presentations by individuals and groups; storyboards; screenplays; and short- and long-essay exams. Both instructor and peer evaluation may be incorporated in the assessment process. 2 Allison deFreese_ENG 195: Film as Art_Spring 2014 Copyright © 2000-2012 Portland Community College Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills): • silence • history of film as an art form • classical Hollywood cinema • silent film • Italian neorealism • mise–en–scène • French New Wave • cinematography • independent films • sound avant-garde films • film sources • conflicts • censorship • plot • film production • storyboard • film distribution • screenplay • types and functions of settings • chronological and non-chronological characters time • acting • narrative and non-narrative • frame composition • techniques • symmetrical and asymmetrical • documentary films • composition • horror • lighting • Westerns • use of space • war films • color and colorization • thrillers • camera distances • hybrid films • perspective • animation • angles and point-of-view • Production Code of the Motion shots Picture Producers and Directors of frame/the world outside the frame America, Inc. -- 1930- • moving camera • explicit and implicit meaning • early film editing • auteur theory • scenes • Marxist film criticism • sequences • feminist film criticism • superimpositions • cinéma vérité • juxtapositions • viewer-response criticism • action and reaction • reception theory • parallel editing • genre criticism • fast and slow cutting • psychoanalytic criticism montage • special effects • slow motion • gender issues early film sound • stereotyping • sound effects • music 3 Allison deFreese_ENG 195: Film as Art_Spring 2014 Copyright © 2000-2012 Portland Community College Competencies and Skills: • analysis • writing about films • synthesis • visual "reading" • understanding films through • critical reading (for instance, of • contexts, such as society and politics; reviews and critical essays) artistic conventions; financial • understanding roles of • constraints; multiple interpretations • cinematographer, director, etc. of a director; etc. speaking and listening reflectively small-group collaboration Copyright © 2000-2014 Portland Community College Important Links Course Outcomes: http://www.pcc.edu/ccog/default.cfm?fa=ccog&subject=ENG&course=195 PCC Dual Credit Website/2013-2014 Student Handbook : http://www.pcc.edu/prepare/head-start/dual-credit/documents/student-handbook.pdf PCC Student Code of Conduct: http://www.pcc.edu/about/policy/student-rights/documents/student-conduct.pdf PCC Website: http://www.pcc.edu/ Equal Opportunity Statement: http://www.pcc.edu/about/affirmative-action/eeo-statement.html Academic Integrity Statement: http://www.pcc.edu/about/policy/student-rights/documents/academic-integrity.pdf Portland Community College Calendar Link: http://www.pcc.edu/prepare/head-start/dual-credit/documents/student-handbook.pdf Grading Grading Guidelines: 4 Allison deFreese_ENG 195: Film as Art_Spring 2014 http://www.pcc.edu/prepare/head-start/dual-credit/documents/student-handbook.pdf Grading and Evaluations: • Final grades for ENG 195 will be based on the following Film Journals: 30% In our course syllabus, you will generally find at least four possible Film Journal topics related to each film we will screen. Respond to at least one journal prompt by submitting a thoughtful, typed reflection, written in MLA format. Your journal entries should be, at a very minimum, approximately 200- 250 words in length and contain specific and relevant examples from the assigned readings and films screened . If you conduct additional research as part of your Film Journal responses, remember to cite your sources . Journal entries will typically be due on at the beginning of class, 5th Period on Fridays , so you will have over a week to reflect on the film(s) we screened the previous week. Since you will be sharing your written observations aloud in class, Film Journals also count toward participation. Short-answer Essay 1 with Revision (Journal 1): 10% Prepare a list of your “top five” movies; then write a critical review about one of these films (approximately 300-500 words). Cite at least one source (Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source at the college level ) and include a “Works Cited” page. Use MLA formatting guidelines. (A handout with specific guidelines will be distributed in class). Essay 2 with Revision: 15% (First Draft, 5%, Revised Draft 5%, Works Cited/Bibliography Page, 5%) This 750-100 word essay will involve extended research about the work of a major American director whose full-length movies we haven’t screened in class, or a film movement or a film genre (i.e., westerns, documentaries, avant garde movies, etc.). Unless you’ve recently seem a film that meets the criteria for this essay, you will probably need to screen at least one additional film. Directors you might consider could include Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Elia Kazan, Billy Wilder, Sam Peckinpah, Francis Ford Coppola, John Huston, Todd Haynes, The Coen brothers, Michael Moore, Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee (Taiwanese-born), John Ford, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Lee Daniels, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriquez, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Miranda July (director with local connection), Gus Van Sant (director with local connection) or Kelly Reichardt (director with local connection). (A handout with specific guidelines will be distributed in class). “Preview Reports,” research and class discussions 35% Students should come to class on time each Monday prepared to discuss the director(s) whose film(s) we will be screening on the following Tuesday. Students will conduct background research about the director to be screened that week and his or her films. Please arrive to class by 9:00AM each Wednesday (1:30PM for afternoon students) prepared to give a brief “Preview Report” about your research and findings. 5 Allison deFreese_ENG 195: Film as Art_Spring 2014 Course Final: An Original Short Film with Presentation 10% Create an original short film (3-10 minutes) to be presented in class along with a typed, a page-long explanation about how it was influenced by film genres or movements covered in class and/or films viewed in class. Alternative options for the final assignment could also include writing a scene for screenplay you would like to shoot, preparing a storyboard or abstract for a film, or preparing a scrapbook with