College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study I Short Animation
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
BAO* Director: Domee Shi Music: Toby Chu Run time: 8 minutes Setting: Toronto, Canada
Please write as neatly as you can below.
Before viewing:
Do you have a favorite animated film? What is it? What do you like about it?
How do you think food and family go together? Explain.
After viewing:
What are your first thoughts and reactions to Bao? Can you compare it to any other film (short or long) you have viewed? What message/theme do you think Shi conveys in her short film? Did you enjoy (or not enjoy) watching an animated short film like this? Explain. Use back if necessary.
*First of 35 Pixar shorts to be directed by a woman
CPEIV—Film Study Guide 2
College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study II Short Animation
“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.” ― David Richo
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR* Director: Alison Snowdon and David Fine Music: Judith Gruber-Stitzer Run time: 14 minutes
CHARACTERS: Dr. Clement, the dog Victor, the ape Lorraine, the leech Cheryl, the mantis Todd, the pig Jeffrey, the bird Linda, the cat
Terms to Know:
Fable: a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
Allegory: a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Before viewing: What stories, books, or films have you seen with animals as characters? List a few.
Is there a TV show or a book you’ve read that you can identify as a satire? Do you think the humor in the show or book was light-hearted or more contemptuous, abrasive, accusatory? The former satire is called Horatian (after the Roman satirical poet Horace who was more light- hearted and wanted to amuse…think Pride and Prejudice or The Simpsons); the latter is called Juvenalian (after the Roman writer Juvenal who was angrier and used more irony and sarcasm to CPEIV—Film Study Guide 3 attack individuals, the government, and other organizations…think 1984 or the films Get Out, Office Space, and Fight Club).
After viewing:
What element(s) of society do you think the film satirizes? Which kind of satire? Explain with support.
In a sentence or two, can you convey what the moral is of Animal Behaviour?
CPEIV—Film Study Guide 4
College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study III Short Animation
“Hope” is the thing with feathers— That perches in the soul— And sings the tune without the words— And never stops—at all—
And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard— And sore must be the storm— That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm—
I’ve heard it in the chillest land— And on the strangest Sea— Yet—never—in Extremity, It asked a crumb—of me.
—Emily Dickinson
TWEET, TWEET Director: Zhanna Bekmambetova Music: Yuri Poteenko Run time: 12 minutes
Before viewing: the bird in the short film we’ll view today is a sparrow; birds (like above in Emily Dickinson’s poem) are used symbolically by artists and authors. For example, at the end of Hamlet, Hamlet will say, “There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow,” and he will be alluding to the Gospel according to St. Matthew in the Bible: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell./ Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father" (King James version). In other words, a sparrow’s death is part of a larger plan.
So, write a few sentences about what birds symbolize to you. How many meanings can you connect to birds? Can you think of any movies, books, or poems where birds were used in a symbolic way? Jot them down.
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After viewing:
What was the most powerful image in Tweet, Tweet for you? Explain. Does this film work as an allegory? Try to explain the metaphor of the single line running through the film. Finally, of the three films, if you had to rate them, how does Tweet, Tweet rate? Justify your rating.
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College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study IV Short Animation
“Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes.” —Kurt Vonnegut
WEEKENDS Director: Trevor Jimenez Music: Andrew Vernon Run time: 16 minutes
Symbol: a literary device that contains several layers of meaning, often concealed at first sight, and is representative of several other aspects, concepts or traits than those that are visible in the literal translation alone. Symbol is using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning.
Surrealism: the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations.
Before viewing:
Jot down any symbol you can remember from studying any work of literature you’ve read at CHS. What symbolic meanings or layers of meaning were connected to the object or action?
After viewing:
By now, you’ve begun to develop—even if just by watching—a sense of how short films use images to explore meaning. In Weekends, Jimenez uses the image of a wooden horse as a potent symbol. What does the horse symbolize to you? How does it contribute to the internal conflict for the boy?
Surrealism often employs dream-like images. What surreal image or images caught your eye? What conflict(s) do you think Jimenez is exploring through the use of the surreal in this short film? Use the back of this page. CPEIV—Film Study Guide 7
College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study V Short Animation
THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS
Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere* and lonely offices?
—Robert Hayden (1913-1980); the first African-American to be appointed as Consultant in Poetry to the United States Congress in 1976 (now called The Poet Laureate of The United States); this poem is one of the most anthologized poems of the 20th century.
*austere; adj.; severe or strict in manner, appearance, or attitude
Tone, in written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words, or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject. The tone can be formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, or cheerful, or it may be any other existing attitude.
For brief discussion after reading poem: What is the tone of “Those Winter Sundays”?
ONE SMALL STEP Director: Bobby Pontillas and Andrew Chesworth Music: Steve Horner Run time: 8 minutes
Before viewing: Jot down a few ways parents try to prepare their children for life.
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After viewing:
How does the tone of One Small Step compare and/or contrast with “Those Winter Sundays”? Please cite specific examples from each to support your ideas. Is there anything that the poem and this short animated film have in common? Explain.
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College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study VI Short Films (Live Action)
“When everything gets answered, it’s fake.” —Sean Penn
Review: in a tragic play (like in Freytag’s triangle) plotwise, as we’ve studied, there must be an inciting incident followed by a chain or sequence of events that build tension (causing complications) until a climax (moment of most tension) occurs followed by falling action and the resolution (or denouement).
MADRE/MOTHER Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen Music: Olivier Arson Run time: 18 minutes
Before viewing:
1. When you think of the ocean and a deserted beach, what are the first thoughts that come to your mind?
After viewing:
1. Do you think Madre follows the path, plot-wise, of a tragic play? Explain. What does this short film reveal about the nature of being a mother? Lastly, analyze why the director frames the short film with the image of the empty beach and ocean. What does it make you feel and/or think at the end?
2. In the genre of short films, this is called “Live Action.” Compare viewing “Live Action” to the animated short films we’ve viewed. Do you prefer one over the other? Explain.
CPEIV—Film Study Guide 10
College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study VII Short Films (Live Action)
“Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.” —Dorothy Allison
MARGUERITE Director: Marianne Farley Music: Julien Kafo Run time: 19 minutes
Before viewing:
Who is the oldest person you know? What do you think the greatest challenge might be for an elderly person?
What is lost in our lives when society forces us into silence or to behave in ways that seem unnatural to us? Think in terms of race, gender, sexuality, or any other category where people are silenced or constrained by society.
After viewing:
1. This short film says powerful things about aging and mortality. What are a few things it demonstrated to you?
2. This is a film written and directed by a woman about two women from different generations. Do you feel this film has a feminine point of view that would not be found in a film written and directed by men about men? Explain.
3. Do you think this film is a “feminist” film? Explain your position, even if you say “no.”
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College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study VIII Short Films (Live Action)
“I would travel down to hell and wrestle a film away from the devil if it was necessary.” —Werner Herzog
FAUVE (French: possible translations from the director who says it’s hard to find an English equivalent—wild, uninhabited, wildcat, beast, pranksters—related to the color burnt orange; connects to Fauvism—where painters portrayed vivid countryside landscapes)
Director: Jérémy Comte Music: Brian D’Oliverira Run time: 17 minutes
Before viewing:
1. What is a story or film you know that showcases the conflict of person v. nature? List a few if you know more than one.
2. Animals often have symbolic meaning in film, literature, and art. What do you think a fox might symbolize?
After viewing:
1. It could be argued that Fauve is an allegory for the The Garden of Eden or the story of Cain and Abel. Can you identify and briefly explain any allegorical element you detected while watching from Bible stories or any other story you think the film suggests in an allegorical way?
2. Why does Comte end the film the way he does?
3. How does this film explore the developing male psyche (def. human soul, mind, spirit)? What is its message about the way boys are raised to act and speak and think in a specifically gendered/male way?
4. Describe one image from Fauve that stands out in your mind and what it might mean on an interpretive level.
5. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest level of artistic impact), what would you rate Fauve? The score is subjective, of course, but justify your rating with a sentence or two. CPEIV—Film Study Guide 12
College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study IX The Last Black Man in San Francisco
“A good storyteller is one who can, without judgment, hold the mirror up to nature and then highlight the parts of nature that correlate to the experience he or she wants the audience to have—and Joe Talbot has that ability.” —Jonathan Majors
Director: Joe Talbot Music: Emile Mosseri DOP: Adam Newport-Berra Written by: Joe Talbot & Rob Richert Story by: Jimmie Fails & Joe Talbot Run time: 121 minutes
Main Characters: Jimmie (Jimmie Fails) and Montgomery (Jonathan Majors). *Note: “Director Joe Talbot and Fails met as kids, bonding over their shared San Francisco lineage, movies, music, and skating. Talbot, who dropped out of high school, was also into moviemaking and always turning the camera on Fails, who, it turned out, had a natural well of charisma and acting talent.”
Previewing: A brief introduction to Syd Field’s The Three Act Paradigm. Take notes on The Paradigm Worksheet. PP1 (turning point—protagonist on journey figurative or literal); Pinch 1—first set up challenges—new insights, closer to goal; Midpoint—an external major event, changes severity of action—raises the stakes; Pinch 2—harder challenges, protagonist defeated by complications; PP2 (protagonist realizes new strength, new knowledge to face challenge; Climax—challenge is overcome, balance restored; Resolution—after effects and resolving of subplots.
Viewing: ACT I (The Set-Up/Exposition) into start of ACT II: take notes and answer the following. You may bullet point.
1. Describe the setting as you watch. What images stand out? Describe the mood (the feeling or “vibe” conveyed) and tone (the director’s attitude towards his/her subject matter—like serious, sad, ironic, playful, tragic etc…)
2. What do you learn about Jimmie and Montgomery and their world through dialogue, action, and image?
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3. What do you think the Inciting Incident is that happens in the first ten minutes of ACT I? In this film it is an action that sets up a major conflict.
4. Plot Point I always happens between minute 20 and minute 30 at the end of ACT I (The Set- Up) to set ACT II (The Confrontation) in motion. What do you think Plot Point I is in The Last Black Man in San Francisco?
*Vanity Fair, June, 2019; Johana Desta CPEIV—Film Study Guide 14
College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study X The Last Black Man in San Francisco
“A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.” —Orson Wells
Director: Joe Talbot Music: Emile Mosseri DP: Adam Newport-Berra Written by: Joe Talbot & Rob Richert Story by: Jimmie Fails & Joe Talbot Run time: 121 minutes
Previewing: go over the following terms.
Cinematography/Cinematographer/DP: The cinematographer—also known as the Director of Photography, or “DP”—though one of the most obscure members of the production team, is responsible for all the visual elements of a film. He or she makes every creative choice related to composition, lighting, and camera motion—anything that audiences can see in a given shot. The DP determines everything from color to depth-of-field—how much of the shot is in focus versus how much is blurry—from zoom to the positioning of people and objects within any given frame. Ultra-close up; freeze frame; slow and ultra-slow motion; establishing shot; mediums shot; bird’s eye; panning left, right; zoom in; etc.
Gentrification (of San Francisco): has been an ongoing source of contention between renters and working people who live in the city and real estate interests. A subset of this conflict has been an emerging antagonism between longtime working-class residents of the city and the influx of new tech workers. A major increase of gentrification in San Francisco has been attributed with the Dot-Com Boom in the 1990s, creating a strong demand for skilled tech workers from local startups and close by Silicon Valley businesses leading to rising standards of living. As a result, a large influx of new workers in the internet and technology sector began to contribute to the gentrification of historically poor immigrant neighborhoods such as the Mission District. During this time San Francisco began a transformation eventually culminating in it becoming the most expensive city to live in the United States.
Greek Chorus: A company of actors who comment by speaking or singing in unison on the action in a classical Greek play.
Archetype: in literature, an archetype is a typical character, an action, or a situation that seems to represent universal patterns of human nature. An archetype, also known as “universal symbol,” may be a character, a theme, a symbol, or even a setting. Here are a few: Creator/Artist, Caregiver, Ruler, Jester, Regular Guy/Gal, Lover, Hero, Outlaw, Magician, Innocent, Explorer, Sage.
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Viewing:
1. List any elements/examples of cinematography that catch your eye as you watch.
2. What thematic elements do you see the “Greek Chorus” commenting on when they are on camera.
3. Can you identify how any of the characters fall into any of the archetypes? Keep in mind, one character may exhibit an element of more than one archetype.
4. What scenes in the film (actions, sights, dialogue) underscore the problems with gentrification?
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College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study XI The Last Black Man in San Francisco
“People aren’t one thing.” —Jimmie Fails
Director: Joe Talbot Music: Emile Mosseri DP: Adam Newport-Berra Written by: Joe Talbot & Rob Richert Story by: Jimmie Fails & Joe Talbot Run time: 121 minutes
Previewing:
Review: inciting incident, Plot Point I, Pinch I (challenges/complications), Midpoint of Act II— the blind grandfather (minute 60), Pinch II, Plot Point II (approx…80-90 minutes)—event propels into Act III (minute 80-90), the CLIMAX—greatest tension; Act III brings us resolution at the end.
How does Jimmie’s friendship with Mont compare to Hamlet’s friendship with Horatio?
The metaphor of finding one’s “home” is a powerful one explored in the arts. How is “home” explored so far in The Last Black Man in San Francisco?
After viewing:
Can you identify Plot Point II and the Climax of the film? Support your choices.
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College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study XII Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
“Man is a genius when he is dreaming.” —Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa Music: DP: Takao Saito/Shōji Ueda Written by: Akira Kurosawa Run time: 119 minutes
Previewing: See terms on back.
Actively view scenes from Akira Kurosawa’s film Dreams. As you view take notes below referring to the following to prepare for post-viewing discussion:
Sunshine Through The Rain The Peach Orchard
1. How does Kurosawa play with a viewer’s expectations for how a film narrative unfolds, and how does Kurosawa challenge your personal expectations for how a film should make meaning?
2. List a few images Kurosawa employs to evoke meaning. What do you think those meanings are?
3. Can you make connections to what you are viewing to any literature/films you have read/seen?
4. What do you think the relationship is between dream and reality and how does Kurosawa explore that relationship?
5. How does Kurosawa make use of allegory and/or magic realism?
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Allegory: The word derives from the Greek allegoria ("speaking otherwise"). The term loosely describes any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning. This narrative acts as an extended metaphor in which persons, abstract ideas, or events represent not only themselves on the literal level, but they also stand for something else on the symbolic level. An allegorical reading usually involves moral or spiritual concepts that may be more significant than the actual, literal events described in a narrative. Typically, an allegory involves the interaction of multiple symbols, which together create a moral, spiritual, or even political meaning. The act of interpreting a story as if each object in it had an allegorical meaning is called allegoresis.
Magic Realism: In 1925, Franz Roh first applied the term "magic realism" (magischer Realismus in German) to a group of Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity) painters in Munich (Cuddon 531). These painters blended realistic, smoothly painted, sharply defined figures and objects--but in a surrealistic setting or backdrop, giving them an outlandish, odd, or even dream-like quality. In the 1940s and 1950s, the term migrated to the prose fiction of various writers including Jorge Luis Borges in Argentina, Gabriel Garcia Márquez in Colombia, and Alejo Carpentier in Cuba. The influence also spread later to Günter Grass in Germany and John Fowles in England (Abrams 135). These postmodern writers mingle and juxtapose realistic events with fantastic ones, or they experiment with shifts in time and setting, "labyrinthine narratives and plots" and "arcane erudition" (135), and often they combine myths and fairy stories with gritty Hemingway-esque detail. This mixture creates truly dreamlike and bizarre effects in their prose.
Surrealism: a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature, which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.
Akira Kurosawa (1910––1998) was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning five decades.
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College Prep English IV Name:______Mr. Hayward Fall Semester Date:______Film Study XII (Part II) Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
“In films, painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.” ― Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa Music: Shin'ichirō Ikebe DP: Takao Saito/Shōji Ueda Written by: Akira Kurosawa Run time: 119 minutes
Actively view scenes from Akira Kurosawa’s film Dreams. As you view take notes below referring to the following to prepare for post-viewing discussion:
The Blizzard The Tunnel Crows
1. How does nature function on a symbolic level in The Blizzard? How does irony play a role in this dream? What imagery is central to meaning here?
2. How does color function on a symbolic level in The Tunnel? How many meanings can you logically/defensibly attach to the tunnel? How about the anti-tank dog?
3. How does the classical music (Chopin’s Raindrop prelude in D-flat major) in Crows contribute to the emotion of viewing? Read the definition and quotation about Expressionism on the back. Do you consider this dream to be an example of Expressionism or Surrealism, both, or neither? Defend your answer. CPEIV—Film Study Guide 20
Expressionism emerged simultaneously in various cities across Germany as a response to a widespread anxiety about humanity's increasingly discordant relationship with the world and accompanying lost feelings of authenticity and spirituality. In part a reaction against Impressionism and academic art, Expressionism was inspired most heavily by the Symbolist currents in late nineteenth-century art. Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor proved particularly influential to the Expressionists, encouraging the distortion of form and the deployment of strong colors to convey a variety of anxieties and yearnings. The classic phase of the Expressionist movement lasted from approximately 1905 to 1920 and spread throughout Europe. Its example would later inform Abstract Expressionism, and its influence would be felt throughout the remainder of the century in German art. It was also a critical precursor to the Neo- Expressionist artists of the 1980s.
“The German artist creates out of his imagination, inner vision, the forms of visible nature are to him only a symbol." Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She sometimes wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened.
Wheat Field with Crows, painted in July of 1890, is one of Van Gogh’s paintings of the fields surrounding Auvers-sur-Oise and is frequently believed to be his last painting. Wheat Field with Crows uses the double square canvases that Van Gogh used exclusively in the final weeks of his life. The painting is extremely dramatic, conveying intense feelings, and is one of his most haunting and elemental works. The dark cloudy sky filled with crows and the cut off path seem to ominously point to the artist’s coming end.