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Home , Charles Vidor, Sean Baker (filmmaker)

FLM 110 Intro to Film Studies I Fall 2019 Monday, 1:00–2:15 pm; Wednesday 12:00 pm–2:15 pm

Instructor: Dr. Mandy Elliott Office: TBA Office Hours: Monday, 2:30–3:30 pm, or by appointment Email: [email protected]

Traditional territories acknowledgment: Booth University College is located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.

Required Textbook

Ed Sikov, Film Studies: An Introduction

Voluntary withdrawal date: November 1, 2019 Last day to request course extension: November 22, 2019

Other requirements

Because some screenings are required outside of class time, I strongly recommend getting an account with Kanopy.com. It allows you to access up to five movies per month for free. The catch is, you need a Winnipeg Public Library card to sign up (which is useful anyway).

Course Description

This course will familiarize students with film as text and with the critical language and skills required to “read” it properly. Students will learn to analyze cinematic works by analyzing their formal structures and genres, and should develop the skills they need to appreciate film as expressions of art, culture, and entertainment.

Course Objectives

Covering a range of cinematic styles, genres, contexts, and filmmakers, students will engage in the critical study of films and their evolution. Besides learning the important movements in film history students will gain the skills necessary to extract meaning from individual shots, understand and discuss visual texts, and understand the ways in which cinema reflects and drives our culture.

Content Disclaimer

This is an academic film course, and we are all adults. The films screened here will cover the MPAA classifications (G, PG, PG 13, R). Your critical attention and personal maturity are required for all screenings, including those that contain coarse language, violence, and sexuality. These screenings are not for your entertainment, but are instead to facilitate your study of film.

Attendance and Participation

Regular attendance and participation are critical to student success and students are expected to participate actively in classroom discussions and with the course site on MyBoothOnline. The Participation grade in this course is not merely an attendance grade, but will also consider your contributions to the course’s learning environment and your engagement with the material and with others’ ideas. While this includes participating in classroom discussion, coming to class prepared, taking notes, and refraining from cell phone/social media during class are also crucial to the promotion of ideas and critical thought and to your success in this course.

Our regular class meeting/discussion time is Monday from 1:00–2:15 pm. The screening labs for this course will be held on Wednesdays from 12:00 pm to whenever the film ends. Each Monday lecture will prepare us for Wednesday screenings, where we put what we’ve learned into practice. They are therefore critical to your success in this course and should be considered mandatory. I also ask that you refrain from leaving screenings early, as this disrupts other viewers and takes away from everyone’s ability to analyze the film as a whole. If you must miss a screening, or leave early, you must let me know in advance. It will be your responsibility to obtain a copy of the film and to view it on your own time.

You are also responsible to watch supplementary films from the list provided below. Watching these core films will increase your historical and formal understanding and will contextualize the films we watch in class. You are required to watch at least one per week and provide a journal entry about it, detailing your notice of its structure and meaning. Your film journal will be submitted for grading at the end of term.

Online Discussion

In addition to our weekly lectures and screenings, you are expected to participate in the discussion forum on MyBoothOnline, which I will facilitate. The forum is not meant as a space in which you can “prove” you saw a film by spouting facts about it. Rather, it is meant as a space in which you can engage with the course material as it relates to the films (it also allows you to voice your knowledge if the public setting of the classroom fills you with dread).

Course Evaluation and Grading System Term Work (75%) Final Exam (25%)

Term Work:

Quiz 1 (5%) Critical Image Analysis (15%) Quiz 2 (5%) Shot by Shot Analysis (20%) Viewing Journal (20%) Participation (this includes attendance and class and online forum discussion) (10%)

Assignments

1) Critical Image Analysis (worth 15%) This assignment requires a description of a professional art photograph of your choosing. You may select this photograph from the internet, or from a book, but you must cite your source, regardless of what it is, using standard MLA guidelines. You must provide a decent print of the photo or a link to where it can be found when you submit your assignment.

The first part of your analysis should include a detailed, objective, and thorough description of the image. Considerations should include things like composition, lighting, colour, dominant elements, and where the eye is drawn. The image should be your only source of information I should be able to reconstruct the photo based on your description alone.

After a thorough esthetic description of the image, you will offer your subjective response (what you think) to the photograph. This could include your emotional reaction to the image, or discuss what the individual elements work together to create, or the associations the elements have for you, or any other subject that allows you to convey your critical response to the photograph. You must ensure that your response/discussion centres on the photograph and does not meander into general cultural commentary. Treat this photograph as a solitary piece of information and see what you can glean from it.

2) Shot by shot analysis (worth 20%,) Either individually or with a partner, create a detailed shot-by-shot breakdown of a short sequence from a film of my choosing. This breakdown should provide a complete inventory of each shot, and should consider all compositional elements such as framing, mise-en-scène, blocking, and camera distance and position, as well as lighting, sound, actions, and wardrobe — everything that is on the screen or can be heard in that shot. Your breakdown should also record what changes from shot to shot and why that change is significant (e.g., if the camera cuts to a close-up, it might be to register a character’s reaction to something).

For each shot, you should give me a complete idea of the action — how is each shot introduced and cut? How long is each shot (in seconds)? Are there characters in the shot? Where are they in the frame? What are they doing? Where is the light source? Does the frame include multiple planes? What effect does that have? Is the sound diegetic? Non-diegetic? Where does our eye go first? Does the camera move? How? What is the setting? How do these things contribute to the shot’s importance? Does a particular shot contribute or not to the sequence’s narrative importance?

If you choose to work with a partner, you should submit only ONE copy of the assignment, and ensure that both partners’ names are on it. This assignment should be as long as it takes to write thoroughly about each shot in the sequence.

3) Viewing Journal (worth 20%) This is an assignment you will work on throughout the term. You are required to choose from the list of films provided below and watch at least one per week (most available on Netflix, Kanopy, YouTube, or at the Winnipeg Public Library [WPL]). You will then write a brief journal entry about the film, detailing things like camera movement, lighting, acting, sound, or anything else of note. You should also provide your thoughts about how these elements work together to produce a meaningful film, and how they work in the context of the films we watch in class. Feel free to comment on socio-cultural aspects of the films, too, but be sure to include a discussion of formal elements first.

These journal entries should be as long as it takes to write concise, yet detailed accounts of the films you watch, but aim for at least one full page, double-spaced. Completed journals should be typed and submitted via MyBoothOnline on or before the due date.

Final Exam:

This course’s three-hour final exam will be scheduled during the fall semester’s exam period (December 2019). All students must write the final exam and should familiarize themselves with Booth University College’s final examination policies found in the Academic Calendar.

Policies

It is a serious offence to present a piece of work for course credit as one’s own if the work or a portion thereof was done by some other person (plagiarism). Actions of plagiarism harm both the student and the reputation of the University College. Plagiarism or any form of cheating in examinations or term tests (e.g. crib notes) is subject to serious academic penalty that may include loss of part or all of the marks for an assignment/test, failure in the course, dismissal from the University College, or other serious consequences. Plagiarism or cheating in a course in which a student is cross-registered with the University of Manitoba may lead to disciplinary action by the University according to its policies.

To plagiarize is to take ideas or words of another person and pass them off as one’s own. In short, it is stealing something intangible rather than an object. Obviously it is not necessary to state the source of well-known or easily verifiable facts, but students are expected to acknowledge the sources of ideas and expressions they use in their written work, whether quoted directly or paraphrased. This applies to diagrams, statistical tables and the like, as well as to written material and materials or information from Internet sources. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism. It will also be considered plagiarism and/or cheating if a student submits an assignment in whole or in part by someone other than him/herself, or copies the answer or answers of another student in any test, examination, or take-home assignment.

At the beginning of their program of study, all students are required to complete the prescribed plagiarism tutorial.

Instructors are required to report all allegations of plagiarism or cheating to the Academic Dean before a grade is assigned. The original assignment is submitted to the Academic Dean. The Academic Dean will chair a joint meeting of student and instructor to hear both the allegations and the student’s response to the allegations. The Academic Dean will then make a determination whether or not plagiarism or cheating has in fact occurred and decide on appropriate disciplinary measures. The student and instructor will be notified of the Academic Dean’s decision in writing. A copy of the decision will be sent to the Registrar and University College President. The student has the right to appeal the decision of the Academic Dean (see Academic Appeals).

Booth University College Academic Calendar, 2017–18, 24.

Assignments

Assignments and essays in this course will aid in and result from the forms of critical thinking learned. These assignments will reflect ideas, and students will learn to organize ideas and write them coherently. All assignments are expected to be free from typographical and grammatical errors. In addition, all assignments are to be typed and presented in a professional and legible manner through the online portal. Typical guidelines include the use of a standard font and font size (e.g., Times New Roman, 12 pt. font), standard margins, and double spacing.

Students are required to submit an electronic copy of each assignment. Electronic copies will be due by 11:59 on the due date indicated on the syllabus (or in an amendment made in class) and must be submitted through the MyBoothOnline dropbox for this course. The dropbox will not accept late assignments, and students are responsible for understanding the uploading process. All uploaded files must be in .doc, .docx formats — NO PDFS!

Each assignment should include your name, the course number, my name, and the date in the top left-hand corner of the first page:

Your name (first and last) FLM 110 Dr. Elliott September 1, 2019

Each assignment should also include your own title, centred beneath your identifying information. Your title should not be underlined or italicized, and it should be free of quotation marks.

Failure to label your assignments this way will result in a one letter grade penalty.

I will try to grade all assignments and provide feedback within two weeks of their submission. Your attention to this feedback is essential to your success in this course, as it will both assess the assignment and provide guidance for improvement. I will happily discuss grades and feedback with you during my office hours or by appointment.

Late Assignments

Unless appropriate documentation explaining a student’s inability to submit an assignment on time is provided, assignments are expected to be submitted on time. A full grade will be deducted for every day the assignment is not turned in, for a maximum of five days. After five days, a grade of “F” will be assigned. Extracurricular commitments, dropbox/network issues, or other computer problems are not sufficient grounds for extensions. Extensions for the final essay must be applied for in writing (email is fine) at least one week before the due date. Extensions will not be granted after this time under any circumstances.

Further, the Academic Calendar states that “No assignments will be received after the last day of the exam period for regular session courses … unless a formal Incomplete Grade/Time Extension Request has been granted by the instructor and submitted by the student” (25).

Make-up Quizzes and Assignments

It is your responsibility to ensure that you show up to write quizzes and that you hand in assignments. I will not offer make-up quizzes or assignments under any circumstances.

Withdrawal

Students who consider withdrawing from this course should speak with the instructor and observe the voluntary withdrawal deadline, which is the last day to withdraw without academic penalty. They may also contact the Booth College Registrar at 204-924-4861.

Grading Policy

Final grades for this course may be A+, A, B+, B, C+, C, D, or F.

I grade according to a rubric, which I will post on the course webpage. Any grade you receive in this course will translate to the following letter grades and descriptions:

A+: Exceptional performance with evidence of outstanding original thinking, superior organization, exceptional capacity to analyze and synthesize; a superior grasp of the subject matter with sound critical evaluations; evidence of an extensive knowledge base. A final grade of A+ may be awarded only with the approval of the Academic Dean.

A: Excellent performance with evidence of excellent original thinking, excellent organization, excellent ability to analyze and synthesize; an excellent grasp of the subject matter with sound critical evaluations; evidence of an extensive knowledge base.

B+: Very good performance with evidence of original thinking, very good organization, demonstrated ability to analyze and synthesize; a very good grasp of the subject matter; evidence of good critical judgment, a very good understanding of the relevant issues under examination; very good familiarity with the relevant literature.

B: Good performance with evidence of a good grasp of the subject matter; evidence of critical capacity, good analytical ability, a good understanding of the relevant issues under examination; evidence of good familiarity with the relevant literature.

C+: Satisfactory performance with evidence of a satisfactory grasp of the subject matter; evidence of critical capacity, demonstrated analytical ability, an understanding of the relevant issues under examination; evidence of familiarity with the relevant literature.

C: Adequate performance with evidence of an adequate grasp of the subject matter; some evidence of critical capacity, an ability to develop solutions to simple problems found it he material; evidence of familiarity with some of the relevant literuatre.

D: Marginal performance with evidence of marginal familiarity with the subject matter and some evidence that critical and analytical skills have been used.

F: Inadequate performance with little evidence of even a superficial understanding of the subject matter; serious weaknesses in critical and analytical skills; limited or irrelevant use of the literature; failure to satisfy course requirements.

Schedule of Films and Readings (subject to change)

Week 1: September 4 Introduction to the course Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) 45 m The General (Buster Keaton, 1926) 1 hr 7 m

Week 2: September 9, 11 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter One: Mise-en-scene Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989) 2 hrs

Week 3: September 16, 18 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Two: Movement Sunset Boulevard (, 1950) 1h 50 m Quiz 1 September 18

Week 4: September 23, 25 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Three: Cinematography Rear Window (, 1954) 1 hr 52 m

Week 5: Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Four: Editing September 30, Jaws (, 1975) 2h 4m October 2 Critical image analysis due October 2

Week 6: Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Five: Sound October 7, 9 Singin’ in the Rain (/, 1952) 1 hr 43 m Quiz 2 October 9

Week 7: Reading Week October 14, 16

Week 8: October 21, 23 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Six: Narrative Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017) 1 hr 44 m Week 9: Oct. 28, 30 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Seven: Screenplay The Philadelphia Story (, 1940) 1h 52m Voluntary withdrawal date November 1 Week 10: November 4, 6 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Eight: Filmmakers The Grand Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014) 1h 39m Shot by shot analysis due November 6 Week 11: November 13 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Nine: Performance To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944) 1h 40m Week 12: November 18, 20 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter Ten: Genre Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017) 2h 21m Last day to request course extension November 22

Week 13: Nov. 25, 27 Film Studies: An Introduction, Chapter 12: Putting it all Together O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2000) 1h 47m

Week 14: Dec. 3 Review Viewing Journal due

Core films for Viewing Journal Assignment (choose one per week)

Title Director Year Where to find it Week 1 The Kid Charles Chaplin 1921 Kanopy Modern Times Charles Chaplin 1936 Kanopy The Great Dictator Charles Chaplin 1940 Kanopy The Scarecrow Buster Keaton 1920 YouTube Hard Luck 1921 Steamboat Bill Buster Keaton 1928 YouTube Safety Last! Fred C. Newmeyer 1923 YouTube

Week 2 Metropolis Fritz Lang 1927 Kanopy Nosferatu F.W. Murnau 1922 Kanopy The Thin Red Line 1999 WPL The Cabinet of Dr. Robert Wiene 1920 Kanopy Caligari Kill Bill: Volume I 2003 Netflix In the Mood for Wong Kar-Wai 2000 WPL Love High Noon 1952 Kanopy Week 3 The Matrix Lana & Lilly 1999 Netflix Wachowski 2001: A Space 1968 WPL Odyssey Charles Vidor 1946 WPL Paths of Glory Stanley Kubrick 1957 WPL Memento Christopher Nolan 2000 Kanopy Week 4 Citizen Kane Orson Welles 1941 WPL The Best Years of 1946 WPL Our Lives Stagecoach 1939 YouTube Rope Alfred Hitchcock 1948 WPL The Seventh Seal 1957 Kanopy Week 5 Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock 1958 WPL Late Spring Yasujiro Ozu 1947 YouTube Rashomon 1950 YouTube Battleship Sergei Eisenstein 1925 Kanopy Potemkin Raging Bull 1980 WPL Week 6 The Conversation Francis Ford 1974 Kanopy Coppola M Fritz Lang 1931 WPL Godzilla Ishirô Honda 1954 WPL No Country for Old Joel & Ethan Coen 2007 WPL Men Blade Runner 2049 Denis Villeneuve 2017 WPL Week 8 Incendies Denis Villeneuve 2010 Kanopy The Man who Shot John Ford 1962 WPL Liberty Valance Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro 2006 WPL Inception Christopher Nolan 2010 WPL The Graduate 1967 WPL 8 ½ 1963 Kanopy La Strada Federico Fellini 1954 Kanopy Week 9 Tangerine Sean Baker 2015 WPL His Girl Friday Howard Hawks 1940 Kanopy

Bringing Up Baby Howard Hawks 1938 WPL Stella Dallas 1937 YouTube All that Heaven Douglas Sirk 1955 YouTube Allows Daughters of the Julie Dash 1991 Netflix Dust Week 10 The Godfather Francis Ford 1972 WPL Coppola Craig’s Wife Dorothy Arzner 1936 YouTube The Tempest Julie Taymor 2010 WPL The Departed Martin Scorsese 2006 Netflix The Royal Wes Anderson 2001 WPL Tenenbaums Cléo From 5 to 7 Agnes Varda 1962 Kanopy Week 11 The Maltese Falcon 1941 WPL The Big Sleep Howard Hawks 1946 WPL All About Eve Joseph L. 1950 WPL Mankiewicz Psycho Alfred Hitchcock 1960 Netflix North by Northwest Alfred Hitchcock 1959 WPL The Man Who Alfred Hitchcock 1934 YouTube Knew Too Much Week 12 The Searchers John Ford 1956 WPL Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa 1954 Kanopy Yojimbo Akira Kurosawa 1961 WPL Double Indemnity Billy Wilder 1944 WPL Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki 2001 WPL Bicycle Thieves 1948 Kanopy Week 13 Breathless Jean-Luc Godard 1960 Kanopy The 400 Blows François Truffaut 1959 Kanopy Rome, Open City Roberto Rossellini 1945 WPL Moonlight 2016 WPL Certified Copy Abbas Kiarostami 2010 WPL