COM 380 – FILM STUDIES

Course Syllabus LIT-355 American Literature: Beginnings to 19th Century

Decasia (2002), dir. Bill Morrison Semester/Year: Fall 2018 Instructor: Adam Schrag Units: 3 Office Hours: schrag.youcanbook.me Office Location: MCD 218 Phone Number: 453-4608 Email: [email protected] Length: 15 weeks (August 27 to April 7) Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays Place: Marpeck 101 Time: 2:00 – 3:40 pm

Course Description Movies are a pervasive presence in American culture. This course seeks to understand the nature of film in its creative, aesthetic, social, personal and ethical dimensions. The student will be introduced to the history, technique and language of film. Through the viewing of films, the student will learn to analyze, understand and evaluate the film experience.

Student Learning Outcomes At the end of this course, students will be able to: 8. Understand film as an art form, an economic product, and a cultural artifact. [PSLO 4] 9. Analyze the component parts of a film in order to “read” a film as a whole [PSLO 3]. 10. Describe the workings of different technologies of film image and sound. 11. Discuss basic elements of film language, theory and history. [PSLO 2] 12. Apply basic film concepts and terms through discussion, writing, and filmmaking. [PSLOs 1, 3, 4, 5] 13. Write critically, cogently, and knowledgably about film and film topics. [PSLOs 1, 3, 4, 5] 14. Compare different film practices, eras, genres, and styles. 15. Relate the film experience to broader personal and cultural experiences, knowledge and values.

Course Overview For the next 15 weeks, we have the enviable task of watching and thinking about movies. Movies are familiar to all of us; each of us brings to this class a lifetime of movie-watching. The task before us, then, is to defamiliarize the film experience, to jolt ourselves from our viewing slumber, and think in new ways about film. This is hard work. This is scholarly work. A film’s effort to describe the world, impose its artistic value, or shape society are worthy of serious reflection and intellectual investment. Therefore, we will work to transform ourselves from passive viewers to active “readers” of film; we will develop our ability to intelligently interpret films as significant cultural documents. To accomplish this, we will watch a wide range of films, read 16 extensively about film, write critically about film, and even create films in order to become more conscious consumers of the ubiquitous moving image. We will attune ourselves to the “unconscious” aspects of film, which are often invisible to our uncritical eyes: the apparatus, the editing, and all the decisions and practices beyond the frame that shape our cinematic perception.

Required Texts Barsam, Richard and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies. 5th ed. Norton, 2015.

NOTE: See the schedule for other required readings, films, and web-based readings that are available on Moodle.

COURSE EXPECTATIONS VIEWING & READING EXPECTATIONS: You need to be active participants in this course and help ensure the success of the course for everyone by making positive contributions to activities, assignments, and discussion. Participation in this learning community starts with how you approach the films and other texts in this class. Therefore, in this course we will develop critical, active reading practices. Each week we will screen a film in class. Watching these films together as a class is an important aspect of the course. Please plan to attend all screenings as a regular part of the class.

What do we mean when we say “active reading”? To be an “active reader” of film basically means that we treat watching movies and reading about them as important interactions—as active conversations—and not simply as matter of passively hanging back and waiting for a movie or text to tell us what it has to say. In other words, a text is not simply a place to find information, but an event where you join the text, its creators, your peers, and the broader community in a discourse of ideas. You have a contribution to make to this discourse! You have a role in determining the meaning of movies! Moreover, reading is an ethical act. It requires attentiveness, devotion, empathy, skepticism, curiosity, comparative thinking, and perseverance.

Even if you don’t fully grasp everything about what you are seeing at every moment (and you won’t), and even if you don’t remember everything about what you’ve seen and read (no reader does), in this class you will begin to identify and engage the patterns and rhythms of various ways of seeing and interpreting the cinematic world. Practically speaking, this means taking notes on, highlighting, underlining, pondering over, comparing, and talking about a text. More broadly, though, it is an overarching attitude that we bring to our study.

EXPECTATIONS FOR YOU: You are expected to challenge yourselves, to take risks, to write, speak, and think boldly, and to allow yourself to grow intellectually as a communicator and thinker, not just for this class, but as equipment for everyday living. You are expected to conduct yourself in a respectful manner towards your classmates and me. You are expected to be punctual, prepared, and actively engaged in the class.

EXPECTATIONS FOR ME: As the professor, I play two distinct roles. For the most part I am a coach. My job is to foster discussion and creative thinking, to answer questions and respond to concerns, to assist you through course mechanics and course materials, and to be a point of contact with the ideas presented in the course. In this role, I am expected to be thoughtfully prepared for class, to challenge you academically, and to be attentive to your learning needs. My other role is that of judge. I grade your work. I evaluate how well you achieve the goals and assignments of the course. In this role I am expected to be clear, fair, and timely in my responses.

You are always welcome to come talk with me, the coach, or with me, the judge, about anything regarding the course, or anything else for that matter. I’m here to help you negotiate the vast intellectual terrain before us. COURSE POLICIES ATTENDANCE: You are expected to attend class, including in-class screenings. Attending class is one of the most basic responsibilities of any student. Learning happens in the community of a classroom. By taking this class, you are agreeing to be part of that community. Class happens in class! Please take this commitment seriously. I understand that life happens and you may occasionally decide that other things take priority over attending class. For obvious reasons, excessive absences may negatively affect your participation grade, your performance in the course, and will likely limit the overall educational value and experience you receive from the course. 17

DEADLINES: Late work will not be accepted unless I receive an acceptable excuse before or immediately after the work is due. Extensions may be granted on a case-by-case basis, but only for extenuating circumstances. Plan ahead and backup your documents. Again, please keep me informed. Letting me know in advance if there is a foreseeable problem is always the best policy.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: All work must be your own. Plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional, can result in an F for the assignment and even result in an F for the course. Plagiarism can include submitting work: • written by means of inappropriate collaboration; • written by you for another course and submitted without the permission of both instructors; • purchased, downloaded, or cut and pasted from the Internet; • or that fails to properly acknowledge its sources through standard citations. It is the student's responsibility to know and understand what constitutes academic dishonesty and to seek guidance when in doubt about these matters (see http://registrar.fpu.edu/catalog to learn more).

CLASS COMMUNICATION TOOLS & PRACTICES EMAIL & PHONE: Please be in the habit of checking your Fresno Pacific email account DAILY as I may relay important course information through email. Email is also the best way to contact me: [email protected].

MOODLE: Online readings, course materials, forums, and course grades will be available on Moodle.

SCREENS: Out of respect for your classmates and me, please be considerate of your screen use in class. Aim to give your attention to the class when you are in class. If you aren’t using your portable device or laptop to take notes or look at an assigned reading, please leave it stowed during class.

ASSIGNMENTS CLASS PARTICIPATION (10%): To receive an A for class participation, you will be expected to make a significant contribution to most class sessions, participating in small-group work and other in-class activities, reporting back to the class, answering and asking questions when appropriate during large-group discussions, and creating thoughtful reflections & responses on Moodle forums. You will receive a B if you contribute helpfully to small-group work and occasionally speak in front of the whole class. You will receive a C if you pay attention in class but rarely or never talk in class. You may receive a D or F if you have excessive tardiness, perform serious breaches of the academic contract such as sleeping in class or plagiarism, or undermine my ability to teach or other students’ abilities to participate.

WEEKLY QUIZZES (10%): There will be a short reading quiz every week covering the readings, screenings, and film vocabulary. They will be distributed at the beginning of class. Students who are late will lose those points. Quizzes cannot be made up later, but can be waived for excused absences. All your quiz grades will be averaged for your final score with the lowest score dropped.

WEEKLY FILM FORUM (20%): You will write a mini-essay in response to reflection questions for half of the films (7) that we watch in class. Your essays (~500-600 words) will be due on the Sunday after the screening by 11:59pm. On the weeks you are not assigned a film response, you will reply to at least two other classmates’ responses. Replies are due on Mondays at 11:59 pm and should be ~100 words. A sign up sheet for film responses will be provided in class.

“HELLO TO…” SLIDE (5%): Once during the semester, you will introduce the class to a character actor (a “that guy” or “that girl”) of your choosing by creating a single “Hello to…” PowerPoint slide that highlights the actor’s work. You can use stills, clips, filmography, and biography to create your slide. You will also be prepared to give a brief, informal explanation of why you chose them and what you like about them. When it is your turn you will email the completed slide to me by 11:59 pm on the Monday before class. There will be a sign-up sheet. This assignment takes its cue from the BBC Radio 5 film critic Mark Kermode, who says “hello to Jason Isaacs” each episode.

SHOT ANALYSIS ESSAY (15%): In a 1000-1200-word essay, you will choose a single scene from a film, break it down shot by shot, and write an analysis that demonstrates how the scene’s construction contributes to the larger meaning of the film. Your essay will include screen-grab stills from the scene to help illustrate 18 your analysis. This assignment will be comprised of a proposal and an essay. See the assignment checklist for more details.

COMPARATIVE FILM ESSAY (15%): In a 1200-1500-word essay, you will compare two films by the same director. The director and one of the films must be chosen from the films screened in class (i.e., you could compare Children of Men to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or Vertigo to Psycho). Your comparison should examine a combination of the formal elements, broader themes, and ideologies at work across both films. In what ways are the two films united by a particular directorial vision? In what ways do they diverge from each other? What kinds of arguments can we make about this director’s style, aesthetic, or ideology through this comparison? This assignment will be comprised of a proposal and an essay. See the assignment checklist for more details.

ONE-MINUTE FILM FESTIVAL (25%): You will create a one-minute film that demonstrates a specific film technique. At the end of the semester it will be entered along with your peers’ films in our One-Minute Film Festival. As long as your film successfully (and even playfully) demonstrates the particular film technique you’ve chosen, the kind of film you make is up to you. You are the director. It can be funny or serious, narrative or non-narrative, it can have actors or no actors, dialogue or no dialogue, sound or no sound, live action or stop-motion, comprised of original footage or remixed footage from other sources, etc, etc. The project will begin with a pre-production assignment in which you create a storyboard of your proposed film and will end after post-production in which you create a director’s statement and screen your finished one- minute film for the class. See the assignment checklist for more details.

Assignment Percentage Class Participation 10% Quizzes 10% Weekly Film Forum 20% “Hello to…” slides 5% Shot Analysis Essay 15% Comparative Essay 15% One-minute Film Festival 25% TOTAL 100%

RECOMMENDED ONLINE RESOURCES • https://digital.wwnorton.com/movies5 – our textbook’s website, which includes video tutorials • Every Frame A Painting – just the best YouTube channel about film form and film aesthetics • filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/ – a web-archive of examples of, links to, and comment on, film and moving image studies resources of note • thedissolve.com – excellent film writing and film reviews • http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/ – a compendium of film scholarship by one of the most prolific film scholars • offscreen.com/ – a good place to get models for good film writing • www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/filmstudies/ – another good place to get models for good film writing

RECOMMENDED PODCASTS ALL ARE AVAILABLE FOR FREE VIA ITUNES OR OTHER PODCATCHER • You Must Remember This – Everything you wanted to know about Hollywood’s first century • Filmspotting – Really smart film nerds nerd out about movies • The Treatment with Elvis Mitchell (KCRW) – Elvis knows more about actors than actors know about themselves • Kermode & Mayo’s Film Review (BBC Radio 5) – British people ranting about movies. • Criterion Cast – People at the Criterion Collection talk about the Criterion Collection • Doug Loves Movies – Comedian Doug Benson loves movies. • The Flop House – Funny smart people talk about stupid dumb movies.

University Policy and Procedures 19 Students are responsible for becoming familiar with the information presented in the Academic Catalog and for knowing and observing all policies and procedures related to their participation in the university community. A summary of university policies may be found on the university website at http://registrar.fpu.edu/catalog.

COMMUNICATION PROGRAM STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES (PSLOS) 11. Students will demonstrate their ability to communicate through the production of written, oral, aural, and visual messages. 12. Students will demonstrate comprehension of historic and current communication theory and its application in context. 13. Students will critically interpret language, images, and other signs. 14. Students will understand the ways in which messages are mediated and shaped by media. 15. Students will critically interpret voice, power, and discourse in personal, local, and global contexts.

Please note: I reserve the right to change, amend, and/or revise the syllabus at any time. COURSE SCHEDULE Supporting TOPICS DATE READINGS, SCREENINGS, ACTIVITIES ASSIGNMENTS Films/Clips Edison, Melies & T / Aug 28 Welcome & Introductions Lumiére Early Cinema WATCH: Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936, 89 Th / Aug 30 min) READ: LAM - Chap 1 (1-34); Chap 10 thru origins of Vertov, Buster Ways of Looking T / Sep 4 at Movies | Early classical Hollywood (405-417) Keaton, Cantinflas Comedy Th / Sep 6 WATCH: (Orson Welles, 1941, 119 min) READ: LAM: Chap 2 (35-56); Chap 10 thru Soviet Eisenstein & Fritz T / Sep 11 Film Form | Montage (418-423) Lang Citizen Kane WATCH: , (, 1944, 107 Th / Sep 13 min) Fargo & Blade T / Sep 18 READ: LAM: Chap 3 (67-120) Runner Genre | Noir DUE: Shot Analysis Th / Sep 20 WATCH: Vertigo (, 1958, 128 min) Proposal READ: LAM: Chap 4 (121-162); Rope T / Sep 25 Narrative | Other reading: Mulvey Hitchcock WATCH: Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948, 89 Th / Sep 27 min) READ: LAM: Chap 5 (163-210); Chap 10 thru Italian Leni Riefenstahl T / Oct 2 Neorealism (424-430) Mise-en-scene | DUE Friday, Oct 5 Italian Neorealism Th / Oct 4 WATCH: Rashomon (, 1950, 88 min) before midnight: Shot Analysis Essay READ: LAM: Chap 6 (211-270); Chap 10, Japan (437- Godzilla Cinematography | T / Oct 9 Postwar Japanese 440) Cinema Th / Oct 11 WATCH: The Searchers (John Ford, 1956, 119 min) Kelly Reichardt, El T / Oct 16 READ: LAM: Chap 8 (317-362) Editing | The Topo NO CLASS – FALL BREAK; WATCH: The 400 Blows DUE: Comparative Th / Oct 18 (François Truffaut, 1959, 99 min) Essay Proposal Sound | Maya Experimental Film READ: LAM: Chap 9 (363-404); Chap 10, French New Deren, T / Oct 23 | French New Wave (430-433) Flicker Films Wave & Decasia

20 WATCH: Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975, Th / Oct 25 125 min) READ: LAM: Chap 7; Chap 10, New American T / Oct 30 Jaws Cinema (447-452) Acting | New DUE Friday Nov 2 American Cinema WATCH: Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989, 120 Th / Nov 1 before midnight: min) Comparative Essay T / Nov 6 READ: LAM: Chap 10 (405-456) Blaxploitatio The Industry | WATCH: Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, Spike Lee Th / Nov 8 1991, 118 min) READ: Barbara Creed, excerpts from The Monstrous- Murnau, T / Nov 13 Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (on Romero, Thriller & Horror Moodle) Peele WATCH: City of God (Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Th / Nov 15 DUE: Storyboard Lund, 2002, 130 min) READ: “Towards a Third Cinema,” Solanas and Crime | Cinema T / Nov 20 Novo | Third Getino (on Moodle) Cinema Th / Nov 22 NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING T / Nov 27 WATCH: Los Olvidados (Luis Buñuel, 1950, 80 min) Mexican Cinemas READ: From Buñuel and Mexico: The Crisis of Th / Nov 29 National Cinema (on Moodle) Sci-Fi & WATCH: Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006, DUE: Film Festival T / Dec 4 Speculative 114 min) Entry Realism | Cine READ: “The Three Amigos of Cha Cha Cha” (on Th / Dec 6 Nuevo Mexicano Moodle) FINAL DUE: Director’s Th / Dec 13 statement

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