The  PAINTED PANTHERS of OVERBROOK

Intro to Film
Course Syllabus

Ms Gavin Rm 325

kgavin@philasd.org

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Introduction and Objectives:

Film Studies is the study of the production, aesthetics and history of the 20th and 21st century’s visual medium—the digital media. As storytelling device, as historical document, as expression of imagination, as artistic object, and a tool for social justice, there is no form more capable of capturing our interest and provoking the senses. The cinema can create worlds of magic, fantasy and romance just as easily as it can expose the dim reality of actually- lived life.

We have several interests this year which we will explore through, observing media clips, reading articles, personal stories and critical reviews, and in reading—in this case, reading the language of cinema in order to improve our critical understanding of the way texts create meaning. We also use writing as a tool to create personal essays, and stories which can be used on a college application.

Your primary tool in this class will not be a textbook, or the internet, It will be your eyes. Since film is a photographic medium, it is a visual medium— its primary formal concerns are visual concerns. This may take a while to truly absorb, but in cinema, images mean more than words. A script with no images cannot be cinema, but images with no scripts can!

 

Our objectives in this course are as follows:

1. To understand the nature and process of film production. 


2. To learn how to read and analyze film as you would a book, a poem or a short 
story

3. To familiarize ourselves with certain theoretical ideas presented by major film 
theorists. 


4. To learn how to develop, write and revise workable screenplays. 


5. To explore the major aesthetic trends in the history of cinema. 


1. To work collaboratively with our peers to produce a short

2. TO GAIN A GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE WAY ART WORKS—how it manipulates reality to make a thematic point (political, social, philosophical, sexual, aesthetic, etc.) 


 

The course will contain five units (please note that some units will be going on simultaneously):

1. What is FIlm? In the first section of the actual Film Studies course, we will examine cinema as a produced creation. Some important questions for us to consider will be: What is Cinema??? Why do we watch films? What are the technical processes that go into the production of films? How do films get made? Who are the people who make films? Who are the people who watch films? Why do people watch films? Why do people make films?

   1. Key Films: Mothlight (1963, dir. Stan Brakhage), Sherlock Jr. (1924, dir. Buster Keaton), Film Production Independent Viewing 


   2. Key Assessments: Production Quiz
      


2. The Art of the Personal Essay: In the first unit of the year, we will be reading a number of exceptional personal essays in preparation to write short form essays that you can use on your college applications.

   1. Key Texts: “Going to the Movies”, Susan Allen Toth; “Notes Of A Native Son”, James Baldwin; “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”, Alice Walker; “On Dumpster Diving”, Lars Eighner; “Fish Cheeks”, Amy Tan; “Running For Sheriff: Aspen 1970”, Hunter S. Thompson; Selections from Songbook, Nick Hornby 


   2. Key Assessments: Nightly reading notes, short form essays that you can use on your college applications
       

3. Introduction to Film Form: Next, we will move from film production to film form. In this section of the course, we will learn the elements of film language, focusing mostly on the four most important elements: mise-en-scene, cinematography, montage, and sound. Some important questions are: What is the language in which cinema speaks? How do films create meaning? How does form reflect content? How can we read films more effectively? How does cinema create and use metaphors and symbolism?

   1. Key Film: Citizen Kane (1941, dir. Orson Welles) 


   2. Clips from: 
i. The Scarlet Empress (1934, dir. Joseph von Sternberg) ii. Hotel Chevalier (2007, dir. Wes Anderson) 
iii. The Maltese Falcon (1941, dir. John Huston) iv. Bigger Than Life (1956, dir. Nicholas Ray) 
v. Battleship Potemkin (1925, dir. Sergei Eisenstein), October (1927, dir. Sergei Eisenstein), The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946, dir. William Wyler), Touch of Evil (1959, dir. Orson Welles), Weekend (1967, dir. Jean-Luc Godard), Children of Men (2005, dir. Alfonso Cuaron), Snake Eyes (1998, dir. Brian De Palma), The Devil Is A Woman (1932, dir. Josef von Sternberg), Throne Of Blood (1957, dir. Akira Kurosawa), Breathless (1959, dir. Jean-Luc Godard), Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939, dir. Frank Capra), Rocky IV (1988, dir. Sylvester Stallone), King of Kings (1961, dir. Nicholas Ray), Nashville (1975, dir. Robert Altman), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, dir. Steven Spielberg), Singin’ In The Rain (1952, dir. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelley), Transformers (2007, dir. Michael Bay), THX 1138 (1971, dir. George Lucas) , Medium Cool (1969, dir. Haskell Wexler), Chungking Express (1994, dir. Wong Kar Wai) 


c. Key Assessments: Nightly reading notes

 

1. Screenwriting as Art: Next, we will turn our attention to the process of developing and writing our own original screenplays. We will spend two to three weeks coming up with ideas, figuring out characters and arcs, writing drafts, and revising

   1. Key Films: Independent selections of models for conventional and unconventional screenplays. 


   2. Key Assessments: Drafting, editing, doctoring and revising screenplays

2.  

3. Film (as) History: Finally, in this unit, we will concentrate chronologically on the most prominent moments in film history, highlighting formal innovations or aesthetic movements. We will examine, in turn: Early Cinema, German Expressionism, Italian Neorealism, French New Wave, European Art Cinema, New Hollywood, and Postmodernist Film. Key questions include: How does knowing the past help us to better understand the present? How have filmmakers from all eras used innovations of the past to tell their own stories more effectively? How have the differences between Melies and Lumiere emerged as the central divide in film history, and why is this difference important?

   1. Key Films: Lumiere shorts, A Trip To The Moon (1902, dir. Georges Melies), Un Chien Andalou (1928, dir. Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalî), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919, dir. Robert Weine), Top Hat (1935, Mark Sandrich), Bicycle Thieves (1948, dir. Vittorio De Sica), Breathless (1960, dir. Jean-Luc Godard), Pierrot le Fou (1965, dir. Jean-Luc Godard), Persona (1966, dir. Ingmar Bergman), M*A*S*H (1970, dir. Robert Altman), Blade Runner (1982, dir. Ridley Scott), In The Mood For Love (2000, dir. Wong Kar Wai), plus independent selections from “third cinema” movements. 


 

Our key textbooks will include: I will have copies of the articles we will use and the chapters we need.

-Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin, Film Art: an Introduction, 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Co., 2004.

-Kawin, Bruce, How Movies Work. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.

-Cook, David A., A History of Narrative Film, 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004.

 

Our Activities:

Film Viewing

Watching films is the single most important aspect of Film Studies. We will watch as many film clips in class as possible in order to devote enough time for discussion. In addition to the films we watch at school, you will be politely required to watch at least one film a week on your own (Honors students will be politely asked to watch at least two). These films may be assigned or they may be up to you, but either way, you will keep a log of the films you watch in your film journal. More on that later.

Reading

Going Out to the Movies

Vocabulary and Grammar

Writing

You will be writing analytically, argumentatively and creatively in this class. Unlike your previous English classes, writing, per se, will not be the principal focus of our time together, as our primary goal will be to learn how to analyze film. Nonetheless, your writing will form the majority of the work completed in this class. Your writing assignments will fall into two broad categories:

1. Response Writing: This category includes unpolished writing that attempts to outline your opinions or observations about a piece of cinema. I will grade papers in this category primarily on quality and clarity of ideas. Response writing also includes routine homework assignments and, perhaps more importantly, your film journal. More on that later. 


2. Formal Writing: Formal writing is writing that has been revised and put into final form; I will be grading you on clarity of ideas as well as form, organization, grammar, spelling, punctuation and presentation. This category includes the large format projects that you will complete in Film Studies. 


 

Final Film Project

Each of you will participate in a collaborative project to plan, shoot and edit an 8-10 minute film that is based off your original personal essay. This project will be the culmination of our work, and you should be prepared! That means:

GET EXCITED...but temper that excitement with a realistic sense of what it will take. My sense is that to produce an excellent student film, you will need to devote at least fifty hours of your time to the project. That’s a rough estimate, to be sure, but it should give you a sense of what kind of commitment it will require. Here are just some of the things you will have to do:

• a)  Cast the film—find actors 


• b)  Find locations where you can shoot 


• c)  Amass props and costumes 


• d)  Storyboard each shot, scene and sequence 


• e)  Rehearse with your actors 


• f)  Acquire necessary technical equipment—from cameras to lighting to mobile gear 
to microphones to boom poles, etc. We will have some, but not all, of this 
equipment. 


• g)  Shoot the film (a much more complicated task than those three words imply) 


• h)  Reshoot shots or scenes that failed in the first try. 


• i)  Edit the shots together to create a coherent final cut. 


• j)  Design the soundtrack so it includes music and sound effects. 


• k)  Create a coherent film style that is appropriate to the subject matter and story. 


 

Film Journal
Your film journal is the heart and soul of Film Studies. In it, you will take nightly reading notes, document your viewing, take notes on films, jot down ideas in the middle of the night, and perhaps lose once or twice. This is your journal, your space to write, muse, ponder, create, document, dramatize, and spill orange juice.

 

The Most Necessary Requirements:

An open mind. A questioning mind. An active mind. An enthusiastic mind. A perceptive mind.

 

Extra Help

On most days, I will be available for extra help. Since my schedule is very busy this semester, I strongly recommend that you schedule an appointment if you’d like to meet with me.