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2002-LCM Reading Film: Stories We Tell Ourselves Dr. Lori Lipoma MW 12:30-1:20. • Humanities 229 Fall 2010 Office Hours (Pafford 323): Tu, Th 10:45-Noon and by appointment In this course we will examine the place of film in modern cultures, individual psyches, or global industries. The course acts as an introduction to the ways that film as a mass medium represents and influences key changes in American life. By focusing mostly on popular Hollywood films, we will study the broad cultural influence of film as well as its impact on the everyday, individual viewer. In addition, we will study both the business practices of the film industry and the cognitive impact of film viewing. Through quizzes, in-class exercises, response writing, and outside projects, we will gain the skills required to analyze film form, investigate the historical and cultural influence of film, and explore the technical or scientific elements of film. Once you've carefully read the following course description and class policies, click here to jump to our semester schedule. Primary Texts: Films (in the order in which we’ll be discussing them): • Ridley Scott, Gladiator • Quentin Tarentino, Inglorious Basterds • James McTeigue, V for Vendetta • Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain • Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man • Eric Steel, The Bridge • Stanley Kubrick, The Shining • Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho • Adam McKay, Talledega Nights • Akira Kurasawa, Rashomon • Steven Spielberg, Jaws We’re going to be watching roughly one film per week, so please get your NetFlix.com or Blockbuster.com subscriptions right away! IMPORTANT NOTE : I expect you to watch several films in this class, which you must do prior to the dates I've listed them on our syllabus. I will excuse from class and count absent for the day anyone who fails to watch the films in time for class! Required Texts XIDS 2002-LCM Coursepack of Supplementary Readings Maimon, Elaine. A Writer’s Resource: A Handbook for Writing and Research. 2nd or 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill. A considerable portion of your semester grade will come from college-level writing assignments. You’ll be doing yourself a huge favor if you keep this style manual near to hand as you draft, proofread, and revise your essays. Once you've carefully read the following course description and class policies, click here to jump to our semester schedule. Class Objectives and Policies Objectives: • Students will learn to view and analyze films as texts. • Students will demonstrate in both oral and written work a discipline-specific critical facility through convincing and well-supported analysis of related material. • Students will gain enhanced knowledge of the medium's place in American culture, individual psychologies, business practices, and technological advances. • Students will gain familiarity with global and diverse alternatives to mainstream Hollywood cinema. • Students will demonstrate a basic understanding of a variety of film practices, audience positions, and industrial developments through papers, quizzes, and a final examination. • Students will learn to use discipline-specific computer technologies related to the study of language such as listservs, word processing, and internet research. Course Requirements Two1-1/2 to 2-page response papers: 15% each = 30% cumulative Midterm exam: 15% Film/Audience Analysis: 15% Class preparedness and participation: 20% Final project: 20% 1. Reading Responses—30% cumulative; 2 total These essays, which comprise the largest portion of your semester grade, will consist of brief (1-1/2 to 2 pages, typed, MLA formatting) responses to our readings. You must turn in TWO of these during the semester between Week 3 and Week 15—I don’t accept multiple submissions. In other words, you have 12 weeks in which to complete five separate reading responses. . Interdisciplinary Aim: We will accomplish four important learning outcomes with these responses: (1) to insure that students read consistently, carefully, and on time; (2) to help you prepare for in-class discussion of the readings; (3) to learn and apply the terminology that art and literary critics employ in analysis; (4) to give you sustained practice in polished college-level critical writing. 2. Final Project—20% . Interdisciplinary Aim: (1) To apply course concepts in the analysis of a text relevant to this semester's study; (2) to hone skills of writing in college-level, standard English, and to articulate complex ideas in this mode of communication. 3. Midterm exam (15%) This will include preparedness with outside readings and informal written and viewing assignments, contributions to discussion, engagement in conversations with the professor and other students, and participation in various class activities (such as work in small groups, reflective writing, etc.). Interdisciplinary Aim: Active class participation is vital to the success of the course, and will necessitate reflection and analysis in verbal, written, and graphic form. 4. Reading and Viewing Quizzes; Class Preparedness (20%) I will occasionally give a brief quiz in order to assure that you're doing your reading and viewing for each class session so that we can have a truly collaborative discussion each and every meeting. Interdisciplinary Aim: Informed class participation is vital to the success of any course, and because students in a Film class come from varying disciplinary viewpoints, everyone's contribution is important. I want you to be able to tell me what you think about a given concept or text, articulate your agreement or disagreement with it, back up your argument with thoughtful evidence, and listen and genuinely consider others' opinions as well. Screenings Film screenings are the most essential “reading” assignment for each week and I expect you to undertake them with the utmost scholarly attention. Our class films are our primary texts; I therefore recommend that you take notes during screenings or just after—your grade will depend upon your attention to this aspect of film study. IMPORTANT NOTE : I expect you to watch several films in this class, which you must do prior to the dates I've listed them on our syllabus. I will excuse from class and count absent for the day anyone who fails to watch the films in time for class! Attendance The only way we can achieve our course objectives is through your consistent attendance and participation in class. However, I know that occasional emergencies arise, so I allow THREE no-questions-asked absences—please use them wisely, and keep me informed! NOTE: I count "lates" (i.e. arriving after class has begun) as 1/2 an absence...so please be on time! I don't distinguish between "excused" and "unexcused" absences; you owe me no explanations nor documentation for your absences; all I ask is that you use these absences wisely. If you must be absent, I expect you to keep up with the assignments; if you’re absent on the day an assignment is due, I will still expect you to make arrangements to get it to me on time. Students who are absent receive a zero for in-class work missed; more than three absences will result in your administrative withdrawal from class. I will ask any student who falls asleep during class to leave my classroom, and will count that student absent for the day. Deadlines and Late Papers I will not accept late work. I know this policy is challenging, but I really do mean it, and I don't make exceptions. Being late with assignments hinders your progress—and often, that of the entire class. Although it's far easier just to hand in your paper at the beginning of class on the due date, my definition of a late paper is one that you haven't placed in my hands before I leave campus on the day the assignment's due. Paper Formatting and Assessment All your papers must be in MLA format, and must include a Works Cited page. Please follow this link to see (and print out) the criteria by which I will be grading all your essays. REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL PAPERS I consider your response papers to be formal, college-level writing assignments, and I hope you will take them as seriously as I do. They must meet or exceed the following standards in order to earn a passing grade (or higher): • You must type and format all out-of-class papers in MLA style (see Writer's Resource Tab 6). • Papers must demonstrate that you care about their quality: stretch your imagination in order to find complex and innovative topics upon which to write, spellcheck, proofread (read your paper aloud), integrate comments/corrections I've noted on previous papers in all your subsequent writing, cite your sources thoroughly, look up correct punctuation and grammar, etc. • Essays must have adequate in-text citations and a Works Cited page. • All your papers must be stapled in the top left corner. • Successful college-level essays must demonstrate that you're synthesizing and analyzing class materials. Response papers should focus on one or two elements of a text, and must go deeper than a simplistic "I liked this text/film because..." type of reflective response. Academic Honesty Plagiarism is the act of claiming the ideas or actual words of another as one's own. This act can take several forms: copying an essay from a printed source or the internet, taking answers from another student's paper, or using the language and/or ideas from any source without proper citation. The work you turn in should be your own; however, if you borrow an idea, you must either express it in language entirely your own and acknowledge your borrowing with a parenthetical reference or footnote or indicate the exact extent of your debt to the actual words of the source by enclosing them in quotation marks and documenting the source according to MLA conventions. The penalties for academic dishonesty are severe, and ignorance is not an acceptable defense. Flagrant violations of this policy (e.g. copying papers from the internet or cheating on exams) are grounds for failing the course. I will pursue (and have pursued in the past) any irregularities I detect, and, if necessary, I will begin formal proceedings according in accordance with University policy—please see: http://www.westga.edu/%7Eengdept/Plagiarism/pladef.html Special Needs The University of West Georgia adheres to the Americans for Disabilities Act, known as ADA, which requires that all programs at the university be accessible to people with disabilities.If you have a registered disability that will require accommodation, please see me in my office at the beginning of the semester. If you have a disability that you have not yet registered through the Disabled Student Services Office, please contact Dr. Ann Phillips in 272 Parker Hall at (678) 839-6428 E-mail: If you need to reach me for any reason, you will have the best luck via e-mail at llipoma@westga.edu. Please e-mail me from your university account in order to make it easier to identify the sender of the e-mail and to avoid unnecessary security or virus risks. Fall ‘10 Syllabus • Readings and viewings are due on the date they’re listed. • We will probably make scheduling changes as the semester progresses, so check this syllabus OFTEN! Week 1 8/16 M Introduction to Course 8/18 W Coursepack (CP): Seger, “Reading the Myth” Heroes and Anti-Heroes Week 2 • Ridley Scott: Gladiator (2000) 8/23 M Scott; storytelling, myth, and film. Print out and bring to class: Film Glossary 8/25 W Scott and Seger, concluded. Week 3 • Quenton Tarantino: Inglorious Basterds (2009) **First week to turn in response essays** 8/30 M RKO 281, concluded (from our 2080 class). 9/02 W Tarantino, continued (from Tuesday’s 2080 class) Week 4 • James McTeigue: V for Vendetta (2006) 9/06 M Labor Day: No classes today 9/08 W McTeigue, V for Vendetta. Week 5 • Ang Lee: Brokeback Mountain (2005) 9/13 M Lee, Brokeback Mountain. 9/15 W Lee, concluded. CP: Parenti: "Class and Virtue." Week 6 9/20 M FILM 2080 Presentations (see that class's syllabus for schedule) 9/22 W FILM 2080 Presentations (see that class's syllabus for schedule) Week 7-- GUEST INSTRUCTOR: PROFESSOR JOHN STURGIS OK to submit response papers via e-mail during Weeks 7, 8, and 9. Please use .doc format, not .docx 9/27 M FILM 2080 Documentary/Short Subject group meetings. Group assignment for Wednesday 9/29: An outline for each of three well-developed story ideas for a five-minute short film--two or three paragraphs for each story, typed, double-spaced, and spellchecked. Remember to limit your ideas to the realm of what's feasible and inexpensive to produce! 9/29 W All groups meet with Professor Sturgis at 12:30 (HUM 229) in order to workshop story ideas. Bring Prof. Sturgis a copy of each of your group's story ideas; if a group fails to do so, all members will get a zero for the week's work. Each group must submit their three story ideas (revised and polished after today's workshop) INCLUDING a list of at least six ways Sikov's chapters 4-6 specifically relate to the planning and production of their project to Dr. Lipoma via Microsoft .doc attachment. no later than 5:00 p.m. Friday, October 1st . Looking ahead: your group must write and prepare to present a detailed treatment of your group's final story choice by Wednesday, 10/06. Week 8-- GUEST INSTRUCTOR: PROFESSOR JOHN STURGIS 10/04 M FILM 2080 Documentary/Short Subject group meetings. Group assignment for Wednesday. October 6th: write, read aloud, revise, and prepare your treatment presentation for Prof. Sturgis. In addition, each group must submit a preliminary group task assignment list to Dr. Lipoma via e-mail no later than 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 6th. 10/06 W Bring Prof. Sturgis a copy of your group's treatment; if a group fails to do so, all members will get a zero for the week's work. Each group must submit their treatment (revised and polished after today's workshop), attaching a list of at least four ways Sikov's chapters 7 and 8 specifically relate to the planning and production of their project to Dr. Lipoma via Microsoft .doc attachment. no later than 5:00 p.m. Friday, October 8th . Wednesday, October 6th: Last Day to Drop with a “W” Looking ahead: your group must write a first draft of your script by Wednesday, October 13th. Refer to THIS WEBSITE for script formatting requirements and a sample script. Week 9-- GUEST INSTRUCTOR: PROFESSOR JOHN STURGIS 10/11 M FILM 2080 Documentary/Short Subject group meetings. Group assignment for Wednesday. October 13th: Collaborate in writing the first draft of your group's script--rule of thumb: one page of script is roughly equal to one minute of screen time. 10/13 W Bring Prof. Sturgis a copy of your group's draft script; if a group fails to do so, all members will get a zero for the week's work. Each group must submit their script (revised and polished after today's workshop) AND a cast list to Dr. Lipoma via Microsoft .doc attachment no later than 5:00 p.m. Friday, October 15th Documentary and the Search for Truth Week 10 • Werner Herzog: Grizzly Man (2005) 10/18 M 10/20 W Week 11 • Eric Steele: The Bridge (2006) 10/25 M 10/27 W Comedy and Horror: The Abject in Film Week 12 • Stanley Kubrik: The Shining (1980) 11/01 M CP: King, "Why We Crave Horror Films" 11/03 W Week 13 • Alfred Hitchcock: Psycho (1960) 11/08 M 11/10 W Week 14 • Adam McKay: Talladega Nights (2006) 11/15 M 11/17 W Week 15 • Student Filmmakers 11/22 M Group Oral Presentations--from FILM 2080 group project (short film screenings Tuesday, 11/30/10 in FILM 2080) 11/24-26 Thanksgiving Break; no classes Foreign Film **Last week to turn in response essays** Week 16 • Akira Kurasawa: Rashomon (1950) 11/29 M 12/01 W Last Day of Class: Scene analysis final exam--discussion. Week 17 • Final Exam 12/08 W Scene analysis due: submit to me at my office no later than 9:00 a.m. Early submissions OK, but in all cases, you must hand them directly to me |