Monday, January 28, 2019

100+ Films of All Time; Storyboards; Film Vocab. & Spike Lee

Introduction (of sorts): 20 min.

This course is designed to provide you with a wide foundation of Film History and Film Studies, while also giving you experience writing film scripts and film reviews/critiques (as such found in the field of Journalism). By its end, you will understand the art of film hopefully more than you do now, and will gain a better appreciation for the art of filmmaking. Some of you may like this course of study so much you will take film courses in college, major in film studies, or become professional filmmakers. Others will at least benefit from knowing (and appreciating) the art of film.

This course (as Playwriting) will mostly be found online. Deadlines and assignments (with instructions) will be posted on the blog as needed. Please check the blog daily (even when absent) so you do not fall behind.

To start, please note the following resources that you will be able to access throughout the course.
Handouts (Film vocabulary/terms; storyboarding; resources)
1. Today, please take the quiz on the top 100+ Films of All Time to see which films you have seen. It will serve as a basis for our course.
2. Keep the handy handouts throughout this course. You can find extra copies in our Google classroom. We will be using these terms and the vocabulary will help you analyze and criticize films we watch. We'll start using this today!
3. Begin to design your own "script":
  • Complete the concept creation worksheet. Since you will not be "making" this film, per se, you can have an unlimited budget to make this "film". Choose a movie genre you like, consider your characters, setting/locations, budget, audience, content of the story, your interests help you make a film you like, and quick impression (premise) of your story. Ex. This film is about...
  • Once you have a concept, outline the plot: exposition, rising action, conflict, climax, falling action, resolution, denouement. 
  • Choose one of your plot segments and use the idea to create your scene. Identify where the scene falls in the film, name the characters present, describe the visual part of the scene, identify the key action in the scene, what single line of dialogue is most important in the scene, and what does the character/protagonist or audience learn from this scene? Finally, summarize the scene (just like your premise). Ex. "This scene is about..."
  • Complete 6 shots that occur in your scene (1 shot per box). Draw a representation of what the camera sees in the box, then on the lines below the box, identify the type of shot and/or angle. Use the handout on "The Different Types of Shots" to help you.
Complete the handout for Monday, Feb. 3! See homework below. If you need a sample, look here:
sample storyboards from Do the Right Thing (or see handout for Jurassic Park).

Spike Lee: Examining a Film

As we study film, one thing we will consider, apart from an examination of the history and context of a film, is the auteur or maker of the film. This is often the director, but directors can sometimes star in their own films and also be credited with the authorship of the script. Some directors are also producers--handling all the financial and promotional aspects of the film, as well as the writing, directing, cinematography, editing, and sometimes acting. We will discuss the concept of auteurs later in the course.

Directors like Spike Lee are encouraged to make films for a black audience. Many other actors, directors, and writers begin expanding the ground opened by blaxploitation films, while other black directors are searching for voices that include black experiences or culture, some assimilate the subject, like the most recent films: Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018), Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) and A Wrinkle in Time (Ava DuVernay, 2018), while others continue to examine Black cinema's traditional themes of racism, slavery and freedom (Amistad (directed by Steven Spielberg, 1997), Belle (Amma Asante, 2013), Dear White People (Justin Simien, 2014) Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2015), and Mudbound (Dee Rees, 2017) as just a few examples.

In any case, Spike Lee's films helped pave the way for black directors and writers in feature films. His films are often thoughtful, satiric, violent, and sexist. They represent the times in which they were made (for example life in the late 1980's in the film we will watch), but remain important reminders of how far and how far we still need to go on the issues of race and inclusive culture in the U.S. Here are a few sample films from Spike Lee.
Do the Right Thing (1989); Read the background information about the film. See the script handout and notice the way a film script is formatted. Script to Screen: Do the Right Thing

HOMEWORK: Work on your film concept. Complete and turn in by Monday, Feb. 3. As you watch the film, please complete a film analysis sheet (this can also be found on our Google classroom site). 

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