Before you move to the post below (A Welcome to Film Studies), please print out your play script projects (if you haven't given me your script yet). I will not accept any play after 1st period today. Period. Plays submitted today will count as late, and are no longer eligible for the automatic "A" - since you did not turn them in by Friday, Jan. 28.
Playwrights' Festival:
Those of you who would like to go further with your education concerning plays, have an opportunity to submit one of your plays (10-minute or one-act) to be performed in the Playwrights' Festival. Please fill out the form and submit your play today during 1st period if interested.
Geva's 10-minute play contest is looking for submissions. Print a 10-minute play you wrote this year and submit. Contest rules are in the front of the classroom.
After 1st period, please stop what you're doing and let's prepare for our next course. (See below)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Welcome to Film Studies!
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 complete the following task(s):
Film Studies Commentary by David Bordwell
#1. Essential question: What's the difference between the way a film reviewer (journalist), a film historian, a film scholar, and a film fan evaluate a film?
#2. List your top 10 favorite films of all time.
#3. Name your favorite genres of film. (i,e. what do you prefer to watch?) Why?
Please read the article above, and answer the questions just above in complete sentences by the end of class (required - due today).
HOMEWORK/CLASSWORK:
#1. Please get your course criteria sheets signed.
#2. Please read the handout "Watching Films"
#3. Please enter the following film terms in your notebook/journal before next class.
Using the glossary below, look up the following key film terms and enter them into your required JOURNAL/NOTEBOOK. Call this Vocabulary Entry #1 (Story):
Film Glossary
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 complete the following task(s):
Film Studies Commentary by David Bordwell
#1. Essential question: What's the difference between the way a film reviewer (journalist), a film historian, a film scholar, and a film fan evaluate a film?
#2. List your top 10 favorite films of all time.
#3. Name your favorite genres of film. (i,e. what do you prefer to watch?) Why?
Please read the article above, and answer the questions just above in complete sentences by the end of class (required - due today).
HOMEWORK/CLASSWORK:
#1. Please get your course criteria sheets signed.
#2. Please read the handout "Watching Films"
#3. Please enter the following film terms in your notebook/journal before next class.
Using the glossary below, look up the following key film terms and enter them into your required JOURNAL/NOTEBOOK. Call this Vocabulary Entry #1 (Story):
Auteur
Story
Plot
Diegesis
Narration
Narrative form
Scene
Sequence
Frequency
Motif
Duration
Ellipsis
Order
Space
Viewing Time
Film Glossary
Past Deadline
Thank you to those of you who turned in your play script projects.
For those who have not, please note that the deadline was extended until Friday, Jan. 28. Any plays turned in after Friday (most likely on Monday) will be counted as late with the appropriate reduction in grade. This means the automatic "A" cannot be honored if you did not turn in your play by Friday. Please have plays printed and turned in to me before second period, Jan. 31 (9:05). Plays printed after this point will not be accepted and the grade will be a failing one for the marking period. Unfortunately, this also applies to students absent or tardy on Monday.
For those who have not, please note that the deadline was extended until Friday, Jan. 28. Any plays turned in after Friday (most likely on Monday) will be counted as late with the appropriate reduction in grade. This means the automatic "A" cannot be honored if you did not turn in your play by Friday. Please have plays printed and turned in to me before second period, Jan. 31 (9:05). Plays printed after this point will not be accepted and the grade will be a failing one for the marking period. Unfortunately, this also applies to students absent or tardy on Monday.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Important Notice
Due to our unscheduled seasonal weather and day off, please turn in your play projects by the end of the week (Friday, Jan. 28)
Our lab will be open all day Tuesday through Friday for students interested in completing projects or needing writing assistance.
Our lab will be open all day Tuesday through Friday for students interested in completing projects or needing writing assistance.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Preparing your projects
Monday your play scripts are due.
Before you turn in your scripts, please make sure to do and check the following:
1. Correct your punctuation and grammar. Not only spell checking, but make sure your lines make sense grammatically. Use end punctuation (periods, question marks, em-dashes, exclamation points, etc.) where appropriate. It is a good thing to read your script out loud to catch many of these errors.
2. Shorten long lines for the ease of performing. Actors find shorter lines easier to memorize and say than longer, complex sentences. Short lines also speed the action of the play along (whereas long lines slow down the action).
3. Check your playwriting format. By now, you should know how to correctly format your scripts.
4. The best plays have an interesting and compelling theme: they say something important about life and what it means to be a human being. Consider your message by the end of the play. What is the audience supposed to take from this experience?
HOMEWORK: Check out the review for your "final exam" on Monday. You should study those important terms and recall the plays we've read and be able to match a playwright with the play they wrote.
If you are behind in your writing, please catch up and be ready to complete your projects so that you can turn them in on Monday. Remember that you will also have to take a test on Monday.
Use your time in lab effectively to manage your work.
Before you turn in your scripts, please make sure to do and check the following:
1. Correct your punctuation and grammar. Not only spell checking, but make sure your lines make sense grammatically. Use end punctuation (periods, question marks, em-dashes, exclamation points, etc.) where appropriate. It is a good thing to read your script out loud to catch many of these errors.
2. Shorten long lines for the ease of performing. Actors find shorter lines easier to memorize and say than longer, complex sentences. Short lines also speed the action of the play along (whereas long lines slow down the action).
3. Check your playwriting format. By now, you should know how to correctly format your scripts.
4. The best plays have an interesting and compelling theme: they say something important about life and what it means to be a human being. Consider your message by the end of the play. What is the audience supposed to take from this experience?
HOMEWORK: Check out the review for your "final exam" on Monday. You should study those important terms and recall the plays we've read and be able to match a playwright with the play they wrote.
If you are behind in your writing, please catch up and be ready to complete your projects so that you can turn them in on Monday. Remember that you will also have to take a test on Monday.
Use your time in lab effectively to manage your work.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Review for Final Exam
The Final Exam for Playwriting may cover the following items, please review:
The plays:
Nzotake Shange: For Colored Girls...Rainbow is Enuf
Dael Orlandersmith: Monster
Jane Martin: Talking With
Peter Shaffer: Amadeus
Anthony Shaffer & Harold Pinter: Sleuth
Charles Ludlam: Mystery of Irma Vep
Harold Pinter: The Dumbwaiter
Mitch Albom: Tuesdays with Morrie
Charles Busch: Psycho Beach Party; Vampire Lesbians of Sodom; Lady in Question; Red Scare on Sunset
Christopher Durang: (particularly: Desire, Desire, Desire; For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, Death Comes to Us All Mary Agnes, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You, The Actor's Nightmare, Titanic, 'dentity Crisis, The Life and Purpose of the Universe)
August Wilson: Fences; The Piano Lesson
Proper script format
Play Vocabulary:
Premise: a deeply held belief by the playwright which shapes a script.
From handout: chp. 3 'Structure, Part One: story and plot':
One act plays
Full length plays (2, 3, 4, or 5 act)
Monologues/Soliloquies
Cross-dressing and theatrical tradition (blog)
Generating ideas for plays (from handout & blog)
Absurdism (blog)
Commedia dell'Arte (blog)
Farce
From Handout: 'Structure, Part two: creativity, scenario, & writing'
The Event: a uniquely significant moment in the character's lives
Time lock: setting up a time limit or specific deadline characters have to meet in order to spur them into action (for example having a script project due...)
French scenes
Place & setting
Theme
Scenario: an outline for a writer to identify major/minor characters, plot, and setting used BEFORE writing a script
Catalyst: the event in the play that causes a character to take action
Positive Motivation
Character flaw
need vs. desire
Creating credible characters
Protagonist
Antagonist
Subtext: what is not said in a character's line. The subtext are the subtle details or clues used by the actor to develop their character.
Beat: a short exchange of dialogue
Backstory
A Confidant: a character the protagonist or antagonist can talk with to reveal necessary backstory
Verisimilitude: the semblance of truth in characters and setting. "a king should act like a king, not a foul-mouthed beggar."
The plays:
Nzotake Shange: For Colored Girls...Rainbow is Enuf
Dael Orlandersmith: Monster
Jane Martin: Talking With
Peter Shaffer: Amadeus
Anthony Shaffer & Harold Pinter: Sleuth
Charles Ludlam: Mystery of Irma Vep
Harold Pinter: The Dumbwaiter
Mitch Albom: Tuesdays with Morrie
Charles Busch: Psycho Beach Party; Vampire Lesbians of Sodom; Lady in Question; Red Scare on Sunset
Christopher Durang: (particularly: Desire, Desire, Desire; For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, Death Comes to Us All Mary Agnes, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You, The Actor's Nightmare, Titanic, 'dentity Crisis, The Life and Purpose of the Universe)
August Wilson: Fences; The Piano Lesson
Proper script format
Play Vocabulary:
Premise: a deeply held belief by the playwright which shapes a script.
From handout: chp. 3 'Structure, Part One: story and plot':
Aristotle's six elements of plays: plot, character, diction (dialogue), thought (theme), spectacle, song/musicTen minute play format
Conflict
Structural Unity: all parts of the plot (exposition, rising action, turning point, climax, resolution, etc.) should work and fit together.
Inciting Incident: the point of attack, the inciting incident forces the protagonist into the action of the play's plot.
Major Dramatic Question (MDQ): the hook that keeps an audience interested in a play; a dramatic question that a reader/viewer wants answered.
Major decision: A decision a character makes in the plot that creates the turning point for their character.
The three C's: Conflict, crisis, complication: obstacles characters must face for an interesting and dramatic plot.
Rising Action
The dark moment/crisis: the lowest moment of a character's struggle--when all the world seems lost, the fight unbeatable, the "darkest hour before dawn" -- a stunning reversal of fortune and sense of failure.
Deus ex machina: a contrived ending. Often one in which the characters did not have a hand in solving. (It is more interesting to see a character deal with their own problems rather than an outside force solving it for them.) literally, a "god from a machine"
Enlightenment: When the protagonist understands how to defeat the antagonist. A revelation that begins the movement toward a climax.
Climax
Catharsis
One act plays
Full length plays (2, 3, 4, or 5 act)
Monologues/Soliloquies
Cross-dressing and theatrical tradition (blog)
Generating ideas for plays (from handout & blog)
Absurdism (blog)
Commedia dell'Arte (blog)
Farce
From Handout: 'Structure, Part two: creativity, scenario, & writing'
The Event: a uniquely significant moment in the character's lives
Time lock: setting up a time limit or specific deadline characters have to meet in order to spur them into action (for example having a script project due...)
French scenes
Place & setting
Theme
Scenario: an outline for a writer to identify major/minor characters, plot, and setting used BEFORE writing a script
Catalyst: the event in the play that causes a character to take action
Positive Motivation
Character flaw
need vs. desire
Creating credible characters
Protagonist
Antagonist
Subtext: what is not said in a character's line. The subtext are the subtle details or clues used by the actor to develop their character.
Beat: a short exchange of dialogue
Backstory
A Confidant: a character the protagonist or antagonist can talk with to reveal necessary backstory
Verisimilitude: the semblance of truth in characters and setting. "a king should act like a king, not a foul-mouthed beggar."
Plays, Contests, & the Playwrights' Festival
Your play drafts are due Monday, Jan. 24. No late scripts will be accepted, so please plan accordingly. Use your time in lab this week to get your plays written, proofread, and formatted correctly.
Also, please consider submitting fiction or poetry to Sokol, Lelia Tupper, & Gannon writing contests.
AND: want to see your own play produced by your peers? Consider submitting one or more of your scripts to me for the Playwrights' Festival (opens in March). I need to select the scripts being produced by the end of the month.
Playwrights' Festival scripts should be formatted correctly, relatively free of errors, and able to be produced in the black box theater.
Also, please consider submitting fiction or poetry to Sokol, Lelia Tupper, & Gannon writing contests.
AND: want to see your own play produced by your peers? Consider submitting one or more of your scripts to me for the Playwrights' Festival (opens in March). I need to select the scripts being produced by the end of the month.
Playwrights' Festival scripts should be formatted correctly, relatively free of errors, and able to be produced in the black box theater.
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