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Comprehensive overview of film process to introduce non-theatre students to theoretical and critical frameworks of film-making, acting and directing. Lectures with film viewings will focus on screen performance as the means of dramatic communication. Fundamentals of Film Theory will be introduced. Papers: midterm, final and two "subject" papers. (Film Minor requirement. Cross-listing with JB and English Depts.)

Topics: 20th century: Post-Gutenberg Visual Universe. Global Village and film language. Performance -- nonverbal communications. Performance and Audience; Social Art and Audience Society. Film Actor: Story through the Character. Acting on Camera, for the Camera, Screen Performance. Method Acting and Cinema. Acting Styles and Stars. Social models and the cult of celebrities. Genres: Action, Drama, Thriller.

The Art of Watching Films by Joseph Boggs, 3rd Ed.

Texts (on reserve):

Recommended: Sergei Eisenstein _Film Form_ (Essays in Film Theory)

Seven Chapters for serious students:
Through Theatre to Cinema (Elements of Film Language), The Filmic Fourth Dimension (Time-Space), A Dialectic Approach to Film Form (Conflict), The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram (Shots), Methods of Montage (Cuts), The Structure of the Film (Style), Film Language (Potemkin)

Films:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Godfather
Dreams
Potemkin
Wild Strawberries
Romeo & Juliet (1996)
Amadeus
8 1/2
Pulp Fiction
Rublev by Tarkovsky

COURSE REQUIREMENT:
* CLASS PARTICIPATION IN DISCUSSION, DEBATE, AND CLASS ACTIVITY
* PERSONAL CONFERENCES (2)
* COMPLETION OF READING ASSIGNMENTS PRIOR TO CLASS
* REQUIRED ATTENDANCE AT ALL CLASS FILM SCREENING
* COMPLETION OF FOUR (4) PAPERS
* TWO TESTS

SCHEDULE:

Class One[1] (210 min)

Intro. Film: History of New Medium -- Seven Ages of Film. Cinema and Other Arts. Boggs Ch. 1 - FILM ANALYSIS (The Art of Watching Films)

Films and/or Movies. Concept: Dramatic Structure into Film Language. Storytelling in Film. Dramatic composition. Exposition-Climax-Resolution. Segmentation. Scenes and episodes. _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_.

Class Two[2]

Aristotle at the movies: Idea, Plot and Character. Conflict and Action. Themes. Boggs Ch.2 - THEME AND FOCUS

Script and Screen. [Eisenstein: _Through Theatre to Cinema_.] Scenes and Plot: Mise-en-Scene I. Primary Motion. _A Streetcar Named Desire_*: Williams and Brando.

Class Three[3]

Images and Symbols. Pictures in Motion. Boggs Ch.3 -- Fictional & Dramatic Elements

[Eisenstein _The Filmic Fourth Dimension_] Time-space in film. _The Godfather_. FIRST TEST (Home-take).
Also, see Books

Class Four[4]

Secondary Motion? Camera acts. Boggs Ch. 4 -- Visual Elements

[Eisenstein _A Dialectic Approach to Film Form_] Camera and POV. Conflict. Shots and Cuts. Directing and Editing. _Terminator_* FIRST SUBJECT PAPER DUE (3 pp. min).

Read textbook chapters before your class!

Class Five[5]

Four Dimensional World. Visual Composition. Boggs Ch. 5 -- Color

[Eisenstein _The Cinematic Principle and the Ideogram_] Framing, camerawork, cinematography. _Wild Strawberries_* Individual Conferences. FINAL RESEARCH PAPER TOPIC ASSIGNED.

Class Six[6]

Director, Camera, Actors. Styles -- overview. Sound, contra-point. Boggs Ch. 6 -- Sound & Dialogue

[Eisenstein _Methods of Montage_] POV and Mise en Scene II: _Pulp Fiction_* MIDTERM PAPER DUE (6 pp. min).

Class Seven[7]

Shades of Realism. Genres. [Boggs Ch. 7 -- The Music Score] Ch. 8 -- Acting

Character Relationships: Method Acting and Cinema. Actor: Performance as a non-verbal communication. _Amadeus_*; Drama on stage and screen: Adaptations.

Class Eight[8]

Director: color, drama, composition, style and etc. Boggs Ch. 9 -- The Director's Style (Review Concept)

[Eisenstein _The Structure of the Film_] _8 1/2_ Light and Shadows: Physical Reality as a Material.

Watch Films: Use Your Weekends!

Class Nine[9]

Overview. Boggs. Ch. 10 -- Analysis of the Whole Film, Ch. 11 -- Adaptations (Amadeus, A Streetcar Named Desire, Romeo & Juliet)

_The Taming of the Shrew_: Drama and Comedy. SECOND SUBJECT PAPER DUE (3 pp. min).

Class Ten[10]

Shots, Cuts, and Montage. [Boggs Ch. 12 -- Genre, Remakes, and Sequels and Ch. 13 -- Other Special Experiences]

[Eisenstein _Film Language_] Story-boarding: _Battleship Potemkin_ SECOND TEST (open-book, 30 min. in class).

Final paper outline due. Discussion in class. Conferences.

Class Eleven[11]

Universal language. Post-modern theories. [Boggs Ch. 14 - 15]

Society and Films. Dreams* by Kurosawa. FINAL PAPER CONSULTING.

Class Twelve[12]

Basics of Semiology. Signs and meaning. How to "read" film.

Film Poetics. Art Films. Tarkovsky _Andrey Rublev_

Film, Video, Television. Digital Age. Film 600 class preview.

Paper presentation in class. Final Paper (10-15 pp.)

Final Test in Class

GRADING POLICY:

Final Paper 40%
Midterm Paper 20%
Two (2) subject Papers (10% each) 20%
Two (2) Tests (5% each) 10%
Attendance 10%
Missed classes and late papers -- reduced grade!

Other Film Courses at UAF:
English 217 Introduction to the Study of Film, JB 308 Film and TV Criticism, THR 380 Film and Video Directing, JB 105 History of Cinema THR 215 Dramatic Literature

Books Recommended:
Tony Barr _Acting for the Camera_ New York, Harper & Row, 1982.
Charles Marowtiz _The Art of Being: Towards a Theory of Acting_ New York Grove Press, 1974.
Rudolf Arnheim _Visual Thinking_ Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.
Arthur Berger _Seeing is Believing_ Mayfield Publishing Co. 1983
Sergei Eisenstein _Film Sense_ New York: HBJ, 1975.
David Park _The Image of Eternity_ Umass Press, 1980.

HOW TO WORK ON YOUR PAPER

This page is updated throughout the entire semester!

Progress in class? -- Send me email!

Go to Film&Drama Intro page
directing.filmplus.org : director 101

2004 & After new Links in focus: shows projects: Bergman read: books Chekhov, Ibsen, Shakespeare 2007

2005-2006 Theatre UAF Season: Four Farces + One Funeral & Godot'06
Film-North * Anatoly Antohin
© 2007 by vtheatre.net. Permission to link to this site is granted. books.google.com + scholar.google.com

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