| BROOKLYN COLLEGE | FILM DEPARTMENT | FALL 2005 |
| FILM ONE: LANGUAGE OF FILM | COURSE OUTLINE | JOHN BEATTY |
Introduction
The aspect of the course which deals with the language of film is the primary focus of the course. The goal is to strengthen your abilities to analyze films by developing the skills to see how films tell stories. The lectures will concern themselves with the techniques used by film makers to tell stories. In addition to looking at films and analyzing them, students are required to read the text book and do the assignments required (see below).
Course Requirements
Textbook:
Barsam, Richard 2004 Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film W. W. Norton and Company New York
Museum Trip:
Each student is required to go to the Brooklyn Museum or Metropolitan Museum of Art, and choose a single painting to discuss in a short paper. The paper should give the title and artist and where the painting is located within the museum. You should explain how the artist conveys meaning through the painting. The paper should explain what the picture seems to be “saying” and how the artist manages to tell the story visually. Consider such things as lighting, composition, subject matter, symbolism etc.
What can you say about the way the painting is displayed? How might this parallel where you see a film?
The students should use as the basis for the paper a painting by any major Western artist. It is advisable to look at some non-western art as well and see if you can come to any conclusions about the different approaches taken by non-western artists in creating their works.
It might be interesting to note that at least two films, The Girl with One Pearl Earring and Bedlam are inspired by paintings.
Papers
Each paper should be 3-5 pages in length.
The first paper requires that you use the painting that you examined at the museum, and compare it with a single shot from a film we have not watched in class. Compare the ways in which the two use similar techniques and the ways in which the film techniques differ from those used in the painting. Explain how each “tells the story” through its techniques.The paper is due October 7.
The second paper requires that you choose three aspects (techniques) of film making and how they advance the story. One of the easiest ways to do this is to take a sound film and turn the sound off and watch the film. How does the film advance the story. You may if you like, discuss sound, but NOT dialogue.
Final Exam
There is a final exam for the course which is scheduled for Monday, the 19th of Dec. at 3:30. Plan to be there. There are NO exemptions for having bought plane tickets for the winter recess. Failure to show up for the exam results in an incomplete which has to be taken the next term (for an additional fee). You will also have forgotten everything about the course by that time.
Cell Phones
Turn the damn thing off if you have one. If the phone goes off during class it is an automatic “F” in the course, plus expulsion from the college and a slow painful death. You cell phone will also be destroyed. No joke.
CHANGES IN FILM AND ORDER OF TOPIC ARE POSSIBLE
WEEK DATE TOPIC FILM (Tentative) 1 Sept. 2 Precursors to film
Early film Lumière and Méliès 2 Sept. 9 The plot thickens The Great Train Robbery, Trip to the Moon 3 Sept. 16 Editing and Montage Strike, Apocalypse Now, Bowling for Columbine 4 Sept. 23 Sets and Costumes Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr, Caligari) 5 Sept. 30 Symbolism 2001: A Space Odyssey 6 Oct. 7 Lighting Apocalypse Now 7 Oct. 14 Sound/Music The Haunting 8 Oct. 21 Photography andComposition Cat People or Curse of the Demon 9 Oct. 28 Some complexities The Innocents 10 Nov. 5 Narrative Structure Memento 11 Nov. 12 Acting Night of the Hunter 12 Nov. 19 Putting it All Together Citizen Kane 13 Dec. 2 The "Question" of Genre High Noon or Sunset Blvd. 14 Dec. 9 What Happens in Other Cultures? Rashomon