COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Text Book

Gianetti, Louis, 2005 Understanding Movies Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ

Beatty, John 1982 "Eleanor Rigby: Structure in the Arts" in Centerpoint, NY

Papers and Exams

The will be two quizzes, a final and two assignmentss

Assignments

Assignments are to be submitted as hard copies – no electronically transmitted papers are accepted. Papers are due on the assigned date. The paper should have on it your name, the course number and the term in which you are taking the course. Late papers (any paper which arrives after the due date) will be given a grade with no comments and there will be no discussion about the paper. Papers which arrive later than the next class meeting will lose one letter grade for each week they are late.

Plagiarism

Although the assignmnt are to be done without any reference to outside sources, any material which comes from an outside MUST be cited. Failure to do so is plagiarism and will result in a failing grade for the paper and possible the course. See the college Bulletin for rules about plagiarism.

Late Assignments

Assignmets which are turned in late MUST be accompanied by a major functioning internal organ. This specifically excludes tonsils and appendix and in many cases the brain which is not a functining organ or you wouldn't be worrying about late papers. You may in place of an internal organ submit the skin (which is more or less external) - as long as I get all of it.

Quizzes and Exams

There will be two quizzes (15 minutes) which will be in a short answer format (fill ins, true false multiple choice, identify)

The FINAL EXAM: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 21. STUDENTS ARRIVING MORE THAN 5 MINUTES LATE WILL NOT BE ADMITTED TO THE FINAL

The final and paper will count 40% of the grade each and each quiz will be 10%.

The purpose of the class is to get students tto (a) understand and do text analysis (b) understand how photographic (especially motion picture photographic techniques tell the story or help tell the story – that is to say how we see things in the film. Whatever writing done in this class should emphasize film techniques, not summarizing the plot. The should specifically discuss camera placement, kinds of camera movement, types of focus, and editing techniques. Other techniques such as dress codes and to some degree even lighting should be considered ancillary. In effect you should analysis should reflect the fact that you have seen a film – not a stage play and not just listened to a radio broadcast.

Goals

Since the primary goal of the course is to discover the techniques by which films send messages. Film is a photographic medium and as such students need to understand the visual language used by film makers to tell the story. There is no doubt that text (whether in the form of intertitles or sound dialog is important, the basic focus is on film (visual) techniques. These basically fall into two categories – those which have to do with the organization of the material in the frame (the equivalent of a painting or snapshot) and those which have to do with time – that is to say those techniques which occur because a film has a temporal dimension to it. These techniques include such things as camera movement (panning, dollies etc.), changes in focal lengths (zooming), and editing,

ASSIGNMENT I:

Take the first sequence or a climactic sequence in a film and tell:

ASSIGNMENT 2

Find a sequence in a film in which information is given to the audience ONLY visually. What kind of information is given, (data, metaphor etc.); how is it relayed to the audience; how does it relate (or how is it necessary) to the rest of film. Use as a guide the information from class about The Third Man.

E-mails

If you contact me by e-mail put your full name and course number on the e-mail. Do NOT e-mail me asking me questions that are answered in the syllabus or the schedule of classes (e.g. "When is the final?")

Do NOT e-mail to tell me you are sick or going to miss class. I don't care why you miss it. You are allowed no more than TWO abscences - period. the reason is insignificant. If you miss a third class you get an "F" for the course. I don't need to know you are not coming to class. I will figure that out whe I take the attendance.

Get the notes from someone in the class and from the web site (see below). If you do not understand something, ask me but do not expect me to do the class over again for you.

Attendance and Lateness

Departmental policy allows you two absences a term. Since classes meet only 12 times, each absence means you have missed more than a weeks worth of classes.Students who miss more than two classes for whatever reason will fail the course. Students are considered absent if they come more than 15 minutes late.

Cell Phones

If you have one, turn the damn thing off! 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. Your cell phone will also be destroyed. No joke.

WEB SITE There is a web site for the course which you can find in one of two ways: (a) by going to http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/anthro/jbeatty/COURSES/sex_in_film/opener.html

(b) go to johnbeatty.name, then click on "film courses". There will appear a kind of psychdelict "tic-tac-toe". In the yellow box in the top center under "Winter Intersession 2009", click on "Film 1: Lamnguage of Film 1" and go from there.