James Shokoff (shokoff@fredonia.edu), Department of English, Fenton Hall, State University of New York College at Fredonia, Fredonia, NY 14063.

Introduction to Film

Instructor: James Shokoff
Office: Fenton 264
Office hours: Tu. and Th. 10-11; Wednesday 11-2
Phone: 673-3588
Class meets: Fenton 105, Tu. and Th. 11-12:20

Texts: Giannetti. Understanding Movies (6th ed.)

The Course: The course will be developed mainly through lectures, but you are encouraged to contribute comments and questions. As much as possible, we will try to involve everyone in the process of reading the signs and codes that are the foundations of film as a medium of art and communication. The lectures will be supplemented with discussions, screening of films, and slides. Twice during the semester, everyone will meet with the instructor in a small group to discuss problems of film interpretation.

General College Program: This course fulfills part of the General College Program requirements for Arts and Humanities (Part IIB). It is an historically based, formalistic introduction to the study of basic concepts and problems in analyzing films.

Requirements:
1. Two problem-solving papers in response to F. W. Murnau's The Last Laugh and Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, films we will screen in class. Topics will be assigned in class. Each paper should be no more than 750 words long (three typed pages). The papers are due in class on Thursday, Sept. 29, and Thursday, Nov. 10. [Each paper is worth 25% of your semester grade.]

2. A storyboard project, due on Thurs. December 8. Your job here is to create a storyboard (see pp. 159-183 of Giannetti) for unified sequence for a film that you plan in your imagination. You are limited to no more than 24 images. You may use fewer; if you use more then you will be penalized.

• Follow the pattern of the storyboard in the book by numbering the frames and writing a caption beneath each image. On the first page of your project, write a statement in which you explain what you are trying to accomplish in the sequence. This statement should be no longer than one typed page, double-spaced. This statement is a very important part of your project.
  
• You can create your images by drawing them or by using photographs. One strategy you might use is to buy a 35mm "fun-saver" camera, which is pre-loaded with film and can be used only once. These cameras are available wherever film is sold. Although the finished project is due no later than Thurs. December 8, you may turn in the work earlier. We will discuss this assignment in class on Tues., November 15. Begin work on it early; you will probably find that you will need to revise your thinking as the work develops. [Worth 20% of your semester grade.]

3. A final, essay examination in which you will respond to specific questions about a film viewed on the last day of class and at the examination. The final examination will be held on Friday, Dec. 16, 4-6 PM. [Worth 30% of your semester grade.]

4. Attendance is important. The films and slides we see are texts that cannot be read at any other time than class meetings.

5. Clear writing is a basic requirement in all written work. It will have an effect on the grades you receive on the papers, the storyboard, and the final examination.

6. Adherence to the Guidelines for Papers and Examinations sheet that will be distributed during the first week of classes. If you do not follow these Guidelines, your work may be penalized.

Schedule

8/30: Introduction to the course.

Film: Basic Film Terms. Sometime during the semester, watch Citizen Kane (available in Reed Library or at video rental stores) and read Chapter 12 of Giannetti.

9/1: Origins of cinema and mechanics of cinema. Chapter 1.

9/6: Shots. Slide illustrations. Chapter 8.
9/8: Film: F. W. Murnau's The Last Laugh. Problem paper #1 assigned.

9/13: Film: The Last Laugh (concluded). Chapter 9.
9/15: Divided class.

Groups of eight or nine selected students will meet for 30 minutes to discuss The Last Laugh. One group will meet at 11, another at 11:40. Two other groups will be scheduled to meet on Friday at a place to be announced. You need attend the meeting of your group only in lieu of the 9/15 and 9/20 class meetings.

9/20: Divided class. Two more groups meet, one at 11 and one at 11:40.
9/22: Shots. Chapter 6.

9/27: Shots. Film: One-Eyed Men Are Kings.
9/29: Mise-en-scene. Paper #1 is due. Chapter 2.

10/4: Mise-en-scene. Film: One-Eyed Men Are Kings (again). Chapter 3.
10/6: Mid-term break. No classes.

10/11: Mise-en-scene. Chapter 7.
10/13: Videotape of film: Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde.

Assign problem paper #2.

10/18: Videotape of film: Bonnie and Clyde (concluded).
10/20: Divided class.

Groups will meet at 11 and 11:40 to discuss Bonnie and Clyde.

Other groups will meet on Friday, 10/21, at times and places to be announced.

10/25: Follow Friday's schedule. No class for us.
10/27: To be announced.

11/1: Realism and Expressionism (Formalism).

Films by the Lumière brothers and Georges Méliès. Review Chapter 1.

11/3: Editing (montage, cutting). Chapter 4.

11/8: Editing.

Film: the Odessa Steps sequence from Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. Chapter 10.

11/10: Editing.

Film: the Diving Sequence from Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia. Problem paper #2 is due.

11/15: Sound. Storyboard project will be discussed.

Film TBA. Chapter 5 and review Chapter 9.

11/17: Sound.

Thanksgiving Break, 11/21-25.

11/29: Sound. Film: de Columb's Dream of the Wild Horses.
12/1: Review session. Group discussions.

Film: La Grande Breteche. Chapter 11.

12/6: Review session. Group discussions.

Film: Jean Renoir's A Day in the Country.

12/8: Review session. Group discussions.

Film: Robert Enrico's Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Storyboards are due no later than today; they may be turned in earlier.

12/13: Screening:

First part of a feature-length film that will be the basis of the final examination.

12/15: Screening:

Conclude the screening of the film begun on Tuesday.

Evaluation of the course.

12/16: Friday, 4:00-6:00 PM. Fenton 105. Final essay examination.

Be on time. The examination questions will be distributed promptly at the start of the examination. After you have had a reasonable time to read them, you will be shown again a relevant part of the film screened during the last week of classes. This film will be the basis for the questions or problems on the final examination. After the screening, you must respond to the examination problems.

Short Selected Bibliography

Introductions
Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art, 3rd ed.
Harrington, John. Rhetoric of Film.
Monaco, James. How to Read a Film, rev. ed.

Histories
Cook, David. A History of Narrative Film, 2nd ed.
Mast, Gerald. A Short History of Film, 4th ed.

Theory
Mast, Gerald, Marshall Cohen, and Leo Braudy, eds. Film Theory and Criticism, 4th ed.
Nichols, Bill, ed. Movies and Methods, vol 2.

Also
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing.
Braudy, Leo, and Morris Dickstein, eds. Great Film Directors.
Eidsvik, Charles. Cineliteracy.
Gross, Lynne S. and Larry W. Ward. Electronic Moviemaking.
Harrington, John, ed. Film and/as Literature.
Hollander, Anne. Moving Pictures.
Hollander, Anne. Seeing through Clothes.
May, Larry. Screening Out the Past.
Salamon, Julie. The Devil's Candy.
Schatz, Thomas. Hollywood Genres.
Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film, 2nd ed.
Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America.
Weis and Belton, eds. Film Sound: Theory and Practice.

Videotapes on Reserve in Reed Library--During the semester try to view each of these films at least twice. You may want to rent them or buy them for repeated use. All are worth careful study.

Godard: A Bout de Souffle (Breathless)
Reed: The Third Man
Welles: Citizen Kane (Read Chapter 12 of Giannetti, too.)