- How did Scorsese’s childhood environment influence his film (directorial) style?
- How did the different studio styles affect Scorsese and other industry stakeholders?
- How did other art forms affect Scorsese (and other industry stakeholders)?
- How did politics affect directors’ throughout hard economic and war-torn times?
- What are culturally-correct films?
- What tools were involved/used in the process of making film?
- Are feature films made up of thousands/millions of photos put together?
- What does it mean to embrace the technology as it appears?
- Is one’s creative genius embraced or denied when working in Hollywood?
- How did Scorsese decide to become a movie critic?
- Did color film take away from the “art” of black and white movies?
- Why were studios in the 1930s afraid of breaking awy from their formulas and story content?
- What kind of movies (genres) were the most popular throughout the decades, and how does that correlate to what was going on in history during the time?
- How did power in the movie industry shift away from the producers?
- How did the iconoclasts of the early years of movie making influence the industry?
- How did the growth of film affect the need for jobs in the industry?
- How did camera manipulation and tech. advances change film?
- What different camera shot styles were typically used and for what effect (in a given film, genre, or time period)?
- Why did MGM, Paramount, and Warner Brothers force directors and producers to fit the style of the company? Why were rebels punished so severely?
- How has “movie language” evolved over time?
- How and why did computers become involved in movie making?
- How does one take the risk of inserting innovative camera technology, style, or language?
- How did large corporations take over the film industry?
- What role did music play in the development of film?
- Who makes the decisions about color, music, or other technological features in a film?
- How and when did non-white, non-mainstream actors enter the film industry? Who were the break-through artists? How and when did non-mainstream directors find a place in the industry.
- What makes a great director or film?
- How have film editing trends changed over time and how have they influenced the industry?
- How did companies like MGM and Paramount gain so much power in the industry?
- How has the funding system for movie making changed since the birth of the industry?
- What did the actors have to do to successfully transfer from silent to sound films?
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Student Curiosity Questions #1
Students generated the following Curiosity Questions while viewing Martin Scorsese's Personal Journey Through American Movies.
Course Syllabus
Cinema History
Course Guidelines – Quarter Three – 2009-10
In this course, participants will explore, analyze, and discuss film history, movie technology, and the cultural context of cinema by the decades from the late 1800s to WWII. As a group, we will travel through moving picture history to get brief glimpses into the development of this popular media form. This class is not intended to cover all cinema history in depth. It is a survey and discovery class intended to allow students and staff to find areas of interest in film which may lead to further application and research outside of the course.
Course Goals:
• Students will increase their understanding of the cinema industry’s contributions to cultural history in the United States.
• Student will increase their understanding of visual texts in areas of persuasion, metaphorical imagery, and the connection of text to historical and social context.
• Students will increase research, discussion, and writing skills.
• Students will increase academic organization and study skills.
Assessment:
To earn credit in the course, students must:
1. maintain a positive attendance record in the class;
2. pro-actively participate in class discussions on a consistent basis;
Attendance and Participation Check-ins will be completed on a regular basis.
3. respect the film viewing process; (Students discovered sleeping, talking, listening to music, or playing with phone or game devices during film viewing will automatically be marked absent for the class period. Consider this your warning!)
4. complete short assignments in a timely manner according to established guidelines; (Short assignments may take the form of notetaking, short jigsawed reading and sharing sessions, journal entries, discussion questions, observation cards, online resource exploration notes, etc.)
5. complete an independent research project and presentation on a chosen aspect of film history in a timely manner according to established guidelines. (Full Project guidelines will be distributed by Week 4 of the quarter.) Student should expect to do research project homework.
6. follow guidelines for academic integrity. All resources used for research projects or other assignments must be clearly cited and credited. (See note below on plagiarism.)
Plagiarism:
• When a student uses information (words, paper organization, and/or central ideas) from another source without proper citation it is called plagiarism. “You are therefore cautioned (1) against using, word for word, without acknowledgment, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc., from the printed [or online material] of others; (2) against using with only slight changes the materials of another; and (3) against using the general plan, the main headings, or a rewritten form of someone else's material. These cautions apply to the work of other students as well as to the published work of professional writers [either in print or online].” If it is discovered that students “borrow” text from other book reviews, essays, papers, or classmates, it will be considered direct plagiarism and intellectual theft. Such action is in violation of the MMSD Student Code of Conduct and basic guidelines of this course. Students who choose to take such inappropriate action will be required to conference with Denise (and possibly with Aric and parents) and may receive a No Credit grade/evaluation in the course. Policy Source: Weiser, Irwin. “Academic Honesty Statement.” Purdue OWL: Avoiding Plagiarism. Online. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource
Course Organization:
Week One: Pre-10s -- Intro to Class; Scorsese’s Film Retrospective; Historical Outline; Birth of the Industry
Week Two: 1910s -- Early Film Technology; Edison, Lumiere, Melies, Porter, various clips
Week Three: 1920s -- New Technologies; The Silent Film Era; 1920s Historical Context;
Murnau’s Nosferatu, Chaplin’s The Kid, Frank Lloyd’s The Freshman
Week Four: 1920s -- Project Brainstorming; Lang's Metropolis; Sound and Color; Development of the Industry
Week Five: 1930s – Project Questions Due, 1920s/30s Culture Activity, Parent Confs., SWEIO
Week Six: 1930s – Hollywood & the Production Code, Capra film (TBA), Academy Awards, Project Resource #1 due
Week Seven: early 1940s -- World Context and Influence on Style, Academy Awards, Wells’s Citizen Kane, Project Resource #2 due
Week Eight: Project Work (Resources 3&4 + Outline + Final Product) and Presentations
Week Nine: Finish Presentations, Evals, Course Closure
Basic Class Stuff
Work Completion:
• Students must complete ALL assignments within the task guidelines to earn credit, unless otherwise noted by Denise. Due dates are firm in this class. If a grace period is needed, a student must confer with Denise before the due date to work out a strategic plan for assignment completion. Due date extension agreements are made on a case by case basis. (Students with documented special education writing concerns must have a dialogue with Denise about those concerns in the first week of the course. Permission for extensions must be in line with a student’s IEP.)
Attendance Requirements:
• It is each student’s responsibility to ask for any assignments or responsibilities missed due to absences. Please do this on the day you return to class.
• The Shabazz attendance policy will be strictly enforced in all classes. Remember that all tardies are accounted for (3 tardies = 1 absence). Students arriving more than 15 minutes late will be marked absent. Students accruing more than 6 absences will no longer be eligible for credit in the class. Because this course is discussion, participation, and limited-film-viewing-based, DELAYED CREDIT IS NOT POSSIBLE.
Course Guidelines – Quarter Three – 2009-10
In this course, participants will explore, analyze, and discuss film history, movie technology, and the cultural context of cinema by the decades from the late 1800s to WWII. As a group, we will travel through moving picture history to get brief glimpses into the development of this popular media form. This class is not intended to cover all cinema history in depth. It is a survey and discovery class intended to allow students and staff to find areas of interest in film which may lead to further application and research outside of the course.
Course Goals:
• Students will increase their understanding of the cinema industry’s contributions to cultural history in the United States.
• Student will increase their understanding of visual texts in areas of persuasion, metaphorical imagery, and the connection of text to historical and social context.
• Students will increase research, discussion, and writing skills.
• Students will increase academic organization and study skills.
Assessment:
To earn credit in the course, students must:
1. maintain a positive attendance record in the class;
2. pro-actively participate in class discussions on a consistent basis;
Attendance and Participation Check-ins will be completed on a regular basis.
3. respect the film viewing process; (Students discovered sleeping, talking, listening to music, or playing with phone or game devices during film viewing will automatically be marked absent for the class period. Consider this your warning!)
4. complete short assignments in a timely manner according to established guidelines; (Short assignments may take the form of notetaking, short jigsawed reading and sharing sessions, journal entries, discussion questions, observation cards, online resource exploration notes, etc.)
5. complete an independent research project and presentation on a chosen aspect of film history in a timely manner according to established guidelines. (Full Project guidelines will be distributed by Week 4 of the quarter.) Student should expect to do research project homework.
6. follow guidelines for academic integrity. All resources used for research projects or other assignments must be clearly cited and credited. (See note below on plagiarism.)
Plagiarism:
• When a student uses information (words, paper organization, and/or central ideas) from another source without proper citation it is called plagiarism. “You are therefore cautioned (1) against using, word for word, without acknowledgment, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc., from the printed [or online material] of others; (2) against using with only slight changes the materials of another; and (3) against using the general plan, the main headings, or a rewritten form of someone else's material. These cautions apply to the work of other students as well as to the published work of professional writers [either in print or online].” If it is discovered that students “borrow” text from other book reviews, essays, papers, or classmates, it will be considered direct plagiarism and intellectual theft. Such action is in violation of the MMSD Student Code of Conduct and basic guidelines of this course. Students who choose to take such inappropriate action will be required to conference with Denise (and possibly with Aric and parents) and may receive a No Credit grade/evaluation in the course. Policy Source: Weiser, Irwin. “Academic Honesty Statement.” Purdue OWL: Avoiding Plagiarism. Online. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource
Course Organization:
Week One: Pre-10s -- Intro to Class; Scorsese’s Film Retrospective; Historical Outline; Birth of the Industry
Week Two: 1910s -- Early Film Technology; Edison, Lumiere, Melies, Porter, various clips
Week Three: 1920s -- New Technologies; The Silent Film Era; 1920s Historical Context;
Murnau’s Nosferatu, Chaplin’s The Kid, Frank Lloyd’s The Freshman
Week Four: 1920s -- Project Brainstorming; Lang's Metropolis; Sound and Color; Development of the Industry
Week Five: 1930s – Project Questions Due, 1920s/30s Culture Activity, Parent Confs., SWEIO
Week Six: 1930s – Hollywood & the Production Code, Capra film (TBA), Academy Awards, Project Resource #1 due
Week Seven: early 1940s -- World Context and Influence on Style, Academy Awards, Wells’s Citizen Kane, Project Resource #2 due
Week Eight: Project Work (Resources 3&4 + Outline + Final Product) and Presentations
Week Nine: Finish Presentations, Evals, Course Closure
Basic Class Stuff
Work Completion:
• Students must complete ALL assignments within the task guidelines to earn credit, unless otherwise noted by Denise. Due dates are firm in this class. If a grace period is needed, a student must confer with Denise before the due date to work out a strategic plan for assignment completion. Due date extension agreements are made on a case by case basis. (Students with documented special education writing concerns must have a dialogue with Denise about those concerns in the first week of the course. Permission for extensions must be in line with a student’s IEP.)
Attendance Requirements:
• It is each student’s responsibility to ask for any assignments or responsibilities missed due to absences. Please do this on the day you return to class.
• The Shabazz attendance policy will be strictly enforced in all classes. Remember that all tardies are accounted for (3 tardies = 1 absence). Students arriving more than 15 minutes late will be marked absent. Students accruing more than 6 absences will no longer be eligible for credit in the class. Because this course is discussion, participation, and limited-film-viewing-based, DELAYED CREDIT IS NOT POSSIBLE.
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