Student Curiosity Questions #1

Students generated the following Curiosity Questions while viewing Martin Scorsese's Personal Journey Through American Movies.

• 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?