The RotMI Research Project

Oh, boy! It's time to write a research paper!

Test on Tuesday, 3/13

The test will focus on Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, Weijun Chen’s Please Vote For Me, Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run, and the key terms and concepts from chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

Along with the general plot and character developments of the films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Jaws: genre: thriller; metonymy; the "Jaws Shot"; triadic composition as motif; long take; DVD special features; story structure; how sound contributes to both mood and character; cameo; Quint's monologue on the USS Indianapolis. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Please Vote For Me: Similarities in the 3 candidates’ home lives; candidates’ strengths and weaknesses; who wins the election and what factors help that person? Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics, epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, pastiche, crane or boom shot, chaos theory/butterfly effect, motifs (spirals, etc.), montage, red filter, freeze frame, web of life plot, Lola as hero. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• Key Terms and the Effects They Create: visual rhetoric; cut; dissolve; long take; eye-line match; deep focus; soft (shallow) focus; diegetic, non-diegetic & internal diegetic sound; authorial & subjective points of view; visual, audio, and text tracks in documentaries; film style spectrum (realism, classicism, formalism) and documentary film style spectrum--and EVERYTHING FROM CHAPTER ONE of our textbook! 

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Monday, 3/12 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 40% multiple choice / 20% mini-essay on documentary film style / 40% short answers

Good luck!