Test on Friday, 10/24

The test will focus on Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run, Stephen Walker's Young @ Heart, and the key terms and concepts from chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies.  Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Young @ Heart: the documentary style spectrum (characteristics of realism and formalism in nonfiction films), inter-title, cinema verite, reaction shot. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics, the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure, epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, Butterfly Effect, motifs (spirals, time, etc.), montage, flash forward, 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.

• In Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic, non-diegetic, and internal diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, etc.

This is only a general guide and possibly 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 Thursday, 10/23 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Thursday, 5/29

The test will focus on Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and the key terms and concepts from chapter 2 from our textbook, Understanding Movies.  Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image. Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Spirited Away: The typical conventions of animated films; the film’s “eco-message”; motifs involving the importance of name, memory, and identity; Miyazaki’s inspiration for the character of Chihiro; auteur; moments of realism. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Some Like It Hot: Comic structure (beginning with social upheaval), Sugar's songs' lyrics, Screwball Comedy, curtain line, swish pan and its effect as visual rhetoric, filmed in black and white for a reason, parallel editing (crosscutting), using proxemic patterns to create humor, parody, sight gags, slapstick, repartee, situational comedy, sexual innuendo, running gag, dramatic irony, meta-filmic moments. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 

• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"); aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen); iris shot; the dominant; subsidiary contrasts; intrinsic interest; tight vs. loose framing; character placement; composition; proxemic patterns; open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and possibly 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 Wednesday, 5/28 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Thursday, 4/3

The test will focus on Grady and Ewing's Jesus Camp, Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and the key terms and concepts from chapters 1 and 8 from our textbook, Understanding Movies.  Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image.Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Jesus Camp: Documentary Style Spectrum: What are the qualities of a formalistic documentary vs. a realistic one? Where do you put the film on the spectrum between cinema verite and 60 Minutes style documentaries?; in your opinion, does the film merely inform or does it try to persuade? Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 
• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics, the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure, epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, Butterfly Effect, motifs (spirals, time, etc.), montage, flash forward, 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.
• In Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic, non-diegetic, and internal diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, etc.
• In Chapter 8 - Understanding Movies: mimesis, diegesis, avant-garde, plot, story, conventions, genre, classical paradigm (including exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, resolution and closure), linear vs. non linear narratives, realism as style, rites of passage, cinema verite.

This is only a general guide and possibly 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 Wednesday, 4/2 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Key Concepts for Chapter 8

NOTE: NEW DATE FOR QUIZ

There will be a very brief Reading Reward (quiz) on MONDAY, 3/31 on some of the key concepts from Chapter 8 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. The best way to prepare is to thoroughly read Chapter 8, completing the fill-in-the-blank handout (that you received last week) as you go, and focusing on the following terms and concepts:

• Study the general features of these major narrative structures: classical, formalistic, realistic, and nonfictional
• Mimesis & diegesis
• Genre conventions
• The classical paradigm
• Cinema verite
• Rites of passage

Good luck!

Blog Topic #1 - DUE SUNDAY, 3/23 @ 9:00 p.m.

Jesus Camp & the Style Spectrum for Documentaries

Note: You cannot post to this blog from school; you must access it from home. 

Write a well-developed paragraph arguing where you place Jesus Camp on the Style Spectrum for Documentaries. Give Jesus Camp a number from 1-10 and at least 3 specific examples as to why you place the film where you do.

Respond by leaving your paragraph as a COMMENT on this posting by clicking on the "No comments" link below. Once you submit your comment you will be unable to see it until I publish it after the due date.

(I highly recommend writing and saving your paragraph in a word processor and then copying and pasting it into the comment field on this blog page.)

For full credit on this home work assignment, your comment must be a minimum of 1 well-written, well-developed paragraph (5-7 sentences) that follows the criteria above. Comments that are not proofread will receive a zero.

MAKE SURE YOU "SIGN" YOUR COMMENT BY WRITING YOUR FIRST NAME AND LAST INITIAL!

And the Winners Are...

Hollywood's Academy Awards have the Oscar. RotMI has the Baby Daz.

The 5th Annual RotMI Winter Film Festival viewers have spoken! Congratulations to the winners of the coveted Baby Daz in the following categories:

BEST USE OF LIVE ANIMALS
DOGGI - Dream in Color (Kevin, Beni)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY & BEST DEATHS
Pandora's Box (Alex, Tate, Angus, Joe K.)

BEST MUSIC
Admission Transition (Jimmy, Jasmine, Mitchell, Joe Y.)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
More Than A Game (Jeff, Jared H.)

And the winner of three awards...

BEST PICTURE 
BEST PERFORMANCES 
BEST EDITING 
The Date (Austin, Jack, Brian L., Meredith, Serena)

Thanks for a great semester, everyone!