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!

Test on Thursday, 10/24

The test will focus on Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting,  Weijun Chen's Please Vote for Me, Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and the key terms and concepts from chapters 1 and 8 from our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, the definition of RotMI, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Good Will Hunting: Classical film style; title credits; puns in the title?; kaleidoscopic view; attachment disorder; bird's-eye shot; slow motion photography; painterly vs. linear style; visual repetitions (motifs); final images for the 4 major relationships in the film; final shot; long take; attachment disorder as a psychological term. 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 Please Vote For Me: Documentary Style Spectrum: What are the qualities of a formalistic documentary vs. a realistic one? 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 Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic and non-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, 10/23 in room 452.

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

Good luck!

CRASH: Rate the Film

• Period 6 Survey

• Period 7 Survey

Test on Wednesday, 5/22

The test will focus on Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and the Student Choice Film for our class period (Period 7: Gus Van Sant’s Milk or Period 6: Michael Blieden’s Super High Me). Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, the definition of RotMI, 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 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 Modern Times: silent film, inter-title, characterization of “The Tramp,” episodic structure, motifs, sight gags and slapstick, final shot. DVD Special Features: deleted scene, original ending, all voices filtered through technology and 24 frames per second (fps). Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Do The Right Thing: title credits; match cut; breaking the fourth wall; litany; episodic story structure; montage; racial tensions in NYC; Spike Lee's DVD Special Features. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 
• In Milk (Period 6 ONLY): Characterization of Harvey Milk; setting of the film (social fabric); story structure; cinematic aspects; the general plot.
• In Super High Me (Period 7 ONLY): Documentary film style; the film’s purpose and final observations; the general plot.   

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 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, 5/21 in room 452.

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

Good luck!

Test on Wed., 4/10

The test will focus on Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run, Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest and the key terms and concepts from chapters 2 and 8 from our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, the definition of RotMI, 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 our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• 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, crane or boom shot, steadicam, chaos theory, 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.
• In North By Northwest: director's cameo; day for night shooting; femme fatale; MacGuffin; final cut privileges; title credits; parody; montage; characterization and compression; visual irony; phallic symbol; visual foreshadowing; character subtext; "stealing a shot"; film subtexts; matte shot; "Becoming George Kaplan"; "The Matchless Eve Kendall"; "Murder scenes shot lovingly and love scenes shot murderously"; epiphany and character arc; how tension and suspense are created in "The Crop Dusting Scene." 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.
• 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 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, 4/9 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 40% multiple choice / 20% mise en scene analysis / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Research Paper Requirements

Here's just about everything you need to know about the research paper. (Open the images in a new window or tab to enlarge it before printing.)