Test on Monday, October 19

The test will focus on Gus Van Sant's's Good Will Hunting, Weijun Chen's Please Vote for Me, 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 aspects, 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; 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 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? Documentary as genre: what's the purpose of a documentary? What did this film enlighten you about? 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, internal diegetic, and non-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 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, 10/15  in room 452.

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

Good luck! 

Test on Friday, 5/22

The test will focus on Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, the Student Choice film for your period, 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 (especially regarding the Classical Paradigm and narrative structure). 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 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, talkies, 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 Some Like It Hot: Comic structure (beginning with social upheaval and ending in harmony), comedy as "serious fun," 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, phallic symbol, 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 Thursday, 5/21 in room 452.

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

Good luck!

Revised Schedule!

Because of inclement weather, our first test will be on Monday, March 23 (Period 9 ONLY). 

For both Periods 1 and 9:

Read chapter 2 of our textbook, Understanding Movies, for Tuesday, March 24. Complete the fill-in-the-blank handout. Expect a short Reading Reward (QUIZ) at the beginning of the period!

Test on 3/20

The test will focus on Steven Speilberg'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, 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 Jaws: Classical cinema; thriller as genre; metonymy; the "Jaws Shot"; triadic composition as motif; long take; 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 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, clocks, 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? Documentary as genre: what's the purpose of a documentary? 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.

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, 3/19  in room 452.

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

Good luck! 

And the Winner Is...

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

The 6th Annual RotMI Winter Film Festival viewers have spoken! Congratulations to the winners of the coveted Baby Daz in the following categories:

BEST PERFORMANCES
Jacques Stevensohn: International Monster Hunter (Alex, Sammie, Danna)

BEST MUSIC
Betrayal (Luna, Ruby)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Escape and Retribution (Jessica S.)

BEST EDITING
Out of Body Experience (Yun, James P., Soo Hwan, Soo)

BEST COMEDY
The "Best School" in the World (Merdeck, Vik, Justin R., Dylan)

BEST PICTURE and BEST DEATH
Together (Kate, Evan, Fei, Tony, Chu)


Thanks for a great semester, everyone!