WATCHING CLOSELY . . .

Due Dates:  (these can be handed in before the due date if it works for you better to not have weekend HW)

Wednesday, 3/12

Monday, 3/17

Monday, 3/24

A loss of 10 pts for each late day.  Not accepted after a week late.

Goal:

• To watch quality films you haven’t seen in order to become a more aware, more critical viewer and film-maker
• To watch films closely to better understand what goes into making a good shot and telling a story well visually.
• To inspire your own film-making process!

Assignment: Watch 3 films from the movie list (separate handout) and write about them in complete sentences, using all the questions below.  You will need to watch with paper or laptop handy so as not to forget things you’ll need to include in the write-up.  This shouldn’t detract from your  viewing pleasure too much.  Invite some people from class over, pop some corn, and enjoy a good film!  If renting is difficult for you, please talk to me—I can help get some films for you.

**Please type, proofread, and print out by the due date. Label with all these:

• Your Name
• Number/Name of assignment (Watching Closely #1, 2 or 3)
• Date
• Title of film you watched; Director’s name

• How does the first scene (or even the credits) help to create a mood and hint at the plot and theme?  What do you learn about the characters in the first scene?  What is used more—silence and visuals or dialogue?  What is the very first line of the film?    (10 pts.)
• Describe and discuss two scenes or shots that impressed you for their . . . [CHOOSE only 2 of the below].  Discuss each scene in a paragraph   (20 pts.)
• Editing
• Cinematography
• Dialogue: what did you like about the dialogue?
• Special Effect (including sound, lighting, stunt, camera angle)
• Humor—pinpoint why it was funny
• Emotional impact: pinpoint what emotion was pulled from you and why.  What did the director and /actors do to convey what they wanted?  Was it music, camera, acting?  Discuss fully.
• List the 3 Acts (or more) of the film.  What happened, basically, in the rising action, the climax, and the conclusion?  This can be just a short list.  (10 pts.)
• What is the main conflict of the film?  In other words, who isn’t getting what they want?  Is it an internal or external conflict?  Discuss in a 2-3 sentences. (10 pts.)
• How is the conflict resolved?  In other words, how does the film end?  Were you happy with the ending?  What else could have happened?  (10 pts.)
• Describe a puzzling, surprising, or amazing aspect of the film.  You might choose to discuss some symbolism you noticed, or a scene that you thought was unnecessary, too violent, sexist, or otherwise disturbing.  What aspect of this film might you like to emulate in your own film?  What idea/technique could you steal?

              (20 pts.)

• Who would you recommend this film to and why?  Explain in a paragraph, using at least one scene as an example of why you would recommend this film to. . . . (your mom and her friends, me, your friends, you ememies, your cat, etc.)

      (20 pts.)

TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS (if you  hadn’t noticed)=100!

**The more thorough you are, the better you will do on these.  Answer in complete sentences, unless it states otherwise, type, meet the deadlines, and don’t be stingy with your reflections and close observations.

Movie List for WATCHING CLOSELY

You must choose from this list for your three outside film viewings.  Try to watch something you haven’t seen before, from a variety of time periods.  Watch with paper and pen in hand –for note taking (and a big bowl of popcorn in front of you).   Have fun. 

Classics: oldies, but goodies—open your mind to them.  You can’t be a film-maker without knowing what had been done before you:

Anything with Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton  (get an idea of silent films of the past)

Philadelphia Story (Oscar Winner, Best Writing and Actor, 1941)

Casablanca (Oscar Winner for Best Picture, 1944)

Citizen Kane (Oscar Winner for Writing and nominees in Director, Editing, Sound, 1942)

The Third Man (Oscar Winner, Best Cinematography in black and white, 1951)

All About Eve (Oscar Winner, 1951)

Hitchcock’s Rear Window or Vertigo or Psycho

The Graduate (Oscar Winner for Best Director, all others nominees, 1968)

Cool Hand Luke (Nominee Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor, 1968)

Especially good drama:

Brokeback Mountain

Annie Hall—or anything by Woody Allen (Academy award Winner for Best Picture, 1978)

Almost Famous

Chocolat (single mom opens a chocolate shop in French town; nominated best picture)

Manhatten (Allen again)

Chinatown (1974, a detective thriller that takes place in 1930’s LA)

Rocky (Oscar Winner, Best Picture, 1977)

Raging Bull (graphic violence, Oscar Winner: Actor and Editing, 1981)

Taxi Driver (1976; rated R-harsh film; Ebert says, "One of the best and most powerful of all films.")

The Piano  (beautifully shot, disturbing at times;romantic)

Dead Man Walking (based on true story; Susan Sarandon won for best actress )

Dog Day Afternoon (Al Pacino)

Kramer vs. Kramer (divorce battle with Dustin Hoffman; took away numerous academy awards)

The Verdict

Reds (Warren Beaty; reds=communists)

Rain Man (Oscar Winner, Best Picture, 1989)

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Sundance Festival audience Award, 1989)

Driving Miss Daisy (Oscar Winner, Best Picture, 1990)

Good Will Hunting (Oscar Winner: best original screenplay, 1998)

Thelma and Louise

American Beauty  (awarded for best actor, actress, cinematography)

A Beautiful Mind (Oscar Winner, Best Director, Picture, and Adapted Writing, 2002)

You Can Count On Me (Laura Linney, best supporting actress nominee, Best Writing nominee)

Shawshank Redemption

Adaptation  (really interesting film w/ Meryl Streep)

Being John Malkovich

A River Runs Through It

Winter Solstice

Ruby in Paradise (Sundance Festival Jury Prize, 1993)

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (Oscar Winner, Original Screenplay, 2004; wacky)

Pieces of April (great little independent; Oscar nominee for supporting actress, 2004)

Momento (woah, really interesting film about memory)

The Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)

Mystic River (rated R—depressing; Clint Eastwood directed, Oscar Winner: best actor and supporting actor, 2004)

Million Dollar Baby (Oscar Winner: Best Director, Picture, Actress 2005)

Juno (still in theaters--if you haven’t  already seen it; won best screenplay Academy Award this year)

No Country for Old Men (at the Latchis, Coen Brothers; won Academy awards for best picture and director this year)

Comedies:

Harold and Maude (cult comedy, 1971)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (legendary, good-looking outlaws; award-winning screenplay)

Moonstruck (romantic, funny)

When Harry Met Sally

Pleasantville

Ghost World (kind of dark-ish comedy; good independent film; Nominee Best Adapted Screenplay, 2002)

Hannah and her Sisters (Woody Allen)

Fargo (dark comedy, Coen Brothers)

Fantastic foreign films:

• Cinema Paradiso (great Italian film about the power of movies)

• Life is Beautiful (Ebert says, "In the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. But Life Is Beautiful is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit." Julia says, don’t watch unless you want to be reminded of how cruel humans are capable of being)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (dir. by Ang Lee—excellent)
• Woman on a Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
• Run, Lola, Run (great film: an example of a film that was conceived from one image—a woman running down a city street)
• Anything by Truffaut (my bias, but he is well respected)