an eiland distance education course

291 Course Calendar

photos of various movies

How To Use The Course Calendar
Using all of this information requires a bit of organization, so follow these general instructions. For each week, begin by reading assigned work from the hard text. There will be rhetoric and source material from Giannetti. The works themselves, listed by title and author, are primarily on the internet or handed out in class. You are then to view the Web pages for the authors and topics for that week, listed as a link on the English Internet Resource List section of the Web site (not all are covered). That means all you have to do is click on the colored (usually blue) label of the name or address of the site. Following that, read the online presentation of the format strategy for the week (Org & Outline, Quoting Your Sources, How To Take A Test, etc.). You are also required to read the thematic presentation for that week in Online Presentations (Character, Theme, Irony, etc.). Finally, read Questions for Reading and Writing. This will allow you to follow the schedule and be topical in the classroom. Read the directions. Assignments and due dates for papers and tests are announced in class. Most of this syllabus is self-explanatory. The following is a plan for the semester.

Tentative Schedule

WEEK I. Introduction to Film and the Film Making Process
  • Ch 1 -photography
  • Realism vs Formalism in Cinema
  • Formalist Criticism
  • Screening: Stephen Spielberg’s Duel

WEEK 2. Film Theory and Criticism/Point of View

  • Ch 11 - critique
  • Standard Motifs
  • Historical Criticism

WEEK 3. Character

  • Ch 6 - acting
  • Gender Criticism
  • Screening: George Lucas’ American Graffiti

WEEK 4. Setting

  • Ch 3 - movement
  • Cultural Criticism

WEEK 5. Mise-en-scene

  • Ch 2 – mise-en-scene
  • Screening: John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix

WEEK 6. Montage

  • Ch 4 - editing
  • Psychoanalytical Criticism

WEEK 7. Adaptation

  • Ch 9 - writing
  • Screening: Rob Reiner’s Misery

WEEK 8. Subjective Rendering: Animation

  • Ch 7 - drama

WEEK 9. Genre ideal

  • Plot
  • Ch 8 - story
  • Screening: George Dunning's Yellow Submarine

WEEK 10. Motifs and Symbols

WEEK 11. Objective Rendering: Documentary

  • New Historical Criticism
  • Presentations
  • Screening: The Grateful Dead Movie

WEEK 12. Sound Design

  • Ch 5 sound

WEEK 13. The Concept of Genre

  • Ch 10 -ideology
  • Mythological/Archetypal Criticism
  • Screening: This is Spinal Tap

WEEK 14. Generic Transformation

  • Presentations

WEEK 15. The Concept of National Cinema: the Cultural Context of Film

  • Ch 12 - synthesis
  • Marxist Criticism
  • Screening: Guiseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso
  • Presentations
  • Term Paper due
  • Final Test Prep

WEEK 16. Finals Week: Final Exam

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Questions for Reading and Writing

Something to keep in mind in your essays for this class:

Be able to answer these four questions somewhere in the context of your essay. Please don't merely list the answers... make them part of your general discussion of the work.

  1. What is the message? Clearly state it and support your response from the text itself. There can be more than one answer.
  2. What is the prespective of the message? Be as specific as you can. Authors will create characters or "voices" to tell a story or give a viewpoint. In drama, that is all you get... all characters, no narrator.
  3. Who is the audience of the message? There can be more than one, often linked to the message...or a single message may have different audiences with different expected results. Again, be specific and use text for support.
  4. What methods does author use? Be specific, using terms from ENGL 101 -- irony, symbolism, theme, conflict -- and new terms from this course.
    • In poetry, the use of meter and rhyme and condensation of ideas into brief images is common.
    • In drama, the use of character, dialogue and setting are often important.
    • In literature, all of these aspects may be factors.
Once you've gotten this information into your paper, then we apply the critical approaches to discuss HOW EFFECTIVELY the message was delivered by author.

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© T. T. Eiland, December 5, 2005
Last modified: January 30, 2008