Participation (15%)
Active participation is crucial to your success and learning in this course. This means coming to class ready to participate, having completed ALL the readings and assignments. Asking questions and contributing to classroom discussions is paramount, and will be reflected in your grade. Showing up to class is NOT enough to earn a high participation grade. Any pop quizzes and in-class activities will also be included in your participation grade and cannot be made up. I will take attendance at the beginning of class; if you are not present when I call your name, you will be marked absent. Leaving early counts as an absence. I allow 2 absences before your grade is affected, and these 2 absences cover illnesses, crises, etc. (I do not differentiate between excused and unexcused absences). The only exception to this is catastrophic, documented illness (let me know ASAP if this is the case). You are responsible for all material covered in class, whether you were present or not.
Response Blog (25%)
Each week you will post to the public course blog a 600-word blog entry in response to the week’s course readings and films (a prompt will be provided). In these weekly blog posts, you will also hyperlink images, websites, and videos that relate to the week’s film and readings. You should not merely summarize the film or readings, but rather offer a critical engagement with both through your analysis (ask the film/text questions, note its limitations, speculate how it might be useful). These responses are a place to work through the difficult concepts this course will cover, and I encourage close readings of how filmmakers make their arguments as well as what those arguments are. In addition to your weekly blog post, you will also respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates’ posts. These 75-word responses must be substantive responses in which you raise questions of or critically engage with your peers’ posts (“that’s awesome!” doesn’t count).
Movies in the Real World (15%):
One of the blog prompts will require you to go to the movies in a real theater in the local area (you’ll be given a choice of 2-3 films and are required to attend one of them on its opening weekend). While you will obviously watch the film, your analysis should focus both on the film and analyze the experience of attending the film screening on its opening weekend. You should analyze the audience (what kinds of people were there? which people weren’t there? how did they behave? how did they interact with the film, with the space of the theater, with each other?), the space (what was the lobby like? what part of town is the theater in? which of the theaters was your movie screened in and what are the politics of that?), the economics (how much was your ticket? were you encouraged to buy other things than your movie ticket, and if so, how?), and the collective film watching experience (did you react differently than if you had watched this film in your own home? did you go with anybody else? did the audience yell/cry/gasp/jump/walk out at particular moments?). Your analysis should incorporate a minimum of 2 articles from the course readings. Film studies is a living practice, and this assignment highlights this seemingly obvious (yet often forgotten) concept.
Research Topic & Bibliography (15%)
This assignment will outline the topic you intend to research and write on for your Research Paper. The Research Topic & Bibliography should be a 1-page description of the film(s) you will analyze, the main questions that will guide your research, and ideas you hope to eventually formulate into an original argument and analysis along with a 1-page list of 5-6 scholarly sources (books, articles from scholarly journals, or book chapters) that you have consulted and plan to incorporate into your Research Paper. At least 3 of these sources must come from outside research, and at least 2 of these sources must come from the course readings. I do not expect you to have an argument/thesis already formed when you turn in this assignment. This assignment is intended to help you narrow your ideas into a topic that one can reasonably research and construct an argument about in the time frame and page limit you have for the Research Paper.
Research Paper (30%)
Building off your Research Topic & Bibliography, this Research Paper (8-10 pgs) will draw together several of the themes addressed in the course, and enable you to do your own research towards an original argument. The Research Paper will contain an original argument/thesis, filmic and textual evidence, and thorough analysis and exposition to link your evidence to your argument. In your Research Paper, you may critically analyze 1-2 films from the course or of your own choosing (pending approval by the Instructor), but for either option you must incorporate course material in your argument (see the Annotated Bibliography requirements).
