ASSIGNMENT: Blog Post Review SUBMIT - Due April 24th

Dear Class,

This is the end. I hope you have all enjoyed this class and the film's I decided to show. It has been a real pleasure to share this knowledge with you all and great great feedback.

Ok, let's turn to the Blog Reviews.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR 

Just a reminder of what I'm expecting:

ONE blog review on ANY film SCREENED IN CLASS.

ONE blog review on Jaws.

TWO blog reviews on ANY TWO FILMS (seen in or out of class)

Making for a total of FOUR Reviews

For Example, your reviews could be look like this:

Jaws

Harold and Maude

Django Unchainged 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Each blog post review will be counted for 10 points each, making for a total of 40 points.

REVIEW STRUCTURE AND WORD COUNT

Many still are worried about what is expected for the content of each review. Let me say that what I'm looking for is CRITICAL THINKING. Make your review a critique of the film in question. I gave a EXAMPLE of how you COULD structure your reviews if you so desired:

Paragraph One: Short Synopsis of the film

Paragraph Two: Analyzation of the film's elements (camera work, use of soundscape, ETC.).

Paragraph Three: Evaluation of how well the director utilized these elements (or how he failed to utilize them).

This is not what I expect from every review, just an example of how you COULD structure your review. This method is the most through and would fulfill my requirement, BUT it is not the only way. 

How long should each review be? I would say BETWEEN 200 TO 400 WORDS. 100 words may be too few while more than 500, while thorough and complete, may be a hefty read (Just to give you an example, this post is now past 200 words).


No matter the word count, all I really want to read is a COMPLETE CRITICAL REVIEW.

DIRECTIONS FOR TURNING IN THE REVIEWS 

I would like the reviews to be sent to my through the comment section of this blog post. You are going to send me the individual link to each post review. 

Here are Step-by-Step directions:

1. Select Profile: Choose your Google Account in the COMMENT AS selection. When prompted before posting you will be asked to sign-in with your Gmail account which you used to create your blog.
2. First Line: The first line of your comment should be your FULL NAME.
3. Your Blog: In a separate tab go to your Blog. Make sure you are in VIEW BLOG mode, which shows how your blog looks to viewers. Remember to POST your reviews first, then be ready to COPY.  
4. Your Review Post: Find the Post Review that you would like to submit. CLICK on them.
5. Copy Review URL: COPY the URL that appears in URL bar for this post (make sure it is the post itself and not just the home page).
6. Post Review Link: On the Second line space after your name in the comment section PASTE your link.
7. Repeat: Repeat steps 4 through 6 three more times. Make sure there is a space between each URL link.
8. Publish Comment: Select PUBLISH when done. You will now be asked to Sign-In through your Gmail.

I will post my own example of this process as the first comment of this post. 

  

If you have ANY trouble posting please email me at Michael.Stephenson@ucf.edu         

 

Final Exam Review

We reviewed all the lectures and films we have seen this year.
We also watched Jaws (1975).

Jaws is the final film that I wish you to review for your blog post reviews.

The final will take place of April 24th at 7:00pm in our usual meeting space. Please bring a Pink/Raspberry scantron for the final.

I have made all the lecture notes available below for the week leading up to the Final Exam. Please use these lectures as back-up for your personal notes that you have hopefully been taking this year.

Lecture 1 - The "gaze"

Lecture 2 - The Director

Lecture 3 - The Screenplay

Lecture 4 - The Film Genre

Lecture 5 - The Cinematographer and The Camera

Lecture 6 - The Production Design

Lecture 7 - The Edit and The Editor

Lecture 8 - The Soundscape and The Soundtrack

Lecture 9 - What Does It All Mean?: The Art Film

Lecture 10 - What Does It All Mean?:  The "Good", The "Bad" and Trash Cinema

Final Review

Lecture 10 - What Does This All Mean?: The "Good", the "Bad", and the "Trashy"

This week we talked about what makes film "good", what Hollywood considers "Bad", and the joys of Trash Cinema. We screened Night of the Living Dead (1968).

As many of you can tell this topic is very close to me and has been perhaps my favorite discussion this semester. Below are several links to points of interest. Please review all of them:

• What is a flop? Cinema Blend does a wonderful job of pooling together 20 Common Box Office Misconceptions. 
• Sometime classic films were thought of as box office poison. Best for Film talks up the Top 10 Surprise Box Office Flops.
• Taste of Cinema also points out some great Outsider Cinema by finding the 16 Strangest Movie Everyone Should See.
• Take a walk on the wild side and check out Listverse's Top 10 Classic Midnight Movies.
• A engrossing article from Wired involving Zack Carlson and about how Miami Connection Destroys the Myth of 'So-Bad-It's-Good' Movies.
• Film site First Showing chooses to Discuss: Art is Subjective, But Does an Objectively Good Film Exist? Please read and consider.
• Also, to those interested, this site gives a idea on a Basic Guide to Writing a Film Critique. This could help with your reviews.

And finally here is a link to The Rich Weirdoes, a group of film fans that do an amazing job with their local live shadow cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I highly suggest to experience this for yourself (just remember to bring your rice and newspaper).

Assignment: Blog Post Film Reviews

I've decided that rather then random blog posts I will allow you to choose the film review posts that I will grade. I expect these post to be the best examples of your work.

You will be able to choose THREE post with the following criteria:

ONE review post will be based on a film screened in class.

(CAN NOT BE JAWS)

TWO review posts based on films screened outside of class.

ONE review post being based on a film of my chosen to be screened at a later date.

Making FOUR review blog post in total.

Each review will be 10 POINTS, making the entire assignment 40% OF YOUR Final GRADE.

What will I be looking for in these reviews?

Please go back and re-read the SYLLABUS on the explaination of what the blog post reveiws are meant to be.

What this is NOT meant to be is an assassination of a certain director/film. This is not film criticism but film critique. Imagine the film as a piece of art being reviewed at exhibit.

While I'm leaving the struturing of the reviews largely to you, here is an example of what would be acceptable:

Paragraph One: Short Synopsis of the film

Paragraph Two: Analyzation of the film's elements (camera work, use of soundscape, ETC.).

Paragraph Three: Evaluation of how well the director utilized these elements (or how he failed to utilize them).

I will make a second blog post on how to deliver the links to your reviews. Any lingering questions can be emailed to me at michael.stephenson@ucf.edu.

 

Lecture 9 - What Does it all Mean Part 1: My Little Underground

This week we walked off the beaten path and discussed art films and art house theaters. In that regard we watched Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1934).

 

If you missed the screening you can watch the film here on Hulu Plus. 

To continue on this discussion I would like to include this video of French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut talking about the first time he saw L'Atalante and it's influence on him.

 

I don't want to understate the importance of the art house scene and how it changed cinema. Below are several links to points of interest. Please review all of them.

• We venture into the sinister underbelly of cinema with a look at Arthouse Directors Who Aren't Afraid of the Dark.
• The late Roger Ebert reviews Bunuel/Dali's Un Chien Andalou.
• In a follow up, witness the film that highlighted the Dadaist movement by watching Un Chien Andalou in full on Vimeo. WARNING: ONLY FOR THE BRAVEST CINEPHILE.
• The Guardian makes a list of what they consider the 25 Best Arthouse Films of All Time . 
• The concept of Trash Cinema was discussed and many were interested in this classification. Here's an article by The Guardian about art house director Quentin Tarantino: Champion of Trash Cinema (although I disagree with the article's writer stating Tarantino failing as a "serious film-maker") and a Now article about the Myth of the So-Bad-It's-Good Movie.
• Listverse creates a list of the Top 10 Avant-Garde Filmmakers and examples of their work.
• And for those of you interested in seeking out many of these art house films look to The Criterion Collection on Hulu Plus.

Finally, one of my personal favorite Avant-Garde films, Sincerely, Joe P Bear (1999), and my own film made in tribute to it, Frozen in Wonderland (2009). 

If this discussion resonates with you and you want to lend your voice to stream please comment below with your personal favorite "art film" and what makes you consider it such. Be kind and play nice.

Lecture 8 - The Soundscape and the Soundtrack

Discussion dealt with the concept of soundscape and the use of soundtracks. While Singin' in the Rain (1952) was shown in class I also advocated watching The Conversation (1974), which is streaming on Netflix.

Below are articles I found of interest related to soundscape and soundtrack:

• AMC Filmsite is back with their list of the 100 Best Movie Soundtracks
• This video features a 10 minute tribute to The 30 Most Famous Film Scores.
• Whatculture! lists what they feel are the Top 5 Film Composers You Should Know About.
• Filmsound.org, a site dedicated to sound design in film, has a 4 part series on The Early History of Film Sound.
• Sound and Music discusses the horror genre and asks Is There a Sound of Fear?
• The Cinephile Fix discusses The Power of Sound and Editing by discussing The Conversation and Psycho. 

Lecture 7 - The Edit and the Editor

During this lecture we discussed the idea about how a film's editor creates meaning as well as how emotion can be manipulated through techniques such as the Kuleshov Effect. The film screened to go along with this discussion was (500) Days of Summer (2009).

During the discussion I also featured a video of Alfred Hitcock discussing the Kuleshov Effect, re-posted here:

 

Below are links to various articles and post that expand the lecture. Please be sure to overlook and examine all of them as I could choose to pull elements from any article to include in the exam. 

• We talked a lot about editing and how it creates meaning and emotion. This article delves much deeper in how by explaining Why Film Editing Works.
• Listverse proposes their Top 10 Best Film Editing Sequences. 
• A major topic regarded Soviet Montage and how the Kuleshov Effect works. This IO9 expands by asking Can the Kuleshov Effect Really Control Your Perception of Other People's Feeling? 
• On the lighter side, this articles list 8 Magical Movie Montages with videos featuring Rocky, Up, and Rushmore. 
• We discussed the idea of Theatrical Cuts VS Director's Cuts.
• In a follow up are three articles featuring the Director's Guild of America establishing the history of the Directors' Cut, Mental Floss citing examples of 10 Director's Cuts that Changed the Plot of their film, and A.V. Club arguing 13-Plus Movies Weakened by (their) Director's cuts (which brings up the E.T. director's cut we discussed in the lecture).