Welcome to Midterm Week - your exam is due Sunday at the end of Week 5 by 11:59pm. See the syllabus for the late work policy.
Week 5 Lecture:
Week 5 Movie: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (John Hughes, USA, 1987)
Week 5 Reading: Moving Pictures, Chapter 6: Editing
Midterm Exam
For the midterm exam you will have a week to write two short essays of 500-700 words each. I will provide you with a range of prompts to choose from. Pick two prompts and write two essays. For each of your two essays, develop your own answers but support them with references to two specific passages from the textbook (with citation) and two specific scenes from assigned movies (with timestamps). Feel free to reference the lectures, textbook videos, bonus features, and even your classmates discussion board posts to support your answers. The midterm exam is your opportunity to show me how close you are at this halfway point to being able to achieve our core learning outcomes by the end of the term:
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- Understand how film works as collaborative art form, as industrial practice, and as cultural form;
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Deploy the basic language of film aesthetics - including cinematography, mise en scène, editing, and sound – to closely analyze film and media texts;
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Demonstrate knowledge of ideological forces at work in film representation and industrial practice based on cultural and historical contexts;
- Communicate ideas about film culture through written analysis.
Part A - Weeks 1-4 Prompts
Choose one of the following prompts and answer it in a 500-700 word essay. See the description above for essay requirements.
- What is cinematic language (the basic language of film aesthetics) and how does it shape the way filmmakers collaborate to make movies, the way viewers experience movies, and the way students and and film scholars analyze movies?
- What does it mean to describe film and cinema as a "cultural form" in terms of the relationship between film and society?
- What have you learned about the history, culture, and industrial practices of the film industry and how these have changed over time?
- How have the weekly discussion board assignments helped your develop your ability to communicate ideas about film culture through written analysis?
Part B - Week 5 Prompts
Choose one of the following prompts and answer it in a 500-700 word essay. See the description above for essay requirements.
- Referring to this week's movie and reading assignment, demonstrate the ways you can see the influence of a screenwriter (preproduction), a director (production), and a film editor (postproduction) on the development of narrative, characters, and comedy in this week's movie?
- What is continuity editing and how are its techniques used to develop the narrative, characters, and comedy in this week's movie?
- Why is it so important for a film editor to also have a broad understanding of cinematography, mise-en-scene, and sound design? Explain using this week's reading and movie?
- According to the Week 5 lecture, what are the three purposes that a cut can serve in the editing process. Explain using examples from the lecture, reading and movie.
Part C - 5 pt bonus question
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Later this term, you may have the opportunity to meet the well known comedian who recommended that we show Planes, Trains, and Automobiles this week. That opportunity is being coordinated by our new film instructor at LBCC, Lee Keeler, who teaches the other section of ENG 110. So here is your question?
- If you had the opportunity to ask a famous comedian one question about the relationship between comedy and editing what would it be? Feel free to add an extra question for this comedian about something specific in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles that you think they would really enjoy answering.